"creative genius"

So, I just want to say something about what it means to be a Creative Genius. It means that I am always thinking, putting 2+2 together (and definitely NOT coming up with 4), always learning, pushing limits, reading, writing, did I mention thinking? There's an awesome other way to think, it's called Metacognition- in which you actually think about what you think about, and how you think about it. LOL. It means that although I am an excellent speller, there are two words I can never, ever spell and I always have to use spellcheck to fix them, no matter how many times I have written them before (exercise, and rhythm.) It means that I am unafraid of a creative or intellectual challenge and I actually seek both. It means if I don't have the ingredients, I will experiment.

I encourage everyone to work on the Creative Genius inside of them. Creativity is not just about making art, or making good art for that matter. It's the quintessential "making the best out of what you have," plus a little bit of magical thinking.

Fun with Encaustic!

Yesterday I played with the Encaustic technique for the first time... it was very fun.

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Art Journal- SCORE! at the Goodwill

I found this awesome blank book for $3.50 yesterday at our local Goodwill. I couldn't resist, because the pages, which I assume are for gluing in photos, are big, blank, and a nice heavy weight. Perfect for an art journal, a task which I have often thought about undertaking but have never actually done.

This book is bound in a very time-honored traditional way, it's called Japanese stab-binding. Basically a fancy way to say, there are holes going all the way thru the pages and the covers, and a string is holding them in. Rather than having a spine, the spine is open and you can see the edges, and the front and rear covers bend when the book opens. So if I want to, I can even remove pages in order to paint them. I plan to use a lot of gesso- tip- sometimes I keep a container of Kilz primer around- it's cheaper than gesso, and does the same thing.

Part of my creative anxiety stems from the question "Will it matter?" and I have decided that yes, it will, even if only to me. Now the anxiety that comes up next is, do I have time for this? With all the other things in my life that I am dying, or trying, to start up, do I really have time to write, scribble, draw, paint and collage in this book? Or is it just another creative diversion? Well, I suppose creative diversions are important too. I always tell my students that it is important to practice, you can't "think" your way through a project. So it's high-time for a taste of my own medicine. I recently got several new books on mixed media techniques, all of which seem very logical to me- but I can't own those techniques until I really try them out. So, here we go...