I Like School: Tree Version

I like sitting outside and seeing old buildings and trees.

Trees in the distance, and trees to give shade where you sit.

Old trees and reading are a wonderful thing.

Zinnias

My biggest and most colorful project to date.  Chalk Pastels.

The orange and blue contrast area here is probably my favorite.

Pens

Accordions?
Pens fight with pencils
One allows mistakes,
the other demands perfection.

At the mercy of the hand
manipulating it.

Frustrated by scribbled out mistakes.

Chewed, turned, cracked, lost, and forgotten.

A flying acrobat in fidgety hands.

The silent listener of our inner thoughts.

Hand held distractions one click, twist,
and flick at a time.

Running out of ink just in the

Pens are like accordions…well, not really.

Floating Arrhythmia

Blindfolded Finger Painting

Water Color

 

So glad not to be watching a heart monitor this Father's Day.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

 

Hope it's swell :)

Change Attitude

Journaling and reflection from class writing assignment:

I found that if I slowed down in my writing, focused on making my handwriting neater my thoughts became better developed and easier to articulate in my writing. I have never liked my handwriting and often type to get around this shortcoming, as I see it. However, handwriting and typing create very different results for me when I work. I tend to want to be a perfectionist, and typing makes everything as good as I can make it. I also know that I am not a good speller, and often avoid words or make ridiculous guesses when I am hand writing something. I tend to express myself with words and fluid ideas when I am typing, but felt challenged today when writing to get similar results with handwriting.

Friday Night Thesis

What do you do on Friday Nights in the Summer?

Here's my research paper for Creativity: Theory and Practice. It hasn't been carefully proofread or finished. But is a start. We'll see what changes. Certainly something will


Thesis Paragraph
The pursuit of achieving the highest level of success requires many pieces to work together. Achieving these best results can often come with a price tag. Long hours, repeated tries, failed and abandoned projects pile up along the way. Yet when we do not hold back, we often find our true passions and experience the most satisfying results of all our strenuous effort. Not giving a project or experience our all can come from a variety of reasons. The fear of failure, others judging us, social constraints or laziness all become hurdles that either challenge us to go further or stop us in our tracks. The variety of creative axioms all challenge the artist to express their art through many avenues. I would like to suggest that three axioms work together in art and in teaching. The concepts to “Be Extravagant”, “Honor Obsession”, and “Don’t Hold Back” all find their place in traditional artistic expression as well as in the art of teaching. I will examine the attitude of a purposeful, passionate pursuit of what we love, do, create and learn. Two twentieth century artists, Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock, both challenged the art world with their bold and relentless artistic expressions. While their artwork was controversial and questioned, their refusal be limited by the constraints of their time transformed themselves and art. Similarly, the challenges that teachers face to go along with the established system can often hinder natural enthusiasm and talent. Educators that push the boundaries and teach extravagantly create memorable experiences for their students and push the quality of educational standards higher as a result.

My Mother's Clothes

A free write prompt turned into a poem.

Function over form, that is my mother’s style.

Conservative fashionista with simplicity guiding the way.

Any hint of worry or fret about what to wear,

Disappears with a swift and simple decision to trust the basics.

Each label and tag is a replica of another.

“No dry cleaning needed, wash and dry”

Simplicity explains the clothes hung out on the line.

Avoiding too much.  Too fancy, too loose, too tight, too short.

The go-to favorites become classics in their own right.

Walking shoes that have traversed every sidewalk in the neighborhood,

Along with the streets in foreign lands.

A simple haircut, simply done, leaving time for other simple joy’s in life.

Poem

Paint as I want To

“One day seven years ago I found myself saying to myself I can’t live where I want to – I can’t go where I want to go – I can’t do what I want to – I can’t even say what I want to…I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to.”

Georgia O’Keeffe

This is a quote I hope to be able to use in my research paper that will have something to do with the idea of not holding back when we pursue our interests.

I love Metaphor

Finally, the artistic use of an extended metaphor in academic writing was a bold and creative move on the part of Harrington. I found that this article was the most engaging for me to read from the selections about the theories of creativity because it was anchored in a literal and concrete image. While the author does limit the use of the metaphor and implies that it should not be taken as a 1:1 symbol, the grandeur of the ecosystem image allows for the reader to freely flow between ideas of creativity and look for ways that it might fit into the ecosystem model. As this article presented complex material with the use of a metaphor, I wonder how I might be able to use this model in the classroom to teach large ideas. We often use metaphors and analogies for small specific pieces of knowledge but I would like to explore the use of metaphors in larger units of study

Chenoweth Postcards

We went to the Library special collections to view artwork of Mary Chenoweth who was a CC professor and local artist.  She had a large series of postcards that she mailed to a select few people, who then donated them to the library. This is my postcard after seeing her many different ideas.

Collaborative Circles

Collaborative Circles: Friendship Dynamics & Creative Works

Farrell

I found this text to be riveting to read.  I could see my parents in their collaborative circles, the beginnings and endings of circles and friendship groups I've participated in, and the mention of the experiences of others in this type of setting.  The intellectual excitement of these types of circles can often transcend into dramatic emotional tragic comedies where so much has happened that there often can't be any resolution.

I was particularly interested in the discussion of the relationship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.  Their relationship began in a pure academic setting, then an academic study group of personal interest topics, and finally a faith and friendship based group.  Regardless of their differences of opinion initially, their time spent together eventually merged their paths into one blazing trail.  I found it particularly interesting that after Tolkein had showed his text to an old mentor who promptly told him to "drop it" he found this new relationship safe enough to bring up his writing again. (8)  I love how Lewis first acknowledges the accomplishment of the writing, and then gave constructive criticism in a fun and approachable manner. (9)

When two people are willing to open up their lives and share their personal identity and worldview a collaborative circle begins to be traced. (9)  As unpopular a topic as Christianity was in their realm, Tokein, a Roman Catholic, was able to discuss, problem solve, and eventually welcome into his own similar faith C.S. Lewis.  As a Christian, I have always found the struggles that Lewis had with his faith reassuring.  A man who so often seems to be so clear about his belief, struggled with many of the same challenges other Christians face.  His eloquent writing can be so reassuring, yet knowing his life's journey, the role of doubt can be just as encouraging as many beautiful words. 

Once this transformational experience occurred, their time together became a place to discuss their beliefs.  This also became a thematic element in both of their writing as they discussed it and then applied the thoughts to their work.  Their ability to encourage each other while still giving critical analysis of the work made the group not only a positive place to feel good, but a positive place to develop great work. (11)

             

A collaborative circle consists of a group of people who share the same occupational goals, hold a common vision, and rely on the same set of assumptions. (12)  A place to discuss, play with ideas, and elaborate inklings of ideas becomes a place where individuals can clarify their professional identify within their profession. (13) 

In the context of our class, "creative work is deviant in that, in form or content, it does not conform to established traditions in a field." (14)  I have often found myself, within the field of teaching, to have conversations where creative and new ideas are expressed that might not be widely accepted, recognized, or thought to conform to the traditional teaching ideas.  Traditionally, creativity has been considered an expression that requires isolation and individuals working alone to create new ideas. (16)  In teaching, working alone only breeds single-mindedness, frustration, and lack of foresight.  Teaching encompasses so many different components that working in a collaborative circle facilitates.  As different teachers collaborate together discussing new ideas, directions, lessons, activities, and paradigm ideas a new vision begins to appear from the team of individuals. (22)  This vision is usually the sum of an equation where the result is greater than the sum of its parts.  One teacher may be visionary in one area, but continue to hold conservative ideas in another area.  As a collaborative circle, each individual can contribute to the vision from their own experiences.

Blindfold Finger Painting

So, this isn't just what we do in grad programs. We have to do a lot of reading, writing, and discussion.

But if we're practicing how to express our creativity....

we fingerpaint while blindfolded.

It was actually a very valuable experience because for those of us that have a lot of rules we like to try to follow when creating art, such as size, shape, color, position, relationship between objects etc. blindfolded anything pretty much eliminates our ability to be picky about how we are building our piece.

A Play with Line and Color

The illustration I decided to do for my journal for the Creativity Course.


I like to seperate things into boxes or semi-boxes.

I'm happies with the fingerprint's falling. They were the fastest and most fun.

The swirls and dots are my doodling .

The Scorched Tree

Pastels on Paper

My first attempt at drawing.

I learned that I should do the sky background before the tree.

I also tried to use colors I normally don't use.

Research Thesis V 1.0

Musings about what I might write about:

• Honor your obsessions
• Be extravagant
• When we allow extravagance in our art or in teaching we open doors to further exploration and passionate pursuit of knowledge.  Creative expression shouldn't be limited and stifled.  Extravagant teaching means doing as much as possible to make sure that students are able to explore and learn.

To Do:
read preliminary research I found to see if I can support this topic
discuss with professors

Creativity Flow and Psych

Creativity Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention

The author seems to be describing what it takes to be successful, not necessarily good.  In science you do need the equipment and funding in order to research, but in art there could be a great artist that doesn’t produce much work or get any recognition.  This doesn’t make them less great, just less known and less lucrative in their endeavors. 54-55 

“You cannot assume the mantle of creativity just by assuming a certain personality style.” (56)

By describing creative people as people filled with complexities (57).  Most average people end up developing one distinct realm of personalities whereas creative people embody many different categories. “The ability to move from one extreme to another as the occasion requires” (57)

1. Creative individuals have a great deal of physical energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest. 
2. Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naïve at the same time.  How smart they actually are is open to question.
3. The related combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
4. Creative individuals alternate between imagination and fantasy at one end, and a rooted sense of reality at the other.
1. The whole point of art and science is to go beyond what we now consider real, and create a new reality.
2. It is an evolutionary process, where current reality becomes rapidly obsolete, and one must be on the alert for the shape of things to come (65)
5. Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies on the continuum between extroversion and introversion.
1. Up to a point you welcome being interrupted because it is only by interacting with other people that you get anything interesting done.  It is essentially a communal enterprise.
6. Creative individuals are also remarkably humble and proud at the same time.
7. Creative individuals to a certain extent escape this rigid gender role stereotyping.  When tests of masculinity/feminity are given to young people, over and over one finds that creative and talented girls are more dominant and tough than other girls, and creative boys are more sensitive and less aggressive than their male peers.
8. Generally, creative people are thought to be rebellious and independent.  Yet it is impossible to be creative without having first internalized a domain of culture.  And a person must believe in the importance of such a domain in order to learn its rules; hence, he or she must be to a certain extent a traditionalist.
9. Most creative persons are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.
10. Finally, the openness and sensitivity of creative individuals often exposes them to suffering and pain yet also a great deal of enjoyment.

Creativity Axioms

One of these creative axioms will be the basis of the research paper due 6/24.

• Honor your obsessions
• Be extravagant
• Find supportive people
• Use Texture
• Abandon normal instruments
• Imitate and steal from other artists

Her Garden Poem

Her Garden

The wallpaper bloomed

Under her watchful eye and loving care.

The flowers envelop the kitchen

Separate, warm and special.

Her face framed with wisps of silver,

The blue gingham apron upon her happy self.

Those thin, strong arms ready to

Take up a task.

A laugh, a hug, and time

Spent within those flowered walls.

Creativity and Disease

Creativity and Disease- How illness affects literature, art, and music

Philip Sandblom (Marion Boyars, NY)

Notes for Class Discussion

Frida Kahlo led a painful life both physically and emotionally in her relationship to Diego Rivera as well as injuries on top of disease.  These emotions and specific painful experiences translated into her art.

14 “Frida is an impressive example of the fact that severe illness is an experience with a far-reaching influence on our lives, as well as our creativity.”  We can’t become accustomed to lingering pain.

We are drawn to artistic details of which we have special knowledge.

15 Connection between illness and the arts are close and common.  TB patients who used Occupational Therapy (painting) during their disease and treatment had symbols of the stages of their disease in their paintings.

Studying the artists’ illness may also enhance an understanding of their art.

Thesis point: When we can appreciate the high and lows of an art form so expressly as music, it exceeds the literature and art world because of the levels of feeling we experience.  When 3 different conductors faint at the same part of the same piece we must study what is in that piece of art that effects the soul so dramatically/

22 Nietzche observed that is a malicious pleasure in the misfortune of others.

Updike felt that descriptions of an artist’s pain became dull within a few paragraphs but was still able to convey interesting details of his psoriasis and later when he had an appendicitis he described it “delightfully”

Goethe, “Our own pain teaches us to share the misery of our fellow creature” because we can identify with pain more accurately than happiness

25 Philoctetes (peerless archer of Greek mythology whose snakebite suppurated with a stench so horrible that his companions left him behind on a desert island found that to express his pain meant to express himself.  “Now that I am no longer with men- and I took to telling the story of my suffering, and if the phases were very beautiful I was so much consoled; I even sometimes forgot my sadness by uttering it.”  In other words, the act of expression becomes a healing and therapeutic element in the experience of disease and pain.

26 Kierkegaard – “A poet is an unhappy being whose heart is torn by secret sufferings, but whose lips are so strangely formed that when the sighs and the cries escape them, they sound like beautiful music.”

31 “By preventing other activity, disease may be a factor that awakens artistic creativity in those with dormant talents and offers the opportunity to develop them”  The disease can act as a catalyst to inspire the less inclined toward artistic expression.

30-40 Michangelo, Handal and Byron all experienced mental illness and had impacts on their work.  Handal composed Messiah in 3 weeks during a manic-phase, Michelangelo painted The Day of Judgement and included his own depression in the martyr of St. Bartholomew.  Byron was also aware that he had different mood swings which impacted his work in positive and negative directions.

41 “Baudelaire – genius is simply childhood, rediscovered by and act of will.” Regardless of cause, most artists are different from the non-art creating population.

46 “Artists have, above all, an urge to seek new and personal means of expression, paths of communication with fellow beings who can appreciate their new creations and share their deepest feelings, “our terrible need to make contact,” in Katherine Mansfield’s words.”

Reflection: Sick or healthy anytime someone has the need to express themselves the gravitate toward their own predispositions of how they are influenced and how the world has impacted them.  Perhaps those that have a greater cognitive filter express their experiences in less artistic ways while those that experience the world more acutely feel the need to express their experiences through art.

Unleashed Mind

Scientific American Mind - The Unleashed Mind –Shelley Carson

Notes for Class Discussion

P22 “These individuals often see themselves as different and unable to fit in”

The eccentricity may be a result of how the brain filters incoming information (22)

23 Schizotypal people, for instance, may dress in an idiosyncratic style; their speech patterns may be somewhat out of the ordinary; they may respond ieptly in social situations; their emotional responses may be inapporopriate;they may believe in supernatural phenomena such as telepathy and omens; and they may be hard to get close to – both physically and emotionally.

Creativity and eccentricity are related because there is an underlying mechanism for a propensity for cognitive disinhibition in these individuals.

C.D. – failure to ignore info that is irrelevant to currant goals/survival (mental filters)

26 The ability to use cognitive disinhibition in a creative way depends on the presence of additional cognitive abilities associated with a high level of function.

28 dopamine D2 receptors are decreased in subjects with high-divergent thinking (creative) similar to those found in schizophrenic subjects.  “Reduced dopamine bindings in the thalamus…may decrease cognitive filtering and allow more info. Into conscious awareness.”

“A combination of lower cognitive inhibition and a higher IQ is associated with higher scores on a variety of creativity measures.”