The Covid-19 hit our offices hard and its been all hands on deck. Working from home, it's easy enough to pick up hours and help out. One of my teammates said she felt like we weren't doing anything to help when there are people on the front lines literally risking their lives for others.
But that's really not how I look at it. All of us are doing our part. For me, every lady I help, every order I take not only give that lady a sense of normalcy in this crazy time, but it also keeps the people in our distribution center in their jobs and the delivery people in their jobs.
All that said, it sucks the creativity right out of me this week. So where can we look for a little creativity jolt???
Outside the Box
You know your little box that you like to create in right? You love your little box. Its pretty, familiar, secure. Looking for a creative jolt? Step outside of it. If you only do abstract work - do something representational. Only do traditional - try to do something totally unplanned. Only work with prints? Use solids. You get the point. Just because we are all stuck in our homes does not mean we need to stay in the box.
Serve and Be Served
Need to get out of rut? Help someone else. Yep, what you're mother told you was right. The best way to be blessed is to serve. Show someone what you do; volunteer to troubleshoot a friend's piece; join a critique group; Sign up to help with a beginner's quilt; write a blog. Share yourself and others will share with you and together you will built something new.
Play Not Produce
Set time aside to just play with fabric, color, thread and design with no real objective in mind. Put up with you did on your design board. What is working? What is not?? Any good ideas springing to mind? (This is such a good idea I'm going to have to do this and blog it out - LOL!)
Limit Your Inner Circle
Whose in your inner circle? Are they people who get what you do or at least appreciate what you do? Or do you have negative people who like nothing better than to disparage this passion? Remember to surround yourself with people who love you and nurture you. They don't need to be artists but they do need to "get" why art is important to you. Draw on their strength when things get dry and stale. My husband and I often come running to each other with the problems of our receptive projects. I know enough about wood and he about fabric to understand the basics but we both talk creativity. Sometimes just talking it out is enough!!
Okay, so there are four ways to jolt up a little creativity in the covid chaos!! Yeah, I know, two preachy posts in a row... I promise to get more done next week!!
So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?
7 comments:
Love your Proverb and yes, you ARE doing your part, giving some normalcy to others and being a cheerful voice. Keep doing that and it IS your part. Thank you for hosting!
after almost a month at home I find myself still hopping from one project to the next, taking walks outside and having a hard time concentrating and having life go on as usual. You are doing your part for your work and thanks for sharing with the link up every week. It is a tough time for all and for some the isolation is worse then for others.
All great tips. Thanks for sharing.
MelvaLovesScraps(at)NolanQualityCustoms(dot)com
All I have to say is, BLESS YOUR HEART! We all have weeks like that, at least I do. I hope your new creative challenges can help kick start your sew-jo again!
I always enjoy your words of wisdom and inspiration. Keep up the good work!
Your advice in this post is perfect and well written! We should serve others and find time to just play. I have tried to look at this at home time as a positive thing. I am making masks and helping my pregnant (with twins) daughter out by taking her two little ones. Serving others is a wonderful thing that brings us joy. I have also spent more time calling my grandma in the nursing home, friends, family, and neighbors. We can find good and happy moments in a turbulant world.
The fact that your woodworking husband and you can talk knowingly to each other about your work and creativity reminded me of the lightbulb that went off between my woodworking brother and I as he explained his process and I mine - so many similarities in technique even though we were working with totally different mediums. From there it launched into more general discussions about art, marketing, not wanting to become assembly line workers with our "product" in order to make money. It was quite enlightening and forged a greater bond between us.
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