Back-Breaking Creativity

Creativity can be very difficult work some days. While my husband was away on business for a week, I decided to do something useful. The previous year we had purchased a new construction home. As many new construction homes go it had a lovely front yard, but the back yard was left completely undone. Since we had already lived through one summer with an eyesore of a backyard, I was anxious to get the yard whipped into shape for the coming summer. I had the creative vision of what I wanted it to look like, but to make that vision into reality I was going to have to roll up my sleeves and get dirty. And boy did I get dirty. I spent about 20 hours out there over three and a half days. I dug up weeds and large clumps of grass, I picked out hundreds and hundreds of rocks, I hauled dirt, I raked, I leveled, I put in edging and landscape fabric and finally I planted grass seed. The result was something to behold. Now, every time I look out the window I smile. The back-breaking labor was worth it. Now I can't wait for summer to arrive!
Creativity, in some cases, may only be realized through the sweat of your brow. All the planning and dreaming in the world won't reap you a creative masterpiece. So, get out there and make it into reality.

Creative Docent Mom

This year I volunteered to be an Art Docent for my twin 5th grade girls' class. School budgets are not what they used to be. When the money is short, the (considered) non-essentials get the boot. Art is apparently one of the non-essentials. However someone at the school considered it essential enough to start a volunteer Art Docent program. The goal of an Art Docent is to teach students a bit about art, the masters, the styles, and so on, and to also give the students hands-on experience creating different genres of art. I volunteer once a month for about an hour. We have learned about Matisse, Renior, Picasso, Seurat, O'Keefe, Monet and more, but mostly we have created. We started off with Modern Art which is very unintimidating. We dove into our feelings about Thanksgiving and tried to create a picture that represented them. We had a lot of fun with Pointellism. They were all amazed that they could create a stunning large image with hundreds of little dots. We did some great collage work with bright vivid colors. We drew apples and oranges, which helped us practice our shading. And this last time we drew flowers, in celebration of Spring and Mother's day. I love how surprised they are at what they can create with just a little instruction. I am also enjoying the fact that because I have to prepare a lesson, I am forced to create something myself. Creativity tends to get the back burner with all the other important things to do in life, just like the Art program was put on the back burner when the budget got tight. I'm glad I get the opportunity to put creativity back in front.