I can’t say this enough: Romanticize your life. Pretend you’re in a Wes Anderson movie. Try to view things through studio ghibli glasses. Take as many photos of as many things as possible. Go out to eat alone. Lay in the park, read and book and people watch. Smell a perfume you haven’t worn since high school. Visit places in your hometown that feel nostalgic to you and let your memories wash over you.
This is a question I've been ruminating on a lot recently. Some say there are no deadlines for creativity. Others say you have to develop systems to maximize it. I believe the answer lies somewhere in between. As Picasso said, "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."
Like many have said, it truly is a no-brainer to throw yourself in environments that maximize the probability for inspiration. You must curate your muse. From how the air smells, to the images your cornea captures. It's crazy how much it influences your work.
My advice is always the same on how to feel more creative: curate inspiration every day. Take even 30 minutes per day to browse a space full of inspirational content (in whatever creative area you're excited about) and save anything you like (even if you don't know why) into super specific/niche buckets with the tool/platform you like best. You'll start to see connections between things you didn't see before, and you'll notice trends appearing before they hit the mainstream.
I highly recommend everybody to read The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. It covers all necessity on being creative and live a life to your full potential!
On feeling more creative, I find things taking time to walk around the areas you are in and notice your surroundings very inspiring, like analyzing people's outfits, living in NYC has enabled me to do this pretty easily. I also like watching older movies on Mubi for aesthetic movies with no plot, it allows me to not get absorbed in the dialogue and focus on the visuals and what I find attractive. Also, browsing art and fashion books at the bookstore and even reading newsletter like this on Substack.
P/S: I love Sofia, and how she admires people who just jump into things and do it. I'm going to start making a short film that is inspired by Sofia Coppola, and Chloe Sevigny, because I found they are the ultimate "it" girls and hold the trope that many younger girls look up to.
As an art teacher, this question comes to me a lot. My advice... Read! Read anything and everything. Build a vocabulary to understand the world around and within you. Reading also teaches us other perspectives and helps us to think about things we may have never considered before.
Journaling...even just a bullet pointed list of ideas or words floating in your mind....helps to begin to put your creativity into the world.
Then create! Make something, anything, and don't judge yourself in the process. Change the language you use to talk to yourself. A mistake is just an unintended mark. Instead of "I suck at this" try saying "I haven't made anything I'm proud of yet." or "It doesn't look like I intended." Maybe you go for a walk and take pictures of interesting shapes or maybe you finger paint or hum a tune that's unfamiliar. And then do it again.
As someone who always thought of himself as being more of a type A personalty and someone with zero creative talent, I've found the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" to be a hugely refreshing and empowering book.
Highly recommended for folks who think they're not creative.
Put down the phone. Be quiet. Find yourself outdoors. Maybe on a mountain or in a meadow. Ideas emerge when the brain goes into auto pilot doing things like commuting, showering, and leisure-strolling. Turn off the sounds. No tv. No podcasts. Let your brain make its own ideas instead of letting the words of others fill up the empty space. Open yourself.
i think reading my favorite books and re-watching my favorite movies always inspires me because i feel inspired to create something of a similar nature!
Read ‘The Artist Way’ by Julia Cameron, it’s a 12 week process to help you discover, rediscover or unblock your creative self…whether it be art, writing, improv…or just wanting to be more joyful playful in your life. It’s a game changer. If you find it easier to get through in a group setting with accountability, Simone Tai and offers a 12 week course with live weekly check in and optional creative retreat at the end of it (we had a blast in Joshua Tree!) She has a skill in making things inclusive and relatable. Highly recommend! https://instagram.com/simone_tai_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Cultivate an attitude of curiosity toward everything. Objects, ideas, interactions, feedback... apply a what if?s and why?s to whatever you come across. Eventually it becomes second-nature to see things from an additional perspective rather than accepting them simply for what they are.
I always try to have an overall theme in my head, could be an idea, a problem or something more vague like an observation that keeps appearing in different forms & shapes. Sometimes I have a couple of those in my head, and over time they slowly mold & form into one because they were all orbiting around the same underlying topic. Even if none of these things go anywhere they do let me grow & keep my interest in my surroundings.
I can’t say this enough: Romanticize your life. Pretend you’re in a Wes Anderson movie. Try to view things through studio ghibli glasses. Take as many photos of as many things as possible. Go out to eat alone. Lay in the park, read and book and people watch. Smell a perfume you haven’t worn since high school. Visit places in your hometown that feel nostalgic to you and let your memories wash over you.
This is a question I've been ruminating on a lot recently. Some say there are no deadlines for creativity. Others say you have to develop systems to maximize it. I believe the answer lies somewhere in between. As Picasso said, "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."
Like many have said, it truly is a no-brainer to throw yourself in environments that maximize the probability for inspiration. You must curate your muse. From how the air smells, to the images your cornea captures. It's crazy how much it influences your work.
My advice is always the same on how to feel more creative: curate inspiration every day. Take even 30 minutes per day to browse a space full of inspirational content (in whatever creative area you're excited about) and save anything you like (even if you don't know why) into super specific/niche buckets with the tool/platform you like best. You'll start to see connections between things you didn't see before, and you'll notice trends appearing before they hit the mainstream.
Some wonderful places to browse daily:
* Cosmos - cosmos.so
* Are.na - are.na/explore
* Behance - behance.net
* Pinterest (might take a bit of saving things to start serving you up content in-line with your tastes)
* Landbook - land.book
Instagram/TikTok aren't high on my list here, I find them super distracting.
Would love to hear where others go to discover & curate inspiration.
I highly recommend everybody to read The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. It covers all necessity on being creative and live a life to your full potential!
On feeling more creative, I find things taking time to walk around the areas you are in and notice your surroundings very inspiring, like analyzing people's outfits, living in NYC has enabled me to do this pretty easily. I also like watching older movies on Mubi for aesthetic movies with no plot, it allows me to not get absorbed in the dialogue and focus on the visuals and what I find attractive. Also, browsing art and fashion books at the bookstore and even reading newsletter like this on Substack.
P/S: I love Sofia, and how she admires people who just jump into things and do it. I'm going to start making a short film that is inspired by Sofia Coppola, and Chloe Sevigny, because I found they are the ultimate "it" girls and hold the trope that many younger girls look up to.
As an art teacher, this question comes to me a lot. My advice... Read! Read anything and everything. Build a vocabulary to understand the world around and within you. Reading also teaches us other perspectives and helps us to think about things we may have never considered before.
Journaling...even just a bullet pointed list of ideas or words floating in your mind....helps to begin to put your creativity into the world.
Then create! Make something, anything, and don't judge yourself in the process. Change the language you use to talk to yourself. A mistake is just an unintended mark. Instead of "I suck at this" try saying "I haven't made anything I'm proud of yet." or "It doesn't look like I intended." Maybe you go for a walk and take pictures of interesting shapes or maybe you finger paint or hum a tune that's unfamiliar. And then do it again.
As someone who always thought of himself as being more of a type A personalty and someone with zero creative talent, I've found the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" to be a hugely refreshing and empowering book.
Highly recommended for folks who think they're not creative.
Going places slower is always a great way to get creativity flowing. The slower you travel, the more you'll notice.
Put down the phone. Be quiet. Find yourself outdoors. Maybe on a mountain or in a meadow. Ideas emerge when the brain goes into auto pilot doing things like commuting, showering, and leisure-strolling. Turn off the sounds. No tv. No podcasts. Let your brain make its own ideas instead of letting the words of others fill up the empty space. Open yourself.
i think reading my favorite books and re-watching my favorite movies always inspires me because i feel inspired to create something of a similar nature!
Read ‘The Artist Way’ by Julia Cameron, it’s a 12 week process to help you discover, rediscover or unblock your creative self…whether it be art, writing, improv…or just wanting to be more joyful playful in your life. It’s a game changer. If you find it easier to get through in a group setting with accountability, Simone Tai and offers a 12 week course with live weekly check in and optional creative retreat at the end of it (we had a blast in Joshua Tree!) She has a skill in making things inclusive and relatable. Highly recommend! https://instagram.com/simone_tai_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
big arena head myself! - https://www.are.na/jennifer-hook
Cultivate an attitude of curiosity toward everything. Objects, ideas, interactions, feedback... apply a what if?s and why?s to whatever you come across. Eventually it becomes second-nature to see things from an additional perspective rather than accepting them simply for what they are.
I always try to have an overall theme in my head, could be an idea, a problem or something more vague like an observation that keeps appearing in different forms & shapes. Sometimes I have a couple of those in my head, and over time they slowly mold & form into one because they were all orbiting around the same underlying topic. Even if none of these things go anywhere they do let me grow & keep my interest in my surroundings.