Be a Vessel of Encouragement and Inspiration!

Everyday you have the ability to inspire someone. Adults and Children alike.

The magical words of color, shape, & sound all play a part in the enchanting world of creativity. Our mind are brilliant and ripe with productivity each and every second of the day, it is where we act on the ideas that make us who we are.

It starts very young in our lives how we see ourselves and where we start to recognize that we have purpose. It is very crucial that we see all the possibility and power we hold in our hands. Idea should be recognized as such not matter how trivial or magnificent they seem at the time. Ideas is the seeds of creation and from an idea creation can make what was once a thought very much real. Remember everything around us man made was once just a seed in the creator mind and the creator acted on the idea until it was physically completed. This in itself is no small feet. Our minds are very powerful, fine tuned miracles at work. Our mind is one of the most developed gifts we possess. You can lend yourself to support an idea as well as have ideas yourself. You can be the catalyst for change in your life as well as others through encouragement and support. We have the ability to learn skills, trades, crafts, etc and then go on to teach them to other, sharing our knowledge with others.

So when you have the chance to encourage your child, a friend, an acquaintance, do so! When you have ideas, act on them, start an idea journal, write or sketch down ideas. That idea may bloom into the creation that could change your life, could change the way we live life, can change the world. Ideas craft change and you can be the catalyst. This can only begin when you recognize that you are powerful and start to embrace your true potential.

And with this you can inspire others to create, connect, and grow!

Ten Imaginative Steps to JumpStart Your Creative Mind!

We can be inspired to create, by many things all around us. We just have to take the time to recognize it and focus. Many people view and receive inspiration from all different types of sources. Triggers of inspiration may visual, verbal, physical, sense driven, information based. No matter where you get it, it still remains a creative device with which to grow.

Here are 10 free & easy idea starters for creative people to add a little spark to what you already have going on within you. Even if only one tip, idea, and/or exercise helps you, we will have succeeded in creative growth. Growth is good, so lets get this started.

1. Creative Visual Journal

If you don't have one already this is the best way to keep quick ideas at hand. Find a nice hardbound journal at a bookstore and/or craft store on the cheap. You can label and date each one as you go along because once you start with this process of idea documenting you will continue. Any idea big or small, sketches or written, should be put here in your journal, and at the end of each week do a review of all the writings and sketches captured throughout. With this at any point in time you can focus on and expand any idea from ten years ago to today. I find a journal to be priceless, some of my best ideas have been re-visited ideas with fresh eyes and mind.

2. Sponge of Nature Walk

Spend some time to soak up the sun. No iPods or Mp3 just you and the great outdoors. Take a 15 minute walk, breathe deeply, and soak in your surroundings. Look at nature a little more closely, the pattern of bark on tree, bird nests, the color of pavement, the sound of birds, vehicle, and children's laughter. Find a place to sit and absorb the sound and movement around you. Clear your mind of any outside influence and just be a sponge of your surroundings. Look at the cloud formations of the bend of tree limbs, look close and will start to notice more than ever before. This is also a good thing for your body and healthy for your mind. You can call this a walking meditation if you will.

3. Shapes Recognition

This focus exercise is about recognizing shapes that surround us each in everyday. The entire world and beyond is composed of shape, form, and mass. Some forms rely on other to create forms. Take a pencil and a piece of paper, select a spot, and start viewing everything around you and acknowledging the shapes.
Cylindrical cans, sphere lights, rectangle books, all common recognizable forms. Not all are so common. Look at shapes that repeat themselves more frequently and those that do not. Recognize the difference in shapes in nature and man made shape, document the differences in your journal. What shapes do you enjoy? Why? What do you notice?

4. Color Collector - Color is all around us

Everything in the world is comprised of color and light. Without color life would not be as lively and loud as it is. There are over a billion color and our eyes process the smallest difference in colors. We are a magnet for colors the are an active part of our everyday life. The dictate our actions at times, traffic lights, danger, health, fashion, recreation, night fall, etc. Use colors you don't like for a change. Ask yourself why don't I use of like a certain hue write it down them give that color a shot. Go get some swatches of color from the paint shop and match it up to some inexpensive color at the craft store. Work with it, make it work for you. Maybe hints, at first, to open yourself up to conceptual color usage. In my workspace I keep swatches of colors that inspire or move me and this encourages me to start a project or two. Let color inspire you.

5. Recommended Reading - Some of Interest

Does not have to be art or design related, just something you like, want to learn more about, or have been interested in at one time or another. Whether it be a book of Alice in Wonderland, Edgar Allen Poe, or a reference guide for vintage typewriters, it doesn't matter what it is, just that you want to explore the subject. You see the funny thing about creative inspiration is that it can come from anywhere, sometime unexpected places. Reading is a playground for the mind and imagination. It is a wonderful magical place where things can become very real once the seed is planted.

6. Dedicate Time to Your Craft/Art

This tip I cannot stress enough: "Make time for yourself -art/craft!" If this is your passion, time is like a lover. YOU can NEVER put in ENOUGH TIME for your creative endeavors! Get up an extra 30 minutes to hour, if possible, a day & spend that time doing what you love and are passionate about. This is an investment in your creative potential. You deserve this time, you are a vessel of creative force this will help grow and strengthen your craft. If you cannot do a half hour a day, on your day off take time at least a two hour block uninterrupted to get some writing, painting, sculpting, singing, dancing, whatever you do, make time for it. YOUR HEART AND SOUL WILL THANK YOU.

7. GGGOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL - Have one!

If you don't already, start setting goals for yourself. Realistic obtainable goals. Start with small quickly visible goals. Purchase your journal, take your nature walk, find time to get up early and dedicate time to your craft. Every time you accomplish a goal document it in your journal. No goal is to small. Then start a page of things your hope to accomplish and write a step by step plan of execution. Every step count as a success in getting closer to fulfillment of your goals. If you can see it coming to fruition, you can believe anything is possible. Focus + Energy + Desire =Success!

8. Visit Exhibits -

Check out your local newpapers' Arts & Style pages and see if their are any gallery, design trade shows, exhibitions, bead show, garden show, or art show currently showing in the area. Try to attend one or two month just to see outside of yourself and experience other artist work. You may not like all of the art but even in that there is purpose in relation to how you view and express creatively.

9. Verbalize Your Vision - Open Your Mouth!

Who knows your vision better than YOU! You know how to express yourself visually now it's time for your mouth. Learn to verbalize your work, who you are, what you do, and how you do it. First start by summing up who you are and how you see your work in your journal. What your trying to express through your work. How you feel when you are activity working on it, your emotions, your goals, your focus, and how you feel when you complete your project. This is valuable to personal realization of purpose both personal and professional. You need to get inner pulse on who you are in order to do this this is where you have to look within.

10. Share Your Vision -

Tell people what you do, share your passion with those around you. With journal in hand; work on interpretation of your vision. And yes, as time goes on your vision may reshape itself, become grander, more passionate in spirit, deeper and more heartfelt. Be aware of the changes and document what brings the change and share. Starting a blog can be a great way to express yourself and your vision and growth process. Your journals will prove to be the greatest archive of all over the passage of time. But making time is how it all begins to get bigger for you. Invest the time you are worth it and your creativity is within, what are you waiting for!

We all have gift some undiscovered, none the less we have gifts. The key to utilization is to recognize gifts when they present themselves. Creative gifts may be not so obvious, yet very present within us. When we are young, sometimes through no fault of our own, we are redirected from our gifts, by parents, by teachers meaning no harm, yet changing our course of direction towards creativity. Don't say that, that is not the color of grass, that is not the right key to sing in, you are to fidgety, too loud, simmer down. This all seem so small but can grow so big within our world of conformity. It can dictate the way we express, share, and grow artistically.

HAVE YOU EVER TRIED SOMETHING A REALIZED - HEY! I like this, this is fun? The desire and love of that action has always been present we just have not activated it, so to speak. For whatever reasons that be, we have never had the opportunity to experience it without judgement. But we when try we open ourselves to that experience an activity or feeling freely because it is new and unfamiliar. This, I believe, is a good thing. And something new becomes something new to do more and more often create familiarity, and that has the ability to become a means to perfection by ones' own development. Growth is growth no matter from which it comes.

Think of it like this, practice makes perfect. Do ever think that you are not good at something it is just you have not exercised its potential in your life enough to become good at it?

You have to ability to try new things and in saying that, you have the ability to master new things.

Recognize that in this action it is an exercise in confident ability and positive belief. It is a active choice that is not taken by everyone, realize that this makes it an accomplishment. In the learning, is in the doing, in the doing is knowing, is believing in yourself and your creativity.

Loving a hobby, craft, art, etc. is in the learning, when it moves you. Passion is a wonderful muse she will go where-ever you take her. Desire to grow will take you outside of your boundaries, that is for sure. Growth is progress, progress is key to personal success. Whatever your endeavors to can be the best at whatever your desire when your mind is right. You must truly believe in yourself and your abilities. Mindset is everything.

So don't ever say you "cannot" because I know that you CAN! The CAN is in the DOING. FIRST YOU MUST TRY!

"In trying somewhere lives success!" WonderArtStudio2009

Art is your emotions flowing in a river of imagination. ~Devin, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999


Art is an adventure that never seems to end. ~Jason, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999


Art is pictures straight from the heart. ~Ben, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999

Art is a Boundless Art has the ability to lift spirits and move individuals to great heights. Inspire one to change and to grow. The wonderful thing about art is that it is accessible to all no matter what your income or your so called status in life. W e are all capable of thought, perception, the ability to be moved, and grow. ART plays a very important part in each of our live, conscious and unconscious. Every part of our lives is deeply infused with creations which in turn shapes our view. And the majority of it is free. Available to you in products, architecture, form fitting functional designs, and obvious artistic creations' paintings, clothing, etc. KNOW THAT YOU ARE INSPIRED BY ART EVERYDAY AND IT DOES NOT COST A THING.