Morgan: Creativity, it's a Mutha'

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.

- Mary Lou Cook

Wow! The 100th Post. Should I feel nervous? Is this one small step for this Man? One giant leap for who? I got to confess, I didn't think we would ever make 100. Writer's Block, Severe Climate Change and Mid-life Career Switches. We almost didn't make it many times over. I went on Sabbatical, Our Girl took a break. It's OK to take a break. The writing really has been a joy...sometimes. It's certainly therapeutic. So without further ado, Let the 100th Begin!

Creativity (or 'creativeness") is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Sounds easy right?

From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought are usually considered to have both orginality and appropriateness. I like to think a little simpler, creativity is simply the act of making something new. Sounds easy right?

Although intuitively a simple phenomenon, it is in fact quite complex...sometimes it's a mutha'.

Creativity has been attributed variously to divine intervention, Cognitive processes, the social environment, personality traits and my favorite lucky chance. It has been associated with genius, mental illness and humor. Some say it is a trait we are born with; others say it can be taught with application of simple techniques.

Although usually associated with art and literature, it is also essential part of innovation and invention and is important in all professions.

I've always wanted to create...design, build something unique and cool. Before I joined the Air Force I wanted to be a Graphic Designer. During high school I took as many art classes as possible. I drew, painted and sculpted and slowly the idea began form that possibly, maybe I could do this for a living. But instead of going away to Art School...I joined the US Air Force. I didn't go to Texas unprepared, I took my porfolio and two letters of recommendation, with me. It must have helped the poor guy in charge of choosing our destiny, because 8 weeks later I was flying to Denver for a crash course in Air Force graphics. I had found what I was looking for. The Air Force appreciated what I did. My perspective was perfect for communicating their ideas visually. I did well and made a 20 year career out of it. As the years went by I rose through the ranks and with every promotion I got further and further away from my creativity, until finally the people I worked with didn't even know I could draw.
That's why I was so excited to get this job as a graphic designer, complete with a sobering pay cut. I was returning to my roots. I was going home. I was rusty at first...compared with my fresh young coworkers I was positively archaic. But I see myself getting better with each Job. Sometimes the initial idea stage is overwhelming...but I'm an idea guy. Now I just have to implement them.

So I ran across this pretty Cool Meme that helps with the creative process by making it random. I started creating CD Covers using the following rules, listed below. I think I'll use this process at work, it might just be a hit! Whats a meme?

About CD Cover Meme

Always wanted to be in a rock band?
Well here's your chance...sort of. Make your own CD Cover with the following steps and rocket yourself to mult-platinum status and start fending off the groupies.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

I did 11 covers, I think they turned out pretty good.
Tell me which one is your favorite.

OurGirl: Walsh's Despair 2.0

walshie walked into the cubbie, sat down in his chair, dragged himself over to the pennisula and in reverent tones announced: "they did it again. they are genius. i don't know how they keep topping themselves, but they do."

i peered over my faux hand-thrown coffee mug with the word "inspiration" half stamped into it and asked, "who?"

"despair.com! they now have a whole do-it-yourself store. its genius i tell you. you can upload your own image, type in your own quote and make your own poster. genius."

i've posted before about walsh's love for despair.com. i even bought the "more people have seen this shirt than have read my blog" shirt and wore it in on casual friday, just to make the dude smile. my brother just shook his head. "i ain't buying that dork shirt."

"walsh—omg! they are having their users generate content for them!"
"even better. they will sell you the poster you make. custom poster!"
"wait—tell me they are keeping a gallery of their users generated content. that way, if you try to make your own content and you just aren't funny, you could then look at what others have made and then buy their posters. omg! then the user could get a cut of the action—a percentage off the top! tell me they are doing that!!"

walsh looked at me and said, "they don't have to. they are genius. check out the clown funeral poster."

so at home i look into despair.com. and i do have to tell you, the despairware grey t-shirt with with the words: "THE TIME FOR ACTION HAS PASSED. now is the time for senseless bickering" really speaks to me right now. but i tore myself away from the on sale shirts and checked out the DIY section. there are the posters—even the clown funeral one walsh had talked about. so i couldn't help myself. i uploaded an image, wrote a couple of quick lines and made a poster for walsh:


are you kidding me? that laughing you are hearing? that's walsh. monkeys are genius.

OurGirl: Inept Spirit Guide

Sent a letter on a long summer day; Made of silver, not of clay; Ive been runnin down this dusty road; Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin; I dont know where Ill be tomorrow; Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin —Wheel in the Sky, Journey

so i'll be your spirit guide for these next two posts and then morgie will take on our big 100 post. buckle up, bette, its gonna be a bumpy ride.

art by li wei. visit www.liwei.com

i have a subscription to the Morning Newletter and i heartily encourage all to visit their gallery, in particular. they feature contemporary work and give an interview with the artists. i've mentioned a few of the artists before in this blog—but li wei's work takes my breath away. When i first saw his work i had flash backs to 9/11 and thought, no, no—this is just too soon. but i was struck by the image's terrible beauty and wanted to see more and understand more of this contemporary artist. i realize i see the art—and life— through my very human, very venial perspective first—and then i come to a larger understanding.

sort of like my friend, tony's video art of his real life struggle with cancer:


so, not knowing too many van morrison's songs (i get him mixed up with boz scaggs), i check into Tony's blog, see his video through my venial lens—here, put on my glasses: these are terrible images. cancer is no joke. its scary and its painful. tony is brave and i dig his sense of humor. so what i see is these terrible images juxtaposed against what sounds to my uneducated ear like hospital elevator music. so i think this is tony being brave and funny and i laugh in appreciation at what i perceive to be his black humor while my husband just shakes his head at me.

then i read more about li wei. and i listen further and carefully to lyrics in tony's video music.

did ye get healed? van morrison.
I wanna know did you get the feelin'?
Did you get it down in your soul?
I wanna know did you get the feelin'?
And did the feelin' grow?

Sometimes, when the spirit moves me
I can do many wondrous things
I wanna know when the spirit moves you
Did ye get healed?

wow. yes, i realize i'm a terrible bonehead. and i'm sure tony gets that, too. but the larger view is that a shift in perspective happened. take a look at something. then look at it from another angle. so this is how li wei sees how westerners perceive his work:

For Li Wei, 2003 was a prolific year, It was above all the first year that I managed to maintain myself as an artist, thanks to a number of exhibitions in Asia and the West, which increased the number of buyers~,. Before the last cup of tea melts, I point out that there is a kind of expectation in the art world of the West, an expectation that something new will happen and that the "new wave" will be from Asia, in particular China. Westerners are not acquainted with eastern culture and perhaps that's why you expect all sorts from us. Then, when they look at our works, even when they say they know ' China, if they don't see some "Chinese" element then they turn their noses up at theme http://www.liweiart.com/ART/liwei/Review.htm/200505PROTAGONISTI.htm

wei, i never saw anything 'chinese' in your art. i saw a familiar danger. i felt a wave of familiar sickening horror. then when i dug deeper into the series i felt relief at the photos of you returning to safety, and hope in the panicky face of the woman that embraces your return back to the building. because i'm american. and i love happy endings, right? and how many times are there happy endings in real life? in my western mind, i felt he's expressing that moment of panicky fleeing from whatever. but this is what he was expressing:

"The piece expresses a yearning for a happier and freer space of existence," Li offers, but he's dispensing with the backstory. His choice of location for the piece is significant. In 2003, the Jianwai SOHO tower from which he dangles was the latest in a series of real estate projects bankrolled by Pan Shiyi, the Donald of Beijing(almost literally-he was recently invited by Trump to takeover the boardroom chair in a proposed Asian edition of The Apprentice, but after negotiations, declined). Pan, who is generally credited with igniting the real estate frenzy that has resulted in today's Central Business District, is to many a visionary. His vertically-oriented, mixed-use micro-cities have become de rigueur for Beijing's property developers, ushering in a new era for Beijing's urban landscape and identity. In much the same way that Li seeks to alert us to the construction of reality by toying with the fantastic, Pan's efforts show us how not just dreams, but the basic structures of daily life-how we circulate and interact within social space-can be re-imagined and made real, The "freer space of existence" that Li speaks of can be viewed as an awareness of these social constructions and of their mutability.

a change in perspective, another letter in clay, not silver. please feel free to move about the country. amen.

Morgan: Big Ups to you Pops!

One of my earliest memories is, I remember working with dad in the garage. I remember being his second set of hands, assisting him in whatever kind of odd job we happen to be performing that day, welding, plumbing,electrical work or carpentry. He taught me all the different names for each tool and what they did. "Go get me 5/8 wrench...no thats a 3/16" I remember hammering nails with dad and taking nails out to recycle the lumber...and the nails. He was always working...he had to support us. It must have been always on his mind. He would even work on the weekends. And I would travel with him for hours to help and mostly watch him work. I always brought a book and sometimes I would read to him while he worked.
In the spring he would till the earth as the rest of us followed and planted symmetrical lines of tomatoes, beans, corn and the list would get bigger every year. Sometimes we would go out to weed or pick overly ripen tomatoes in the failing light of the day...I guess we had been working and we had a little more to do.
I remember bringing my father his lunch. And he would sit down with us and eat heartily from a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, steaming bowls of potato salad and polish it off with an cold RC cola. He wouldn't tarry long and was soon back to his work.
My father's main occupation was welding. He had always been a welder. His father was a welder. All of his brothers were welders. It was a tough bunch of denim wearing men. My grandfather had followed the construction of gas pipelines across America and Canada after the war. He traveled with his whole family, wife and five kids in a motorhome...following the construction. They eventually ended up in Illinois and thats were Grandpa bought the 15 acres which would be known as "The Farm"
For a little boy the Farm was a magical kingdom of exploration, work, playing and work. My siblings and I would traipse through the cow pastures following the well worn cow paths. Down past the many gardens, past the old junkyard of abandoned trucks and cars to the river.
Dad didn't like us to go down there without an adult. We would have to go down there to turn the irrigation pump off at night.
Dad was always working on cars or trucks. trying to extend their life. We would scour junkyards looking or usable transmissions, axles or engines. When we had enough scrap metal we would load the truck up and take it to the scrap yard where they would weigh the truck and pay us for it. There was Pigs and chickens to be butchered. One time we butchered a goat...but I don't think Dad like that to much.
People respected him for his talents and knowledge. People from church were always asking him to do jobs, plumbing, electrical, carpentry. I don't know if he ever made money out of those deals or not. The local farmers respected him for his welding talents, for they were always damaging their huge 10 wheeled tractors. Dad would fix them.
We cut many trees down in those days as we heated our house with wood to save money. Dad always handled the chainsaw notching the tree just right. attaching the cable if he want to encourage the tree to fall a certain way. After the exciting fall of the tree it was more work. He would cut the tree up in manageable chunks and we would heave them into the back of the pickup truck until it springs could handle no more. We usually had to make a few trips to get all the wood home.
But for all his toughness and hard work ethic he always had time for us kids, a hug, a joke, a word of encouragement. And while some people would say he worked to much. I counter by saying he did what he had to, for his family. He did it because he loved us. Happy Father's day Dad.

OurGirl: Class of 2008 Commencement Address

Sunshine go away today, I don't feel much like dancin'
Some man's gone, he's tried to run my life
Don't know what he's askin'

He tells me I'd better get in line Can't hear what he's sayin'
When I grow up, I'm gonna make it mine These ain't dues I been payin'

How much does it cost? I'll buy it. The time is all we've lost. I'll try it.
He can't even run his own life, I'll be damned if he'll run mine
Sunshine

Sunshine. lyrics by Jonathan Edwards

this past weekend, i attended a high school graduation. i remember my graduation being long and boring, but this attendance was quick and meaningful—this is most likely as i am older now and have less life to live. rimshot! but i have to say, its cool to be on this side of the fence and just be an observer of the day. very freeing not to be the grad, thinking about the future and decisions needing to be made. very freeing not to be the parent of the grad, thinking about their future and all their decisions needing to be made. the grad ceremony i attended featured a motivational speaker and he lived up to his title. pretty motivating. as i listened, i thought—excellent blog topic—let's give a commencement address. i've been running into troubles being inspired to post on the blog. stories about how i don't own a microwave or how my kids watch youtube instead of tv seem pretty lackluster. so i set up a rough draft of the blog and then googled some commencement speeches, just to check out the competition. after hitting some awesome speeches, i realized i had nothing particularly brilliant to discuss.

lackluster, even.

there is no way my life would be considered inspirational or even a cautionary tale. its not that i don't love my life—i do—its more along the lines of looking at someone who is at the start of their adult lives and thinking: "Yeh. I got nothing for you."

i have, however, plenty of advice for my son who is too young to graduate:

• GET SERIOUS ABOUT KEYBOARDING. ITS A GPA BUILDER, SON!
• DONT TALK BACK TO ME
• TAKE A LOOK AROUND YOU, FOR PETE'S SAKE!
• JUST BECAUSE THEY DO, DOESNT MEAN YOU CAN OR THAT I WILL LET YOU
• THE CRANE MACHINE GAME IS FOR SUCKERS. PROMISE ME YOU WON'T GO TO VEGAS WHEN YOU GROW UP.

and on and on. but by the time kids reach the end of their high school careers, all that sort of talk falls on a closed mind. i can tell you from experience it falls on 11 year old closed minds as well.

so even tho most aren't listening, here are a few things i think would be most relevant to share:

• don't be afraid to not commit to anything. i think whenever i look back, the areas of my life i'm not the most enthusiastic about are when i rushed into committing to a decision and then sticking to it. because i made a commitment.
• don't be afraid to say: this is over my head or this isnt what i want to do. be brave to extricate yourself from any commitment you were foolish enough to take on.
• don't be afraid to follow your passion. it will make you most happy, even when you aren't happy.
• don't be afraid of expressing enthusiasm. its stupid, but people will look at you and think dork. but every once in a while, you'll find someone who shares that particular enthusiasm and then they are totally grateful you are sharing with them. and that feels good.
• don't be afraid. i'm only added that in because i seem to be on an unintentional tear about being afraid. whatever.
  

here are a links to speeches better than my post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samantha-power/message-to-graduates-be-a_b_103886.html
http://www.commencement.harvard.edu/2003/ferrell.html
http://www.wm.edu/news/?id=3650
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/hindsights.html