Vacation!
Hello all! I’ll be outta town for the next week or so, so posts will be slow and/or non-existent until I return.
Have a good Labor Day weekend!
Creative Explorations: One Step Closer
If I knew without a doubt I would not fail, I would start my own design business. The stakes are high and I have little (but growing) experience in business. Pam (myownworld2100) brings up a good point.
We let fear dictate what we do in our lives. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to quit my job tomorrow to start my own business, but I am preparing myself for a day when I’m ready to strike out on my own. We can take steps to overcome those fears and move ourselves closer to what we want in life.
What holds you back? Make a list of five or more things you’d do if you knew you wouldn’t fail. Take a step towards conquering at least one of those goals/fears.
Definition of a creative person
“Because of their courage, their lack of fear, they (creative people) are willing to make silly mistakes. The truly creative person is one who can think crazy; such a person knows full well that many of his great ideas will prove to be worthless. The creative person is flexible; he is able to change as the situation changes, to break habits, to face indecision and changes in conditions without undue stress. He is not threatened by the unexpected as rigid, inflexible people are.”
—Frank Goble
Kat Sees
Katharine Sidelnik is a photographer I went to school with at RIT. She’s currently shooting some amazing work in Uganda.
About Maria, the woman in the above photograph from Kat’s website:
Maria was out in the fields with her 4 co-wives and husband when the LRA appeared. The soldiers killed the husband and after demanding the women sit down, they proceeded to mutilate all of them. Maria had her ears and mouth cut off with a panga knife…
This photograph was taken after reconstructive surgery.
To see more of Kat’s work, visit her website at katside.com. She periodically updates her work from Uganda on her blog at http://katsees.tumblr.com/
A Mental Squint
“When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don’t state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.”
—Lewis Carroll
Creative Explorations: Throw something away
Clutter saps my creativity and productivity faster than just about anything. Whether I’m writing, working on a presentation, designing, or even updating my resume, I have a hard time concentrating when I’m surrounded by stuff.
Clean up your space by getting rid of stuff you know you don’t use anymore.
If you have a hard time ditching things because you think you may need it in the future, put these items in a box and place it in a closet. Wait a month (or two). At the end of the time frame, take the box straight to a donation center. Do not open it. Just get rid of it.
Once you take a box to be donated, start a new one. You’d be surprised at how much stuff you don’t need anymore and how much more productive you’ll feel.
Bio of Voice Actor Billy West
I recently heard a story on Fresh Air about voice actor, Billy West. They introduced West as someone you probably don’t know by sight, but you have “almost certainly heard his voice. West is a vocal artist who’s done everything from classic cartoon characters to celebrity impressions” and boy were they right! I have never heard his name, but I’ve certainly heard his voice and I was truly impressed and inspired. (If you have about half an hour, I highly suggest you listen to the full Fresh Air interview.)
In the late 70s, Billy West, then a full-time musician, began performing voices onstage in standup comedy routines in Boston. Eventually, he moved to New York and joined the Howard Stern show where he voiced “grotesque send-ups of the pretentious glitterati of the time and performed in the rarefied air of unscripted radio comedy,” according to his website.
He then went on to do shows like Doug (playing Doug Funny) and Ren and Stimpy for Nickelodeon. He has also played Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Popeye, but you probably know him best from Futurama, where he plays Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, among many others.
In this clip, Professor Farnsworth leads Fry to Dr. Zoidberg’s office for a physical. West plays all three voices.
| Futurama | Thursdays 10pm / 9c | |||
| Zoidberg Physical | ||||
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He’s clearly a talented fellow. But how does he do it?
“You have to have some kind of power of observation, almost like a trained observer. You watch people and study them the way an alien would…” he told contributor Dave Davies in the July 15, 2010 interview on Fresh Air. “It’s also kind of an ear a voice performer has, where they’re able to hear things in real life, and they’re able to grab hold of it and then amplify it through another character or a direct impression.”
Spiral Shape House by Mount Fuji Architects
The Spiral Shape House located in heavily populated Tokyo, Japan is a beautiful and creative use of space. Designed by Mount Fuji Architects, it showcases contrasty lines that proudly display the curvature of the building.
The only real downside I can see with this space is the limitations of natural light. You can see how quickly the window light drops off on the left side of the room. Otherwise, I’m in love with how the lines play off each other. They intersect in these ways that lead your eye to look at each corner of the room. In fact, I’m reminded of the inside of a sea shell.
I love when I see architects use space in an interesting way. It makes me think about my own creativity and how I can bend widely held standards to produce new ideas.
(Found via Camp Site. To view more images of the Spiral Shape House, visit the Camp Site website.)
Pass it on.
“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.”
—Albert Einstein
Creative Explorations: Spend what you don’t have
Let’s say tomorrow you are given $100,000. You can do whatever you want with it. Anything at all. How would you spend that money? Gut reactions are always the same. “I’d pay off my student loans.” “I’d go on one heck of a vacation.” “I’d invest it.”
Take an hour to really consider what you’d do if someone handed you $100,000. How do you think it would change your creative output? Do you think you’d be more creative? Less?
What’s the most creative think you can think to do with a nice little chunk of change?