Creativity Grows

by Carol

 Nothing blossoms like creativity! I (we) have all talked about this subject before, but this week has brought these thoughts back to the forefront of my mind. What is so amazing about creativity is that like a ivy vine, it can grow in so many directions at once! Once your eyes are opened to seeing the world through creative eyes, your mind gets rolling, your vision clears and there is endless possibility in every direction. And its contagious.

As Terri told you last Monday, we are all participating in Tracey Clark's Picture class again. I'd like to use the phrase "deja Vu," but it doesn't apply. It doesn't apply because this many years later, we all have new eyes, different vision. It seems like that's what Tracey herself is experiencing, and why she wanted to revisit the platform. What is so striking to me is the thought that from this one woman's creative burst several years ago, so much has grown.

In my own personal journey, Tracey's original class took a fledgling photographer with a new camera and one workshop under her belt and made her into a daily photographer finding her place in the world of art. Lessons were learned, many skills were gained, projects were tried, as she began to define herself as an artist. That same photographer can now say that she defines herself as part of the Contemplative Photography movement, emphasizing serendipitous beauty, meditation on nature, appreciation of the beauty given to us in the quiet moments.

Let's pause with that phrase "define herself" - because that same fledgling photographer had also just driven her youngest child to college and she was beginning to explore the next phase of her life. That homebody took a chance on the internet connections made in Tracey's class and eventually hopped on a plane to meet other classmates, signed up for more local classes that eventually led to trips all over the globe. That inexperienced photographer, and private writer,  took a chance and joined a blog startup and actually let other people see what she was creating.  She took up journalling, and took sketching classes; started playing with paints and pastes. A shelf full of art books appeared in her bookcase, and colored pencils and ink pens set up camp on her end tables. Of course, that beginner was me. This class is titled "New Beginnings." How appropriate,  as I  have found that art provides daily beginnings as well as life-stage beginnings.

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So consider please - all of this happened because years ago a woman named Tracey, whom I  have never met had an idea and the courage to put it out there. And that's just my story. Multiply that by all the participants in all the creative classes taught on-line and all over the world.

Creativity grows!!!

       'When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before."

                                                    Cliff Radioman