[fertilepress]

kitchen sessions

Sometimes it's good to ventilate. While the Swedish falukorv is being fried you can always play something nice on the Casio. First of many to come, hopefully. Please visit: www.salemalfakir.com.        ~ Salem al Fakir

I discovered Swedish pop star Salem al Fakir while visiting Stockholm last Christmas. I really like his music, but I love his creative spirit even more. Be sure to cursor over the boxes that appear in the video below to catch a glimpse of the frying falukorv. (Falukorv is a large traditional Swedish sausage made of a grated mixture of pork and beef or veal with potato flour and mild spices.)   

Now I'm inspired to record a few "studio sessions"...maybe while I'm doing a little Photoshop? Hmmm...

later...

uninspired...

That's how I'm feeling today. But...

"I resolve to break the barren soil of my fruitless brain."
                                              ~ Elizabeth Grymeston

later...

my sentiments exactly!

I hear this lament a lot: "I'm just not creative."

Hogwash! (Don't you just love that word?) We're all creative in our own way. It's what we, as human beings, do. We create.

"Creativity is in everyone; it just manifests itself differently with each person. My CPA, for example, is one of the most creative people I know. He's a true left-brain, right-brain blended thinker, but he'd never consider himself creative. The form his efforts take just don't register with anyone as creativity. Amazingly, creative things happen around us every day and escape in forms we don't recognize."
          -Ron Miriello

later...

creative peace

my latest desktop wallpaper...i call it "creative peace"

And that's what I call this time...creative peace. The peace that comes from doing what you love...when you finally allow yourself to be absorbed in and consumed by it.

It's funny, y'know. And I've heard writers describe this better than I can. (Must be nice to be able to paint with words!) A famous novelist once told me that he hated writing and he loved writing. I'd asked him how he got his ideas, how he was able to just sit down and write a story. He told me that ideas came to him at odd times (i can relate!) and he always keeps a notebook with him (uh-huh...sketchbook!) to capture those snippets of ideas. Eventually, the ideas begin to nag him until he can't avoid doing something about them. That's when he knows it's time sit down and write. And that's when, eventually, he falls in love with writing all over again.

I can so relate to his experience. I hate the beginning part of any creative process. It's the act of saying to myself, "Okay. Go create something," that's distasteful...scary.

"I feel uncomfortable faced with a brand-new blank sheet of paper, as if forced into responsibilities even before birth."
                                      Shinro Ohtake

So I avoid it as long as I can. I do "research"...look through magazines and books, visit the mall and look at the displays, go to the art museum...anything to avoid actually creating something.

But because my antennae are always alert to all things visual, the ideas are forming before I'm even aware of them. And pretty soon they start to nag until I'm forced to do something with them. Beginning is hard, torturous even. It's what I call the "empty canvas syndrome," the fear of having to create something out of nothing. But pretty soon that's behind me and it's all I can do to keep up with the process...to not fall behind or get left behind. It's a veritable race going on inside my brain or my soul, not sure which (maybe both), and my fingers and eyes are just trying to not get left behind...to not miss something. And before I know it I've fallen in love with creating all over again.

But then...

then...

then there are deadlines...which are pretty good stimuli as well!

:::

today's listen  ::  dave matthews band  ::  under the table and dreaming...an oldie that never gets old

later...

p.s.  thanks, richard!