Spinal Secret

by Barbara Martin

in Try This

Twyla Tharp’s new Sinatra music show is coming to town. This reminded me about The Creative Habit: Learn it and use it for Life, her richly practical and inspiring book. Among many valuable insights, she describes “the spine” and its essential role in creative projects. Can you guess what this week’s creativity tip touches on? […]

UPDATE As of March 2012, this book is no longer for sale. However it is on offer as a free promotional item at Bridget’s blog.Please check there for future developments. (post revised accordingly) It’s rare for me to become an affiliate mention an e-book product because so much of what is offered on the interwebs seems subpar.  When I […]

Earlier this month I spent an agreeable day attending a hand made journal making workshop with Lisa Sonora Beam — you may recognize her as author of the excellent visually-oriented creative business primer, The Creative Entrepreneur.  If you aren’t familiar with her work, read on because you might want to experiment with making a journal or two of your […]

One of my current areas of creative interest is art journaling.  Here is an interview I did for the 31st day of the 30 Art Journals in 30 Days project out of Dirty Footprints Studio.  Artist, teacher and instigator extraordinaire Connie Hozvicka asked: •How long have you been Art Journaling? A couple of months — since I […]

Just came across a quick but high performance interview piece with creativity expert Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way . She explains “how she does it” and offers an overview of her techniques for unlocking creativity and tips for overcoming some common blocks or obstacles. Check out this Success Magazine article for highlights including […]

If you haven’t read the old 80’s era creativity book, A Whack on the Side of the Head: How to Unlock your Mind For Innovation by Silicon Valley creativity guru Roger von Oech, you should. As von Oech describes it, the book explains how you can engage in mental sex – meaning “sex of our […]

Today I took my Wreck this Journal journal to the park for an outing, a little fresh air, some sunshine. Then I burned it up. A bit overdone, perhaps, but tasty! HEY WRECK STARS! KEEP ON WRECKING!!!!

Recent Reptitude posts examined some of the ideas, exercises and techniques psychologist and creativity expert Eric Maisel presents in his self-taught creativity course or creativity manual, Coaching the Artist Within. You might find these posts useful as a companion to the book or as self-review tools, or as reminders to help you stay on track […]

Wreck this Journal game: week 6 (or 7), how it played out. That “let it go” page has been bothering me for weeks so today I decided this would be “The Day I Lose It” no matter what. In mid-afternoon I left it inside a local freebie newsprint magazine that I found on the coffee […]

The instruction was: cover this page with white things. So I did. (This is week 5 or 6 of the Wreck this Journal game, depending on who’s counting.) White paper textures. White lettering. “SMILE” and white-on-color logos. White slippers. A newsprint map to White’s. The whites of an eye. Toilet paper roll – plush white. […]