Creativity is the natural order of life. Life itself is pure creative energy.
An underlying creative force connects all life. There is an in-dwelling force—a universal consciousness—that infuses and links everything like a net, including ourselves.
Opening up to creativity aligns us with that force. When I open myself to my own creativity, I open myself to the universal consciousness’ creativity working within my life.
Human beings are inherently meant to create. I am, myself, a creation. In turn, my purpose is to continue that process by being creative.
Using creative energy is a two-way street. Creativity is the energy that connects me to the universal consciousness. Using it means participating in that shared net, and what I create passes that energy back.
Believing you aren't creative is an illusion. The refusal to create, or the belief that you lack creativity, is a false narrative that runs counter to your true nature.
Exploring creativity opens up new possibilities. When I open myself to exploring what I can make, I open myself to the possibilities within the universal consciousness.
Opening your creative channel brings change. As I open this channel with the universal consciousness, I should expect many gentle but powerful changes in my life.
It is entirely safe to be creative. It is safe to open myself up to greater and greater levels of creativity.
Creative dreams come from a profound source. My creative dreams and yearnings come from a profound source. As I move toward my dreams, I move toward that deep truth.
Artist J. Carino 's exuberant use of color is a joy to see. He paints the male figure communing with nature in a way that approaches the numinous. I especially love the second image below of a man rescuing a tiny mule from flood waters...
“Time is tricky. You have whole months, even years, when nothing changes a speck, when you don’t go anywhere or do anything or think one new thought. And then you can get hit with a day, or an hour, or a half a second when so much happens it’s almost like you got born all over again into some brand-new person you for damn sure never expected to meet.”
--E.R. Frank, Life Is Funny
“You see the beauty inside everything. It doesn’t last long—it’s either gone in a minute, you just caught it, or else maybe it’s something so big that you normally can’t get your head around it. Like the fog in your head clears out. The world stops being a puppet show and you see the real thing. It’s probably like that all the time, but you just can’t see it, except for those little glimpses.”
--Janet Fitch, Paint It Black
“I’m grateful for anything that reminds me of what’s possible in this life. Books can do that. Films can do that. Music can do that. School can do that. It’s so easy to allow one day to simply follow into the next, but every once in a while we encounter something that shows us that anything is possible, that dramatic change is possible, that something new can be made, that laughter can be shared.”
--Jonathan Safran Foer
I am in love with the dynamic abstract shapes and colors in artist Heather Chontos' works. They bring joy. And for my interior design business, I would love to see her marks translated to fabric so I could use them as drapery panels or upholstery on lounge chairs!
I love how she describes her work and process in her Artist Statement from her site: "As a painter, I work impulsively, harnessing the power of gestures to create instinctive compositions that combine bold colours, dynamic marks and organic forms. Rather than using brushes or other traditional tools, I apply paint with scraps of plastic, such as hotel-room key cards, or draw and scratch at the surface using the paint tube itself. The fine edges of my chosen instruments allow me to draw long, penetrating lines and create large, highly saturated fields of colour."
And just look at the amazing mural she did in an eating area at her own home in France. Stunning!
Illustrator Sebastian Curi has created works for many companies including Apple, Venmo, Spotify, Nike, Warby Parker, Vespa, Soul Cycle, and CNN. I love the joy, vivid color, and exuberance in his imagery: chunky, bulbous people experiencing the elation that comes with pure, mindful movement...or the camaraderie of friends and family sharing time and food.
“The years teach what the days never know.”
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There comes a time when we realize that our parents cannot save themselves or save us, that everyone who wades through time eventually gets dragged out to sea by the undertow- that, in short, we are all going.”
--John Green, in his book LOOKING FOR ALASKA
I've loved Pixar films ever since I saw the truly delightful "Monsters Inc." and it seems they can do no wrong. Each time they release a new animated film, I raise an eyebrow and wonder, "Hmmm, that seems like a shaky premise...it could turn out to be a typical schlocky kid's film." But then I see said film, whether it is "Finding Nemo," "WALL-E," or "Up," and I am swept up and enchanted in a story that manages to be both light and poignant, both for children and adults, both silly and bittersweet. I mean, the first ten minutes of "Up" and "WALL-E" contain more humor and love and meaning than some entire Hollywood films.
So it was a similar story with "Inside Out," a story that, on the surface, appeared more for tween girls. But on the recommendation of a friend who has demonstrated a capacity for a certain understanding of the world that overlaps with mine, I saw it. And indeed, it is delightful.
It is actually a very effective treatise on and study of psychological processes of the developing brain...disguised as a children's film. The animation and the sparkly effects make it fun and visually stimulating but the ramifications of the story are, at the risk of sounding silly, rather profound.
Once again, we have an intro in this film that manages to convey the contents of an entire complete story...but that is just the start. We watch the birth of a little girl, Riley, and see her grow up for 11 years. She and her parents live in Minnesota where Riley plays hockey with her mom and dad and her friends. But we get a special view of Riley that no one else does: we see inside her head where the personifications of all her emotions interact. Joy, Anger, Fear, Sadness, and Disgust all add their own viewpoint to Riley's world and her interactions with those around her. Director Pete Docter and his production team consulted Paul Ekman, a well-known psychologist who studies emotions, and Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley to understand more fully the function, role, and methodology of our emotions and our psyches.
As one can imagine, the emotional interior landscape of a child is generally fairly straight forward. But when Riley's father takes a job on the West Coast which takes them to San Francisco, Riley misses her friends, her hockey team, and her old life. This change is a spring board for watching the world view of a child grow, become more complicated, become richer. Of course the poignancy comes from the inevitable loss of innocence, and the loss of "pure" emotions...something that any adult with a sliver of self-awareness can identify with. The results of this growth might no longer be so pure but the trade off for a more extensive and deeper emotional life is worth it.
Aside from this grown-up trip down memory lane and examination of how we all got to where we are now, psychologically speaking, the film functions as a nice way to give children a way to think about their emotions. It provides them with visual symbols that allow them to possibly understand their internal processes, which, even for adults, can sometimes be overwhelming and mysterious. The underlying message that it is acceptable--and even necessary--for all of our emotions to act in concert and not to be afraid of that is a beautiful thing.
"Oh, By The Way" is my digital scrap book of things I like, things I would share with a close friend and say: “Oh, by the way, do you know of this artist/ clothing or interior designer/ model/ singer/ actor/ gorgeous man… or, have you seen this video/ photo/ film... or heard (or do you remember) this song/ band... or, read this book/ poem/ inspiring quote... or, visited this place/ museum/ restaurant/ famous building... or, have you heard of this amazing new scientific discovery?”
I am dedicated to posting the positive, the fascinating, the beautiful, the interesting, the moving, and the inspiring and uplifting. Sometimes I post cultural as well as personal observations, milestones, and remembrances. And just like life, all of these things may often have a bit of melancholy or even sadness in them, which is what makes our time here so lovely and bittersweet and precious.
Some of the photos, art, poetry, and prose are my own original work, credited with my initials, JEF. When it isn't, I always try to post links to the original source material, but often I find photos on the web that are not linked or other material that is not sourced. In these instances, I post them without malice since it is assumed that such things, by being globally posted on something as uncontrollable as the internet to begin with, are in the public domain. If you identify the source of an image that is not linked, please politely let me know (without accusing me of theft, please) and I will be happy to provide a link. If you are the owner of an image and would prefer it be removed, I am happy to do that as well (again, without accusing me of theft, please).
I hope to inspire and entertain my readers with things that inspire and entertain me. There is a startling amount of beauty and creativity in the world and it enriches us all to participate in it.
All-time Favorite Films
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
After Hours (Hysterical, hair-raising ride through NYC at night)
Amelie
American Beauty (Alan Ball)
Baraka (Stunning, transcending—the "spiritus mundi" on film)
Belle et Bete (Cocteau)
Big Sleep, The (The epitome of film noir)
Bringing Up Baby (Hepburn & Grant—the epitome of screwball comedy)
Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, The (Greenaway)
Crash (Cronenberg—DIFFICULT subject, not for everyone)
Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg—ultimate modern gothic horror)
Drowning By Numbers (Greenaway)
Easy Rider
Edward II (Derek Jarman)
Erendira (From magic realist Marquez’ brilliant short story)
Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick's last film)
Fearless (Jeff Bridges—life and death)
Funny Bones (Leslie Caron, Jerry Lewis, and the brilliant Lee Evans)
Holiday (Hepburn & Grant)
Howard’s End (The ultimate statement of the unfairness of class systems)
