My Creative Box

Brainstorming has been a common theme in all of my classes this summer.  We have discussed the importance of brainstorming alternative options in negotiations, to find a win-win situation for those involved.  Brainstorming is also essential in the business environment, a necessary part of analyzing available options and the necessary criteria in making a decision.  With the emphasis of creativity and brainstorming all around, I have found myself struggling with my own perception of being creatively stuck.  

In the past week or so, I have been trying to brainstorm how I have expressed my creativity in the past.  My brainstorming journey has followed the typical path, coming in spurts and then hitting a lull.  There are the obvious moments, like when I was on the Odyssey of the mind team, or taking on various art or craft projects.  These moments then led to less obvious moments, like Halloween costumes, or recipes. 
As I started gathering these memories of creative inspiration, I decided to make a "box," like Twyla Tharp suggested.  I started collecting pictures of those moments and have started assembling them here.  
My Odyssey of the Mind Team:

and our award winning skit...We hid a balsa wood structure in a "stained Glass" window, and had to create a skit that would take the hidden structure and see how much weight it could hold.  Our team based our skit on "Veggies on Broadway"  we sang, we danced, we crushed a wooden box.

Every year at Halloween I would set a goal for myself, to come up with a pun-y costume for our costume crawl in front of our residents.  The first year I was a Pin Up girl, and spent hours forming an upward pointing arrow on a sweater set with safety pins.  The next year I was a Devils Food Cupcake, and made a cupcake costume with horns and a tail.   Then I found a nice, 50's housewife dress, a calendar and a big knife and went as June Cleaver, and finally, a wedding dress, Stamps, and bubble wrap and I was a mail order bride.  I also made a pretty awesome dress out of trash bags to be "White Trash" outside of work.  Not necessarily a politically correct costume, but it was creative! 

  

I explored a number of arts and craft activities throughout my life, photography, pottery, lapidary, stained glass, glass blowing: 

I also realized that a constant expression of creativity in my life has been cooking. The first creative moment I can remember is making  my mother a sandwich when I was 4.  It was a masterpiece: jelly, mayo, lettuce and a hot dog on a toasted hot dog bun.  From that moment on I have always been in the kitchen making up recipes.  

While I know that there are going to be many more things that come to mind the more I think about my creative self, this exercise has helped me realize that even while I have felt creatively stuck, I have been creating and expressing that creative side of my personality in different ways.