Category: Creativity

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Creativity: the good, the bad, the ugly

human lifeTonight I am speaking to a group of creatives who have set aside a year to learn more about their craft and its impact on our world.

I love Ken Robinson, I have read all his books, I love his take on creativity and its impact on society. His quote featured here is so true.

We are all inherently creative.

My workshop tonight is titled;

Influencing Culture Creatively
the good, the bad and the ugly

The premise of my workshop comes out of this documentary and also my personal experience over many years of leading creative souls.

If you would like the notes from my workshop tonight, you can download the pushnotes app, from the app store or this website: www.pushnotes.org and type in this code to download the notes: 13n7

I have seen and encountered much ugliness in the name of creativity.

I have endured many tantrums, many diva’s and much self promotion.

In my experience, when a creative person realises that they are a creative conduit, rather than a gift to the world, the amazing capacity for them to influence culture irrevocably is breathtaking.

I believe you were created by a creative God and your creativity was designed to reflect him and bring inspiration to those around you.

The good: I believe creative influencing is based in bringing inspiration to others so that they can live a life of inspiration ultimately meeting the creator of all things.

The bad: I believe is provoked when people try to seek validation from their creative pursuit to feel better or okay about themselves.

If your creativity is based in filling a deep void of self worth and esteem, you will end up living a very unfulfilled creative life, full of despair and darkness. Seeking praise and affirmation from others. A cycle of deep seeking, a thirst that will never be quenched because in the end flattery and peoples accolades can never fill that place of disconnect, because the motivation is toxic.

The ugly: I have found the ugliest creative endeavours are those that are based in self promotion and pride. When people are desperate to make their mark and leave a legacy which is full of greed and selfish pursuit. You can see it. Selfish art is egocentric. It is ugly. On the outside it looks so pretty, but it is shallow, it is full of pride and its all about the artist not the person who receives the expression.

You were created to reflect something far greater than yourself and when we lay down our own selfish ambition and pride and work together to bring a fresh perspective to others so that they may live an inspired life. That is truly a life that impacts and changes culture generationally.

Its a very fine line.

creative influence

One that is worth much study and pursuit in my opinion.

Live a large creative life friend.

However be careful about what motivates the intensity of this creative pursuit. I truly believe the proverb that says ‘Pride comes before a fall’.

I have seen it too many times.

All my love

Amanda

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The barrenness of busyness

I would prefer to live an intentional life than a busy one.

I see lots of collaborating, I see lots of coffee catch ups, I see lots of hurrying but the question is…

Are you actually intentionally building or producing anything?

Sometimes we can be so busy, that we don’t even stop to think whether our busyness is fulfilling someone else’s desires or our own.

It is easy to spend our days busily, stressed out on endeavors that are unfruitful.

Sometimes a day of rest, a sabbath space of reflection, with time alone can be the most fruitful part of your whole week.

As a creative when you write down a business plan, you reflect on your direction and why, when you write a task list and stick to it, when you make appointments with intention, you will create a scaffold to your week that brings much fulfillment.

If you listed what your did this week, how much of it was wasted and full of stressed out rushing?

How about saying no to some things so you can start saying yes to the life of your dreams?

Busyness can truly be a wasteland. One which I believe robs our souls of deep contribution to the legacy we are leaving on this earth.

Deep waters today.

Amanda

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Live in the moment

thCA1DF839For those that have been following me on here for a while, you will know that my season in the last couple of years has changed significantly.

I am now mostly a stay at home mum and there have been many times that I have struggled with the tension of still pursuing my career and wanting to lead a significant life helping others to live creatively but also not wanting to miss the season I am in.

I was a part of a women’s event last week and the team recorded this story of mine.

I hope it inspires someone out there.

Live in the moment that you find yourself.

Moments pass so quickly.

Life is not about the number of breaths we take, but those that take our breath away.

I love this quote but sometimes we end up holding our breath waiting for those moments, when they were right under our feet we just never realised it.

All my creative love

Amanda

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Oh 8

I have been featured this week on a new website created with the intention to celebrate and feature creative peeps from Perth.

I’ve known Melita Su the genius behind this gathering for a while, in fact she took photos of my mr and I at our special day.

She featured my office in her creative journal today:

http://oh8.com.au/journal/watch-this-space-amanda-viviers

Follow her writings and creative musings online and at her Facebook page today.

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the craft of creativity

There is a craft to being creative.

Not the terrible images of crazy craft classes in the back of the YMCA that you are imagining. I mean there is a skill to living a more creative life.

I am often classified as the loopy creative and pushed aside at the beginning of a dinner party and categorised as fruity.

Despite this prejudice, I believe everyone can be creative. It’s not just the creative crazy cats who walk around dressed in top to toe op shop clothes, you are creative. Every part of your being is founded in creative inspiration. There is something only you can bring to this earth. It’s as unique as your thumbprint, your DNA, your essence.

I am bold enough to believe that we have been made in the image of a Creator and we reflect his creativity.

What I have found however, is some people create a scaffolding across their week that enables the craft of creativity and others don’t.

I am working on a workshop at the moment called this ‘The craft of creativity’ that I am doing this creative workshop with a whole group of radio presenters for a radio station here in Perth and I am sure that some of them will classify themselves as creative and others not.

I have been studying an Australian bird as a part of this workshop. This bird is the ‘Bowerbird’. Here is a classic David Attenborough clip about this bird.

The Bower bird is a collector. The master builder of the animal kingdom.

The bower bird collects and collects and builds a master piece with their nest and lives within this creative inspiration.

bowerbird

What does your week look like?

Do you have a scaffold to your week that creates a space of creative inspiration?

Are you a collector?

A collector of moments, of things, of images, of quotes, of inspirations, of stories, of beautiful memories.

Thats why I love pinterest so much.

It enables me to categorise my moments, of web inspirations into boards of pleasure that inspire me at a later date.

http://pinterest.com/capture30days/boards/

My question is creative pilgrims, how are you creating a scaffold across your week to collect and categorise your creative musings?

If you learn the curious art of creative pilgrimage and also find a way to store these collections you are well on your way to being a master at the craft of creativity.

Till we meet again

Amanda