Create with Kim!

1. Isn’t it amazing what we discover when looking toward the forest floor, or outside our normal range of sight? The theme of this trip was look down, down, lower, under. Mike and I were getting leg cramps from squatting to get shots. I have to say he was more patient than I and therefore had clearer images. In this week’s “12 on Tuesday” I will share creative tips and 12 digital captures of mushrooms.

2. Color. Everything looks different with color. Trying to map out a new project. Get away from the keyboard or that dull black-ink-pen and try on some color. Why not use crayons, colored pencils, or Sharpie markers. Make your ideas pop on a page. You might want to start with word clouds or draw a tree, the trunk the central theme and branch out! How about a mandala where your thoughts round thru the directions North, South, East and West?

3. Do you wig out before a presentation? Choose a person to appear in the audience. Often times I choose a close family member, one who knows how intense I can become racing around to get ready the day of an event. Having my daughter at a poetry reading, even sharing part of the event with her to give myself a breather part way thru works wonders.

4. Off the shelf. Grab a book, family photo album, stack of old letters and browse. Set a timer or hour glass and at the end of a specified time (lets say 10 minutes) get up and go back to your creative task. I can break clear thru blocks in this manner. I find it amazing how no matter what I pick up of the shelf leads me down a new road that enriches the original project. It adds something special, unexpected, and often integral.

5. Out of my reach. Feeling inadequate. Frustrated. I have learned to speak up and admit it. I come right out and say –I need more than a sounding board here –I need something from outside — and I do not know what it is? Ultimately, I feel better. I have taken a step outside of my personal turmoil and removed the creative isolation that for the time being had me trapped.

6. Red. Rouge. Blushing. I put myself out there, a new situation, and after a period of elation I feel self-conscious. I need a bit of the shadows to recover. A place to stand back. If this is true for you, recognize it, honor it. Meet with a friend to discuss how an event culminated.  You could also evaluate by blog post, or a post-event press release. You will find yourself being more positive in no time.

7. Climbing the staircase means taking each step as it comes. Start ground level. if a project seems monumental you are shooting too high. Remember to get small, look underneath things, stoop, squat, look at it from differing angles. Your perspective is important and your learning process will help another thru their own arduous path. I promise, just take smaller steps.

8. Strength in numbers. Whatever your creative medium look to community. Recently, a friend started a Public Poetry Potluck to promote the efforts of local writers. We come together in fellowship over food and good coffee and then start off with a featured poet reading, followed by an open mic. Holding the event on a mostly monthly basis we are hoping to establish an interest in poetry with the general public and draw out some new writers.

9. Variety. Concetrating oneself with one meduim, for instance writing free verse, can get stale. Expose yourself to other free verse styles, or even to some rhyming metrical verse. Like this digital image, all the same mushroom yet formed in thier own likeness. Rub up against someone or something else and see what develops. The first time I read Dean Young, I was altered beyond measure.

10. Glare. Falling to pieces, one bite at a time. A horse of a different color. Shine. I have read many mushrooming books, but I don’t trust myself. This might be the type people injest to see visions. Tiny ground critters have been taking bites. My mom was an avid forager and we trusted her to toss findings in soups and salads. All my knowledge gleaned from books instead of from being attentive to an at hand expert have left me with the regret of not listening. Mom has passed on (but not from mushrooms).

11. Going up. As I shared earlier, feel free to start at the bottom and work your way up. Just as I tracked the progress of this shelf fungus, someone will be tracking yours. Every-now-and-then while shopping for Pink Lady Apples at the Marquette Food Co-op someone will stop and comment on an article I have written. Surprised, I am, every-time that a reader had my words stick with them.

12. Smooth mushrooms sporing, this log was thick with mushrooms of differing varieties. The air thick with spores and the stink, Mike and I both worried we might be inhaling something harmful. Novices, we did not know what to think. But the digital captures are forming a story. And we are still dreaming of that fine trip to the west end of the Upper Peninsula. This shot was taken on the North Mirror Lake Trail. Odd, how I keep reflecting back.

Visit www.kimnixon.com for more creative inspiration!