Creativity: Building garden walls is creative, too

I've not been writing/drawing much the past week or so because I've been building a garden wall. I wanted to wait until the temps topped out at 95 before beginning any manual labor so my timing was perfect.  Living a mile closer to the sun means that the sun is uniquely positioned to draw out any moisture from your body, and singe any part of you that is exposed.

I dug, carried bricks, laid them then relaid them because the wall looked a bit askew. I'm still not finished but slowly the wall is taking shape and slowly the garden is coming together.  What was interesting or at least validating was that the more I dug, carried and stacked, the more creative in my thinking I became.  The power of movement, especially walking, allows us to think bigger.

Here's this amazing quote from Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust, "I sat down one spring day to write about walking and stood up again, because a desk is no place to think on the large scale".

It's easy to get caught up in tidying, chores, etc and equate that with efficiency and time well-spent but at the end of the day it's kinda boring and temporary. At least, I'll have my wall for as long as I want it or the dogs knock it over.  And it got me moving in different ways and from all that movement came a reminder to continue being creative.  I wasn't walking but I was moving and creating.

Creativitly stoned

The wall is not aslant, it's the ground

Creativity Week 4 & 5: Perspective and job hunting

Last week, my mom and I headed up to Estes Park for a couple of days. It was a quick trip but any time you get the chance to sleep near a loud and boisterous creek and be close to Rocky Mountain National Park, you take it.  Spring time in the Rockies can range from sweltering heat to snow. We had rain and snow this time and rather than detract from the trip, we had fun tramping through mud and snow. And the views became much more magical and enchanting wreathed in heavy clouds and mist.

I worked on a few pencil drawings while I was there. I am wrestling big time with perspective and I almost have a physical reaction to not being able get it right. I worked on one particular drawing 6 or 7 times and finally got a reasonable approximation but about put my head and hand in slings to do it. And, of course, that's the one I inadvertently tossed as I was organizing my sketch pad. 

I think drawing perspective is a lot like job hunting. You put something out there and you have no idea how things are going to turn out, if you're going to get the result you want. Or maybe you getting nothing back but some awkward smudges.

Here's this week in having perspective on perspective.