The Creative Instinct

Imagine you are preparing for a 100 mile walk along the most beautiful, awe inspiring of routes - mountains, lakes, coastline - it’s all there for you. Then something really weird happens. With an almost total lack of awareness you do the following:

Make holes in your socks so you get blisters
Drop pebbles in your walking […]

There’s a brilliant confessional about Creative Paralysis over at John Hobson Photography. John gives a compelling account of the way he became becalmed on arriving home after travelling the world for a year.
Loss of direction, self doubt, stress, to-do list overwhelm, self-image confusion - it’s all there, and it’s amazing how quickly we can sink […]

In my previous post I talked about the way that unfettered ‘butterfly’ creativity can impede your growth and success. If you want to develop your creative muscles and give yourself the best chance of getting noticed you need something else, something more. This is what I call Courageous Creativity.
Courageous creativity is about maintaining your focus […]

butterfly - those gorgeous flashing wings that flit from beautiful flower to beautiful flower - the constant heady sipping if nectar and the basking in the warm sun with wings ablaze for all to see.

This weekend I went to the brilliant Open Up Sheffield event where artists’ studios from around the city are thrown open to the public. I had a wonderful time chatting to a variety of painters, sculptors, silversmiths, ceramicists and craftspeople, and seeing a mind boggling amount of very high quality work.
Now had I been a […]