Affectionately Yours

Here's the frontage of a Credit Union I did for Valentine's Day. Strangely enough, the red I used exactly matched the red color of their newly installed ATM before it was there! So being decorated went nicely with their image that month.
Most people wouldn't imagine that a Credit Union would celebrate Valentine's Day. But Hawaii is different. Because of the (legislated!) spirit of Aloha here in Hawaii, people are really into affectionate displays. After all, even guys wear flowers in Hawaii on their shirts, not just women in flowered dresses. You can give flowers to a guy if you're a woman and the guy won't necessarily assume it's an intimate communication, but just a beautiful sharing of what's in your garden that you'd have as a gift.

If you'd like to see the details of the doily and hearts, you can click on the picture and see a larger version.

Creativity

Logic says, "the only time another way is necessary to seek out is when current ways are blocked." I know ways to be more creative. Creative ways are "unexploited alternatives," usually in addition to "tradition." So a creative person looks for alternatives, even when there already exists serviceable answers.

I found that formally studying thinking skills has been the most useful to me in developing the ability to communicate my creative abilities...and to invite them to happen with others. There are more thinking skills than mere "Critical Thinking." (There's Parallel, Lateral, Strategic and Design thinking, off the top of my head.)

Many people are defensive about creative ideas - they "defend" against them when the ideas come from other people. Some people, strangely enough, defend against new ideas when they come from themselves! Just because someone hasn't thought of it, doesn't mean a better way of doing things or a new invention is not there waiting to be discovered. One of the ways to present a creative idea: Present the idea in a way so that the people you're trying to convince imagine the new idea is THEIR idea...

Remember, when a creative idea arrives, it's usually funny - laughable funny!

What might make you more creative is noting moments when you could have an alternative that hasn't occurred to you yet. To get that block out a period of time to wonder about it while you do something else. My name for this is "Productive Procrastinating."

Our tolerance for unknowns and feeling ambiguity is a BIG factor in our ability to be creative!

My favorite blog about thinking skills is: Thinkibility.com  Check it out! 

Also as a treat, I'd like to tell everyone the most creatively useful book I ever read on the subject of creativity. It was written by a photography professor. It's titled "Playful Perception - Choosing How to Experience Your World." By Herbert L Leff, Ph.d. (Waterfront books)

Turns out that the little exercises in this book apply to changing your attitudes and ability to see new possibilities toward any purpose you'd like to consider.  (In addition to it's purpose of being better photographer.)  This is another skill creative people use. They can take the lessons of one field and apply it to another field...that seems totally unrelated.

What do you know about that you can apply to another field?
What's your tolerance level for unpredictability and things that are yet to be decided or full-grown?
What creative thing have you already done that you're proud of having done?