WCT2012 #5 - Making A Mess

[Dan James]

Welcome to the new Weekly Creativity Thread.

This week, a change of pace to look at the great joy of making a mess! 

But making a mess isn't always something we have completely positive associations with. So this week's three questions are to explore your thoughts and experiences on, well, making a mess. 

1. How often do you just let go, create freely, and inevitably make a mess? (It doesn't have to be a literal, physical mess, with paint and glue everywhere. If your main creative outlets are writing, or digital images, or gardening, or sketching, think about what the equivalent to this might be.)

2. What's the best thing about making a mess? How has it led to new avenues and breakthroughs in the past that you wouldn't have found if your work was always tightly controlled?

3. What stops you from making a mess more often?

Look forward to hearing your views. Feel free to share pictures of messes too! (That's not me in the photo above).

Dan

[image credit: Robert S Donovan]

[Claude Aimee Villeneuve]

Just went to look at your photos, Dan. You are a really good photographer! Great sense of composition and sense of drama and a great eye. Keep it up. Your photos are as if you were a stage director, always on the lookout for the best possible backdrop for his next stage production... maybe it has to do with the fact that you are a writer? Anyway, whatever it is, you have it, Dan! And good for you that you didn't let the peanut gallery dictate what photos you take!

[Dan James]

Thanks Claude Aimee, I really appreciate your comments. I'm certainly feeling I've evolved to a new level, and am pleased that photography has risen from something I kind of dabble in occasionally to being a prominent, regular art form for me, second only to writing. Or maybe I should say it's alongside writing.

I like the stage director take! Especially the "on the lookout" part. One of my "unwritten rules" for photographing in nature is to capture only what I find, not to ever (re)move or rearrange anything to make a potentially better photograph. It's about finding the scenes already set, not creating my own. : )

[Anne Westlund]

My desk, well it's really a card table I set up, has on it my to-do list, the books I'm reading and writing folders with projects in them.  It's always a mess.  The rest of my room and my computer area is pretty mess-free.  When I do creating besides writing, I spread everything out and sometimes make a mess.  What holds me back from mess-making is knowing I'll have to clean it up and living with other people, so I can't get too outrageous. 

When the weather gets warmer I'll create out in the garage where I'll have more freedom to make a mess.  I can't wait!  One thing that always ends up on the floor is those little white dots that come from punching holes in the sides of paper, 3-hole punch.  I don't fight that.  I'm really very organized, like Susan.

[Dan James]

Interesting how you work with a fairly contained mess. I too am pretty organised, but there's always a stack of scraps of paper on my desk, notes and ideas I've jotted down mostly at my dayjob, then bring home to transfer to a text file on my computer. But they don't always make it there! Periodically I go through the stack and keep the best stuff, sometimes I just get fed up with the untidyness, throw the whole lot out and start with a clean desk again.

[Anne Westlund]

Here's what my desk (really a card table) looks like at any given moment.  Hint:  It's a mess!

[Dan James]

I love seeing pictures of artist's workspaces. What's the object towards the top that's pink and floral and white around the edge, with a metal wire stand? And what's the dark square object right at the top?

[Anne Westlund]

The dark square object is the bottom of a lamp, you can see the on/off buttons there.  The pink floral thingy is an MP3 speaker with my own picture on it. http://www.zazzle.com/foxglove_speaker-166778488495386668  I got mine on sale for about $15.

I got a Zazzle account just for fun and soon after I made stuff with the Lifelines poetry anthology cover.  I have a mouse pad and a mug with the cover on. 

[Dan James]

Do you mean you designed the floral pattern on the speaker? And then sell it with that design on to others, and take a commission? 

[Anne Westlund]

I uploaded the flower photo that I took and positioned it on the speaker (designed it).  Yes, I can sell this stuff to others and have sold some of the Lifelines stuff.  No, I haven't made much money on it yet.  It was just a fun thing to do.  I gave out a t-shirt and magnet at my Lifelines book party with the cover of the book on them.

[Dan James]

Brilliant - what a great way to have an influence on the design of products! 

[donna]

I cannot create in an orderly place. It is in the chaos of things I have my best visions and inspiration. Objects in odd places, pictures scattered about on top of loose ribbons and bling dots just get the mind ticking. Oh, a trip to the local "junk store" sets the mind on fire of possiblities because nothing is placed as it should thus lending other unthought of possibilities and what if sorts of think just bloom. It is something my family and friends do not understand but there is method in my maddness and they never complain about the results. They just shut the door or care not to go on a flea market or junk store creative idea session. It works out better, I can spend hours thinking with out interuption which often stops the process. So I confess to being a mess, but there truly is some organization in the chaos if one cares to ask. Oh, but let me clarify, it is not a dirty mess just chaotic.