Category: Developing Creativity

Also see more posts at The Creative Mind (on the Psych Central site)

Books for the Creative Mind

Books for the Creative Mind

“Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Anyone who reads too much and uses their own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” – Albert Einstein “There is creative reading as well as creative writing.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Here is a brief list of books [...]

Developing Creativity: Resource Links

Developing Creativity: Resource Links

In researching articles for my various sites, I come across many helpful resource sites and articles on creativity research, innovation and developing creativity. Here are a few. Creativity at Work: Developing creativity and innovation in organizations Founder: Linda Naiman – a creativity and innovation consultant. “Our focus is on leadership and team development, creativity, collaboration, [...]

Book suggestions: Creativity and Personal Development

Book suggestions: Creativity and Personal Development

Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity, and Innovation in Your Life by Shelley Carson, PhD Harvard Health Publications. “This provocative book reveals why sitting in front of a light box can increase your creativity more than listening to a Bach concerto as example. The author Shelley H. Carson, a Harvard psychologist, explains [...]

Bryce Dallas Howard and Ron Howard on the inspiration of still photography

Bryce Dallas Howard and Ron Howard on the inspiration of still photography

Project Imagin8ion, was a user-generated photo contest that inspired a Hollywood short film, titled “When You Find Me” – produced by Ron Howard and directed by Bryce Dallas Howard. In collaboration with Canon and the Project Imagin8ion community, they selected winning entries out of 96,000 photos submitted from across the world to inspire the main [...]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on hitRECord and collective creation

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on hitRECord and collective creation

“That’s why we use the Internet and we put these projects that we do online, and anybody can contribute to them. I’m there directing, participating, curating, and editing, and we make things together.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt Well-known as an actor (movies: “Inception,” “50/50″ etc), Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also the founder and director of hitRECord.org, an online [...]

Why We Don’t Create

Why We Don’t Create

“To begin…To begin…How to start? I’m hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think…” – Nicolas Cage as screenwriter ‘Charlie Kaufman’ in the movie “Adaptation,” written by the real Charlie Kaufman, about some of his own creative anxieties. Cynthia Morris is a writer, writing coach, teacher, and speaker. She provides a wide range [...]

Take A Creative Leap

Take A Creative Leap

Cynthia Morris is a teacher, creativity coach and author. She says, “It’s my life’s work to help others navigate their creative journeys.” In her article Ways to Take A Creative Leap, she asks “If you were leaping off from where you are now, what would your Creative Leap look like? It may be taking up [...]

Creative Development: Actively Caress Wonder. Play.

Creative Development: Actively Caress Wonder. Play.

“An artist must actively caress wonder: for fascination, like the desire to play, can be eradicated by the rigors of living.” Eric Maisel “There is a myth, common in American culture, that work and play are entirely separate activities.” That is a quote by Laura Seargeant Richardson, a principal designer at frog design, who “specializes [...]

Creative collaboration

Creative collaboration

The wry and witty TV comedy series “30 Rock” (starring and created by Tina Fey) often features scenes in the writers room for the fictional variety show, “TGS with Tracy Jordan.” Actor Keith Powell (at left in photo) plays the stuffy, Harvard-educated writer James “Toofer” Spurlock. He sat in on the real ”30 Rock” writers room [...]

Developing Creativity: Visual Thinking

Developing Creativity: Visual Thinking

“I may think in pictures, but first I write everything out in words.” Brian Selznick Brian Selznick’s 2007 novel “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” – the basis for the new Martin Scorsese movie “Hugo” – “introduced an innovative strategy for blending words and images, interweaving narrative and picture sequences to tell two sides of a [...]

Developing Creativity In The Zone

Developing Creativity In The Zone

“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” That is a brief description of the state of flow, also called “being in the zone,” as described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced me-high chick-sent-me-high), who says we can [...]

Art Every Day Month

Art Every Day Month

Lessons From Art Every Day Month Life and biz insights from keeping a regular creative practice By Jennifer Lee, Artizen Coaching – The Right-Brain Business Plan and more [From her newsletter] Sure, it may sound melodramatic when I say that doing Art Every Day Month in November 2007 really did change my life, but I do [...]

Perspectives on Developing Creativity: Max Ehrman; Elizabeth Olsen; Julia Cameron

Perspectives on Developing Creativity: Max Ehrman; Elizabeth Olsen; Julia Cameron

Many artists express ideas about developing creativity and innovation that can be helpful to other creative people. Here are a few examples. Max Ehrman From LOVE IS IN THE AEROSOL, Text by Denise Kitt, SOMA magazine. When artist Max Ehrman is not completing privately commissioned works, he is zealously spray painting the walls of start-up [...]

Some Ideas on How To Develop Creativity 11.16.11

Some Ideas on How To Develop Creativity 11.16.11

There are many concepts about how to develop creativity in corporations and individuals, starting at an early age. Here are a few key ideas in excerpts from several sources: Moving at the Speed of Creativity – Creativity is a Decision: Keys to Developing Creativity in Children and Adults By Wesley Fryer. These are my notes [...]

Do We Really Want Passionate and Creative People? Can You Follow Your Passion?

Do We Really Want Passionate and Creative People? Can You Follow Your Passion?

Just find your passion and get to work on creating your art or creative business venture, right? It isn’t always so easy or straightforward. Once they reach a certain level of achievement and acclaim, artists such as Michelangelo – or David Lynch or Lady Gaga – may be more free to be passionate and contrary or [...]

Creative Paths and Influences

Creative Paths and Influences

There is no GPS for the creative life; the pathways we may follow are too winding and the influences and inspirations come from so many places and times. Divergent thinking can even come into play when promoting creative projects. The photo is writer Sherrilyn Kenyon, who has some interesting comments below about influences on her [...]

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