Creativity in Life and Life in Creativity

This month’s Mobile Art Challenge in the Art Journal Emporium took an unexpected turn for me.  Previous challenges have focused on the technical aspects of using a particular app to create a certain look.  I love using apps in unintended ways to break the rules about what we think a photograph or a piece of art ‘should’ look like.  But, this month something different happened.  This month the challenge wasn’t about what we can create with our tools.  It was about how we can create in our life - more specifically in the mindful moments of our life.

I think this is the true beauty of mobile art.  We can be present and create right where we are.  We can share those valuable and precious moments with others from wherever we are.

Here’s a bit of the story and one of the pics I shared this month:

Have you ever driven to work, arrived without incident and realized that you don’t remember anything about the drive?  Yet, somehow, you arrived safely without paying attention to the journey.  I do this all the time. I’m on automatic pilot thinking about a million other things and I let muscle memory drive the car for me.  In the meantime, I’ve had three imaginary arguments (and won all of them).  I’ve worried about my mom, my kid, my dog, the house, and losing my job.  I fantasized about buying that fabulous purse I saw in the store and how marvelous it would look with everything in my wardrobe.  I’ve berated myself for not fitting comfortably into my jeans and I’ve mentally joined Weight Watchers and magically lost 40 pounds.  I thought about my friend, Charla, from high school talking about zipping her pants with a pair of pliers because they were too tight.  And, somehow, I’m in my office ready to work, but I can’t really remember how I got there. What a morning!

How many of us repeat the same journeys day in and day out?  Driving to work.  Walking from the car to the office.  Grocery shopping.  Walking around the neighborhood. Running the weekly errands...

I decided to notice what I noticed and take three pictures on my walk from the parking lot to my office.  This is the first picture I shared from this month’s challenge.

The water droplets on these tree limbs were sparkling like little jewels.

For more information on the Art Journal Emporium visit Art Journal Emporium - Tangie Baxter & CO.

[posted by Kirsten]