Monday, January 3, 2011

Creativity and House Elves

I'm posting a link to a talk by Elizabeth Gilbert that is fascinating.  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html  For those of you who aren't familiar with her she wrote the book Eat, Pray Love and talks about the worry that many of us face that we may have already peaked in our artistic lives and may not have another creative thought that is worth sharing with the world.  She also delves into the idea of "Where Creativity Comes From"?  I have certainly been asked on many an occasion where did my inspiration come from and rarely do I have an answer, sometimes in the shower.  LOL.  Sometimes in the middle of the night and can be fleeting and if I don't write the idea down immediately can be gone forever.  That is certainly frustrating.   Elizabeth thinks that we have little elves similar to the house elves in Harry Potter who are responsible for our creativity and if something fails then it it their fault.  That is a fairly simplified version of her conversation but a part that appealed to me.  So if a pattern or a project fails to sell well it may not be my fault and instead is my creativity elves fault.  That certainly takes the pressure off of me to be "creative" all the time.  LOL.  I thought that her talk was entertaining and wonderfully insightful and can see why she is on the best seller list as well as having Julia Roberts portray her.  It could certainly bring about an interesting discussion.  I don't see Julia Roberts jumping up to portray my creative life.  I wonder why not?  LOL. 

1 comment:

  1. Hi Christy,

    In love the idea of creative elves, not sure where mine are, in hiding I assume,. But I love your ideas, paintings, they bring smiles to my face always, They are so light, and fun. Hope your elves keep smiling at you as you create.

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