A Day in the Life of a Creative

Remember the DAY IN THE LIFE series? If memory serves me, that started 1985 or 1986, where professional photographers were asked to go out into their communities, their countries, for a day and truly capture what "A Day in the Life" was like to certain cultures, certain peoples of the world. I have a couple of those books. The result was incredible in terms of the creative pictures that were captured on a certain day in the life of people in Italy, US, China, etc.

So A Day in the Life of a Creative should be surreal and dripping in creativity, right? Well, not every day in the life is filled with ideas coming at you left and right, and you're painting like Van Gogh regularly, or your novel just flows from your pen onto the paper without any hesitation.  It's more like going to your day job, thinking about some ideas for a project at lunchtime, taking 20 minutes at lunch to type a few paragraphs in a Chapter. Coming home to house and family and making supper and something strikes you about the said novel you have still playing in your head.

Creativity can be like the light coming from an open door in a dark hallway, sometimes you remain in the shadows and other times as you allow yourself to get closer and bask in it and are drawn to it, wanting more, and letting its brilliance guide you.

If we were to take pictures of a Day in the Life of a Creative, some would show the mundane struggles we all have I'm sure. Others would attest to the Utopia we all feel when an idea or project is working and  our creative juices are overflowing with such richness we think it will never go away.

I have to say each day I am aware of my potential for creativity.  Some days it is overflowing and can be overwhelming what to do first, I feel I'm not acting upon some ideas quick enough. I can't write my novel fast enough because already I have another idea for another novel that keeps knocking at my door to make its sales pitch to me. Other days I am bogged down with daily chores and worries--the dog needs a bath, I really should clear out the pile of junk mail on the dining room table. Then there's always laundry to be done.

Our creativity is always with us, ready and waiting on us to set it free ... waiting for all the fog to disperse. As we are already in mid-October and fast approaching the holidays, hopefully we can take a few creativity breaks from the everyday Days of our lives.

The Sky's the Limit

For the past decade or more, I've been enamored with vibrant, dramatic skies that seem to be mostly right in my back yard. Although traveling to Tuscany, Italy, this summer the sky appeared to follow me. My husband and I ran outside our Villa so I could soak in the sky with my camera. 

These skies bring me inspiration for whatever creative endeavor I am involved in at the moment.  They are "eye candy" and very meditative. They occur at sunset and there is something majestic about them and how the sun leaves behind for a short time its artwork painted in the sky with brilliant color.

The clouds are saturated with color at times and other times strewn across the sky like pulled cotton candy in pastel pinks and baby blues. The next pictures were taken in 2007 in Philadelphia. That's the thing with being both a photographer and writer, one complements the other. I can use the photographs as an exercise in descriptive writing and to document what I don't want to forget and use later for a writing piece. Or vice versa, from my writing I want to visualize and put into a photograph.

It definitely puts a new twist on picking out faces and animal shapes in the clouds!  

I hope these inspire to take a second look at the sky as it leaves us a signature before saying good night. On that note, I will say good night and HAPPY FALL ... as we have now crossed over into October.