The Pursuit of Creative Happiness: Failure is Sweet.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Failure is Sweet.

I love experimenting. I make cookies and banana bread without measuring anything. Sometimes everything goes to you-know-where in a you-know-what-kind-of-basket. But... once in awhile, things go great. And I don't have to thank Betty Crocker for the help.

Same thing goes with crafting.

I took a lampshade I found at a thrift store and cut triangles out of it. Then I covered it with tissue paper. Then I put it on a lamp. After about ten minutes I threw it on the closet shelf and replaced the old, attractive, Urban Outfitters Clearance lampshade. Let's be honest, the one I made was pretty darn ugly. But you know what? I'm so glad I got my hands covered with glue and went through the creative process. I think I'd rather waste my time doing something than never doing anything at all.

1 comment:

Margaret said...: I love it; March 3, 2009 at 3:29 PM

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Thoreau, the Dreamers, and Me.

Welcome to the supplemental blog I have dubbed "(Colorful) Life, (Poetic) Liberty, and the Pursuit of (Creative) Happiness".

Here's where I begin. I got on an artsy-fartsy kick my sophomore year of college. I added an art minor and feverishly began taking art classes alongside my Intercultural Studies major. When I was an RA my junior year, my creativity exploded (maybe even vomited) color and a child-like spirit on the floor I lived on. My floor was called "Base!" because I wanted the girls there to feel like they were in a "safety zone" where they could return to a quasi-childlike state of being in the midst of a college campus. I think it worked. I had a rowdy bunch, but it was an incredible year where most of the girls seemed to feel freed by the environment they were a part of. It was this year that I recognized that I have the ability, through art and design, to change a place, and even a community's state-of-mind.

I graduated in 2008, although I wasn't able to complete the art minor. It didn't really matter, though. Since my junior year I've become somewhat of a paper pack rat, a collaging criminal, a decorating devil- use your own alliteration (mine wasn't very good anyway, but you get the idea). If I could, I would probably live at the Goodwill Outlet. I seldom can justify buying anything full price (unless it's Tom's Shoes). Ever since high school when my friend left a quote by Thoreau on my windshield it's been my mantra (of sorts): "Our lives are frittered away by detail- Simplify! Simplify!" The projects that I work on are inexpensive, and they often incorporate things I find in thrift stores, acquire from others, or already have. Often times, I'm not afraid to tear things apart and put them back together- even what I'm working on turns out to look disgusting the creative process was AWESOME and it certainly didn't break the bank.

This brings me to the purpose of this (additional) blog. I'd like to show off my finds and acquisitions, my creations and alterations. I hope that this blog can aid me in my own creative process, as well as the creative processes of others. I hope people read this and decide give away a bag of junk to the Goodwill, to venture into a Goodwill for the first time. Perhaps this blog will bring to light new possibilities in a simple sheet of paper or some packing popcorn. Maybe my blog will help someone to find a healthy balance between giving up and hanging on to things (there is a very delicate balance). I hope you, the reader, will see trash turned into treasure before your very eyes. Most of all, I hope you will be content with everything you've been given. Thank you for reading my blog.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Failure is Sweet.

1 comment:

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Thoreau, the Dreamers, and Me.

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