Unfortunately, there was an unexpected death in my family that has prohibited me from doing any drawing, writing, or painting in the last 2 weeks.
The problem was - How do I create during a time when I have very little extra time and when I am feeling very sad? The outcome I was looking for were outlets at my fingertips for which I could use sporadic spurts of creativity at will.
I discovered a Smartphone App that made me SWOON during this time. I have a plethora of saved photos of my artwork and miscellaneous other photos on my iPhone and I heard about the Blender photo app. It was $1.99. I downloaded it and it took about 3 minutes to figure out how to use it. It really made me SWOON and it allowed me to use spurts of creative energy during a very tough family time.
The second strategy I used to get through the sorrowful time was to look at my vintage art book collection. I viewed a lot of paintings by Monet because the colors he used make me happy. I cannot resist the endorphin it generates in me. Pretty much, without fail, perusing my art books makes me SWOON.
The final strategy I used to utilize my creative writing juices was to make a daily list of things for which I was grateful. I picked one of the items on the list and wrote a paragraph about the item and how it made me feel. Then whenever I was feeling blue, I went back and re-read them. It proved quite useful as a coping mechanism. Being grateful leads to overall happiness, which is the ultimate SWOON.
Here are 3 favorite results of my 2-week experiment with the Blender Photo app.
Go forth and create.
Peace!
