Something Totally Different
Creativity and “thinking outside the box” moments seem to come when you have lots of restrictions and constraints on you and you’re forced to do something different.
I’ve had so many of these moments throughout my life and I actually love them because they force me off the typical well-traveled path and onto someplace totally unexpected.
Let me give you just one example of this…
Many years ago I moved from Seattle to Los Angeles with basically just one suitcase. The backstory is for another time, it needs lots of explanation. But just roll with me here… So I found this fabulous apartment in a gorgeous neighborhood with lots of other rentals. Second story two bedroom, overlooking trees and withing walking distance of everything. PERFECT!!!
Now the glitch was this was during a period of my life where financially things were grim. Again, a story for another time. I happened to meet my neighbors outside and they were warm and friendly and asked me to come over for dinner on the following Saturday so we could get to know each other.
Awesome… My first friends in a new city. I was so excited. So, coming from the south, the tradition is that when you go to someone’s house for dinner you bring a gift. Okaaaay. Now I was in a quandary because there was absolutely no money left for this gift.
I racked my brain for something that would cost nothing. WHAT? Most people bring wine, but that’s super expensive. So I started thinking about what was free and would be a nice gesture, and the only thing I could think of was to pick flowers that I saw in other people’s yard. That’s a no-no, so let’s move on…
Free….free, what in the world is free? Then it came to me, a really weird idea, and it was so far out there that I was concerned they might think me a total nutcase. And yet, it was free. Now I had only met these neighbors, three of them, two times before so from those short conversations I tried to guess what they each might be like. One was studious and an intellectual, another was someone who LOVED the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. And the third loved the outdoors and trees.
Sooo, I decided that I was going to browse the public library, which is one of my favorite places of all times no matter where I am, find a book that I guessed they might be interested in and check them out. These were going to be their gifts.
Saturday night came around, I went next door to their place and when I got there we all sat down and I told them I had something for each of them….but they could only keep it for two weeks and then they had to give it back to me. Their surprised and inquisitive faces looked at the three gifts I had in my hands and couldn’t wait to see what the surprise was.
One got a book on California trees, one got a book about the untold stories of Hollywood actors, and the other got a book about the universe. Of course I could have been waaaay off base but I was just taking a stab at it. It was so much fun browsing through the library shelves and discovering where all the art books were so I could come back and spend a day combing through them.
I would NEVER have come up with that idea if I had the $20 to go buy a bottle of wine. Thank goodness I didn’t because they thought it was the coolest gift ever. We talked about that night for years to come. What a beautiful memory.
I hope you can embrace those times where you feel restricted and confined and let your mind wander and create tons of ideas you never would have thought of. There are so many things I have invented in my art practice under the same conditions. I’ll tell you about some of those in a future email. Stay tuned….
Love,
Adele
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