I’m closing out September with one more quote from Conscious Creativity: look, connect, create by British visual artist and actor Philippa Stanton (Leaping Hare Press, 2018). In talking about abstraction, she is speaking in terms not generally applied to the written word, for good reason. But as a writer who also paints on occasion and has learned to love abstract art — okay, some, not all — I think that learning seeing abstractly helps us see connections. And that is what ignites creates new work, whether it be a poem, a dance, a painting, or a song.

“I strongly believe that by involving and connecting yourself to the world around you through abstract form and thought, your mind will become open to seeing much more than words are able to describe. There is so much to look at both inside and outside our minds that can only ever be communicated through image. However, simple expression through image and abstract thought is often undermined or patronized by some who live on words and wit. But emotion can’t always be expressed in a cerebral way and maybe some days an explosion of pink daubs on a blank canvas says it all.”

This month, I’m sharing some wisdom from Conscious Creativity: look, connect, create by British visual artist and actor Philippa Stanton (Leaping Hare Press, 2018).

Atmosphere is a key element in fiction as well as in visual art, music, and other forms. It is found, Stanton tells us, between the images, and in what our readers and viewers bring to the work.

Atmosphere “is full of something we feel, but at the same time absolutely nothing we can see. It is an essence. It is both something and nothing woven into time and place that can only be captured by feeling and suggestion. We ourselves complete an atmosphere. Atmosphere is about what your imagination is allowed to create beyond what you initially see.”

This month, I’m sharing some wisdom from Conscious Creativity: look, connect, create by British visual artist and actor Philippa Stanton (Leaping Hare Press, 2018).

“‘Getting it wrong’ is so often tied up with personal fears, judgements and disappointments that we often wilfully use to justify not moving forwards. The fear of getting it wrong, getting rejected and feeling like a failure, multiple times over, is not something anyone wishes to bring on and embrace, but it is one of the realities of creative progression that we have to accept.”

I’ve been reading Conscious Creativity: look, connect, create by Philippa Stanton (Leaping Hare Press, 2018), a British visual artist whose goal in this book is to spark creativity — whether in visual art, writing, music, or another form — by giving readers ways to experience and capture the everyday differently. So for September, a few quotes from Conscious Creativity.

“There is no definitive way to create your personal working structure as everyone is so different; I work in quite a chaotic, childlike way, for example, even though my fantasy version of me works in a calm, minimalist way. You might be someone who works best with neat and tidy order, but with a fantasy about the excitement of allowing some chaos into your life. Whichever way you lean, allow yourself to lean that way, but always keep your fantasy or idea on your shoulder. Your structure or plan should contain by aspiration and achievability.”