Doors


 * Doors **
 * Post from Emily Neal on Monday, April 15, 2013 **

**Join me** **at** **The Old Box House** **May 25th and 26th** **Times to be coordinated by Susan Davis.** **Call me if you want to brainstorm or need more information.** **We will have a slumber party in the Old Box House, my rustic accommodations!** **Bring snacks and your favorite beverage. A light dinner will be served around 6pm.** **We will eat breakfast in Hamilton and view the Ramsey Art Collection. Francis Ramsey (and her husband) owned art galleries in Carmel, California. At one time they were competitors until they fell in love… They delight is sharing their personal collection. This excursion will be our closing activity.**


 * Collective Project:** A DOOR TO CREATIVITY

Old doors abound here in the shed next to The Old Box House. I have begun an installation of these doors as they all seem to have a story to tell. You are invited you to be a part of decorating an old door with messages, poems, totems, and images that speak to the creative process. Let your imagination run wild. **//What could you create to attach to an old door for others to discover in the future? What would you want them to know about you and your thoughts about the creative process?//**

//**Please bring what you think that you will need but know that I have an abundance of items to back up your ideas!**//
 * Materials:** I have beads, other types of “bling”, paper, paint, glue, matt medium, Modge Podge, wire, nails, screws, old metal pieces, bones, rocks, shells, glass, scissors, pliers, hammers…

We will make earrings, bracelets, and create a card with a message to remind us to be wildly creative and to “Run with the Wolves!”
 * Personal Project:** Jewelry and a Message Card


 * Dear Creative Friends, **
 * This is the last of what I plan to write about our gathering at the Old Box House. My hope is that whoever took photos of all of us and our doors will post the photos. I also hope that you will come back to visit soon! I’ll be waiting for you. **
 * Blessings, **
 * Emily **

I bought this book for everyone in order to share the complete artistic philosophy of Kandinsky. The reason that I discovered this book is because of Kandinsky’s influence of Georgia O’Keefe. Basically, I wanted all of us to capture the very essence of creativity through line, color, pattern and words using Kandinsky’s approach.  Ironically, we saw some original Kandinsky artwork at the Ramsey’s gallery. I loved his experiment of free flowing lines sprawled across a paper drawn with four different colored crayons clasped in one hand. It reminded me of the beginning of Zentagles! (The books have finally arrived and I have copies for Jan and Susan. Please e-mail me your addresses and I will mail them to you.) This book jumped into my thoughts because of the joy of preparing for your visit. Gretchen speaks of the joy of preparing and waiting for something to happen being equal to the actual event itself. As I experienced this joy, I wanted to make sure that I told each of you about this book. It has helped me to understand myself better and to be more aware of the truly joyful moments in my life, like our gathering.  I also must mention that I was quite happy to discover the “You are beauty FULL” blessing on my medicine cabinet. Of course I have not moved my little sign and experience such happiness in knowing that it was left just for Bob and me!!! I am reminded of our “Door Decorating.” In thinking about the very essence of creativity, I began to think about a symbol to represent it. I love pictographs and thought of us as creative shamans. What would we paint of a cave wall if we were to leave our symbol behind for others to follow? On page 110 there is a graphic which I think sums up creative thinking. It looks very much like a child’s drawing of the sun with the rays of the sun being arrows that point outward toward the cosmos. I have not found or created a better symbol yet… Holly Ann carried home an article about creativity in business written by Robert Ringer and will pass it around. Ringer made the point that creativity is essential in all business but must be paired with knowledge and critical thinking. The article summed up some common sense points about being creative. If one strives to create, one must know how to implement, and be able to discriminate good ideas from nonviable ones. This delightful art technique has carried my daughter and me through a stem cell transplant. It is calming and beautiful, inspirational and relaxing. I have not explored it to the my satisfaction. My hope is that we might gather to “tangle” in the near future. Another marvelous Zentangle book! My most recent favorite book! The techniques and tips for lettering have brought me a great deal of joy and guidance. Just paging through the book makes me want to write words and messages. My favorite book discovery since we met. This book is on loan to me by a dear friend. It seems to reinforce everything which we discussed about creativity while sitting on the porch of the Old Box House sipping sangria…
 * __Concerning the Spiritual in Art__ by Wassily Kandinsky **
 * The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin **
 * The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander **
 * Robert Ringer (Robert Ringer.com) **
 * Zentangle Basics by Suzanne McNeill, CZT **
 * Zenspirations Dangle Designs by Joanne Fink **
 * Creative Lettering by Jenny Doh **
 * Art as Learning by Richard Erdmann and Christine Drew **

** Reflections @ Our Time Together **

The way to follow your own personal operating instructions is to do whatever makes you happiest. That may sound selfish, but shamans are only happy when helping others. When we’re helping, we’re happy, and when we’re happy, we’re helping. Saving a swathe of Africa, becoming a doctor, writing a book—these are all just byproducts of living in the joy zone. Martha Beck

I hope that you will post your photos of the doors and any other photos that you have.
 * I am so happy that you came to paint doors. A sense of creativity resonates in all of our living spaces! **
 * Joy - Happiness- Adventure - Friendship **

** Doors ** After our “Green Acres” experiment is over there will be a wall of doors left inside a Rusty Old Barn connected to an Old Box House which faces south – southwest. Some of these doors have been waiting for you and me right here in Historic Norse, Texas. Five more doors have been found so that we have creative choices. You are invited to join me to decorate the door of your choice. Your creation will be hung on a wall which leads to the east entry of The Old Box House.



//Caption: There is one workable door is this grouping. On the left, you can see our bee hive bodies. On the right, you can see a door decorated at our 2013 family reunion by the young female second cousins.//

Our focus is to be creative. Please come prepared to leave __your__ message. I will share a creative technique that my daughter, Rose, and I learned during her stem cell transplant and a philosophy about creativity that helped me synthesize my own creative thoughts.

The materials available are: magazines, art paper, watercolors, acrylic paints, art stamps including several sizes of letter stamps, small paint brushes, glue, matt medium, modge- podge, beads, wire, nails, screws, interesting metal pieces, fabric, old neckties, bottle caps, wine corks, small pieces of wood, barbed wire wreaths … My husband, Bob, and I will be available to help you. If you have something specific in mind, please bring what you need to implement your plan. //Photos of __some__ of the doors-//

Here is a[| link to Barbara's pictures] from our weekend of creativity.

media type="custom" key="24554598" See more of Susan's pictures in her Flickr set: Creativity Mavens Road Trip.