Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Ok, so Shane and I were just discussing a video montage that I did and we got to talking about creativity in general. Question for you all...are you creative? Have you always been creative? How do you express your creativity?

I'm personally always creating stuff, whether it's writing poetry or composing stuff like that video collage thing (it's here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekPfP5FlGRw) or composing music (don't really do that much anymore). I've always been that way for as far back as I remember. I remember being 8 and 9 and writing my thoughts down on paper. I have books and books and books full of stuff like that.

How important is creativity to you? For me, it is necessary, it isn't a "nice-to-do" thing or something I dabble in. When I create, I do it because it's like a force inside of me that needs to come out. I think creative people understand where I'm coming from.

Anyway, your thoughts?

I am writing my story of the last two years - I hope it will be interesting to people once it is done and I guess it can be considered creative. I have finished chapter one of an expected nine chapters - it will be a while before it is unvailed.

And of course I am getting creative at work - The part I enjoy most about my job is when I get creative with my code.

Alice

I've always been creative.  I've played and performed professionally and I'm now in amateur groups.  I enjoy writing fiction and non fiction.  I love to write poetry although I'm not one to read much of it.  I love to spend time in my shop designing and building things.

I'm always searching for something new to tackle.  I get somewhat proficient and then leave it for something else.  I rarely get really good at something because I get bored with it and move on to something else.

Cindi

I am a fairly prolific writer, though I have yet to get a story published.  I submit a couple stories per year to the Writers of the Future competition and I often quarter-final.  I, too, am working on a book about my transition.  The title is the same as my blog - You Can't Shave in a Minimart Bathroom.

Chaunte

I like to play guitar, although I can only play super simple barre chords. I also like doing experimental sound collage stuff with keyboards. I can't actually play the thing though, it's something about the way that you position your fingers on the keyboard that kills my hands.

Hi,

   I am creative.  I can express myself quite well through writing when the desire is there.  I've been unproductive lately but I expect it to turn around.

   I was not creative as a child, though I was imaginative.  It wasn't until I was 15 or 16 that I began expressing myself.

   Besides the writing, I have developed a sense of humor which I feel is very creative.  Someday, I'm hoping to do something useful with it.


   I'd like to make a note that I've never believed anyone who said that any of my work is good.   Not because I don't think the work is good, but rather that I suspect people are just trying to be nice.  I don't think what I do works for others so much as it does for me.  Even if I feel it's inferior in some way, I can always see it the way it is supposed to be.



Rebis

I do some drawing , but it's sporadic, very on and off thing, mostly childish scribbles, but it keeps me amused at times {^_^}
I have to ask why computer art is not counted ?

Quote from: dawn on March 19, 2008, 07:25:05 PM
I have to ask why computer art is not counted ?

Oh no! It's a typo, it should be that it DOES count! Let me change that! Thanks Dawn

lol,kk. i was wondering about that, seemed quite odd :D

I tend to create in all directions, all sorts of things, I like the process. My writing is what I probably do most, I've written a novel and some stories and stuff. I've not published (yet?) but hope to be. I also mess around with videos and paint and food and I attempt a sense of humour.

Oh yeah and I got a website and a 'shop' selling androgyne designs like the one in my sig.

And I'd like to do music but need to up my sound card.

I have been watching the numbers slowly grow on this poll.  I think the writing is a catharsis for the soul -  a chance to release what we feel deep inside. 

And music?  Music allows for emotions to be expressed that are too powerful, too deep for words alone.  Music lifts the soul to a higher plain.

Chaunte

I'm not a creative person


Thanks Meghan, making me feel good about my creativity

:)  jkjk

QuoteI think the writing is a catharsis for the soul -  a chance to release what we feel deep inside.

A picture captures a thousand words......  just teasing sinces i cant write good :P (sic)

I write, I program, I draw and design art/websites!  I'm all over the place, except for music.

Music has been my primary creative outlet since I was a kid, it's a place where I could express what was otherwise inexpressible in words. I'm sure I would've gone nuts without it. I've been fortunate to make a living from it. I also love to write; poetry, prose, essays, song lyrics...

Z

a picture may paint a thousand words, but a thousand words may paint many a picture

Quote from: Rebis on March 19, 2008, 07:22:06 PM
I'd like to make a note that I've never believed anyone who said that any of my work is good.   Not because I don't think the work is good, but rather that I suspect people are just trying to be nice.  I don't think what I do works for others so much as it does for me.  Even if I feel it's inferior in some way, I can always see it the way it is supposed to be.

Someday, you will learn to take a compliment.  Instead of being really introspective and critical of your own work, it's nice to open up and relish the fact that perhaps someone really has enjoyed or benefited from something you have written.

Cindi

Thank you, Cindi.  You're quite kind.  How did you get mixed up with this lot?   :laugh:

I think that I am creative, or I have am eye or somethng, I say this because Itake the most wonderfull photographs (from behind the lens). One day I may share my pictures with my friends here at susans. ::)

Where is the "a little bit of everything" option?

I paint, draw, computer art, 3d modeling, banjo, piano, tell stories, GM for RPG's, design the graphics of computer programs, dance, sing, act...

Most of those I'm not very good at, mostly because I dabble in EVERYTHING, but I don't think I could single one out either. I can't do any of them professionally besides the user interfaces on programs. Most I can't even do in an amature capacity except for telling stories, GM, and acting (although I have sang in choirs before, but only community choir). But I have at least a bit of creativity in all of them.

i like to draw n paint n stuff. i like designing things and building them too. my favorite thing is to take something imaginary and make it real.:)

myself i like to paint pic,s useing different art app,s. and such  i also enjoy writing. and so forth  :)

I'd like to make a note that I've never believed anyone who said that any of my work is good.   Not because I don't think the work is good, but rather that I suspect people are just trying to be nice.  I don't think what I do works for others so much as it does for me.  Even if I feel it's inferior in some way, I can always see it the way it is supposed to be.

Be careful, that almost makes you a real artist.  Long ago I found out that if I wanted to say anything to the band after the show, I should phrase it as an "I" statement, not a "You" statement.  So "I really liked the way you played Pop Goes the Weasel tonight" was always better than "Wow, you were awesome tonight"  Most real musicians walk off stage not thinking, "Gee I was swell" but thinking "In the third song on the second verse, I played an Aaug7 and not the Adim7"  A difference no one else (other than his band mates) noticed.

Quote from: beth06 on March 20, 2008, 08:19:19 PM
my favorite thing is to take something imaginary and make it real.:)

Hey, that's easy, you just multiply by the square root of negative one. :P (Of course, if it's partly real and partly imaginary, it's a little more complicated.)

Quote from: tekla on March 21, 2008, 08:03:15 AMMost real musicians walk off stage not thinking, "Gee I was swell" but thinking "In the third song on the second verse, I played an Aaug7 and not the Adim7"  A difference no one else (other than his band mates) noticed.

Now in classical music, people notice every mistake. Classical training can be a curse. You walk off the stage thinking "dammit, I flubbed the articulation a couple of the 16th note passages in the fast movement," and many people in the audience are thinking the same damn thing. (But even then, nobody ever cares nearly as much as the performer.)

Well, to be sure its a lot easier to notice the mistakes in a classical concert.  Debussy said that music is not the notes, but the spaces between them - something few, if any, rock band ever get is spaces between the notes.  At the level we insist on limiting them to in our venues (A puny 110 dbs, C Weighted - which means at the BACK of the room*) its hard to hear anything other than the din.  I think people going to classical music are more aware of the nuances in the score too, and many play some instrument at some level - which also changes the deal. 

I work with two symphonies, one world class, the other, a part-time local/regional deal.  I can hear the difference between them in a second and a half.



*db is a measurement of sound pressure.  Like the Richter Scale, its based on exponential math, so 80 db is 100% louder than 70db.  For reference, a jet airplane taking off directly over your head is about a 90db, so @110db we're talking 200% louder than that in rock shows- and, at that, bands get mad when we tell them to turn it down to that.  The loudest I've ever measured was 117db, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails.

Quote from: tekla on March 21, 2008, 09:10:40 AMDebussy said that music is not the notes, but the spaces between them

Huh. I always thought that was Miles Davis.

He might well have said it too.  No metal band would ever say it however.

Quote from: Alyssa M. on March 21, 2008, 09:55:33 AM

Quote from: tekla on March 21, 2008, 09:10:40 AMDebussy said that music is not the notes, but the spaces between them

Huh. I always thought that was Miles Davis.

Both are great examples of doing just that.

Z

I'd take Miles over Claude anyday.  Debussy was too derivative for my taste, but Miles was a giant.  But I'm more a cool jazz and counterpoint classical type person.

Tekla,

      You should have asked Reznor to keep it down.  The audience is trying to listen.   :laugh:


I have some kind of attraction for space between the notes.  I'd marry one, if possible.

Oh it took me, the production mgr, and the house mgr and the threat of turning off the power at the source to get them to peel it back to 110.  It still seemed plenty loud to me.  And I'm far more than half deaf.

I hope this isn't  a dead topic or anything, but you seriously needed an "All of the above" choice.

I write, paint, shoot photographs, sing, play guitar, act, and write some seriously good software too.

I'm not a creative person

I selected Music, as that's where most of my creative energy is focussed right now. But I write and draw (colored pencils and pastels), too.

Maybe Sarah Dreams can give one of her talents to Jay.   :)

I design web sites, do some basic Photoshop work, and play with typesetting for desktop publishing.  I like writing elegant code (esp. in Python).  I also write short stories and D&D adventures with way too much backstory.

Quote from: Rebis on October 05, 2008, 07:34:44 PM

Maybe Sarah Dreams can give one of her talents to Jay.   :)

Sorry, I need all my talents. ;) Besides, I have found no one to be truly talentless.

Creativity? My whole life! Most of my professional life has been as a designer, engineering things that others build, from itty-bity to HUGE (like bigger than city blocks). In my off-time, I still design and build, in wood or steel or electrons, taking a thought and making it a functional reality.

I have also played music, sang, done weekly cartoon strips, video productions, written (both fiction and non-fiction), photography (from sheet film to wet-plate), home renovations ... and I am sure more would come to me if I thought about it.

Creativity is my life's blood - if I lost it I would die.

I have the ability to be creative but not the manual dexterity or the desire. For example Im horrible at art but its not because i can't visualize I can visualize things very well but I can't draw a staright line with a ruler to save my ass and I still can't even color in the lines  :P. As for writing I can write a novel in my head but I dislike writing and never do it for fun. Mostly my creativity came out in RPGs which i have always loved to do.

I used to write, a lot more than I do now. Fiction (short stories mainly), but most ended up being rather... dark. A few poems, but I'm most definitely no poet. Plus, most of my work went AWOL when the hard drive I kept them on died, and then the website I had put them on also died.

I don't really have either the inspiration or the motivation to write anymore.

[She most definitely is a poet.  I printed out some of her stuff, it was so good. :icon_yes: ]

I draw.  I used to draw a lot more, but I kind of fell out of practice.  There was one year where I drew a whole lot, and was actually proud of some of it.. but.. between high school getting harder, and then college, and a general lack of the kinds of intense, depressing emotions that always inspired me.. I don't really draw much anymore.  Not with the same kind of fervor and emotion.

Music....

I'll go with visual arts (traditional drawing, with pens and paper, semi-realistic, mostly portraits and fantasy, in colour) although I'm very 50/50 with both that and writing. For my writing it's mostly poetry but also short stories and novels. So those are both my main medias. However, I tend to switch between them and for the past few months it's been more drawing, so that's why I voted that.

But I also do other creative stuff. Like knitting, crocheting, embroidery, sewing my own clothes and remaking old clothes. And occasionally some various forms of crafting like making storage boxes, sculpting (with clay and wood), some jewellery making, and the probably most appreciated form of creativity in this society: thinking outside of the box to tackle problem solving and giving good advice.

Also the oddest artform I do more than occasionally is... making fake dreadlocks for putting in your hair. I make them from synthetic braiding hair by back-combing and crocheting and then sealing them with steam. They're worn by braiding them into small sections of your hair, or braided into a wig. I've only made them for myself so far, but I could probably make money from selling such, if I'd want to. Cause I've done quite many over the years, so had lots of practice and gotten quite good at it. But there's not exactly a big market for such... things.

Creativity is my one strength in life and I've dabbled in pretty much all forms of it, except I'm very bad at making music. I just have zero talent and barely any patience for it. Oh and also I'm not at all interested in making digital art in any form. I just hate working digitally, with the exception of writing.

But whenever I come across a new artform I haven't tried yet, I just gotta try it. I've yet to try more expensive, heavy duty crafting like smithing and working with metal, leather, glass, etc, and I ache for it! Especially cause I really like medieval fashion and weaponry. One day I'm sure I'll try that too though.

I just thought I'd write up a whole bunch of various artforms, in case it could inspire anyone or something. Cause there wasn't a lot of options in the list... even though there's really a lot of variety to it and a lot of it is so much fun!