Creativity

"Several years ago, Teresa Amabile, researcher and professor at the Harvard Business School, completed a study which led to "The Six Myths of Creativity." She studied all of the usual motivators, time pressure, fear, competition, money, born creative and discovered, "folks get creatively engaged when they have a sense of playful progress.  "People are most creative when they care about their work and they're stretching their skills," she says. And it happens over a period of time--one day to the next in a cooperative environment can produce more creativity than the hot expectation of a bonus."  Quoted from Robert Genn-twice weekly newsletter.

Case in point, playing with acrylic ink.  The crows, a few posts back, came from playing with ink and dropper.  Not knowing how the product would work, I let the ink and dropper lead the way.  I used the dropper as a pen or brush,  added water and other colors and found I liked what was happening.  Recently, I was playing again using images of my cat and daughters dog Lola.   Lola, and Yang, my meditating cat, became subjects for small paintings.  I also painted Yang in a more traditional way with tube acrylics, but that will be next time.

Let sleeping cats lie

Lola the Havanese, my pal

Yang meditating

Quiet kitty

Dogs & Cats

I don't consider painting animals my forte, but when my daughter Heather got her cute Havanese, I was off and running.  Since then, it is fun to let go and paint these animals, sometimes tongue in cheek, as in the blue and yellow Homer, another family pet.  Sometimes, emotions cause the painting to happen, as in the case of our beautiful Himalayan cat Yin.  She kept losing weight and telling us something was wrong.  We finally got the message and discovered she has diabetes.  She now lets us know when it is time for her twice daily shot of insulin.  I painted her sitting on our bed snuggled up against a blue pillow.

Teds sister Lynne has a beautiful Ragdoll cat that likes to curl up in a basket in the kitchen, she also in this gallery.   I forgot to mention Whidbey, Ron Kasprisins' Lab.