get country-fied

For the next three months, we are going to be “filling the well” which simply means we will be acting as hunters/gatherers of new inspiration, new material, new thoughts and ideas. It’s a time of collection, a time to gather pieces without knowing how they will yet be used.

Give yourself permission over the next three months of the New Year to gather, collect, explore, research, play and examine things that have absolutely nothing to do with your current project!!!!

One of the things we do as artists is get so completely focused on a particular work and then when that piece is done, we suffer through a period of stagnation or drained numbness until the next inspiration comes. I wonder if there’s a way to build in a buffer from that wipe out time by constantly filling the well with UNRELATED NEW MATERIAL as you’re working.

So this month, let’s focus on becoming mini-experts on a specific country. Let’s examine the languages, history, food, culture, architecture, people and places within your chosen country in order to broaden our horizons as artists and as world members.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Pick a country you know very little about and that YOU ARE NOT CURRENTLY USING in one of your pieces.

Okay, okay, if these exercises will be very helpful for your current work, I’ll overlook that rule but just do me a favor - if you're going to use these for a current piece, go ahead and do the same exercises at the same time for a SECOND country that is NOT connected to that work. It will take an extra couple of minutes but it will be worth it down the road when you're twiddling thumbs between projects!

Try to pick a country that you’ve never visited but you’ve always wondered about. Maybe a country that no longer exists? Maybe open a world map, close your fingers and point?

All you have to do today is pick your country and find it on a map. Check out its physical relationship to the world. What are its borders? Small or large? Tucked between superpowers or drifting alone in the ocean?

What are the things you think you know about this country? What have you heard about it? Write everything down.