A creative spark often comes from places that you don’t actively participate in, but that you see and appreciate. Like at a fair.
It’s easy as a spectator.
Like watching dance. Or theater.
And when I was 5, it was a tall man on stilts at the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus. My family won 4 free tickets to the show. I was barely old enough to remember.
But I do vividly remember the lights, colors, and a show that was like nothing I’d ever seen before in show creativity.
Then years later came Cirque du Soleil. I saw “O” around my post-college years. It was future-proof original.
And alive and kicking today, there’s still nothing like the international traveling show. It’s in a league of its own. With characters in opera-esque costume designs doing Olympic stunts.
And The Spark is by far one of the most inspirational creativity books I’ve read. It’s all about the behind-the-scenes Cirque creative wizardry, executed at the highest level in my opinion.
They gotta dazzle and keep it practical safe too. Maybe one day they’ll add in robots as characters… just sayin’! 😊
But no matter what, it’s always a plus when the human audience (you and me) feel something.
Because then new ideas spark.
Inspiration comes from feeling ignited, and then you can manifest ideas in your daily life.
That’s a goal of creativity. Coming up with ideas inside you that inspire.
And an idea you can spark in yourself today.
…Where maybe you make dreams visible again in your life that may have gotten buried?
Connect your dots, of dreams to reality.
Feel, get inspiration, grow ideas, and manifest creativity.
It was done by the creators of Cirque du Soleil.
And Leonardo’s Da Vinci’s Vitruvius Man inspired the wheel character.
A wheel is a metaphor for completeness. It’s also a metaphor for getting to places.
So you can use those imaginary images to make your dreams come alive. And spark ideas.
Another character is Quidam… inspired by surrealist, Rene Magritte’s Charlie Chaplin headless characters holding umbrellas scattered in a repetitive pattern in the sky.
Magritte also used thick white dreamy clouds in his paintings to stir up imagination and wonder. Or a painting of a painting on an easel of an open window that blended with the outdoor landscape, giving a same-distance illusion (trompe l’oeil).
You don’t need to see a magic show to be amazed.
Creativity is happening all around us when we look.
That gets us inspired and our wheels turning.
Sometimes creativity can bring in far-out surreal elements (what’s not real and blend with the real).
And this is how real life is…
We have our own perceptions that can be off-color, but is our reality.
And we go about life with our perspectives.
Some factual and some not.
Doing the best we can with what we have presented to us.
Letting our imagination fill in the gaps.
And memory experiences to re-purpose ideas (like fashion trends where what’s old is new again).
Where the current times have changed, so the context and setting is different. So it’s a new idea.
And re-inventing is creative.
It’s our secret happy place.
You can re-invent anywhere.
Sitting on a yoga mat. Or climbing up a tree house. Relaxing in a bath tub. Or laying down on our magic carpet in our reading nook.
Before you know it, you can come up with ideas that are entirely new revelations to you… and maybe help the world in a unique way that no one else can.
It’s better to imagine and create than to follow because then you can freely use your one and only heart and feelings, and make stronger contact with yourself. And the world.
You find your purpose.
Where you lead.
And that can immerse from creativity and passion work (that’s love in work terms).
That’s what most the performers in Cirque du Soleil discovered.
And the most beautiful part is that the story is not about the death defying acts… it’s about developing character.
And the real characters behind the acting-performing characters.
That’s what our lives are about. Finding and being our best selves in the world.
Even if today you have a boring desk job.
Or lowly under-appreciated work.
That helps build character.
You go through to get to.
Let go of the old that’s temporary and changeable.
Pivoting is permanent.
Using your creative talents in your work is an example of the best of both worlds, where you give and receive.
And if you’re not happy with what you’re doing today, now is your best time to make a change no matter your situation.
There will never be a better time (because right now is all we’re promised). And time is your biggest asset.
If you don’t know what your creative story future is or will be, you don’t have a vision, or are waiting for your clues to unfold, let me encourage you here…
I’ve gotten only one real vision in my life.
And it wasn’t from a vision board or a dream I had.
It was a spiritual one that I didn’t orchestrate.
…I didn’t even agree to participate in.
But I trusted that the higher Universe knows and knew better than me.
And it changed the trajectory of my entire life. It uprooted me, my work, my relationships, and how I saw life from then on.
And then life got quiet and went on.
Like all of us, I’m taking one step in front of the other without knowing what’s next.
So I remember my past for clues.
I grew up around creative art influences.
Like art museums, fabric stores, art supply stores, art class at school, library books, and magazines that were often my creative inspirations.
And I loved making art, anytime.
In school I made stained glass art nouveau inspiration pieces made from tissue paper and construction paper.
And paper mache masks from plastic milk gallon jars. I even made a clay pot that got fired up in the kiln.
…And as I remember, mine never came out of the kiln.
And like getting lost in the fire, none of my school artwork from the past was saved.
…Except a fiction story book I wrote. Where I made a book cover out of cardboard and polka-dotted wallpaper (…where did that come from?) that I special red duct tape bound together.
I learned to be resourceful. And I used my color pencils to illustrate how the rainbow came about. And completed my work with my author page written in black marker.
…How cute to have a second grader autobiography when you’ve not even been around 10 years. 😊
But that special inspiration piece came full-circle to landing back to my writing decades later.
Somehow in life’s busyness and sometimes blinding chaos, destiny found a way back in.
And in your life, if you need a creative spark, look (or look again) at your early years. There are past clues. 🐾 They’re there.
See what has boomeranged back around. 🪃
And then play like children do with the idea.
Be resourceful with your idea. 🧦🖍️📝🎨
Joyfully make a cluttered mess outside of the boundaries.
And if your idea sticks around the next day, and the week after, and then a month later, take it as a meant-to-be sign.
When you look back a year, the writing will be on the wall.
Your passion calling and creativity will look like it was right under your nose the entire time. And it was.
It was just waiting for you.
It was ready.
What are you waiting for?
