Choose Your Dare

May 20, 2010June 22, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 30 Comments

On Tuesday we answered the sprout question about taking your creativity for a swimming lesson. In our conversation we discovered that some of us had specific waters you wanted to swim, others would go to the deep end of the pool and still others would wade knowing that swimming was not for them. Each response is perfect for the individual answering the sprout question. What we must each do is choose our personal dare, and then perfect our creative skills and strengths with integrity, commitment, joy and humour.

For example, I am absolutely fascinated by outcrops of big rocks. I observe their majestic beauty from a distance and up close – even possibly boring you with so many photos of cliff faces and sandstone.

beyond

View and purchase full resolution of image here.

And I clamour over their surface as long as I can do it without rock climbing.

time

The thought of me rock climbing makes me laugh out loud and giggle for a long time. This is just not going to happen. I know it is safe when done properly. I can imagine why others may take on the hours and hours of skill and strength building activities to perfect this skill but… I can’t even watch the young woman in this photo climb.

Josie climbing in Squamish May 15 2010 photo by Sebastian Powell

This close up is almost too unnerving for me to look at.

Shall we get a real close look?

With creativity, as with other things in life, we must know where our strengths and desires meet. Yet we also want to stretch and push the edges just to check to see which challenge is right for us right now. So for now, I will photograph and paint the large boulders and rock faces and Josie, my daughter, will climb them… when I am not looking.

Sprout Question: What personal creative dare are you choosing?

Note: A special thank you to Sebastian Powell, the ACMG (Association of Canadian Mountain Guides) guide of The Boulders Climbing Gym, for this photo of Josie climbing.

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Canada Geese on family swim day

May 18, 2010May 18, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 24 Comments

I happened to see a family of Canada Geese going for an early morning dip in Georgia Strait at Georgina Point on Mayne Island… would you like to join them?

Time for our morning swim everyone!

Yes that means you too. Now move along...

Don't worry we will show you how it is done.

There easy does it...

Now stay close.

I am so hungry

Me too!... Tasty little morsels

Keep an eye out for junior.

Well, I think they have it figured out.

Oops! There they go again...If you're not careful you are going to be eagle breakfast!

Everyone look right... that's it, beautiful!

I could hear the goslings’ little peeping voices as they swam along. And the eagle flew off to see if he couldn’t find a salmon for a morning snack but he sure watched closely before giving up on a small goose feed.

Sprout Question: If you were to take your creativity for a swimming lesson where would it be?

Bonus: Hatchlings are covered with yellowish down and their eyes are open. They leave the nest when 1-2 days old, depending on weather, and can walk, swim, feed, and even dive. The mother goose leads the way on the first family swim and the father goose takes up the rear. Young Canada Geese or goslings grow so quickly that they are virtually indistinguishable from adults in only about nine weeks. With a lifespan of up to twenty-five years, the oldest known wild Canada Goose was 30 years 4 months old. They mate for life with very low “divorce rates,” and pairs remain together throughout the year. Geese mate “assortatively,” larger birds choosing larger mates and smaller ones choosing smaller mates; in a given pair, the male is usually larger than the female. References – mostly http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Goose/lifehistory and a few other brief stops on a googling wild goose chase.

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Riot of Colour

May 13, 2010May 17, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 19 Comments

Several times during the past couple of days it seems that chance, good luck or divine intervention has presented the most amazing experiences. One of these was when the sun came through our skylight and touched on a large bouquet of flowers we had on the table in the great room. The Astramaris (or Alstroemeria) were particularly stunning with their various shades and shadows of yellow and orange.

And this is my personal favourite.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

When we pay attention, there are as many moments to experience amazement as there are moments. Attention is about seeing and feeling each object for the first time. This way it is always fresh and new no matter how many times we have encountered it before. Most often we see habitually using shortcuts developed by our great memories. For example, we can walk through our house without paying attention – and trip over something new that has been placed in a room because we “didn’t see it.” We have developed a habitual way of seeing as we walk from room to room. There are many practices for paying attention. I would like to know yours.

Sprout Question: How do you break free of your habitual way of seeing?

P.S. I also had the good fortune to be at Piggott Bay as a sailing ship was taking a tour of Navy Channel – I’m pretty sure I saw a pirate but you may want to have a look for yourself… http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch/art/5171261-1-sailing-ship-navy-channel

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Eyes Wide Open

May 4, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 22 Comments

joyful delight

View and purchase full resolution of “joyful delight” here.

If you want to practice being fully present in the moment, spend some time playing with children. If you want to connect your creativity to an idea for immediate expression, engage children. In the photo above we were eating limes. I was to try to capture “the lime face.” My favourite is the photo above as he is thinking about what we are going to do. In the photos below, the first one is what he thinks a lime face looks like….

pretending to lime taste

and the second is when the lime juice hit its mark.

taste of lime

I don’t often take photographs of people but every once in a while I like to capture the special people (family, friends, colleagues) in my life. A little backyard street hockey is always fun.

my turn

A shot on goal…

concentration

And a portrait shot for the record of time.

portrait

Sprout Question: Are your special people somehow included in your creativity?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Slice of Sun

April 30, 2010April 30, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 18 Comments

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Today being Friday, it is a good day to play with techniques and have a little fun. I am practicing the art of painting without a brush by using photo editing tools to paint for me. I have been doing this for awhile but it is starting to get easier to stretch into the resonance of what I am seeking.

View and purchase full resolution image here.

Please note that starting next week my posts will be Tuesdays and Thursdays until the beginning of September. But please come by for tea and a browse anytime.

The best of the weekend to you all.

Sprout Question: Where are the growing edges of your creativity?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Slippers and Chocolate

April 29, 2010April 29, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 16 Comments

Last evening we were at the water watching a sea otter diving and catching fish for dinner and listening to the party rattle of a Belted Kingfisher. We were enjoying the clear sky and warm glow before the sun set when a commotion broke out. A raspy voice clattered up from the forest floor shouting with the stage presence of a news orator…

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,

All on a summer day:

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,

And took them quite away!

The Queen of Hearts, shouted “Give me back those tarts”

Scaring the two of hearts,

Who changed into a pair of lady’s slippers

the two of hearts - lady's slippers

The Knave of Hearts

Didn’t have his clipper

And even after several false starts

he couldn’t save the lady’s slipper

the lady's slipper

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Farther on he dropped the tarts

Crying “Chocolate Lily!”

Chocolate Lily Fritillaria affinis

The Queen of hearts

Told him not to be so silly

My thanks to Lewis Carroll for the inspiration from The Knave of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Chocolate Lily or Checkered Lily

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Sprout Question: When was the last time you were creatively silly?

Note: Tomorrow I am traveling. The Creative Potager Friday post is scheduled to be put up. However, you will not receive a notice on facebook or twitter until later in the day. So please drop by at your usual time or subscribe to be notified by email.

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Purchase photography at http://www.redbubble.com/people/terrillwelch

Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

A BLOGGER’S HAIKU

April 28, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 30 Comments

A BLOGGER’S HAIKU

fragrance of lilacs

spring leaves, mauve buds, open, still closed

readers have waited

by Terrill Welch

I recently purchased haiku mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart (2008) by Patricia Donegan. The book is beautifully structured, presenting the poem and a piece of prose about her experience of the poem and a biographical paragraph about the haiku author. Donegan’s book and the lilacs I picked last night were my inspiration for today’s photograph and poem.

Sprout Question: When is your inspiration – just in time?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Whole Body Creativity

April 27, 2010April 27, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 11 Comments

“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot in the sun.”

– Pablo Picasso

What does it mean to use your whole body in your creativity? The answer is likely related to your awareness and ability to converge all the information from your five senses. For example in the image above, I wanted you to hear the waves. I hope just for a moment you can smell the sea and feel the sand under your feet with a soft breeze on your cheek. I want you to experience a moment of play and confidence through the Canada goose strutting in the waves.

What you don’t know is that this goose just chased a sea otter back into the sea. I am not sure what the scrap was about but it was fascinating hear and to watch.

However my photos are poor. I was too far away and I couldn’t get close enough fast enough. Yet, I somehow wanted to catch that excitement and triumph with the goose, and the waves and the sunlight. The goose in the shallow waves is my attempt to turn a yellow spot into the sun.

Sprout Question: Tell me about a yellow spot you have turned into the sun?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Sacred Breath of Editing

April 26, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 10 Comments

motor block reclaimed by sea

I question the concept of relying on divine intervention to complete a finished work. I have heard many times from writers, painters, photographers, musicians and gardeners that their creative muse works through them and it is not them creating. It is the divine, the muse, their sacred self. However, I believe it is a mistake for us to stop there. Allow me to explain beginning with this quote:

“When you breathe in, breathe in the whole universe. When you breathe out, breathe out the whole universe.” – Koryu Osaka

I admit to slicing through ego thinking and allowing intuition, my muse, the divine to “have its way” with the page, the brush, the lens of my work. It is this first blush of inspiration, of whole body mind and seeing that comes from a still point where we connect with all that is… seeing, hearing and being as if for the first time. However, that is not the end point. As John Daido Loori, author of The Zen of Creativity, confides, we must continue our journey straight ahead from the mystical peak “down the other side of the mountain, back into the world. It is in the ordinariness of our lives that this intimate experience of the self merging with the absolute can begin to express itself.”

view from the top

This is why we need to learn the sacred breath of editing. Creative work is rarely ever completed in a single session or in the first instance it comes to us or is given to us. We receive or are inspired by the essence of what must be expressed. Now we must also complete the work. We must edit, taking away the extra, closing in on the core essence of what we intend to convey. The sacred breath of editing is the breath that allows us to reconnect with the resonance present when we first created the work. Then we remove what is not absolutely necessary. If we lose the resonance we know we have gone too far.

all that is - reclaimed

So just as your muse, the divine, your sacred self has a role to play in your creativity so does your critical mind applied to the sacred breath of editing. To bring your gift of creativity into its fullness requires a critical viewing, a reviewing and shaping. We must bring our whole self to our work. Trust your critical mind and strengthen its ability just as you have learned to listen to your muse. Yet remember not to invite your critical mind too soon. Savour and complete that first blush of creativity without review, editing or engaging in critical thinking. Allow the work to rest then breathe it in again and begin editing. Ruthlessly edit – with purpose, care, passion and regard for the essence which inspired you in that first instance.

Sprout Question: What might your sacred breath of editing sound like?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada

Summer is coming

April 23, 2010April 23, 2010 / Terrill Welch / 23 Comments

Creative Potager’s summer blog schedule begins the first week of May

budding possibilities - wild rose

The first post for Creative Potager was December 27, 2009. I have been posting a blog Monday to Friday, except for power outages caused by windstorms battering our little island in the Pacific Northwest. Including today, there are 83 posts each with their own sprout question. There are 1,165 comments documenting our creative conversations and 8, 596 times you have come to visit. Creative Potager has become an enjoyable habit to wake up to during the week where I say to myself “what shall I post today?” However summer is coming. I yearn to be outside in the garden, tramping the trails and painting on site rather than inside snuggled up to my laptop. Like the summer wild flowers in this post, I bloom best in untamed places.

each day is precious - wild tiger lily

So after giving it some serious thought, I am changing my posting schedule to twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from the beginning of May until the beginning of September. I may on occasion post an additional submission. But these will be bonus or value-added posts rather than an expectation.

petite lady slipper

I am hoping you can live with this change and that we both will benefit from my scrambling around in the valleys and on the hills and down the beaches of Mayne Island and afar. I am hoping that we can still have rich and engaging conversations between posts even during the long days of summer. I am hoping that the sprout questions will be juicy enough to keep us inspired for the in-between times. I am hoping that you will trust that winter will come with its short days and unpredictable weather and we shall again be glad for our Monday to Friday sprout conversations fueled by the fruits of summer experiences.