Signposts and Guides for the Creative Life

"Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter - like river banks - forcing the spontaneity into various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem."

Rollo May, quoted by Christine Valters Paintner in the Artist's Rule

This is one of those quotes that I had to read and reread before it took root in me.  And this is how I I have experienced its truth.

We are constantly running into limitations. There is no perfect time for anything we want to do.  No perfect place, free from distraction.  We find our energies pulled into jobs, children, parents, friends, community - you name it.  How many times do we have a great thought but we're in the car without a pencil, or we are under a deadline for something more pressing and we lose it?  We decide we have a free schedule, a clean desk - and we don't have the materials we need, the colors we would like, the right tools. ( I've had that problem when I'm on vacation and feel this great urge to paint but don't like what I've brought to use.)  WE don't have the space to work on what we envision.

I knew an artist  who worked on  large paintings and collages.  When her children were born she only had short time periods to accomplish anything and she couldn't leave pieces lying around unfinished.  Her solution was to develop small pieces of work that she could complete in a couple of hours, that were easy to transport or put away as needed.  They were intriguing and affordable to many more people than could have bought her larger works.

I now keep a small pad and pen in my purse wherever I go - and if I have to, have pulled over to the side of the road to jot down a color combination, an image, a phrase that I want to bring back and work on later.

I've come up with some interesting things working with a limited palette - kind of like what Shannon proposes with her color palette inspiration.

I like this image of the limitations as river banks that channel you into places you might not have gone before.   What kind of pleasant surprises have you uncovered as you've faced some limitations?