Creating An Imaginative Life

"Michael's stories have the same combination of clarity and intuitive richness as his music. A fine, contemplative guide to the artist's dedicated life." David Whyte poet, lecturer author of The Heart Aroused and Crossing the Unknown Sea Michael Jones' inspiring and award winning book about his life at the piano offers many rich insights to help the reader find this story for themselves. "Who will play your music if you don't?" He asks. "What is emerging at the periphery of your awareness now? When do you feel that you are fully living your own 'signature in creation' - a place to which you often long to return?" Too often we focus on building our careers, based upon an identity crafted from our trained skills and abilities - an identity that does not accurately reflect our primary strengths, wants or needs. Michael suggests an alternative - through personal narratives that burst with wonder and magic - he offers vivid portrayals of how, through seemingly ordinary people and events, we can discover clues for living a fulfilling and imaginative life. Each story builds upon another as Michael reveals his journey toward creating a life that feels whole and complete. Throughout he offers others an invitation to reconnect with the essence of who they truly are. To begin he suggests that we learn to trust that there is a dimension of life behind life, one that lives through us and brings with it a renewed sense of dignity and grace each time we do what we love, feel what we feel and simply be ourselves. Virtually every page of this truly beautiful book provides wise and wonderful clues for allowing the creative impulse within us to emerge. Throw out your books of creativity exercises and read this book instead!

Using poignant, personal stories, well-known pianist Michael Jones shares the process of his creative evolution and invites readers to explore the dimension of creativity in their own lives--whether striving to become artists or simply to incorporate creativity into everyday life. Packaged with an inspirational CD sampler of Michael Jones' music. Line drawings.

How DO they do it? If you could ask your favorite artist or crafter only one question, chances are you'd ask about creativity: Where do your ideas come from? How did you get started? What are your tricks for overcoming blocks? In Living the Creative Life, author Ricë Freeman-Zachery has compiled answers to these questions and more from 15 successful artists in a variety of mediums—from assemblage to fiber arts, beading to mixed-media collage. Creativity is different for everyone, and these artists share their insights on the muse (if you believe in her), keeping a sketchbook (or not), and prioritizing your art, whether you aspire to create solely for your own pleasure or to become a full-time artist. • Try your hand at creative jumpstarts straight from the pros. • Glimpse the artists' innermost thoughts and works in progress as you peruse pages from their journals and notebooks. • Share textile artist Sas Colby's triumph over creative block during an exotic art retreat. • Learn how internationally acclaimed artist James Michael Starr uses experience from his former "day job" to fuel his creation today. • Explore the work of Michael deMeng, Claudine Hellmuth, Melissa Zink and the other artists right alongside their insights. No crafter or artist should live the creative life without Living the Creative Life! The inspiration is contagious.

Imagination allows us to step out of the ordinary but also to transform it through our sense of wonder and play, artistic inspiration and innovation, or the eureka moment of a scientific breakthrough. In this book, Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei offers a groundbreaking new understanding of its place in everyday experience as well as the heights of creative achievement. The Life of Imagination delivers a new conception of imagination that places it at the heart of our engagement with the world—thinking, acting, feeling, making, and being. Gosetti-Ferencei reveals imagination’s roots in embodied human cognition and its role in shaping our cognitive ecology. She demonstrates how imagination arises from our material engagements with the world and at the same time endows us with the sense of an inner life, how it both allows us to escape from reality and aids us in better understanding it. Drawing from philosophy, cognitive science, evolutionary anthropology, developmental psychology, literary theory, and aesthetics, Gosetti-Ferencei engages a spectacular range of examples from ordinary thought processes and actions to artistic, scientific, and literary feats to argue that, like consciousness itself, imagination resists reductive explanation. The Life of Imagination offers a vital account of transformative thinking that shows how imagination will be essential in cultivating a future conducive to human flourishing and to that of the life around us.

Using poignant, personal stories, well-known pianist Michael Jones shares the process of his creative evolution and invites readers to explore the dimension of creativity in their own lives--whether striving to become artists or simply to incorporate creativity into everyday life. Packaged with an inspirational CD sampler of Michael Jones' music. Line drawings.

When you learn to awaken your family’s creativity, wonderful things will happen: you’ll make meaningful connections with your children in large and small ways; your children will more often engage in their own creative discoveries; and your family will embrace new ways to relax, play, and grow together. With just the simple tools around you—your imagination, basic art supplies, household objects, and natural materials—you can transform your family life, and have so much more fun! Amanda Soule has charmed many with her tales of creativity and parenting on her blog, SouleMama. Here she shares ideas and projects with the same warm tone and down-to-earth voice. Perfect for all families, the wide range of projects presented here offers ideas for imaginative play, art and crafts, nature explorations, and family celebrations. This book embraces a whole new way of living that will engage your children’s imagination, celebrate their achievements, and help you to express love and gratitude for each other as a family. To learn more about the author, Amanda Soule, visit her blog at www.SouleMama.com.

"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold! Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.

Discover the ten things highly creative people do differently. Is it possible to make sense of something as elusive as creativity? Based on psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman’s groundbreaking research and Carolyn Gregoire’s popular article in the Huffington Post, Wired to Create offers a glimpse inside the “messy minds” of highly creative people. Revealing the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology, along with engaging examples of artists and innovators throughout history, the book shines a light on the practices and habits of mind that promote creative thinking. Kaufman and Gregoire untangle a series of paradoxes— like mindfulness and daydreaming, seriousness and play, openness and sensitivity, and solitude and collaboration – to show that it is by embracing our own contradictions that we are able to tap into our deepest creativity. Each chapter explores one of the ten attributes and habits of highly creative people: Imaginative Play * Passion * Daydreaming * Solitude * Intuition * Openness to Experience * Mindfulness * Sensitivity * Turning Adversity into Advantage * Thinking Differently With insights from the work and lives of Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Marcel Proust, David Foster Wallace, Thomas Edison, Josephine Baker, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, musician Thom Yorke, chess champion Josh Waitzkin, video-game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and many other creative luminaries, Wired to Create helps us better understand creativity – and shows us how to enrich this essential aspect of our lives.