The Creative Experience of
Courage
to Be
The next few pages will lead you to listen to the songs and read the lyrics and then respond to the creativity prompts given to you accompanying each song. Feel free to respond in your favorite creative expression or be spontaneous and decide in the moment which expression feels most playful. For example, maybe one day you feel like moving or dancing, maybe another day you feel like writing, another day like singing or painting...
May this experience bring you much joy and inspire you to feel childlike and full of wonder!
"Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas."
-Austin Kleon
Why use prompts for art, writing, and creativity?
The process of interpreting a prompt can help your idea generation skills. Prompts are a valuable part of a creative toolkit.
- Find creative solutions
- Find connections/links between seemingly unrelated concepts
- Generate fresh ideas
- Spark artistic and creative explorations
- Launch experiments (i.e. What if?)
- Get through a creative rut or block
- To warm-up before a work session
- Get through fear of the “blank page”
- Gives you a starting point
- Create something low risk
"The opposite of depression is EXPRESSION."
-Dr. Edith Eger (Psychotherapist & Holocaust survivor)
I love collecting words. I love sentence fragments + interesting descriptions + words used in witty or novel ways. I’m always on the lookout for words and images that inspire me and I like to think of it as keeping my butterfly net continually open for inspiration... or as Julia Cameron described it once in her book, The Artist's Way, as if you are a cat looking out for anything glittery that you can chase.
I will put the lyrics to my song, ETERNAL, here and you can use the words as prompts in several ways to generate fresh ideas. You can interpret the phrases in your favorite art form — an art journal page, short story, sketch, doodle, collage, etc. A delightful gift-to-self or a creative friend! Or your own song! To make your selection you can choose words that resonate today, in this moment, or you can make it random by playing BINGO or roll the 🎲 dice. Let your finger stop on a word and then use it as a prompt to start creating.
Lyrics (by JennyRebecca)
I’m calling your name oooooh
Something's got to change
When things feel this way,
I don’t know my left from
my right I feel so insane
I need to stand up,
get out of the mud that’s been
weighing me down
And remember, just who I am
I am so much more than I comprehend
And when I am standing tall
I am glistening, I am full of hope
The ups and the downs ooooh
Keep swirling around
Each morning I try to set myself right
but I fight with my history
The patterns and thoughts I’ve had for so long,
and I know that I must
remember, just who I am
I am so much more than I comprehend
And when I am standing tall
I am glistening, I am full of hope
I’m outside of time. I’m outside of pain,
outside of my mind, when I feel this way
suddenly, I am free,
I am eternal.
oooh
In a moment, you remind me, and in seconds you can find me
Hear your voice like a whisper and my worries disappear
when will I learn that I don’t need to fight to receive?
And remember, just who I am
I am so much more than I comprehend
And when I am standing tall
I am glistening I am full of hope
I’m outside of time. I’m outside of pain,
outside of my mind, when I feel this way,
suddenly, I am free,
I am eternal.
Sometimes this infinite choice is the root of the problem, the reason for analysis paralysis and fear of the blank page. Prompts are a shortcut around those roadblocks. What is the right place to start? This might be daunting. The truth is that there is no right way to start your creative work. You can start, or you can stare at the blankness. I like to remind myself that the faster I get immersed in ideas and mark-making, the more time I have to play.
Take a word or phrase from my song HEARTSONG, mull it over in your mind, make connections, take leaps, interpret freely, find the mood and the way that you'd like to start.... and start! Don't get wrapped up in where it will wind up. If your work ultimately makes sense of the prompt, cool. If not, I'm happy that it sparked some creative time. Let it go wherever it goes.
A few notes to clarify your questions.
☞ Interpret in any medium - through inspired movement, on paper, in a journal or on an index card. Collage, sketch, draw, make patterns, sew paper, write poetry, use colored pencils, watercolor, paint w/ gouache, acrylics, etc. You do not have to consider this a series - so for example you might do #1 & #2 in colored pencil and then switch to acrylics for #3 and haiku poetry.... mix & match works just fine!
☞ Work these over any time period. Some prompts will take longer than others, so it’s not going to be a one-a-day thing. Maybe "finish before the next season starts" or "finish by year-end".
Prompts inspired from the lyrics of HEARTSONG
- Heard. 12. singing
- held 13. eyes
- song. 14. fashioned
- home. 15. skin
- searching all your life. 16. bones
- strangest places. 17. voice
- not so alone. 18.calling
- find you. 19. presence
- center of your heart. 20. breathe
- exactly who you are. 21. realize
- alright. 22. beautiful
Interpret each prompt from the 1st column (these are lyrics from the songs SURROUNDED) using a technique/tool selected from the 2nd column. So you could match Prompt a."every day" with any technique/tool a-j.
- every day a. movement
- thousand. b. pencil
- see your face. c. improvise a melody
- heart beat. d. fountain pen
- surrounded. e. collage
- stunned. f. watercolors
- battle cries. g. improvise with an instrument
- chaos. h. markers
- abounding. i. poetry
- angel choirs j. thread
"Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought."
– Albert Einstein
Prompts from the lyrics from the song THE BRAVEST:
- trying
- avoiding
- danger
- stranger
- expression
- pain
- tender
- daring
- savor
- deny
- fragile
- bravest
* Interpret each prompt in any medium on paper. Create art journal pages, sketches, portraits, illustrations, collages, poetry, flash fiction, short stories, etc.
* The prompt does not have to be interpreted literally. A loose interpretation is just fine! See where it takes you. Try brainstorming connotations + associations of that word. Take a look at the synonyms and antonyms, pull the idea apart, alphabetize it, misconstrue it, rephrase it, find lyrics that fit somehow.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SONG
Lyrics: To be heard
Is one of the greatest gifts we ever could receive
It’s one of the things that we so often really need
And one of the simplest things that we could ever give to someone else
Oh I can give the gift
That no one wants to give
Oh I can start to offer this
And even if my heart is aching for an ear
I’ve been given it before and I remember
When I’m really seen and really heard
It feels like magic
There is nothing that I couldn’t do
When I’m really feeling understood
Than all that’s tragic fades into the distance
And I’m full of so much courage
Oh I can give the gift
That no one wants to give
Oh I can start to offer this
And even if my heart is aching for an ear
I’ve been given it before and I remember
PROMPT: * Choose a word or phrase from these lyrics and think about what the word/phrase means within the scope of your life? What does it make you think of? Does it bring back a memory?