Creative Lift Naomi Kinsman

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Collaborating in the Cafe, we’re getting practical about how we might invite feedback in the most helpful way.
 
Rather than asking someone to tell you what they think of your work, how might you shape a question that makes it possible for them to give you information that will illuminate the next steps of your creative process?

 
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Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

 
In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Designing with Collaboration in Mind , we’re considering the importance of collaboration in the creative process. How might we outfit physical spaces and design our mindset to make the most of the varied perspectives and possibilities that arise when we work creatively with others?
 
What approach might we take to sharing our ideas, inviting feedback, and then processing that feedback in a way that furthers our creative work's goal? How might we offer feedback to others in constructive and concrete ways that boost their momentum (rather than taking the wind out of their sails)?
 
While some parts of the creative process may be served best by working on our own, collaboration is also an essential part of shaping and sharing creative work that expresses your unique voice. Let's lean into some tools and strategies that add energy, flow, and joy to working together.
 
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Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman
Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Learning in the Library, we’re building on last week’s exploration of an expansive library space, dedicated to learning, which houses artistic masterpieces of all kinds.
Today, we’ll step into that space and learn a reverse-engineering strategy. This strategy will make it possible for you to apprentice with any creative hero in an approachable way. First, spend intentional time studying their work, figure out what makes it so impactful, and then personalize those strategies so that you can use them in your own way, in service of your own creative work. 
Roll up your sleeves and try out this powerfully simple strategy that will multiply your creative skills exponentially.
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Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman
Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Designing with Apprenticeship in Mind, we'll explore another essential mindset for creative thinking: apprenticeship. So far in this season, we've considered the importance of improvisation, critical thinking, and reflection, and their related skillsets. We've given each of these thinking modes a specific space in our mind. We've visualized a building to hold these rooms, our creative Illuminary, and considered the look and feel that each room might have. We've noted how these rooms can provide shortcuts into a particular way of thinking, and help us to effectively approach the specific creative work in front of us.
 
In books like Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, or Find Your Artistic Voice by Lisa Congdon, long-time creatives have emphasized the importance of deeply studying the work of other artists. The goal isn't to copy, but rather to learn by heart, and after that learning process, build beyond what we've learned. In this way, we navigate using the light of those artists who have illuminated the path before us. We're apprenticing with them, even if we can't sit in their studios with them.
 
Today's room is a Library. Instead of thinking of that Library as a place filled with only shelves and books, I invite you to allow your Library to be expansive. Give it listening rooms, art galleries, and even a live stage. Regardless of what your artistic medium (or mediums) are, you aren't limited to apprenticing with artworks that look and feel like your own. In fact, sometimes you'll learn much more about pacing or tone by apprenticing with an artist who uses those tools in an entirely different way than you do as you create. 
 
Inspiring works of art are all around us. How might we use them as tools of apprenticeship? How might we create an inviting space for ourselves as learners that guides that reverse-engineering and skill development process?
 
Episode Links:
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Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman
Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Reflecting in the Attic, we’re building on last week’s exploration of an inner, mental space, specifically designed for reflection.
 
Today, we’ll step into that space and try an activity together called The Emotion Jars. You’ll consider the emotional fuel you currently have for your creative work through a hands-on experience. I encourage that you listen to this one with pen, paper, and some colored pencils in hand.
 
Why consider our emotions in relation to our creative work? In Brené Brown’s book, Atlas of the Heart, she describes a survey that she gave as part of her research on shame. Over 7000 participants were invited to list all the emotions they could recognize and name as they were experiencing them. The (shocking) average number of emotions named across the surveys was three: happiness, sadness, and anger. What about shame, disappointment, wonder, awe, disgust, embarrassment, despair, contentment, boredom, anxiety, stress, love, overwhelm, surprise, and the many other emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human?
 
Through our creative work, we craft experiences that evoke emotion. We open doorways that make it possible for hearts to expand with wonder, and to contract with disappointment. Through experiencing art, people strengthen their emotional range and each artistic touchpoint clarifies their compass. By returning to your song, your story, your poem, your painting, they intuitively feel the slight difference between surprise and shock, or between embarrassment and belonging.  The emotional fuel we use for our work shines through in it, whether it is remembered emotion, current emotion, or sometimes even unacknowledged emotion. Taking the time to ground ourselves in our emotional landscape helps us to see ourselves, our work, and others more clearly, and deepens the impact and meaning of our creative work.
 
Let’s take a look, then, at where your heart is, today, through this activity in the Illuminary’s Attic. 
 
Episode Links:
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Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman
Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Designing with your Voice in Mind, we’re continuing our series that explores the Illuminary. The Illuminary is a visualization tool that invites you to picture your creative thinking process happening in various rooms. Our goal is to make the abstract and sometimes confusing creative process more tangible, giving ourselves tools to see the way we move through the creative process with clarity and flow.
Today's room is the Attic. In this mental space, you’re invited to think reflectively—collecting ideas, asking questions, and discovering personal connections. In today's episode, come into my Attic to explore the various possibilities, so that you can then design your own to fit your approach and style. What elements would make an ideal reflection space for you?
 
Episode Links:
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Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman
Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty