Saturday, July 3, 2010

"Open" and Class Review of Creativity Boot Camp

I really enjoyed Creativity Boot Camp, a wonderful, free, two week class that gave class participants lots of options for what to get out of it.  Participants were challenged to pick one medium and create something in that medium each day, incorporating  a random prompt.  I chose plaster as my medium because it's something that I had been meaning to explore but hadn't gotten around to working with.  The randomness and openness of the prompts gave me the opportunity to create all kinds of things that I really loved and to discover new ways in which to use plaster.  You can peruse these by checking my labels for plaster or bootcamp  I loved having the push to create every day for two weeks - I think I really grew as an artist and have many more ideas for what to do with plaster.  The class also had a variety of ways to connect with other participants - a comments section, which I liked; a mr. linky tool that was fantastic and easy to use; a blog roll in which I participated; a flickr group (which I ignored - I hate flickr); and some forums which I perused occasionally.  I found several new blogs and artists through the class, who I know will continue to inspire me as I visit their blogs.  The class also had an "assignment" every day - often involving writing.  I didn't do these very often because they didn't really "speak to me," but that was okay! I had thought about a lot of the same things when I worked through The Artist's Way a few years ago.  I think other participants got a great deal out of these activities.  I did love, love, love the photo walk assignment though - such fun!  One of the most interesting things about the class was how it took on a life of its own.  I think it was originally intended to be a fairly small class for a few blog friends, but it drew hundreds of creative, interesting people.  Simply amazing!  CBC is continuing with weekly prompts called "Sunday Creative," and I'm really glad it is.  I want to continue to use plaster and to share my creations with others.  The first Sunday creative prompt was "open," and I used radiant pearls to create this card with an open water lily on plaster.  I hope you like it!
All-in-all, Creativity Boot Camp was a wonderful experience for me and something that allowed people to grow in whatever ways they chose.  As I said before, simply amazing!
If you participated, what did you think about it?  What was your favorite creation?

6 comments:

Amy said...

Rinda I thoroughly enjoyed CBC as well and, for most of the reasons you have listed here. I found the prompts seemed to take a life of their own and because I used photography as my medium the writing seemed to flow from there. I didn't write any responses to the suggested journaling prompts but each word of the day really got me thinking and I ended up with some lovely ideas for blog posts and future scrap pages.

Amy said...

I forgot :-) I don't like flickr all that much either - it always puts me off when I have to link or go to a link over there.

Tammy Lee Bradley said...

I LOVED CBC and yearn for it's return. *sigh* Loved all the positivity and creations.

debs14 said...

This is a truly beautiful piece of artwork Rinda. The colours are fabulous and it is so lovely in its simplicity.
I can't begin to imagine the mess I would get in if I tried working with plaster! I shall just enjoy looking at yours!

Cheri said...

gorgeous work. I also thoroughly enjoyed CBC, even though I got sick and never quite finished. Would have to say my reasons were quite similar to yours.

humel said...

It's a lovely piece, Rinda :-)

I tailed off towards the end of boot camp because life got so darn busy - I do still want to return to it and do my art journal though. I think it'll be a summer project for me :-)