Inspiration!

This is a quote by the son of my friend Kettie, placed over a photograph she took. I think it is a great reminder.

You can also see more of her photos on this blog, or on her Facebook page.

What passes for entertainment?

What passes for entertainment much of the time? Stereotyped, formulaic dogma that aims to keep people sedated in social roles which are too narrow, and support oppressive ends. Or, distracting fantasies that keep us preoccupied so we don’t turn our attention elsewhere, like to the fact that many people are oppressed for the economic gain of others, or that actually, we are not happy with our crappy job or the crappy situation we are in of being massively in debt.

How about doing something creative instead?

This One Pen

Slack and Slackers, definitions

To slack:
1. to make loose, or less tense or taut, as a rope; loosen.
2. to become less tense or taut, as a rope; to ease off.

Ambition:
1. an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment.

A slacker:
1. a person without ambition.
2. a person who gives up the idea of ambition in order to become less tense or taut, and to make the world less tense.

-

From Return of the Slacker

Don’t give up now!

Don’t give up now! Don’t stop your creative endeavors! Write a poem! Draw a picture, do whatever! Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Jump into the fray and let everyone see what your mind creates!

Making Art is Important

We sometimes belittle our own efforts as artists and writers, because we are not professional, or it was “nothing” or whatever we use as excuses, but being creative and making art in its many forms is important and revolutionary. The smallest phrase you put together begins the undermining of the current consumer capitalist society which wants you to be “entertained” but not creative.

I decided to start this blog as a place to encourage people I knew to think more of themselves as creative beings. Many of them wrote terrific things, made interesting paintings, and left them in some dark closet; what else was there to do with them? I wanted a forum for those items to be brought out and given to larger audiences and for the creators of those items to have more moments where they think, “Yes, I am good at this!” and “I love doing this!”

I wanted to make a place where we aren’t after perfection, we aren’t after the best ever, we aren’t out to make any money off someone else’s creative acts. We are out to encourage the spread of creativity and art in the hands of everyday people. We are out to encourage people to engage in the most important act: to think for themselves, to trust their own minds.

Imaginatist Manifesto

1. Art is the manifestation of the imagination.

a. Imagination is a function of the mind which arranges and combines known elements to create new things.

b. Imagination is something everybody has.

2. Expression of imagination is more important than any particular way or form it is expressed in. So we are not primarily painters, or poets, or even artists, but imaginatists.

a. Set forms and mediums can distract and limit the imagination, which is much more fluid than those forms or mediums.

3. Expression of imagination is more important than mimicking reality. It certainly takes skill and is interesting to mimic reality, but it doesn't necessarily require imagination.

4. Expression of imagination is more important than the skill with which it is expressed. Even an un-artistically trained person, if they focus on imagination and its expression, can be a master imaginatist.

5. Imagination, when truly manifest, bridges the gap between minds, and helps people realize there are other thinking, imagining entities in the universe.

a. Art is a conduit for love.

Become an imaginatist today!

A Place to Promote Creativity

Why I started this blog:

"I wanted to have a place to promote the creativity of people close to me and in my local community. because I think there are not enough places to see the creative works of human beings. Lots of people do creative things and they just end up in a pile in their closet or something. Which is too bad. The world is more interesting to me when those things are shown.

Even people who make art for a living don't have enough places to have their work shown, and can always use some more exposure, so I started adding some artists that I like to the blog. But I always try to make and have at least some personal connection with them when I do.

So, I started this blog to have a place to show creativity that I find interesting. Hopefully it brings a little more connection among creative people in the world, because that is also important to me."

-Jim DuBois