I feel ceative all day long, as I slowly unfold my reality about me.

it’s the perfect speed…one second=one second

I was designing jewelry for a business I built with my then husband. We set up a studio in a most favorite spot for the both of us, two suites; one for his fabricating and one for consulting with clients. We worked pretty much around the clock but were excited beyond belief to see our art making money for us and being appreciated so well. It was a huge part of my identity then, a dream come true to be a not starving artist.

I have always been a creative person, in the crafts I produce. I felt at my best when I was creating costumes for people out of donated clothing that I scoured from charity thrift stores. I also designed costumes on paper that I actually got paid for.

I try to write every day though I’m not sure if that counts as creativity all of the time…

A lot of my ideas come to me right before I fall asleep and shortly after I wake up.

I do my best writing in the mornings.

Several years ago, when I was unemployed for a few months, I got this awesome idea for a story about a guy with hypertichosis (i.e. Fedor Jeftichew) that decided to spend his 18th birthday on a road trip. The story just flowed from my fingers, including how his family made their fortune(by inventing cup holders for automobiles), how his family was cursed by the bad luck of his ancestors, and how his Dad had built a time machine and changed history just enough to make things screwy. The story involved some of the local history of my home town, some of the sights around here, and random things I have experienced while living here.

That story came out to be several hundred pages long, and the creative spark seems to be the guy’s name, which came to me as a gibberish phrase I heard in an early morning dream.

Damn, I could use another bout of creativity like that again.

There is no way to really get yourself in a creative mood, creativity comes at random spurts of time.

I usually feel creative when I’m editing videos, or when I’m writing.

That should read hypertrichosis

when im not sleeping

My inspiration is linked to my level of passion for the subject in question.

I am usually more creative when hurt, because my best ideas come from a depth that mirrors the intensity of pain. The intensity of overwhelming happiness results in the same level of creativity (though of a much different kind) but it does not seem as easy to come by.

Interestingly enough, when caught in mundane or repetitive situations, I will find myself thinking in little sparks of imagination… both positive and negative. Perhaps this is my mind’s way of searching for depth when it seems trapped in an average (superficial, if you will) situation.

I was most creative in college when I was free to persue my passion without having to worry about normally terrestrial tasks like working 40 hours a week

After two glasses of Armagnac.

It used to be when tragedy struck I would retreat internally to my safe place to release and hide through art or writing. Now, since I began working for myself in 2000 I have discovered a deeper positive creativity and I’m so much more productive setting my own schedule with room for adventure and new challenges in my day. My dance and writing have increased which all help direct my passions and keep stressors away. The past two years I’ve had a whole historic home to renovate and decorate and it’s amazing if I do say so. I designed it all and had it build to my specs on a puny budget. Spatial arrangement ,balance, bold color and textures are what I use best to beautify my home

I was on top of a castle in Heidelberg, Germany. I had never felt so inspired, and I felt like I was absolutely bursting with creativity. I’m not even sure what it was about that place or that moment, but everything just made me want to create.

It’s difficult to pick just one… and they are all very different from one another, too.

As an adult woman taking my first ‘wood shop’ class, I found it all thrilling. The rough feel of the wood on my soft hands, the sawdust on my clothes and underfoot, the smell of burning wood created by power saws, but most of all my fear of power tools transformed into a feeling of great strength and power. In my third class (advanced woodworking!), I designed and built a bookcase for my daughter. I miss those days. I’ve had a little of that feeling back for the last few weeks while I was paneling a wall in my husband’s ‘man cave’. Rawr!

When I am depressed I feel most creative…:)
@—->—->—- rose…:)

@augustlan there is just something about wood that is so primal and comforting. I’ve been known to smell certain types of boards at the lumber store, which always gets me weird looks from others. Eh, I’m used to the weird looks by now. :-) It would freak me out more if some stranger joined in on the ‘hey, smell this board’ game.

@evelyns_pet_zebra I’m totally going to do that! I’ll either instigate or join in the game. ;)

I can’t really specify times as I am always in creative mode, not to brag but my mind is always highly creative.

I find that I am most creative when I’m at the extreme ends of the emotional scale. I’ve done some tremendously personal photography when deeply sad and I’ve done some really interesting writing at my happiest.

I’m not generally a very creative person so it usually takes some sort of event to get me going.

When an article i wrote was published in a newspaper; when a photograph I took was used in an ad.

And every time I “jam” with fellow musicians for fun.

Varsity Dance Team.
We were constantly using our creativity to make up new and unique dances.

When I am alone – on a road trip – on vacation and have time to daydream.

Usually, late at night after I heard something sad or I feel very focused and can think clearly about a lot at once.

Feeling creative and being creative don’t always happen at the same time.

Whenever I sit down with an idea and give effort to develop it, be it a musical or literary idea, an idea for an interior space or anything else. The times where I feel most satisfied with that moment of creativity is when I actually finish developing that idea.

Aye, and there’s the rub. It’s been a real challenge of late, finishing an idea.

@Introverted_Leo That is the way I have been for a couple years now, sadly. It started by not being able to write anything at all, but now I’ve gotton out of it a bit and can write the “beginnings” to a song, but can’t ever structure it the way I’d like or keep going through the idea. It’s been extremely frustrating. Maybe I’m over thinking it or just being falsely unhappy with everything I create therefore hindering me to continue fluidly. Not sure, I just hope it subsides at some point. It was a great outlet that isn’t there anymore.

@qubozik: I know exactly what you mean. I often get stuck after the beginnings of something new.

When I was younger, things were pretty simple in my world as far as I was concerned, heh, and I didn’t really care about things like whether my compositions were complex or sophisticated or whatever. Now when I try to write music it’s harder for me to be satisfied with what I come up with. My creations seem too simple and rudimentary to me or sometimes even corny (because of their rudimentariness—and yes, that is a word!). I started out just playing by ear on the piano, and after playing in my schools’ orchestras since the fourth grade I’ve developed an ear for orchestral music, which can be really complex. And I love that about a lot of orchestral music, that it can be so beautifully complex and yet sound so effortless. I really love listening to movie soundtracks, for example, as well as your more “classical” examples.

Now, whenever I get an idea for a musical piece I envision full sweeping orchestral arragnements, which I don’t think I currently have the skills/know-how to write at the moment, not at the level I’d like to be at eventually. I can “hear” it, but I don’t have the patience to figure it out on paper, lol. (I guess this is the “creative” part.) I wrote one piece that I actually finished (woo!) and started inputing it into a computer notation software (I currently use Noteworthy, which isn’t exactly the greatest thing on the market, but you know, it’s what I’ve got). I didn’t realize all the musical things I was doing before that—constantly switching between different time signatures and sometimes key signatures, using hemiolas…all those types of theoretical ideas. When I was playing it, I wasn’t actually thinking about those things; I was just writing music. And now suddenly it seems so crazy when it’s on paper! I wouldn’t even have realized I was doing anything like this had I not taken a basic music theory class in high school. Nor would I be able to read music in different clefs outside of the alto that I learned when I picked up the viola.

Sometimes I just feel like there’s so much more I should learn about music, that I don’t know enough.

My problem is that I’ve never had the patience for reading notation on command ‘cause I memorize everything I learn. I’ve been told to try Garage Band (apparently it caters to more sound-oriented folks as opposed to focusing on notation), but it’s not for PC users.

And I’m a PC. : /

BAH! I’m done with the tangent.

**wrong question sorry!**

my senior year of high school. i was in like 4 art classes, doing all kinds of art at one time.

When I was brainstorming about interstellar travel.

@mattbrowne: and what solution did you come up with?

@daloon – We should focus on slow interstellar travel options, see Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel#Methods_for_slow_manned_missions

but really think it through.

Is that about subluminal travel? I’m not yet convinced we need to leave the solar system. Hell, I don’t know if there’s much purpose in going to Mars. I believe in imagination, but I also believe in doing cost/benefit analyses.

I always feel most creative when I’m doing sketches for my quite large starship schematic style drawings. What starts out as a thumbnail sketch, then turns into a 3 to 4’ long ream of paper taped to my drawing table with a carefully measured penciling drawn in. Then out come my technical pens, and I start filling in all the luscious details, while listening to either Star Trek or Star Wars sound tracks.
When I’m at this point, hours can go by, and I’m still entranced, coming up with more ideas as I go along. Some of these details are barely 2 millimeters squared, just to give you an idea about scale. And I have up to 36 to 48 inches to fill in!
Gotta LUV IT!!! (I do.)

@daloon – Cost/benefit analyses can kill fundamental research and mid-term innovation. Shareholders love short-term ROIs and hate projects like the LHC. Who cares about the Higgs anyway? Bunch of wackos. Can I sell the stuff at a profit? Okay, I’m exaggerating a little bit using a bit of cynicism myself. Hope you don’t mind. I think space travel is part of fundamental research efforts. I agree we can do a lot more with probes, but eventually humans will have to go as well, for the same reasons our ancestors left Africa and moved on to other continents. It’s part of our genetic program.

Building the supercollider in Bern and outfitting a manned mission to Mars seems to me to be two different things entirely. The supercollider is basic research. I wouldn’t consider a mars mission in the same category. It’s more of a gee-whiz kind of thing, rather than a basic research effort.

@daloon – In a way, yes. But both projects have one thing in common: there’s no immediate benefit that can be turned into profit or that leads to a higher standard of living. Real life applications on Earth might be created decades into the future. Maybe the LHC can speed up the ITER Tokamak project. We don’t know. But it’s a good thing to understand Nature. It’s also possible that one of our space mission gives us new insights related to using fusion as an energy source on Earth. Understanding space means understanding things on Earth.

@mattbrowne: I know. We got all kinds of benefits from the speculative investigation that was the trip to the moon. I’m totally in favor of more knowledge and more basic research. But I’m also in favor of using our resources to maximum impact. Our resources aren’t unlimited, as you know.

I feel creative everyday. But I usually get the strongest spurts when I’m about to fall asleep. Then have to turn my lamp on, pull out a pencil and notebook, and draw/write it all out.

But I do remember this one spesific time, my extremeley musical friend invited me to come listen to her and her partners duet piece. I had no idea what to expect. The sang a song from RENT, complete with acting and everything. When they were done, I was amazed. Then, in the timespan of about two minutes, they got into a screaming fight, the partner threatened not to do it, and then they made up and hugged. I was speechless. Literally. Something inside me just loved whatever just happened so much. I felt so inspired. And happy. I don’t think I explained that too well.

When I worked in PR, had a spot on a radio show and went to college in the evenings. The combination gave me the freedoms and stimulations that inspired some of my best “stuff” (whatever that is – as it’s personal and subjective, as I am not a public figure.)

I feel most creative after hearing about someone who burned a drawing of mine, kicked in a canvas of mine, or shattered a sculpture of mine.

when I am not trying to be creative..usually when I am at a talk that I am supposed to be concentrating on…that is when I get my best ideas. I also got my creativity back after an 8 year relationship in which I felt stifled and repressed for various reasons.

Childbirth..giving life is the most creative thing you can do..it is a miracle and God only knows we should appreciate the privilege

I was having a particularly manic night and I managed to spit out three paintings and write a short story. I’m usually pretty prolific, but not that prolific. It felt great.

I am creative all the time, whether it is improving an existing object, or inventing something completely new. It would be a better question to ask when I am NOT feeling creative.

Most creative? Probably this one particularly manic night where I was just humming with ideas—bursting really. My head was so crowded and noisy. The only way I could sleep was to write all the ideas down. I filled half a notebook with ideas ranging from new printmaking techniques to theories on theology and neurology. I was writing so fast, my hand cramped. That was more tiring than fun.

Most positively creative? Probably the first time I walked through Urban Ore Everything around me was filled with possibility. I think it actually gave me a buzz. I think I got a high walking through The Crucible for the first time too.

Most productively creative? Probably during one of those late nights in studio back in undergrad.