TBT: Childhood Creative Sparks

It's throwback Thursday, which stirred up a memory of a creative beginning I had long forgotten. Today I'm reminiscing about a game called Mouse Trap. You may remember it- may have even played it?

image source: Google

It was a game that involved building a contraption that required syncing a series of moving parts domino style, to get an end result (trapping a little plastic mouse). 

The Rube Goldberg inspired gizmo had to be assembled prior to playing. At some point during the game, landing on a certain spot or drawing a particular card would call for the mechanism to be triggered, dooming the losing player's mouse to being trapped.
The cause and effect parts of that game could very well have been the beginnings of training my brain to continually dream up creative solutions. I say train, because even though I've always felt creative, it took years of training my mind to see all kinds of things for their creative potential, and to automatically brainstorm multiple ways to make projects work using found (or bought) things. That didn't just happen, lol. It's a creative muscle I built further through school projects, problem solving at various jobs, and personal projects.
I think anyone can develop a skill to compliment a passion or talent through practice. Do it enough and it becomes automatic.
Anyway, the game is a fond memory. And maybe a good example of snowballing something simple into something I use constantly to this day.❤

Lost Compass

Ugh. Left my studio in a bit of a hurry today without my sketchbook because I just couldn't find it. Feels almost like being without my phone, or say, my arm. Okay, I'm being a little dramatic.

But I am reminded how important that dog-eared thing is to me. More than just the catchall of my (sometimes innermost) musings, ideas, and dreams, my sketchbook acts as a compass. A reminder (which I frequently refer back to) of what I hope to accomplish or express. It's things I feel poured through me into physical manifestation by Holy Spirit, my running water captured onto pages, if that makes any sense.

Lol- yeah, that's a lot of weight for a bunch of spiral bound paper. But I pretty much feel that way about all my sketchbooks. All of which I've hoarded since I started drawing as a child.

I still gain insight into my creative evolution flipping through the old ones. Sometimes it's an opportunity to revisit old ideas using skills or techniques I've gained since.

So when I find my sketchbook again, as I carry it from one spot to the next, maybe I won't toss it on the floor, balance it on a ledge, leave it in a pile of papers, prop my cup of tea on it, or whatever, like I've always done!