Sometimes you get more than you were anticipating. Looking to recharge my creativity, I offered my four-session creativity class this spring. I hoped a few people were also feeling this urge and was delighted to find four others who were willing to commit time and resources to exploring their creative edge.
One taker was halfway across the continent and requested to take the workshop via Skype. That was something of a challenge, but class members provided feedback on how to overcome the limitations of the virtual process. We got progressively better at making sure that our Skype member was clearly visible and connected throughout each session. In the end, by sharing our various creative projects both in class and on line, we did feel that she was a “real” member of the group.
The singer in our group announced, after a week of having her living room carpeted with magazines for her self-box collage, that if she had nothing else to do she would spend the next three months making one box after another. The front of her box is the first photo above. Our social activist expressed her passion for the environment in several sections of her self-box collage - one section is shown in the second photo above. An artist member became so fascinated with her colored-pencil Maori symbol drawing that she rendered it in acrylic on canvas - third photo.
Having a virtual student was not my only technological challenge. I also had the idea of making a video of the class and a friend agreed to be the videographer. It became clear early in the process that video documentation requires more dexterity and pre-planning than I had imagined. Not only had neither my friend nor I practiced enough with the camera, I hampered her by not having clear ideas or goals regarding what should be shot during each session. Nor had we anticipated how the intimate nature of the class would make it embarrassing to move in for close-ups. Once I even forgot to recharge the camera between sessions, rendering her powerless for half of that class. Nevertheless, my patient videographer persisted to the end.
If the first step of any learning curve is discovering what you don’t know, then I guess my videographer and I have begun the journey. And if making a video is similar to a writing project in which success comes from being willing to make the shitty first draft and then revise, revise, and revise some more, then there is ample scope for creativity. I hope you enjoy the one-minute video from our session on bark brush mark making.
