¡Ole!

Having a bit of a bummer day today.

My dream job of working as a freelance designer and illustrator has been, shall we say, less than dreamy. But, it's always nice to stumble upon the right sort inspiration at the right time. And, today, that inspiration takes the form of a TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert that I came across and decided to watch because it dealt with the idea of "creative genius" ...something I'm lacking today.

I initially encountered Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Eat, Pray, Love, when a friend loaned it to Sarah and I while travelling in Vietnam. With its combination of food, travel and loosey-goosey Eastern spirituality, it was another thing that I think I encountered at the right place and time. In this talk, she discusses the idea of creative inspiration and how current views on where creativity comes from can often lead to doubt, depression and worse for people who work in creative fields. And then she goes on to present an alternate view of where creative inspiration might come from that maybe be a little more healthy to the artist's psyche.

Anyhow, its worth the 19 minutes it takes to watch it...



Now, I know I'm not in a position where I'm grappling with already having created my best creative work (in fact, I feel like I'm still working toward something great). But, still, on a day like today, when doing creative works seems daunting and, well, less than fun; it was still the type of message I needed to hear.

¡Ole!