Elegant in its Simplicity

This orchid sits in my kitchen window.  I removed the background using Clipping Magic.  Nature, for me, is the most elegant that any 21st Century gadget will ever be.

Right Brain, Left Brain. Who is steering the ship?

I had heard about #ds106 earlier this year and was hoping that I would have a chance to participate in the experience.  That opportunity presented itself in a "headless" section that started last week.  I had also enrolled in Coursera's Creativity, Innovation and Change MOOC and thought that this would be the perfect way to tap into my creativity.  I have not been disappointed.  It is only the first week and I am having the "time of my life!"

I was hesitant to jump in, and posted the following question in the Google+ Community:

When I receive the following response from Christina Hendricks, I decided I had nothing to lose.  Alan Levine @cogdog, our fearless leader, (despite being headless) also chimed in:

The first week is appropriately described as "Boot Camp."  Our first directive suggestion was to introduce ourselves to the group using Social Media.  I posted in Google+ as well as Twitter.

I have spent the past week setting up a new blog (I wanted to compare Blogger to Wordpress), participating in Daily Creates (exercises designed to stimulate creative activity), and getting to know my fellow classmates.  Of course, my computer decided to go ballistic at the same time, so I have been experimenting with different iPad apps to complete these tasks.  My latest Daily Create effort #602 is by far the best (the sixth for me).  I am learning to integrate my analytic and creative mind.  In addition to this worthwhile effort, I have been having fun coming up with a caption in order to enhance my Tweets:

And of course, we were given 3 videos to watch and look for those essential "nuggets" that really resonate with you.  For me, those nuggets looked like this:

 "Disruptive Wonder"...everyday fundamental things and experiences frame reality in a way we often take for granted...The random jumble of letters that I have confined to a single possibility of making my name.  And then I wondered, what else could these letters spell? "

This is the question that Kellie Anderson posed.  Had it not been for fellow Frainger, Ary Aranguiz @trendingteacher, I would have never thought to play with the letter of my name.  After several tries, I came up with this.  I like it!

Cathleen Nardi = Learnd Teach-in 

"Do Not Try to Create and Analyze at the Same Time.  They are different processes."  

This little nugget is embedded in The Daily Creates (tdc) (don't ask me where because I can't find it again).  This is the biggest 'AHA' that I had this week. It actually became manifest during tdc#600.  All of a sudden, my analytical mind took a back seat to my creative mind.  It was a mind blowing experience!  I can compare it to my yoga practice.  If I am thinking about how I will NEVER be able to do the wheel pose, chances are I won't.  If I just let go, and allow my body to form the wheel, guess what, it happens.  For me, tapping into the Universal energy is what creativity is all about.

" I also try in several ways to encourage the class (encourage=give heart) to blog as part of the journey to the magic."

I was thrilled to meet Gardner Campbell again in my MOOC journey.  His keynote address at OpenEd 2012 formed the basis of a Tumblr blog earlier this year.  His words resonate with me.  His encouragement to blog is essential in the process of this creative work.  It is only by reflection that we actually make sense, making meaning of what we experience.

So now that I have the building blocks of Daily Creates, blogging and communicating with my online co-participants, now I actually need to find a voice and a theme that I can use to tell my story.  Thankfully, Boot Camp is a two week process.  I hope to find some inspiration in the next week.  Perhaps my headless image (see above) who has taken charge in what appears to be a crisis will be my inspiration. 

Thanks for listening.

Backwards = The Perfect Ten

Backwards = The Perfect Ten

This is TDC 601! That is 106 backwards! Draw something 106ish backwards

Now that I seem to be getting the hang of the Daily Creates, I went back to Paper53 for inspiration.  The first thing I did was try 106 to see if I could "see" anything.  Adding the arrows helped, but then I dead-ended.  I wanted to add the question mark, so I brought it into another program for emphasis. I then decided to flip the image upside down when I saw the 901.  

My analytic mind jumped behind the steering wheel and came up with 9+1=10.  While not a really great idea, I liked how both sides of the brain complimented each other.  Upside down and backwards equals the Perfect Ten.

A Symbol of Longevity

600:  A Symbol of Longevity

Celebrate the 600th Daily Create! Express 600 in a drawing without using numbers.

Where do they come up with these ideas anyway?

My analytic mind immediately wondered what 600 symbolized so that I could come up with an image to represent it.  We all know that storks ares symbols of fertility and associated with Springtime and birth.  But did you also know that because they are rumored to feed their elderly parents, storks are a symbol of filial piety or gratitude. They are emblems of immortality and longevity. Legend says they live an incredibly long time. When they are 600 years old they stop eating solid food.  

Now, I did no fact checking on this, but it did give me and idea for an illustration.  What happened during the process was one of those "nuggets" that we were warned about in DS106.   "Do not try to create and analyze at the same time.  They are different processes."  My creative unconscious actually took over during the drawing and this is what evolved.  While it is by no means a work of art, to me it represented my analytic self getting out of the way in order to unleash my creative juices.  Yeah! 

This image was created using the simple app "Drawing."

Birthday Wishes for Guilia

Birthday Wishes for Guilia

It’s Her Birthday! Doodle @GiuliaForsythe some visual notes on the ideal way to celebrate!

This was extremely difficult exercise.  In fact, I had decided after trying numerous different iterations that I simply was not going to make a submission for this day.  

It was not until Rochelle Lockridge @rockylou22 expressed a similar feeling and then was able to breakthrough using Paper53.  A colleague had turned me onto this app and I found it easy to work with -- and was able to execute my idea.

The presents for Guilia include "copyright" because, in fact, Guilia did teach me a lesson about copyright when I began my MOOC expeditions in December 2012.  Thank you Guilia and we hope you had a most excellent birthday!

Scared of a Cuddly Bug?

Cuddly Bug

#598:  Draw an insect in a way that makes it cuddly or adorable

For the next Daily Create, I was very intimidated (which I can see from other ds106 posts, many others were as well.  Taking iPad in hand, I used DooDoo Lite (they need to change the name), which I downloaded for my granddaughter so that she could do original art for her dioramas.  She loves to draw and we like making them together.

Before you start laughing, remember, the purpose of the Daily Create is to get the juices flowing.  I think he's kind of cute.

My Digital Footprint

My Digital Footprint

What is a Daily Create Anyway?

We encourage you to challenge yourself to create something new each day instead of using older photos or videos. But there are not rules- if you re-use media, think how you can make it new by re-editing them.

The assignments are designed to be quick to do and should not need any or much post-editing. Consider trying several different approaches to each assignments. Often your first instinct might not always be your best work. Experimentation is key, and as always, the one hard and fast rule is MAKE ART DAMMIT!

For these experiments in daily creates, I have been using my iPad in order to become more familiar with the creative apps that are available.  My first attempt was "Impression".  I used FrameArtist (as I did with the Headless image above).

#596: Make an impression: take a picture of an indentation

It seemed natural to me to take an image of my footprint on the beach. Recently, I have been working on a Professional Development Module on the importance of crafting your own digital footprint.  It is a work in progress.