Creating an Imaginative Life

Creating an Imaginative Life
Author: Michael Jones
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2006-04-19
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1466934123

"Michael's stories have the same combination of clarity and intuitive richness as his music. A fine,contemplative guide to the artist's dedicated life." David Whyte poet,lecturer author of The Heart Aroused and Crossing the Unknown Sea Michael Jones' inspiring and award winning book about his life at the piano offers many rich insights to help the reader find this story for themselves. "Who will play your music if you don't?" He asks. "What is emerging at the periphery of your awareness now? When do you feel that you are fully living your own 'signature in creation' - a place to which you often long to return?" Too often we focus on building our careers, based upon an identity crafted from our trained skills and abilities - an identity that does not accurately reflect our primary strengths, wants or needs. Michael suggests an alternative - through personal narratives that burst with wonder and magic - he offers vivid portrayals of how, through seemingly ordinary people and events, we can discover clues for living a fulfilling and imaginative life. Each story builds upon another as Michael reveals his journey toward creating a life that feels whole and complete. Throughout he offers others an invitation to reconnect with the essence of who they truly are. To begin he suggests that we learn to trust that there is a dimension of life behind life, one that lives through us and brings with it a renewed sense of dignity and grace each time we do what we love, feel what we feel and simply be ourselves. Virtually every page of this truly beautiful book provides wise and wonderful clues for allowing the creative impulse within us to emerge. Throw out your books of creativity exercises and read this book instead!

The Life of Imagination

The Life of Imagination
Author: Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2018-10-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0231548168

Imagination allows us to step out of the ordinary but also to transform it through our sense of wonder and play, artistic inspiration and innovation, or the eureka moment of a scientific breakthrough. In this book, Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei offers a groundbreaking new understanding of its place in everyday experience as well as the heights of creative achievement. The Life of Imagination delivers a new conception of imagination that places it at the heart of our engagement with the world—thinking, acting, feeling, making, and being. Gosetti-Ferencei reveals imagination’s roots in embodied human cognition and its role in shaping our cognitive ecology. She demonstrates how imagination arises from our material engagements with the world and at the same time endows us with the sense of an inner life, how it both allows us to escape from reality and aids us in better understanding it. Drawing from philosophy, cognitive science, evolutionary anthropology, developmental psychology, literary theory, and aesthetics, Gosetti-Ferencei engages a spectacular range of examples from ordinary thought processes and actions to artistic, scientific, and literary feats to argue that, like consciousness itself, imagination resists reductive explanation. The Life of Imagination offers a vital account of transformative thinking that shows how imagination will be essential in cultivating a future conducive to human flourishing and to that of the life around us.

Living the Creative Life

Living the Creative Life
Author: Rice Freeman-Zachery
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2007-08-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 160061213X

How DO they do it? If you could ask your favorite artist or crafter only one question, chances are you'd ask about creativity: Where do your ideas come from? How did you get started? What are your tricks for overcoming blocks? In Living the Creative Life, author Ricë Freeman-Zachery has compiled answers to these questions and more from 15 successful artists in a variety of mediums—from assemblage to fiber arts, beading to mixed-media collage. Creativity is different for everyone, and these artists share their insights on the muse (if you believe in her), keeping a sketchbook (or not), and prioritizing your art, whether you aspire to create solely for your own pleasure or to become a full-time artist. • Try your hand at creative jumpstarts straight from the pros. • Glimpse the artists' innermost thoughts and works in progress as you peruse pages from their journals and notebooks. • Share textile artist Sas Colby's triumph over creative block during an exotic art retreat. • Learn how internationally acclaimed artist James Michael Starr uses experience from his former "day job" to fuel his creation today. • Explore the work of Michael deMeng, Claudine Hellmuth, Melissa Zink and the other artists right alongside their insights. No crafter or artist should live the creative life without Living the Creative Life! The inspiration is contagious.

Creating Life

Creating Life
Author: Randy Ellefson
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781946995018

Creating a unique, immersive setting one life form at a time. CREATING LIFE (THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, #1) is a detailed how-to guide on inventing the heart of every imaginary world - life. With chapters on creating gods, species/races, plants, animals, monsters, heroes, villains, and even undead, it draws on the author's quarter century of world building experience. Pointed questions, and an examination of answers and their repercussions, will help readers decide on goals, how to reach them, and whether they are even worth pursuing. Always practical, Creating Life will quickly improve the skills of beginners and experts alike, making a time consuming project more fun, easier, faster, and skillfully done. Unlike other world building guides, the series discusses how to use your inventions in stories while balancing narrative flow with the need for explaining your world. Tailored examples illustrate this. Extensive, culled research on life forms is provided to classify and understand options without overwhelming world builders with extraneous details. Storytellers, game designers, gamers, and hobbyists will benefit from seven free templates that can be downloaded and reused. CREATING LIFE will help your setting stand out from the multitude of fantasy and science fiction worlds audiences see. THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING is the only multi-volume series of its kind and is three times the length, depth, and breadth of other guides.

The Republic of Imagination

The Republic of Imagination
Author: Azar Nafisi
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2014-10-21
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0698170334

A New York Times bestseller The author of the beloved #1 New York Times bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran returns with the next chapter of her life in books—a passionate and deeply moving hymn to America Ten years ago, Azar Nafisi electrified readers with her multimillion-copy bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran, which told the story of how, against the backdrop of morality squads and executions, she taught The Great Gatsby and other classics of English and American literature to her eager students in Iran. In this electrifying follow-up, she argues that fiction is just as threatened—and just as invaluable—in America today. Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite novels, she describes the unexpected journey that led her to become an American citizen after first dreaming of America as a young girl in Tehran and coming to know the country through its fiction. She urges us to rediscover the America of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and challenges us to be truer to the words and spirit of the Founding Fathers, who understood that their democratic experiment would never thrive or survive unless they could foster a democratic imagination. Nafisi invites committed readers everywhere to join her as citizens of what she calls the Republic of Imagination, a country with no borders and few restrictions, where the only passport to entry is a free mind and a willingness to dream.

The Imagination Machine

The Imagination Machine
Author: Martin Reeves
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2021-06-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1647820871

A guide for mining the imagination to find powerful new ways to succeed. We need imagination now more than ever—to find new opportunities, rethink our businesses, and discover paths to growth. Yet too many companies have lost their ability to imagine. What is this mysterious capacity? How does imagination work? And how can organizations keep it alive and harness it in a systematic way? The Imagination Machine answers these questions and more. Drawing on the experience and insights of CEOs across several industries, as well as lessons from neuroscience, computer science, psychology, and philosophy, Martin Reeves of Boston Consulting Group's Henderson Institute and Jack Fuller, an expert in neuroscience, provide a fascinating look into the mechanics of imagination and lay out a process for creating ideas and bringing them to life: The Seduction: How to open yourself up to surprises The Idea: How to generate new ideas The Collision: How to rethink your idea based on real-world feedback The Epidemic: How to spread an evolving idea to others The New Ordinary: How to turn your novel idea into an accepted reality The Encore: How to repeat the process—again and again. Imagination is one of the least understood but most crucial ingredients of success. It's what makes the difference between an incremental change and the kinds of pivots and paradigm shifts that are essential to transformation—especially during a crisis. The Imagination Machine is the guide you need to demystify and operationalize this powerful human capacity, to inject new life into your company, and to head into unknown territory with the right tools at your disposal.

The Artist's Way

The Artist's Way
Author: Julia Cameron
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2002-03-04
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1101156880

"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold! Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.

The Creative Family

The Creative Family
Author: Amanda Blake Soule
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2008-04-01
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0834822040

When you learn to awaken your family’s creativity, wonderful things will happen: you’ll make meaningful connections with your children in large and small ways; your children will more often engage in their own creative discoveries; and your family will embrace new ways to relax, play, and grow together. With just the simple tools around you—your imagination, basic art supplies, household objects, and natural materials—you can transform your family life, and have so much more fun! Amanda Soule has charmed many with her tales of creativity and parenting on her blog, SouleMama. Here she shares ideas and projects with the same warm tone and down-to-earth voice. Perfect for all families, the wide range of projects presented here offers ideas for imaginative play, art and crafts, nature explorations, and family celebrations. This book embraces a whole new way of living that will engage your children’s imagination, celebrate their achievements, and help you to express love and gratitude for each other as a family.

Creativity, Inc. (The Expanded Edition)

Creativity, Inc. (The Expanded Edition)
Author: Ed Catmull
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2014-04-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0679644504

The co-founder and longtime president of Pixar updates and expands his 2014 New York Times bestseller on creative leadership, reflecting on the management principles that built Pixar’s singularly successful culture, and on all he learned during the past nine years that allowed Pixar to retain its creative culture while continuing to evolve. “Might be the most thoughtful management book ever.”—Fast Company For nearly thirty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, and WALL-E, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner eighteen Academy Awards. The joyous storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Here, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable. As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream as a Ph.D. student, and then forged a partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his founding Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986. Nine years later, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. The essential ingredient in that movie’s success—and in the twenty-five movies that followed—was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at Pixar, based on philosophies that protect the creative process and defy convention, such as: • Give a good idea to a mediocre team and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team and they will either fix it or come up with something better. • It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them. • The cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them. • A company’s communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody. Creativity, Inc. has been significantly expanded to illuminate the continuing development of the unique culture at Pixar. It features a new introduction, two entirely new chapters, four new chapter postscripts, and changes and updates throughout. Pursuing excellence isn’t a one-off assignment but an ongoing, day-in, day-out, full-time job. And Creativity, Inc. explores how it is done.

Imaginative Realism

Imaginative Realism
Author: James Gurney
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2009-10-20
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0740785508

A examination of time-tested methods used by artists since the Renaissance to make realistic pictures of imagined things.