Thursday, March 30, 2006

Sakura & Creativity

The cherry blossoms (sakura) are now blooming everywhere around me. The flowers are so pretty, I can hardly believe it. They're in the start phase this week in my area but toward the end, when the petals start falling, it's like standing under the most beautiful kind of rain.

On the news every night, they give reports of the Cherry Blossom Front along with the weather. This is serious business - these flowers only last a week or so when full blooming onsets and people must make plans for cherry blossom viewing parties!


Sakura are an indicator of spring, of things becoming alive again after a cold winter. When I first start a project I think I feel that same kind of vibrancy, that sense that things are waking up. In my case, it's usually not a gentle opening like that of the cherry blossoms, but more of an explosion. What's your take on creativity? How would you visualize it? I know at least one person who thinks of it as a
wound up spring, while Tess Gerritsen characterizes it as a "spigot from your brain".

Staying with creativity, what helps you create? I'm talking books, quilts, gardens - anything that requires use of the imagination. Do you love music while you work or is it silence that gets you going? Scented candles? Collages?
The Sims? Do you like to be in a certain place or can you create anywhere where you have a free moment?

3 comments :

Cyn Bagley said...

I usually create a spring poem. Something that gives me an idea of Spring... each spring is different. For some reason, spring is having a hard time starting this year... :-)

Oh... and I remember the cherry blossom festivals with wine. It was fun and usually cold too.

Nalini Singh said...

I loved the poem you put up on your site Cynthia :)

Cyn Bagley said...

Thank you Nalini. It is now an old poem, but I remember when I was so excited that it was getting published.