It’s been a busy month for Creative Liberty! I was able to kick off July by posting my first podcast to the blog, an interview with workplace innovation consultant Linda Naiman.The podcast is the first in what I hope will be a series of audio interviews with the world’s top creativity and innovation experts. I also hope to provide you with audio and video content from everyday artists and innovators, as they discuss questions of meaning and livelihood common to most of us who exercise our creative muscles on a regular basis.

 

I’m also hard at work on the first of what I plan to be a series of e-guides that offer tips on how to increase your productivity as a creative person. More on that in August!

Meanwhile, I tip my hat to the idea of the summer rerun in my feature section, including the best links from the first year of Creative Liberation for your consumption and re-enjoyment. I also include new links designed to update you on the Creative Liberty blog, stimulate your brain via cross-pollination, and discuss the impact of aging on creativity.

 

Our readership has grown all year, and if you like what you see here, please don’t hesitate to share the newsletter with the tools provided below. If you have ideas for features, want to share a link, or have an idea for an interview, please let me know. And thanks so much for reading!

 

Enjoy! If you want to connect with me on matters related to the e-newsletter, please e-mail lizmassey68@hotmail.com.

 

— Liz Massey

 

When I was a kid, back in the dawn of the age of cable, one of the worst times of year tended to be the middle of summer, when everything “went into reruns.” When there were only 3 networks, you tended to have time to see almost all the TV shows you wanted to the first time around, and reruns were only useful when you had missed the content the first time around. Everyone else seemed to get bored and complain about the lack of new shows.

 

Fast forward (now there’s an archaic phrase!) to today. Reruns rule the world. For hit shows like Showtime’s “Weeds” or HBO’s “True Blood,” fans practically DEMAND to have every existing episode made available to them before the beginning of a new season, or as a way to keep their love of the storyline alive between seasons.

 

If you’ve been a subscriber to Creative Liberation newsletter for very long, you know that I love to share links about the creative process. No one can possibly access all the great content there is out there about creativity; my goal is to help you find some of the best stuff I’ve encountered to boost your own creative journey.

 

Last month, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of the newsletter, and I thought this month would be a great time to look back over the links I shared and “rerun” some of the finest. Hopefully, your summer schedule will slow down enough so that if you missed following any of these links the first time around, you can enjoy them now and charge in to August filled with inventive passion and happiness.

 

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
Excellent summary of ways to present information visually.

15 Unusual and Creative Bus Stops
A public works design feast for the eyes from Toxel.com, a design blog.

The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions
From Information is Beautiful blog. Funny, informative and 100 percent true!

Museum of the Phantom CityPhantom City
A fantastic iPhone app by Irene Cheng and Brett Snyder has come to market in New York City. Sponsored by the Van Alen Institute, Museum of the Phantom City is "a public art project that allows individuals to browse visionary designs for the city of New York on their iPhones."

Whitney Music Box
A musical realization of the motion graphics of John Whitney as described in his book “Digital Harmony.” Animation and music by Jim Bumgardner of krazydad.com and coverpop.com. TOTALLY addictive!

Why Business Leaders Should Act More like Artists
Designers John Maeda and Becky Bermont, writing at HarvardBusiness.org, argue that artists have plenty to teach entrepreneurs in terms of how they work.

TED Blog: Taking apart the art of puzzles
At the 2008 EG conference, famed puzzle designer Scott Kim takes his audience inside the puzzle-maker's frame of mind. Sampling his career's work, he introduces a few of the most popular types, and shares the fascinations that inspired some of his best.

The Laundromat Project - Wash Clothes::Make Art::Build Community
The Laundromat Project is a community-based, non-profit arts organization committed to the well-being of people of color living on low incomes. Understanding that creativity is a central component of healthy human beings, they bring art programs to where people already are: the local laundromat. The project aims to raise the quality of life in New York City for people whose incomes do not guarantee broad access to mainstream arts and cultural facilities.

Black and WTF
A Tumblr photoblog featuring crazy, disturbing and just plain weird old photos.

Daily Painting Practice - Copying from a Master (living or dead)
Peter Yesis, writing on his blog about his daily painting practice, provides details and a few photos of his suggestion to comb old art magazines to find master works one can copy from and learn. He also suggests this might make a great daily-painting party idea.

The Art of Pitching Ideas | American Express OPEN Forum
Matthew May, author of In Pursuit of Elegance, asserts that creative entrepreneurs need to be well-versed in the art of effective presentations, and offers the Pecha Kucha and 10/20/30 models as useful templates to work from.

Mindbloom | Grow the life you want.
The objective of Mindbloom’s Life Game is to grow the life you want by creating and maintaining a Life Tree where the branches represent areas of life that matter to you (e.g. health, spirituality, relationships, leisure, lifestyle, finances, creativity, and career) and the leaves represent specific goals, passions, or dreams.