Search for creative processing

It happens. Sometimes things just don’t click. I’ve been there and it’s a familiar place. But it’s not hopeless, which it so often seems. I was talking to a student today from the College of St. Scholastica design program and we were discussing creative hang outs. Until I was talking about it out loud, it never really dawned on me why I liked the places I liked, or what made them feel energetic. What we shared was we liked that these places were unfinished, or eclectic in some way. So when you’re looking for your brain to start processing, the places that make your brain work are the places that will feed you incoming ‘improvements’—enter the mind of the creative. Our conversation highlighted our local coffee shop downtown called Jitters and compared it to the Starbucks just down the street. OK, so Jitters has plastic plants, mauve wallpaper, and a varied mix of themes dressing their interior, but it’s a state of dare I say, ugliness, that stirs creativity. Starbucks has every i dotted and every t crossed, it’s warm, it’s friendly – it’s complete—there’s no heavy lifting left to do there. No more ideas. No more improvements. No energy. Like a creative coma. People find creativity in just about anything, but there is something provoking to say about raw, ignored reality.