About Chris Dunmire, Creative Slush, and the Ants

Quick Bio (Third-Person Stuff)

Chris Dunmire is engaged creatively as an artist, writer, and founder-ongoing-weaver of Creativity Portal®. Chris is a Master-in-Training Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach™ and ambassador to the Modern Day Muses. See also: 15 Minutes Scrapbook.

Slow Bio

How would you describe yourself if all of the labels invented by others to identify, sort, and categorize you didn't exist? An interesting question and deep topic for another time...

For the surfacy now, Chris Dunmire plays with a variety of labels: a cultural creative, creativity coach, artist, writer, humorist, and creativity enthusiast who lives for inspiring people of all ages and abilities to explore and express creativity.

This Web site, Creative Slush™, is Chris's online aMUSEum and virtual scrapbook of humor & play peppered with her creative milestones, printable jokes, inspiring tidbits, and punny tongue-in-cheek humor. Chris also runs the Web site CreativeSlush.com, where you can instantly download her assortment of self-published books and printable products.

Chris plays with life, writes prolifically on creativity, develops engaging activities and art projects, creates zany humor, and shamelessly plugs other people, organizations, and entities spreading love, kindness, and creativity in the world.

Opening the Door Wider: Creativity Portal®

Chris is the founder and publisher of the online creativity community Creativity-Portal.com (listed multiple times on Writer's Digest's annual 101 Best Website list), and the author of You Can Draw Cartoony Things, Dollar Bill Origami Money Plant, and other printable play/ebooks available through CreativeSlush.com. She also facilitates art, writing, and creative play workshops ("playshops") for kids and is actively involved in fostering creative community and collaboration on- and off-line.

Creativity Coaching

Chris has accumulated hundreds of corporate training hours in coursework related to creativity, teamwork, skill-building and personal development, and has three creativity coach training certifications from 'America's foremost creativity coach' Eric Maisel, PhD, and is a certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach™ (a compassionate and playful coaching model she highly recommends developed by Jill Badonsky, MeD, with Robert Maurer, PhD).

In addition to the above, you can also find Chris engaged in the goings-on at Currentliving.com and CoachingYourCreativity.com.

Please Respect Chris's © Copyright

One way Chris likes to inspire others to have some offline fun is through her assortment of free printables, lessons, puzzles, coloring pages, and activities you can download for free on this site. Please review her Terms of Use before printing and using anything from this Web site.

Complimentary items are © copyrighted by Chris Dunmire, are for non-commercial use only, and may not be used for any commercial reason, copied, republished, or distributed anywhere else (in print or on the Web) without her written permission. Teachers, educators, and home-school parents/teachers have permission to duplicate as many copies of activities as needed for classroom use.

It is Chris's hope that you enjoy the articles, drawing lessons, activities, printables, and novelty things you find here and give credit where credit is due by not stealing her artwork, altering it in Photoshop (or other programs) and passing it off as your own, profiting from her work in any way, or copying and pasting any of her blogs and articles onto other Web sites, blogs, discussion boards, social networks, or elsewhere unless it is a 'fair use' excerpt (not half of the article) with commentary that includes a link back to the page the original article or feature appears on. Please contact Chris for offline publication reprint permissions. She appreciates your cooperation and support.

Enjoy the Free Stuff on ChrisDunmire.com!

The Slushy Ant Theme

The "slush-mire" theme is a play on Chris' last name (Dunmire). Creatively clever, eh? But when you think of slush, don't think of that leftover gray melting ick stuff that you wish would disappear off the roads after a long winter.

Instead, think of those yummy sweet slushy drinks you used to get as a kid! You know, the ones that attracted armies of ants on a hot, summer sidewalk. That's right...

Mmmmmm.... delicious creative slush!

Information. Inspiration. Reflections. Humor. Play. Creativity.

By Chris Dunmire

All of these things can be found within the pages of the Web site I nicknamed Creative Slush.

This site isn't just about my creative things. It's about the bits and pieces of inspiration that fuel my imagination and motivate me to be creative. It's about the little tangents my mind goes on to experiment and give into even the smallest of creative urges. It's my answer to "What inspires a Creativity Enthusiast?"

I find inspiration everywhere — from the amazing works of great masters to the humble hills constructed by ants. Pretty things are nice; but I'm more interested in the process. What happens to people when they express themselves 'freeatively' through art, writing, and other creative outlets? Usually something much more rewarding than the approval of critics.

Maybe you'll be inspired by some of the same people, places, or things that I am. No worries if you aren't. My motto: Take what's useful and leave the rest. Enjoy a different perspective. Watch someone else explore their creativity. Open your ears to a different voice. Celebrate our differences. And maybe take away something new. Enjoy!

Chris Dunmire
Creativity Enthusiast & Exuberant Humorist
www.ChrisDunmire.com

P.S. The "unplugged" work-in-progress nature of this site will undoubtedly reflect elements that will frustrate English teachers, copy editors, and grammar marms. To them I offer a pencil with an eraser and a piece of blank paper to doodle on until they feel better.

More of My Thoughts on Creativity
(Sorry, I just can't stop writing!)

I am a creativity enthusiast and student of life. I believe in the interconnectedness of all things and in the personal responsibility we have for our thoughts and actions towards ourselves and towards that which is outside of us. I believe in leaving positive impressions in the world for others to benefit from because the inescapable truth is that we all learn and grow from sharing knowledge and experience with one another.

I believe that “creativity” is as complex and multi-faceted as “love” and has many definitions and applications in our lives beyond bringing something new into existence. I believe that creativity encompasses not only artistic impressions and innovative inventions, but spiritual enlightenment. Creativity is a realm of vast exploration and expression, an engaging experience some people cannot live without. It is a driving force for waking each day, for piercing beyond the surface, for a continued existence in this complex world. •

© 2012 Chris Dunmire. All rights reserved.