Nit Wits #7: Snowman Escapes
EleMENTAL Interpretation  Posted
Jun-5-2005
One way to explore your creativity...
In my recent article, Yes,
You ARE Creative!, I challenged those who claimed not to have
a 'creative bone in their body' to try one of three creativity
exercises I guaranteed would help them to discover their hidden
creative selves.
The first exercise was an art challenge that stated:
If you choose:
ART
Draw, sketch, paint, or collage a picture that incorporates
these five elements (realistically or abstractly):
- Door
- Water
- Animal
- Time
- Currency
The intent of this exercise was to present subject elements
to work with, which helps facilitate the imagination when faced
with a blank canvas. The advantage of giving generic elements
such as "water" instead of a specific "cup of
water" allows abstract thinking to kick in and greatly
widens the artistic palette.
This exercise was inspired by a Photoshop class project I
had several years ago, which became the base for Nit Wits #7
("Snowman Escapes"). The design instructor gave our
class a similar exercise, which was to create a digital collage
that had to include these five elements, symbolically or otherwise:
- Water
- Sign
- Body Part
- Window
- Cage
I'll happily point out these elements in Nit Wits #7. First
of all, you're looking at a broken snow globe with a sign stuck
in the snow pointing towards the North Pole. In a reflection
on the bulby glass you see a snowman scooting away. Your imagination
fills in the details: Snowman gets tired of being stuck in
a snow globe, breaks out, and heads towards the North Pole.
Water is
the snow.
 Sign is the North Pole sign.
Body Part(s) is the snowman.
Window is the reflection of the
window on the bulby glass.
Cage is
the snow globe itself, a virtual prison to the snowman.
Pretty cool, huh?
I have to say that this was one of my favorite graphic design
class projects. Our entire class (comprised of all adults — a
majority between 40-50) had so much fun working on this project,
and later revealing the hidden secrets in their finished collages.
The creative energy flowing through everyone was exciting,
inspiring, and contagious.
As a side observation: It's cool how you can give a group
of people the same elements to work with, and know their final
works of art will be completely different interpretations of
the elements, expressed through their own mind's eye. No collage
resembled any other in our class, and the stories that evolved
with each work of art were a testimony of the creative ability
that lies within each of us just waiting to be stirred. (© 2005
Chris Dunmire) •
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