Written by Amy Stoltenberg
Photo by Katherine Rountree
Summer 2014 is upon us at last, and that means freedom from rigid rubrics, cutthroat critiques and a grading system that doles out values for both art and artist. Without the constant pressure from what is the American academic system, it can be easy to lay back and let your brain take a vacation. However, staying creative even without required projects and assignments is imperative for staying sharp as an artist.
“Creativity is a practice. Like so many other skills, if you don’t maintain the practice, your skills begin to wane,” wrote Creative Thinking Strategies professor Scott Thorp.
Thorp, who teaches a class centered on how to be creative, advocates the three main points of staying creative over the summer: setting goals, producing output and being curious.
“Curiosity is the fuel for creativity. By poking around and looking at interesting stuff, we’ll be more compelled to find out even more stuff,” said Thorp.
Tips to provoke curiosity? Take an unusual vacation and explore somewhere you’ve never been before. Spend time in nature. Keep an eye out for gaps in your knowledge, and then work to fill those gaps.
The next step is to take that new information and turn it into something tangible.
“It’s funny how much creativity is about managing time. So often, we let time go by without making good use of it. Establishing short term and long term goals for the summer is a great way to overcome this… While setting goals doesn’t sound all that creative, it ensures that you’ll actually do something. That’s most of the battle,” said Thorp.
Thorp explained these short term goals could simply be an “idea log,” or “to-do list” of 20 ideas every week.
Fourth-year animation major Kelly Larkin from Skillman, New Jersey, plans to stay productive this summer in more ways than one. Larkin will stay at SCAD, working as a summer seminar assistant, doing animation for two small indie game studios and begin working on her senior project.
“I’m working on my senior film, developing the modeling and texturing and rigging and all of the basic stuff that I need to do before I can start my senior film. I’ll be finishing up all of the pre-visuals and the concept art, and really solidifying the story,” said Larkin.
For second-year motion media major Ana Vivoni from Gurabo, Puerto Rico, summer is the time to learn as much as possible to get prepared for major classes come fall quarter.
“I just wanna practice motion media, so [I need to learn] After Effects. I’ll just be going to Linda.com and trying to see if I can find anything to help develop my skills,” said Vivoni.
Regardless of major, having strategies like these in place to continue to grow as an artist over the summer will benefit you not only for the next three months, but in the long run of your artistic career.
“What my mentor [told me] was that I needed to have some obligation, or plan to be an artist. Otherwise, I’d just wait for a later time to do so. It’s so easy to put off things to tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes, ” wrote Thorp,
It’s time to get serious about your summer. You can’t simply hit “pause” on creativity and expect it to start again in the same place after three months. Make a list, plan a trip and schedule time for creating, because isn’t that what we all love to do, after all?