Food Faces

One of the 52 techniques for getting your creative juices flowing that I feature in my book Unstuck is called Meal Emotions. This project encourages you to play with the leftovers from one of your meals to make a face. I recently had a chance to put this technique into a project for one of my clients at  Another Limited Rebellion.

The Broad Appétit food and art festival in Richmond, Virginia had me eat meals at eight of the featured restaurants and create faces from the foods I was served. It was an extremely fun way to create art for a client and a great excuse to eat out at some wonderful restaurants. In addition we made a ninth face at FeedMore, a local food bank, which gave me a chance to visit and learn about something new in my own community.

Why not try making a food face from your next meal? It's not hard to do, pretty much anything can be used on your plate. Just experiment and have fun. Be sure to take a photo when you're done so you can share it with me. And hey, if you're in the Richmond, Virginia area add the tags #FoodFaceRVA and #BroadAppetit to your image when you share it on your favorite social network and you could actually win some free food at the forthcoming event!

Three Walls

I recently had a conversation about the Three Wall concept with budding designer Alisa Katz and after our talk she sent me this great image of her own discovery of a literal version of the idea.

One of the principles of creativity that I share in my book Unstuck is the idea that Freedom Comes From Limitations. I learned this in the course of doing my yearlong Skull-A-Day project. I discovered that rather than feeling constrained by having a pre-determined subject (a skull), a strict deadline (one day), and a specific materials to work with (everything from googly eyes to butterflies) I actually felt inspired and motivated to create!

I had always thought that I was being held back in my commercial creative work by the limits that my clients had been imposing on me, but it turned out that those were the exact things that generated my creative inspiration. But I had been expending my energy fighting those limits rather than embracing them and moving forward.

Now when I give talks on creativity I share this concept as Three Walls. If you've got no walls you're just floating in space, there's nothing to push against and you can't go anywhere. If you've got four walls, you're boxed in completely and can't go anywhere either. But if you've got just three walls you can use them for leverage as you rocket yourself out of the one opening you've got.

If this concept seems counterintunitive to you Here's a quick project adapted from my book Unstuck that you can use to experience it in just a few seconds:

ACRONYM
Did you know that the words “laser” and “scuba” were originally acronyms? SCUBA stood for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus and LASER stood for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, but now they’ve become words in their own right. This exercise gets your creative wheels turning by playing with the potential within the words around you.

HOW TO DO IT:

1. Set a timer for 30 seconds.
2. Choose one of these words: SKULL, BANJO, YOGURT, BOING
3. Write it vertically (one letter stacked above the other) on a piece of paper with plenty of space to the right.
4. Don’t spend too long thinking. Just pick a new word that starts with one of the letters within the word you've chosen and write it down in the space next to it.
5. Work around that first word to quickly create the rest of the acronym. It doesn’t have to be good or even vaguely relate to the word’s meaning. The idea is to do this fast to build up your skill at thinking on the spot.
6. If you finish before 30 seconds is up, create another acronym for the same word!

Need more creative inspirations? Pick up a copy of Unstuck at your local independently owned bookstore. or online at Powell's Books Amazon.com QBookshop Barnes & Noble or Chapters/Indigo

Let Go of Preciousness

Need some motivation in 2013? Here are the first two videos in an ongoing series on the keys to getting Unstuck that I recently created...





Want more? Check out my book Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing.

And stay tuned for additional videos in this series in the coming weeks!

Pecahkan Kebuntuan: Unstuck in Malaysia!

One of my favorite things about being a published author is finding out that your book has been translated into another language. This week I got a copy of my book Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing... in Malaysian!

I haven't found a place to purchase it online yet, but I hope my friends in Malaysia are able to get it at their local bookstores.

Get Unstuck at the New York Public Library

I will be at the New York Public Library this Saturday to lead their Hand-Made Crafternoon!

Saturday, April 14,  2 – 4 pm

New York Public Library

Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum

 

We'll be doing some of the exercises from my new book Unstuck along with a classic craft from my Skull-A-Day project!

The event is FREE and open to the public, though they do recommend making a reservation since space is limited. All the details can be found HERE.

If you're in the area I hope you'll come by and say hi!

Help Unstuck get to Internet Week New York

My company is pitching 3 panel proposals for Internet Week New York including one specifically on my new book Unstuck! Please help me get them selected by voting online...

Publish or Perish... dot com

A panel on creating books from blogs.

The Art of Innovation

A panel on the power of the artist to change the world!

Unstuck: Get and Keep Your Creativity Flowing

Tips on finding inspiration anytime/anywhere.

Get Unstuck in 30 Seconds with Terry Border

Terry Border the brilliantly twisted mind behind Bent Objects share how he gets unstuck in 30 seconds...

You can find more advice from Terry in my new book Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio!

And be sure to also watch the Unstuck videos from Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd, Young House Love's John & Sherry, storyteller Slash Coleman, artist Matt Lively, Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza, artist kHyal™, and Prophet's Andy Stefanovich as well!

Etsy like Unstuck

I was recently asked to write an article for Etsy's blog about getting motivated in the new year. In it I share six big ideas from my new book Unstuck as well as a project to try out right away!...

Read the entire article HERE.

Welcome to 2012!

Hey folks just a reminder that if you've decided to take on a creative project this year and/or you've recently finished one, I'd love to share about it on this site!

There are just a few basic questions to answer which you can find HERE.

I look forward to seeing what you create this year!

And remember that even if you don't want to take on a daily yearlong project, there still a lot you can do to get your inspiration flowing this year, including checking out my new book Unstuck, which includes 52 creative projects for getting motivated in as little as 30 seconds!

Happy Making!
-Noah

Accidental Creative likes Unstuck

I was recently interviewed about my new book Unstuck for the Accidental Creative podcast.

Listen to the entire interview HERE.

Wordy Birds likes Unstuck

I was recently interviewed about my new book Unstuck on the Wordy Birds radio program...

Listen to the entire interview HERE.

You can also listen to my previous interviews about my other books 365: A Daily Creativity Journal HERE and Skulls HERE.

Etsy likes Unstuck

If you missed my recent live interview about getting Unstuck on Etsy's Online Lab, you can now watch it here...

Watch live streaming video from etsy at livestream.com

Get Unstuck in 30 Seconds with Andy Stefanovich

Andy Stefanovich Chief Curator and Provocateur of Prophet shares how he gets unstuck in 30 seconds...

Be sure to also watch the Unstuck videos from Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd, Young House Love's John & Sherry, storyteller Slash Coleman, artist Matt Lively, Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza, and artist kHyal™ as well!

What about you? Make your own 30 second video about how you get unstuck and I'll share it on the blog! Just post to YouTube or Vimeo and send me the link at the submission address HERE.

Get Unstuck in 30 Seconds with kHyal™

Artist kHyal™ shares how she gets unstuck in 30 seconds...

Be sure to also watch the Unstuck videos from Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd and Young House Love's John & Sherry, Storyteller Slash Coleman, artist Matt Lively, and Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza as well!

What about you? Make your own 30 second video about how you get unstuck and I'll share it on the blog! Just post to YouTube or Vimeo and send me the link at the submission address HERE.

Unstuck Book Release Party: Richmond, VA

Hey Richmond folks, please come out celebrate the release of my new book Unstuck...

Saturday, December 3rd

5-7pm

Chop Suey Books

2913 W. Cary St.

Richmond, VA

804.422.8066

Hope to see you there!

NYCSubway Girl Interview

I had a lovely visit with Cathy Grier AKA NYCSubway Girl (who is one of the people featured in my new book Unstuck) on my recent trip to NYC...


Noah Scalin is Unstuck from NYC Subway Girl on Vimeo.

Be sure to check out Cathy's great series of "What inspires you?" videos on her site HERE.

Brainpickings likes Unstuck

Maria Popova wrote up a great post about Unstuck on Brain Pickings...

Read the entire article HERE.

Get Unstuck in 30 Seconds with Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza

In the spirit of my new book Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio, Boing Boing managing editor Rob Beschizza explains how he gets unstuck in 30 seconds...

What about you? Make your own 30 second video about how you get unstuck and I'll share it on the blog! Just post to YouTube or Vimeo and send me the link at the submission address HERE.

Unstuck officially released!

My new book Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio is officially in stores as of today!

It features 52 creativity boosting projects, that are arranged by time commitment from 30 seconds to several hours, and is designed to be used by anyone, regardless of age, profession, or level of skill. 

The book also features interviews with a dozen of my favorite inspiring people and how they deal with their own roadblocks to creativity.

In addition there are sidebars with even more projects to get your creative wheels turning.

And it includes plenty of blank space to use as you see fit!

I hope you'll pick up a copy today. As always I recommend supporting your local independent bookstore if you still have one, but if not you can also order online at Powells, Amazon.com, Qbookshop, Barnes & Noble, and Chapters/Indigo.

Get Unstuck in 30 Seconds with Matt Lively

Artist Matt Lively, who is interviewed in my upcoming book Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio, shows how he gets unstuck in 30 seconds...

Be sure to also watch the Unstuck videos from Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd and Young House Love's John & Sherry and Storyteller Slash Coleman as well!

What about you? Make your own 30 second video about how you get unstuck and I'll share it on the blog! Just post to YouTube or Vimeo and send me the link at the submission address HERE.