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Articles by Ann Hawkins
My creativity advent calendar 2024: Day 10.
Ann Hawkins · Follow 2 min read · -- “I’m not creative” Pencil drawing of my hand by Ann Hawkins I’m one of those annoying people who is quite good at a lot of things but not very good at any of them — probably because I never felt interested enough to practice. I’m impatient and get bored easily.
My creativity advent calendar 2024: Day 9.
Ann Hawkins · Follow 1 min read · -- Does someone who creates wealth count as a creative person? Cover of the novel “Trust” by Hernan Diaz I just finished the novel “Trust” by Hernan Diaz. It’s set in 1920's New York and it’s all about creating wealth. I’ve been thinking about all kinds of creativity for this series of essays but I just realised that creating wealth wasn’t on my list. Do other creative people think that wealth creators are in the same category or are they different?
My creativity advent calendar 2024: Day 7.
Ann Hawkins · Follow 2 min read · -- Is reading art? Books have always been a big part of my life and my Christmas list was always just books, most of which I still have. The Children’s Classic series with their plain red covers and small black titles had a list of all the titles they produced in the inside cover and I used to tick them off, working out how many I could get for Christmas and birthday presents. It was never enough.
My creativity advent calendar 2024: Day 6.
Ann Hawkins · Follow 2 min read · -- What does luck have to do with being creative? Shadows — Photograph by Ann Hawkins This photo is a result of pure luck. It’s the shadow of a wooden artists figure and a hole punch which were on the windowsill of my office. I noticed the shadow they’d created on the wall made it look like the figure was trying to balance on the hole punch and it amused me so I took the photo. Do photographers benefit from luck more than other creatives?
My advent calendar 2024. Day 5.
Ann Hawkins · Follow 2 min read · -- Yesterday I quoted from Rick Rubin’s book “The Creative Act — A Way of Being”. The book has many contradictions but the thing I like most about it is the assertion that “We are all creative” and that creativity is about our relationship to the world.
My advent calendar 2024. Day 3
Ann Hawkins · Follow 2 min read · -- The last couple of posts have caused some people to reflect that we get most creative when we either have to fight for survival or we have the luxury of enough peace and tranquillity to get away from everyday distractions and worries. I’ve just had two reminders of where these two things can co-exist. The first is from Cairns my most looked forward to newsletter created by Joseph Denny-Braun.
My advent calendar 2024
Ann Hawkins · Follow 1 min read · -- I’m reading “12 Notes: On Life and Creativity” by Quincy Jones and one of the things he says is, “ … being creative isn’t simply a matter of what type of brushstroke you use or what key changes you write. I believe that survival is also an act of creativity. It’s a matter of seeking out new ways to stay inspired and creating paths that lead to a better future for yourself and others.” Do you see survival as an act of creativity?
Weekend musings …
I love it when a novel teaches me things I didn’t know or had only a vague idea about. Demon Copperhead tells the story of poverty in Appalachia, specifically Lee County, Virginia. I knew vaguely about the opioid addiction crisis and the various initiatives to bring industry to the area but knew little about it’s history and the unique set of circumstances that made the people resist efforts to become “wage slaves and tax payers”.
You are born alone. You die alone. The value of the space in between is trust and love.
You are born alone. You die alone. The value of the space in between is trust and love. The most important metric for creative work: resonance I love this essay on how people in creative businesses measure their worth and found that many of the ideas apply to people who don’t regard their businesses as “creative” too. “Most people who do creative things have at some point wondered what ‘success’ looks like and how to measure it.
The Things You Don't Know You Know
Fox with Hidden Bears by Sam Millard, How Original Art https://www.howoriginal.ca/ Are you wandering around in a fog about life? Think everyone else has all the answers? You almost certainly know more than you, yourself, recognize. This post from the wonderful Athene Donald has so much to say to all of us, whatever role we have in life. I highly recommend reading it, saving it and re-visiting it whenever you question yourself.
If Peace Were a Prize
The world of fable teaches us that even our most precious values are contingent, or won at great cost. By Salman Rushdie This is drawn from the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade acceptance speech given by Rushdie on October 22nd, as part of the Frankfurt Book Fair. "To begin, let me tell you a story.
Orange Energy by Jennifer Healey
All I want to do is delight - Throw the mask off, Not care and not worry, Not explain what I mean nor Define what I do. Just be whatever I feel like being. Just relish in the energy of this moment. I want to be so alive that I feel like the moon, Throwing tides just for fun, Creating because it's what I'm Here to do. I want to love the color orange, Just because it craves delight too. I want to cry because I'm so in love with the miracle of Being alive. I don't want to feel like I'm Striving.
"ART IS NOT BEAUTY OR NOVELTY; ART IS EFFECTIVENESS AND DISRUPTION."
I was invited to an event called "Practices of Refusal :Art and the Obsession with Participation" so of course I went down a rabbit hole to find out what it was all about. One of these rabbit holes led me to Documenta, a series of contemporary art exhibitions started in Germany in 1955.
Times change and we change with them.
"W e cannot wait for great visions from great people, for they are in short supply. It is up to us to light our own small fires in the darkness." Charles Handy, The Age of Paradox 1994 In his long career, Charles Handy explored the impact work has on people's lives and their need to find meaning in what they do for a living and how organisations should help them to lead better lives.
Mona Lisa Descending A Staircase
I discovered this extraordinary short film through an interview with documentary film maker Adrian Storey who was the director of photography on the film History, Mystery and Odyssey One of the subjects of Adrian's film is Joan C. Gratz, who created this seven minute Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase and won an Oscar for the Best Animated Short Film in 1993. Gratz pioneered an animation technique known as clay painting.
Living the Neurodivergent Dream
For years, Nathan Whitbread managed to cover up the fact that he didn’t think in the same way as his classmates and work colleagues. He explains what happened and how things changed when he decided to get his thinking style ‘diagnosed’ and was told “Well at least you’re not thick”. Helpful resources recommended by Nathan: Dr Amanda Kirby CEO of Do-IT Solutions. Campaigner for Neurodiversity, Medic, Knowledge Translator, researcher, D and I judge.
Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne
On the surface it is an innocent world: Christopher Robin, living in a beautiful forest surrounded by his loyal animal friends. Generations of readers of A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories have enjoyed these seemingly benign tales.1,2 However, perspectives change with time, and it is clear to our group of modern neurodevelopmentalists that these are in fact stories of Seriously Troubled Individuals, many of whom meet DSM-IV3 criteria for significant disorders (Table 1).
Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne
On the surface it is an innocent world: Christopher Robin, living in a beautiful forest surrounded by his loyal animal friends. Generations of readers of A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories have enjoyed these seemingly benign tales.1,2 However, perspectives change with time, and it is clear to our group of modern neurodevelopmentalists that these are in fact stories of Seriously Troubled Individuals, many of whom meet DSM-IV3 criteria for significant disorders (Table 1).
CMAJ Mobile
Somewhere at the top of the Hundred Acre Wood a little boy and his bear play. On the surface it is an innocent world, but on closer examination by our group of experts we find a forest where neurodevelopmental and psychosocial problems go unrecognized and untreated. On the surface it is an innocent world: Christopher Robin, living in a beautiful forest surrounded by his loyal animal friends.
In Ontario, We Shouldn't Need to Be Told That Teachers Matter
Digital Vision. Ask Ontarians how they feel about a teacher in their life, or in their children's lives, and you will hear a story of a figure who helped them overcome self-doubt or challenge, someone who led them to discover a passion or strength, or who spent time with their child to make sure that they would succeed.Now ask them how they feel about the current labour negotiations between teachers and the provincial government.
Teachers Are Spending This Summer Fighting for Your Kids
Jupiterimages via Getty Images How do teachers spend their summer vacation?If you believe a recent editorial, Ontario teachers and their labour unions are lounging at the beach and "putting their already-booked summer breaks before the kids' welfare."But anyone who knows a teacher, has one in their family or has benefited from their efforts in the classroom knows this opinion does a massive disservice to the men and women who dedicate their lives to educating young people.
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