High Gear Creative Time

by Amanda Davis, Guest Blogger

In just one week, it will be time to celebrate Thanksgiving. With November moving by so fast, December is going to be here before we know it. When it comes time for these last two months of the year, my creative process kicks it into high gear, creating for friends and family.

Last month, I had the opportunity to talk about refurbishment of items others have thrown or given away. The holidays are the perfect time to use this creative license that we each possess and recreate something amazing.

This year, I am using quite a few of these great resources to recreate unique and lovely gifts for my family and friends. I just recently finished working on a Christmas ornament for a customer in Chicago. I use graffiti and Christmas bulbs from a thrift store and create one-of-a-kind pieces for them.

There are a few places that I like to really search for items to help recreate, including:

1. Thrift Stores – Thrift stores are often times filled with many items at this time of year, as people clear out their homes before more arrives to replace it. At thrift stores, there are a million things imaginative; some of my favorites are coffee cups, old plain Christmas bulbs, paintings, etc.

2. Garage sales – Though it is getting a little late in the year for garage sales, I know that the warm weather in Austin keeps them going.

3. Antique Markets

4. Flea Markets

5. And last but not least…the Trash!

All of these places take a creative mind to try and see what can be made (and with Pinterest there are endless opportunities for creative inspiration). Creative Action uses these creative skills to recreate everyday. Call Mary Alice Carnes at 512 442-8773 x 104 to take the opportunity to volunteer and see how these amazing individuals use their creative skills everyday.

Check out my blog to see my creative process, what new items are making an appearance, and what is happening in the life of this artist.

“Falling” Into Place

by Amanda Davis, Guest Blogger

Fall has been my favorite season for as long as I can remember and one that inspired me in the art world immensely. There is something about the fresh clean air, the color of leaves and the briskness that appears with fall that brings about this creativeness. Each season can be an inspiration, but the natural painting of fall is my inspiration.

Now you may ask why I talk about fall with such love, well the weather plus events seem to “fall” about at this time of year.

In the fall as the Marketing Associate for Theatre Action Project last year, I had the opportunity to see the wonders of creation come together at many Skill Shares put on by Miss Cassie and the Teaching Artists. After what seemed like a long summer, I enjoyed seeing these inspiring people come back together and share their skills with each other.

P.S. Fall not only brings about beautiful colors but wonderful memories as well. This was also the time that I would normally head back to school as a kid and be thrown back into the wonder that was art class. I never failed to make it feel like Christmas as I arrived in art class that first day and BRAND NEW art supplies were passed out. I was so overjoyed that I wasn’t even sure if I wanted use it, mostly because it looked so lovely (which is silly of course and I used it anyway, but with great caution).

Kid’s Kollage: First Day of School Memory

by Amanda Davis, Guest Blogger

Kid’s Kollage

I was the kid always wondered when summer was going to be over so that I could go back to class. One of my favorite school memories just might be when I started preschool, which seems like so many years ago now. My preschool was called Kid’s Kollage and I had eight other students in my class. I remember walking in and seeing these kids and thinking that this was going to be spectacular. I couldn’t believe that I was going to get to learn, sing and play with this amazing group.

Ever since that first day of school, I have always loved meeting so many amazing people. That same group of students that I started preschool with, I graduated with and we finished high school together, all except one student. We went back my senior year of high school to see our old preschool teacher and she was amazed to see her students grown up and how much she still inspired us.

P.S. Another favorite first day of school memory was when I started in the 1^st grade as full time student. I loved school.

Look Around

by Amanda Davis, Guest Blogger

Last week, I had the opportunity to spend time in Chicago with an amazing group of people. We traveled, saw the city and had a wonderful time, but the thing that inspired me the most was the town we stayed in: Oak Park, IL, in the Arts District. Being quite the fan of people that create and sell amazing pieces of art, I couldn’t help but be inspired. In Oak Park there are:

• painted benches
• little art studios,
• and even a cool little coffee shop with art hung from the wall.

Looking at all these pieces, my mind spun with creative ideas and how I could be a person to inspire others around me as well as what piece of art I was going to create next.

As you travel this summer, keep in mind the little pieces of inspiration that lie around you in the cities and towns you go to or even in the town you stay in. You never know what piece could inspire you next. If all else fails, travel to Theatre Action Project where art oozes from the walls and inspiration lies in every person that works there.

Combating Boredom

by Amanda Davis, Guest Blogger

Summer has began and even here in Missouri it is starting to warm up. Summer for me always meant that I couldn’t truly enjoy being outdoors for more than a few hours because of the heat. When I was younger it also meant the summer boredom after more than a few weeks of being out of school. So to combat that boredom, I would always take the opportunity and go to summer camp or take summer classes to keep my mind fresh. It made summer much more enjoyable.

Well, even as an adult I need to work on keeping my mind creative sometimes. This May and June, I decided to start on a new project. For the last 16 days, I have been working on a creative challenge called the 30 Day Drawing Challenge. I have been doing a new drawing and posting it on my personal blog every day. This has allowed me to not only keep my mind fresh, but by the end to have 30 awesome new drawings. The best part about this challenge is making each drawing a little different and mixing up my mediums. In a way, I feel as though I have created my own summer drawing camp.

Theatre Action Project has many resources for your own kids to keep them creative during the summer. Each week, summer camp will introduce them to some new creative endeavor that can combat that summer boredom and bring out the creative child that you have.

P.S. My favorite summer camp memory comes from me being a camp counselor in Upstate New York during the summer of 2009. As Arts and Crafts Counselor, I had fun teaching art to the girls, but the best part of camp was the friends that I made that summer. My favorite event of the summer was Red VS Green, a relay among the staff doing zany activities. I was on Green Team and even though we lost, it was still one of the best staff activities we ever did.