A lot of times limitations can seem like heartbreaking obstacles. For example, not having a surplus of money to spend on a ton of material things, having limited free time, having nothing but a kitchen table to work out of. I believe that these limitations are the fertile soil in which your creativity will blossom and shine the brightest. Use the limitations in your life to fertilize your creative soil.
How do you do this? How can we use limitations to our creative advantage?
Ask yourself questions such as:
What other way can I see this in?
Is there an opportunity I'm not seeing here?
How can I use what's already at my disposal to solve this problem?
Historically, most of the greatest inventions have come from someone bumping into an obstacle and then seeking to solve it for themselves.
How my own limitations led me to being an artist:
As a kid I was painfully shy and quiet. Always stuck in my head. On top of this I didn't speak English until around sixth grade. Let's just say I was pretty invisible at school and everywhere I went. Since I struggled to communicate and also grew up feeling inadequate with my language skills I turned to visual art.
I instinctually made lemonade out of a limitation. I've never stopped making art decades later. Ironically it's because of being an artist that I learned to be more confident and self assured. You see, to keep doing what I love I've had to grow and do public speaking, write all the time, and speak about my work.
The limitation that brought me to art in the first place was the one thing that has made my voice the loudest in an unexpected way. I'm no longer invisible to myself anymore.
Aluminum Foil Ornaments:
One morning I came up with the idea to make ornaments for our tree and as gifts. We were also missing the iconic north star on our Christmas tree so I wanted us to make a giant handmade star that my daughter and I could use every year.
Of all the materials I had on hand I decided to revisit my old art teacher roots and attempt hand making ornaments out of aluminum foil.
What's needed:
A roll of aluminum foil
Modge Podge or nontoxic glue mixed with water
A bowl for the glue mixture
Tissue paper and glitter
This is a quick and easy kid-friendly holiday activity I highly recommend!
Just scrunch up the aluminum foil into your desired shape and keep adding and scrunching the foil until you like the thickness. It's a material that's easy to work with and satisfying to scrunch up.
Once you have your shape, dip the tissue paper into the Modge Modge or glue+water mixture and wrap the aluminum foil shape to your liking.
Happy Sculpting!
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