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Foreword Big Idea Patterns: Creativity Toolkit for Every Artist, by Cabe Lindsay

The “C” word scares people. “Creativity implies having a rare and mystical gift bestowed upon only a select few. But what if we shifted our thinking into allowing it versus having it? Being open to it rather than being it?

I traveled to Cuba in April, having only been once –– ten years before. Both times, I was amazed by the Cubans’ resourcefulness. In a country where scarcity is abundant and manufacturing is virtually non-existent, ideas for how to “resolver,” as they say in Spanish, or “solve/make do” are not. So little gets thrown out. The old (car, watch, bicycle) is simply made new. (Or newer.) Or transformed and reframed altogether. Creative problem solving is a daily requirement in a country where living with less is a daily reality. It is a natural response rather than a high-pressured edict.

By practicing the art of capturing creativity (jotting down the flash of inspiration, holding on to the source of an idea in tangible ways), we approach it. Ignore nothing and live fully awake. What if, like the lightning bugs we caught in the past, cupping our hands together so as to see the glow, creativity needs simply to be caught? It’s already there.

And it’s here. In the book you’re about to dive into. Read, learn, but also live the lessons…go, do, see, taste, run, love, and then, let creativity reveal itself in ways that are true for you.

Be bold. It is said that “fortune favors the brave.” So, too, does creativity favor the curious and the courageous.

—Maria Rivera, Texas Creative Instructor 2005-2013, The University of Texas at Austin

Poetry

You Could Be Wrong About a Lot of Things

I remember New York City in the rain.
Seattle has the rainy reputation,
but NYC’s average rainfall per year
is higher.
I lived in a 5-floor pre-war walk-up.
Occasionally, after descending those 5 floors on foot,
I’d realize it was raining, and I had no umbrella.
Walking back up 5 flights of stairs was not appealing most days.
So a new rule emerged:
If I’d forgotten something I needed for the day that cost fewer than $10,
I would purchase it out and about.

There is always someone selling umbrellas on a rainy day.
Seattle has the rainy reputation.
But there are so many cities in the U.S. that get more rain.
Mobile, Alabama is #1, Google tells me.
I lived in Alabama for 12 years, and I’ve never known this.
Question what you think you know.

Seattle
isn’t even
in the
Top 10.