improvarama

  A business call that takes too long. A meeting that's rambling. Waiting for the copy machine. There must have been times when an odd doodle showed up and grew into something collecting, something expressing. Here's an idea -- the next time you reach for your device to idly scroll, instead pick up a pen and some paper and doodle. It does not need to be anything at all. Doodle. Poke it. Prod it. Dress it up in your favorite doll house.  You will not have wasted your time. Think Tank Leakage - collage/mixed media/sketch by douglas brent smith, 1997.

  The imagination likes to dare you to go deeper. Go ahead, but buckle-up. -- doug smith

  Improv Activity: Draw a map. Pay no attention to accuracy, simply represent some area with your own original map. Write three lines describing your map. Next Level: Improvise a scene based on your map, or, write a short piece (poem, story, description) based on your map. Materials Needed: Paper and pen or something else to construct your map.

  "Madness likes to call itself creative, but that doesn't mean that it is." -- doug smith OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: 1. Draw a picture. Keep drawing until you fill the page, no matter what develops. 2. Say something about it in one sentence.

Do you still doodle? You can probably remember a time in your life when you doodled a lot. Sometimes we draw less as we get older. It happens, but it doesn't HAVE to happen. We can keep drawing. We can keep sketching. And, when we do it fuels our creativity. Try bringing that same spirit of improvisation to some random, spontaneous drawing. it doesn't have to be good (although it might be!) -- it just has to flow. This is sa drawing I made in 1976. I'm fairly certain, although that was a long time ago, that I drew it in one sitting, without doing anything else.  Remember, it doesn't need to be great art to help your creativity.  -- doug smith  

  Drawing: Street Scene Purple , by douglas brent smith from Journal #7, The Eclectic Trance Dance , 1974