The Cornerstones of Creativity
Strengthening creative skills—from working with your hands to expanding your thoughts—leads to a greater sense of self, purpose and joy that’s life-changing.
By intentionally practicing creativity, you will learn to analyze clearly, think deeply, engage playfully with art materials and animate the part of you that wants to have more fun—and be your most authentic self in the process.
The Cornerstones of Creativity provide a framework to practice and develop your creativity.
As a child I was spontaneous and joy-filled, but somewhere along the path to adulthood, confidence leaked away, until I was unsure and tentative.
People around me weren’t any help, with their critical opinions and dismissive attitudes. I was on a broken road, and couldn’t find my map.
One maxim advises “when the student is ready, the teacher will come.” Some people might think that’s a cliche, but I don’t. Every time I’ve longed for change in my life – my ability to be authentic and real in my work – a shift occurred.
Recognizing the Cornerstones of Creativity was one of those shifts. Articulating them didn’t happen early for me, but when they fell into place it was one of those moments when you realize something has always been there. You just weren’t ready to see it.
The cornerstones are the underpinnings of creative strength training. The CST community talks about a lot of things - art, making, archetypes, integrity, grace. But the four cornerstones – curiosity, clarity, community, and confidence – tie it all together. Each is a worthy goal alone, but together they produce a creative energy that’s unstoppable.
If you're on a broken road creatively and have lost your map, come talk about the cornerstones in February. There’s a line in a song: “God bless the broken road that led me straight to you.” That’s not a line limited to romance. It just as readily sums up how we feel when we have finally met our tribe, and they are us. That’s what CST can do. When you join us in the quest for curiosity, clarity, community, and confidence, you’re no longer on a broken road alone. Somebody’s always ready to share her map.
Curiosity: Engaging Your Child Self
Live Date: Monday, February 7, 2022
Creativity exists just like air and gravity, but some people never pay attention to the fact that it’s around them.
They haven’t yet tapped their creative intelligence, in the same way that not everyone has tapped emotional intelligence. And yet these inherent ways of knowing exist in us, waiting to be acknowledged. How do you recognize your own creative spark and then nurture it? One way to begin is by inviting the Child in you to come for a play date! Playing is not a waste of time, no matter what anyone tells you. It’s research of the highest order and a surefire route to cultivating curiosity.
Clarity: Befriending Your Saboteur
Live Date: Friday February 11, 2022
Clarity is the ability to be clear – about your preferences, use of time, purpose and goals.
A side benefit of cultivating curiosity is that you begin to know what you don’t like in addition to knowing what you DO like! Knowing yourself better reinforces your desire to employ a creative approach to your world. And is the best possible way to avoid sabotaging yourself, or the people who sabotage you. In this session I’ll talk about how to cultivate clarity, and use it to make changes in your life.
Community: Building Victorious Relationships
Friday, February 18, 2022 Noon CST
When we engage with other people deliberately in a setting where everyone is aligned with the same purpose – deepening creatively – we are building Conscious Community.
The problem is that too often we feel isolated from others or don’t feel supported. We may even begin to feel a little bit like a victim because we don’t fit in or don’t know where to look for a positive tribe. In this session I’ll talk about where to find a community that has your back, just as you have theirs. It’s a win-win victory for everyone!
Confidence: Having Faith in Yourself
Friday, February 25, 2022 Noon CST
Confidence in your creative abilities is strengthened when you try something new and feel good about the outcome.
Confidence is strengthened over time with consistent practice, but many of us lack confidence when we compare ourselves to others. It’s hard to dismantle the conditioned belief that we aren’t as creative as other people we know, and that keeps us from trying the very things that might help us feel more confident. In this closing session on the Cornerstones of Creativity, we’ll talk about how to cultivate the kind of faith in ourselves that can ripple out and be life-changing.
Jane Dunnewold is an artist who writes. Although her popular book, Creative Strength Training: Prompts, Exercises and Stories to Inspire Artistic Genius was written to help artists find deeper joy in creating, her strategies apply to anyone seeking a more creative and boldly authentic life. Jane lectures and leads workshops that honor and encourage our human desire to create. She has a degree in psychology and religious studies from Baldwin-Wallace University, and twenty-five years of hands-on training in surface design processes.
Zenna James is deeply interested in the world around her. She has a BA in Anthropology and History from the University of Texas in Austin and has worked as a yoga instructor, is trained as an advocate for survivors of sexual assault and has worked as a technical consultant. She assists her mother Jane in all things technical and is excited to strengthen her own creativity with the vibrant CST community again this year.
These are our core beliefs:
Creativity is not only available to creatives. It is a human and innate ability.
Creativity is an essential tool that makes navigating the modern world more rewarding and fun.
Community is an important component of creative living.
You’re worth it. You deserve to be here.
Join the community.
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