Trusting the Process: The Evolution of my Creativity

Verse of Day:

"The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools."

Proverbs 3:35 (KJV)

My Fairy Room :) Complete with book shelves, knick-knacks and trinkets because my fairy is a maximalist :D

Instead of narrowing it all down to me being an obssessive daydreamer with a habit of creating whole movies in her head (that can sometimes last for days), I'm going to walk you through my creative process when I'm creating art and writing stories. My ideas come to me in a very abstract way, and what I mean is that I have thought of the end of a story before I've thought of a way to start it and there are times where something extremely small can spark an entire year long project. As a child, I would play out my stories in my hear with the aid of music and my imagination. I would use songs to help me create the tone of the story I'm trying to tell, I'd use characters I saw on TV to place into the dialogue I wanted and only after I'm satsified would I go make the story come to life with my dolls and doll house. My entire room became the book and my mind was the pen. I was the best writer before I could actually write.

It's the very fact that I can recall the stories I never wrote down and tell them, TODAY that lets me know this was something I was born to do. It's engraved in my DNA and I'm so blessed to be in a headspace where I can share it. As I grew, the way I came up with work grew too. I was a dreamer, even then....I remember every dream I've ever had and have written about them and published them. I call it the gift of Joseph, and I've always felt more connected to Jospeph than any other person in the Bible, both my husband and I have dreams that are messages of hope or warning and its one of our spiritual gifts that I don't take lightly. I've had dreams that inspired poetry, paintings and stories, I consider them my best works.

There are times where the only parts I have of an idea are the atoms of it that I have to put together. It could be a color on a certain type of fabric, it could be a screen saver or even a smell! I have so many sketchbooks, journals, notepads and virtual memo's that are riddled with blue-prints to my art work and books, I look back on them from time to time when I'm in search of inspiration. The only difference between now and then is that my work is now available for others to read and I don't write just for myself anymore.

When people have asked me "how do you come up with that?", I can't really give them a direct response aside from "my imagination" because it really is a fluid concept with me as I'm sure it is with many others. (So I wrote this), In hopes that it anwers that question in a more concrete manner.

If you're interested in seeing any more of my work outside of the blog, I have books available on amazon.com and lulu.com (NOT Lulu Lemon!) my online art portfolio is available as well, (it's in need of being updated with my new stuff but features quite a most if not all of my best work.) I'll share links below and remember..

Books on Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/search?page=1&sortBy=RELEVANCE&q=Jasmine+Howard&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=00

Books on Amazon: Go to Amazon and search "Books by Jasmine Howard" (Please Note: These are the titles available here; The Abc's of Culture, From the Chrysalis, and The Butterfly that Dreamed of Phoenix Wings. )

Art Portfolio: https://jasminehoward959.wixsite.com/jcr8s

"For the love of life and the pursuit of the arts, stay prayerful and write on!"