When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer – say traveling in a carriage,

or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep;

it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly.

Whence and how they come, I know not; nor can I force them.

Those ideas that please me I retain in memory, and am accustomed, as I have been told,

to hum them to myself.

Posthumous Portrait of Mozart by Kraft 1819

All this fires my soul, and provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself,

becomes methodized and defined,

and the whole, though it be long, stands almost completed and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it,

like a fine picture or a beautiful statue, at a glance.

Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once.

What a delight this is I cannot tell! All this inventing, this producing takes place in a pleasing lively dream.

Still the actual hearing of the tout ensemble is after all the best.

What has been thus produced I do not easily forget, and this is perhaps

the best gift I have my Divine Maker to thank for.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart is talking about going off-line; disconnecting from the pressure of producing his next piece.

When we are off-line, creative flow is more possible. We allow more opportunities to synthesize.

Being off-line may include dreaming, taking a walk, going to a museum or gallery;

a myriad of activities we may do alone.

Sometimes when the weather is bad, I may take walks through the bookstores

where there are tens of thousands of visual stimuli.

We incubate when we allow ideas to develop at their own pace.

it is like sleeping on an idea.

The best ideas come to me when I am in that moment of somnolence just before I fall asleep.

I keep a pad by the side of my bed. I write my ideas down less I forget them.

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Nope! This article is not necessarily about food photography, but it could be.

He sat alone in his grandmother’s tiny kitchen facing what most people would see as a plate of lumpy mashed potatoes mounted on chipped dinner plates with  a Greek ornamental motif on the perimeter. The seven year old saw the potatoes as snow covered mountains. He transported himself into a Yellowstone winter complete with wolves, bison, elks, and otters, ice, wind, and blizzards.

The boy created a tunnel by digging with his fork and supporting the roof with toothpicks. He arranged the canned vegetables into a long winding railroad; gray-green pea, orange carrot cube, gray-green pea, orange carrot cube, pea, carrot – six inches long. Continuing his fantasy, his train disappeared into the potatoes. The engine appeared on the other side of the plate creating the illusion that the it was traveling through the tunnel.

He folded the linen napkin into a triangle and covered the lower part of his face. His eyebrows raised complimenting the sneer hidden by the mask. He lept onto his imaginary galloping palamino and robbed the train. He scooped a large blob of mashed potatoes from the serving dish. The sounds of gunshots created an avalanche as he threw potatoes at the gray-green peas and orange carrot cubes. The tunnel collapsed.

“It is disrespectful to play with your food!” exclaimed Grandma.

He did not hear. He was absorbed in creating his story. He covered the entire set with Pride of the Farm Catsup dollops and ate every morsel. He picked up the remnants of a slice of white bread and rubbed a clown’s face in the red sauce.

How did playing with food contribute to your own creative growth? As a child? As an adult? As an adult encouraging a child?

Create stories. Set up a situation with a child. Perhaps start playing with the food yourself. Offer them the food to play with. Be inventive. Encourage creativity. Withhold the voice of the adult. Make sure no one stifles the play. Make sure no one says, “Don’t play with your food!”

This may make an interesting short video or multi-media piece. it would be best to play without an attachment to an outcome.

Do it your way. Send me your story and/or low res jpegs.  I will post them on this blog for you. iansummers@heartstorming.com

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For more about playing with your food, see my post about Matthew Klein.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Played With Food

Milan, Italy 1527-1593

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I have dedicated a major part of my life searching for an understanding of the creative process. Here is a video that will show you how to nurture creative juices. Please let me know what you think.

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