Creativity Tip:
Transwordation ARTsignment™
Artellagram 7-28-12


If you've got a challenge in your life, sometimes solutions are playing hide-and-go seek in the very words you use to describe your situation. Here's a favorite ARTsignment™ called "Transwordation", in which you play with words to transform your thoughts about a given topic or challenge.

Try this:

1. Identify a current challenge in one single word.

2. Look up the word in a dictionary and read all the definitions. Open your mind to see any new ideas or meanings that come forward. Explore your ideas through free-form journaling, doodling, or sketching.

3. Continue journaling or doodling, and try tweaking the word and/or its definition, playing with rhyming sounds or alliteration, to see if another "version" of the word or definition reveals itself.

4. Capture your favorite insights in an illustration, such as the example shown here.



My example: one challenge I'm facing right now is getting organized again, after doing a lot of traveling lately. I looked up "organize" in a dictionary and was struck by the third definition listed:

to give organic structure or character


I love the word, "organic", but had never thought to apply it to my organization struggles. I felt a shift in thinking of the organization process as an organic one: suddenly I felt I could breathe, take my time, and allow the process to evolve naturally, instead of pushing myself.

When I played with the two words, I came up with lots of silly turns-of-phrase, but my favorite resulted in a new way to describe organization as an orCANic activity. This Transwordation reminds me: yes, I can do this, and do it at my own speed, in my own natural way.

The above work of art is my illustration, which reminds me of this new approach.




If you are interested in learning more about ARTsignments™ and the ARTbundance™ Certification Training program, visit, www.artellaland.com/ACT.html



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