Art for Happiness - Val Andrews

If you've ever felt the urge to express yourself creatively, but you're not sure where to start, this book could be what you're looking for. Supported by contemporary research on the creative process, and sparkling reviews from readers, -Art for Happiness: finding your creative process and using it- is bound to inspire you. Crammed with information and exercises, this book will help you find your own ideas for realising your creative potential, and will provide you with the structure to see your creative projects through to completion. PART 1 is all about YOU. By asking you 5 key questions, it will tease out what's really important to you and how you view your creative self. It also leads you through some creative visualisations and prompts you to consider ways in which you can use these to fuel your creative ideas. There are also some exercises to help you focus your intentions on the creative work you want to do. PART 2 is all about your creative self. This starts with exercises to help you manage any negative self talk, and to work in partnership with your internal critic. There are also some exercises to help you find your creative conceptsand to protect your emerging creative self. Exercises to help you get into the zone of creative work and to manage your creative energy, are also included. PART 3 is about inspiring your creative self, with exercises to help you mine your childhood memoriesand major life events. There are also some stream of consciousness exercises you can do to extract key creative ideas from your subconscious and bring them forth into your creative projects. Dreamwork is also included, drawing upon the teachings of CG Jung. PART 4 helps you to sustain the momentum of your creative energy and ideas. There are exercises to help you ground yourself in your creative space, how to care for your creative self and share experiences with other artists who have similar interests to you. The processes for keeping your vision alive and recycling creative ideas alive are also covered in this part of the book. It also explains the difference between creativity and innovation and how you can move from one to the other. PART 5 of this book includes interviews with a number of established artists and writers; exploring their creative process and how they think and feel about their creative work. The final section of this book lists a number of other books for further reading on specific topics and ideas explored in this book. If you are interested in developing your creative self, but feel a bit stuck, this book will help you to get unstuck and get your creative energy flowing again.