Day 6: Cultivating Creativity with Shannon Delaney
Welcome to Day 6 everyone!
{I want to say Welcome Ya’ll! but I’m not really from the south and don’t have the accent to say Ya’ll like my friends and family do, but is it still ok that I say it to ya’ll?? You can pretend it is being said with a perfect Texan accent I pick up from visiting my in-laws and family down in Dallas.}
Ok Ya’ll let’s get to Day 6!
I am excited to introduce you to my very talented and sweet friend, Shannon Delaney! Shannon is a Mother, teacher, massage therapist and artist. Currently she is working on illustrating a children’s book for a brand new publishing company called Sacred Stories. The book is called Albert the Peace Tree and is due out near the holidays.
Shannon is also in the process of building a website and setting up an etsy shop, so for now you can find her on her artist page on facebook as Shannon Delaney (artist). She is coming to us from Greenwich, CT. She is also a Handmade U alum and I enjoyed every bit of time I had with her this past Spring semester!
Enjoy this conversation with Shannon Delaney!
Cultivating Creativity with Shannon Delaney from Rachel McGough on Vimeo.
Fun to have Shannon share that “Colere” is the Latin for the English word “cultivate.”
Some of the definitions of Cultivate:
1: to prepare or prepare and use for the raising of crops; also : to loosen or break up the soil about (growing plants)
2: to foster the growth of : to improve by labor, care, or study : refine
4: to seek the society of : make friends with
I can see Cultivating Creativity in all of those definitions. Preparing things to be creative, loosen up your mind and create the flow you need to be creative. Fostering the growth of you being creative, give yourself permission, ALLOW yourself the chance to be creative. Further, encourage, and make friends with your creativity!
Lucky for us Shannon did start an Instagram account for her art after our conversation. Follow her over @shannondelaneyart
I am excited for Shannon’s book to come out so I can see her artwork illustrating a book!
Talking about illustrating made me think of the blank story book in my art studio just waiting for me to fill it in. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a few of these to either collage in or draw, paint, etc. and add a little story in it for a loved one? Something fun to try, and an inexpensive canvas for you to work in!
When Shannon and I talked about taking time to experiment and just see what comes of your creativity it made me think of a few things. #1 all the fun experiment toys for kids. They give kids supplies and probably some instructions, but how many kids follow the directions? Instead they try all kinds of mixing and matching to see what they can come up with on their own!
Boy when we have kids we are going to be all over these!
I’m tempted to order a couple of these just for me and Cora McGough! 
The second thing I thought of in our conversation was the fun experiment I did recently that came from Danielle Donaldson’s book.
I have wanted to spend some time with watercolors, so I read through her book and decided to try the trick of adding salt to the watercoloring to create interesting texture.
You only need a few supplies to do this experiments.
Watercolor Paper or pad:
Watercolor brushes:
Watercolors:
And some salt from your shaker!
How cute are these??
I hope you try some experimenting this July! See what you can come up with in whatever aspect of Creativity you want to try!
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