Rut Race, Day 4: Release the Imagination

I’ve been in a rut and this post is part of a series I’m writing to chronicle my efforts to get out of it. Are you in a rut, too? Or maybe you just want to spiff things up a little for yourself? Join in. I’m calling it the Rut Race.

When I’m feeling my best, I’m an idea machine. If I managed to carry a notebook with me at all times and had the patience to stop whatever I’m doing when ideas strike, I’d have a room full of scribbled-in notebooks[1. Remember this when people tell you to always carry a notebook. Sometimes it would actually not be very helpful at all.].

Still. Every so often an idea hits and I remember it. And it’s not just that I remember it, it’s that I feel compelled to act on it immediately. Crochet Me and Mighty Ugly were two such ideas. I trust ideas when they grip me like this. I make them happen.

Sometimes a sticky idea, though, is the of kind I don’t feel compelled to immediately act on. I prefer to mull these over. Visit them every so often when I want to play. Let them incubate.

This past weekend one of those incubating ideas rose to the surface and I realized it had been a long time since I’d played with it. I’m not sure if it’s that it stayed hidden during these rutty months or if I forced it back if it showed its face. It doesn’t really matter. Because this time I paid attention to it.

I have this fantasy, see, of raising a metric shit tonne of money and creating a maker space in Vancouver. I’ve specifically dreamed of doing this in an old movie house that closed down recently, but I hear the property’s already been sold[2.Wonder of wonders. The Hollywood Theatre’s on prime real estate. Damned Vancouver real estate.]. Doesn’t matter, though. It could be in any building.

In my mind, I lay out the tremendous space. I populate it with work tables and benches and drapes and lighting. In my fantasy, makers of all types use the facilities, including a healthy contingent of crafters. There would be room for events. There would be a dark room. There would be materials storage. Workshops. Parties. Speaker series. It would be a hub of makerdom, connected to and supporting all the various groups already operating in town.

Oh, yes. This idea excites me. I enjoy it, and I know it’s good.

And I allowed forced myself to live in it for a while this weekend. And it felt good. It felt like maybe my imagination’s starting wake up. Go, rut race!

Do you have these kinds of incubating ideas that you visit every so often?

PS Sister Diane wrote about her creative dry spell over at Craftypod. Seems a lot of people are feeling stuck right now.