My Creativity Loves to Cook and Bake - Scones Recipe Included

One thing I love to do, besides painting, is to cook, concoct, and fine-tune recipes to my liking. I find this fun, and it exercises my creativity differently. Today, I share my scone recipe with you. It’s easy to make. It’s agreeable to substitutions. I rarely have every ingredient for any recipe, so 99% of the time, I substitute what I have available. Also, I eat a vegan diet, substituting vegan ingredients when the recipe is not vegan. I have presented my latest scone, triple berry, in one of my favorite handmade ceramic saucers I hand-built years ago. I’ve marked it with my personalized “Mary” stamp to distinguish it from other student potters.

Rye Wholemeal Scones

7/8 C flour of your choice *

5 tsp Baking Powder *

3 Tbsp Brown Sugar *

3 Tbsp Oil *

5/8 C Milk *

1. Mix the dry ingredients and add the wet until it forms a dough ball.

2. Turn the dough ball onto a pan with floured parchment paper.

3. Press the dough ball until you get about a 1-1/4 inch in height disc.

4. Cut the disc into 3 or 4 slices.

5. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

6. Cool slightly. Enjoy with jam, pure maple syrup, or glazed icing.

* Notes

Flour

- I rarely use Rye flour, as you’ll see on the back of the recipe. But rye scones are yummy, too. I’ve gone gluten-free; rye is not gluten-free.

- I like gluten-free (GF) oat flour. I also mix the GF oat flour with brown rice flour, quick-cook GF oats, and/or millet flour. Lately, I’ve used all three in one mix.

Baking Powder

- I use 4 tsp instead of 5 tsp or 1/2 tsp baking soda

Oil

- I use coconut oil. Sometimes, I use olive oil. But lately, I’m going oil free, so I use 3 Tbsp of almond flour as a substitute. You could also try applesauce or mashed banana.

Brown Sugar

- My favorite healthier sugar option is coconut sugar. Sometimes, I use turbinado sugar (raw sugar). Regular sugar is not vegan. To qualify as vegan, the sugar needs to be organic or raw. Coconut sugar and other fruit sugars are vegan.

Milk

- I use almond, cashew, or coconut milk. Or I add 2-3 Tbsp extra almond flour and use water instead of milk. The almond flour serves as an almond milk base in the water.

I want to hear from you!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Recipes

I've included the back of my recipe page where I make notes of my substitutions and versions of the recipe. Most times, I comment whether it worked or not. The clay heart was made by a friend.

Creativity Helps You Think Differently

It's a Beautiful Day to Sit Outside, Acrylic on Wood,
12 x 12 inches, Copyright 2015 Mary Gravelle (Mary Rae Rush)

Creativity is devalued in our society. It gets a bad rap for being a soft asset less meaningful and important than math and science.

I think one issue is that we need to separate creativity from art. The generalized belief that creativity=art is wherein lies a problem.

Creativity is simply another way of thinking and problem solving. It is just as important as critical thinking, where the right brain finally gets a break and its due recognition.

I think as artists, we might have been blessed with a deeper sense of our creativity, which is innate to everyone of us. It can be taught through a way of discovery and practice.

Even though Artists in general might be born with a heavier emphasis on right brain activity, they can also benefit by educating themselves in creativity.

Once one realizes their creative power (their creativity), every other subject and facet of life will be enhanced.

Open the Door, Let the Light in,
Chalk Pastel on Paper,
Copyright 1995 Mary Gravelle.

Art can be the conduit for creativity. But, making art as the way to arriving at one's creativity is not the only pathway to creativity. Many more avenues are available such as doing things differently, juxtaposing two completely different ideas against each other, or doing something you have never done before. All these activities open the mind and can lead us to think and live more creatively.

Is creativity important to you? Do you think creativity should be better valued in our society? What are your thoughts about creativity and creativity vs. art?

Until Next Week

• Create art
• Appreciate art
• Buy art

The handsome, Sir Kitty. Meow.

Mary Rae Rush with one of her large abstract paintings.

About the author: Mary Rae Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist and writer who resides in Sedona, Arizona with her beloved assistant, Sir Kitty.

Her art can be viewed on her website.

Everyone is Creative

Number 3: Quintessential Creativity.
24 x 24 inches, Acrylic on RayMar Panel.
Copyright 2009 Mary Gravelle.
Original is Available. Prints are available.

My last post declared that not everyone is an artist. This post I shout out that everyone is creative. Yes, that's right. Everyone is creative!

I discovered my own creativity in the 1980's when I was laid off of a corporate position. I read the book, What Color is Your Parachute. I discovered that I was happiest when creating and working with my hands. That book sent me on a journey inward to discover my own creative tendencies.

In 1992, I read Julia Cameron's classic book, The Artist's Way, which changed my life for the better. Since reading and working that book, I have been on a mission to help others dig deep into their inner well of creativity.

YOU are creative, my friend! Everyone is creative.

I believe that it is Creativity which makes you, YOU. It is what makes you unique and like no other in this entire universe. Doesn't it make sense to find your creativity, to explore your unique expression? It is your unique expression that the world needs. Dig in. Dive deep. If you need it, I can help you. Contact me at Mary@MaryFineArt.com.

Below is a video that talks about everyone being creative and that Wisdom Painting can help you see it. Wisdom Painting was one of the first creativity workshops I developed to help others see their creativity being expressed in full color. Contact me about a Wisdom Painting session today.  This session can be held in person in Sedona or via Skype. Mary@WisdomPainting.com.




I have all kinds of ways to help you ignite the creative genius that resides within you. The video below talks about three ways to work with me to discover your creativity.

Below is the longer version talking about Igniting Your Intentions. This process grew out of Wisdom Painting to include writing and working with intention. It is this process that helped me grow into an artist and painter.

I have completed my book on this process that delves into creativity and helps you break into your own inner well of it. I'm looking for a publisher or literary agent. Can you help me with this quest to get my book published? Contact me at Mary@IgnitingYourIntentions.com.



So, what do you think? Are you creative? How do you think your creativity helps you and makes you, YOU?

Until Next Week

• Create art
• Appreciate art
• Buy art

Braylee Rush (Mary Gravelle)

The handsome, Sir Kitty. Meow.

About the author: Braylee Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist and writer who resides in Sedona, Arizona with her beloved assistant, Sir Kitty.

Tips on How to be More Creative

Get your crayons out and play.

Along with art, creativity is another one of my passions. Connecting with my own inner well of creativity and helping others do the same gets me really excited. See some exciting how to's, offers of FREE ways to learn more about connecting with your creativity, and a NEW Online 5-Week Workshop to help you be more creative.

Connecting to my own creativity has had a major impact upon my life. In fact, if I had not connected to my inner source, I would never be making art. It was because I practiced my creativity, years ago, in any means available to me in the moment, that the painting urge bubbled up from within me. It was so strong, I had to answer its call.

What are the inner urgings bubbling up from within you? Do you practice your creativity on a regular basis? Are you aware that creativity exists within you?

Tips on How to Be More Creative

Below are a few tips on how to be more creative. Also, consider signing up and taking advantage of my Free Teleseminar recording or the Free Video Series. Learn more about those below.

1. Do things differently just for the sake of rewiring your brain neurons. New neurons = new ways of seeing the world = having new results in your life.
• Take a different route to the grocery store, work, or any other place you go on a regular basis. 
• Add a new spice to your recipe. 
• Try a new recipe. 
• Make up your own recipe.
• Mix up that stodgy wardrobe. Wear a different top than your old standby with your selected pants or skirt.
• Make up your own, "let's do it differently this time" way to do something. 
2. Reconnect to your childhood and do things you loved to do as a kid. This rekindles your relationship with your inner child who knows how to be creative and have more fun.
3. Relax more. This helps your brain have more room to deliver creative ideas to you.

Helpful links:

• FREE Teleseminar where you can learn about numerology, creativity, and intention.
• FREE Video Series where you can learn about numerology, creativity, and intention.
• REGISTER for the 5-Week Workshop: Ignite and Discover 2015 and go straight for the full bounty of learning how to be more creative and access the innate abundance that is yours in 2015. 
• The Life and Death of a Neuron. 

“Co-creation is best understood when we realize that the unfolding dynamics of our lives happen according to the needs of our spirit, and not the wants of our personality.” ―  Caroline Myss

Register for the 5-Week Workshop: Ignite & Discover 2015

An Exciting Opportunity for You!

I am diligently creating an online program to help you discover the bubbling forces from within you. For this first 5-Week Online Workshop, Ignite and Discover 2015, I have invited special guest, Greer Jonas of Numerology 4 Your Soul to help us understand the numerology of 2015 in the context of our personal lives. The numerology of 2015 adds up to an "8", which is all about abundance. This workshop combines creativity, intention, and numerology to help you access the inner well of knowingness that can help you create abundance on every level of your life in 2015. Would you like to access the abundance that is yours in 2015?

Sign up for the FREE Teleseminar recording.

Greer and I recently hosted a teleseminar introducing you to both our processes. Our FREE teleseminar is not a lecture, it is an experience and a teaching. Get out your crayons and your journal and get ready to learn something about yourself. You can get Instant Access to the recording in either video or audio format once you sign up here to receive it.

Sign up the FREE Video Series.

Prior to that, I created a 3-Part Video Series which introduces you to our processes in a different format.

Registration is now open for our 5-Week Ignite and Discover 2015. It closes on Jan. 31.  Early Action-Takers price is available until Jan. 28, 8 pm MST.

Until Next Week

Sir Kitty

Brianna Rush (Mary Rush Gravelle)

• Create art
• Appreciate art
• Buy art

About the author: Mary Rush Gravelle is an artist and writer who resides in Sedona, Arizona with her beloved cat, Sir Kitty.

Digital Photography -- Creativity and Ethics

Mirage, Digital Photograph, 5810 x 7700 pixels

350ppi. Manipulated in Photoshop. 2011

I ran across this very well written article, The Ethics of Digital Manipulation (link is below), on the ethics of manipulated or enhanced photography. It raises a lot of good points and is a very informational read. Here is an excerpt.

"When photography was first invented, its overwhelming power came from the fact that it recorded nature more realistically than any other art form had ever done before. Because of this, people trusted it and believed it portrayed "reality" and "truth". But, just as story telling could portray the "truth" with an accurate accounting of the facts, it could just as easily become fiction. Fake and manipulated photographs - visual fiction - began circulating not long after the invention of photography."

The article goes on to give early examples of photo manipulation and how people today believe that the advent of Photoshop is where it all began. Not true.

With my newfound interest in photography, I disagree with the author of this article. He, Jerry Lodriguss, is not impressed with unreal depictions using manipulation of the original photo. But, I say, why not? The original photograph is no longer showing us reality anyway. The photographer has taken artistic license in how the image is portrayed by framing and cropping the final image. There are all kinds of ways that photographers now and then have used their medium to portray a certain mood and capture the feeling of the moment.

One Small Act: A Christo Moment, Performance documented 

by Digital Photography, Photo Montage, 7700 x 19250 pixels,

 350 ppi. Photoshop. 2012

Photo Montage of 11 different photographs.
This is manipulation of  the original photos  to
portray a sequence of photos and capture a performance.

How often do you discover that you cannot capture that feeling with a raw image that you shot when you were on vacation? It is near to impossible unless you are a super professional or super talent in the medium. Personally, I like to let my creative juices fly when I sit down to photoshop. I also like to simply tweak the photo to enhance the color and clarity of my original photo. I am quite a newbie with it. I have much more to learn. My creativity awaits.

How about you? What do you do with your photographs after taking them? Do you prefer to make them look more real? Or do you like to play around with it and enhance beyond reality?


The Ethics of Digital Manipulation: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/ETHICS.HTM

Use this link to contact me: http://www.contactify.com/b83af

Coffee Pot Theory of the Creative Process: Part 2

Use this link to contact me.

Coffee Pot Theory of the Creative Process.
©2004-2011 Mary Rush Gravelle

Last week I introduced you to my Coffee Pot Theory of the Creative Process. This is a process that came to me in 2004. I called it a theory because it was something that I was thinking about as a possibility in outlining the creative process. Creativity is a rascal that does not want to be tied down. It is a free spirit. But, what if we can get a handle on the process of creativity? Wouldn’t that make life a little easier? Wouldn’t it help us create if we knew the process?

This theory was published in 2004 in the ARTistic FX magazine in Hartford, Connecticut. The magazine is no longer online, otherwise I would give you the link. I will reproduce it here on this blog for you over several weeks so you can take it in, or drink it in!

Beginning of article:

Published 2004 in the ARTistic FX magazine

“DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR NEXT CUP OF COFFEE HOLDS THE SECRET TO THE CREATIVE PROCESS?

We are the Coffee Generation, judging by the many different coffee establishments. Why do we love our coffee so much? Does the idea of drinking a cup of coffee conjure up the scene in your mind of being jolted from your sleepy-headed state and revving your feet into action? It certainly does for me.

Let’s think about the act of drinking that cup of coffee as metaphor for the creative process. Think of the head as the beginning of the process and the feet as a completion of our process. Coffee wakes our head so our feet can get moving.

Now, let’s compare Coffee with Ideas. Ideas come into our minds so our feet can bring them out into the world in some form. We begin with an idea and find ourselves immersed in a process of making it happen.” [This is much like placing the coffee grounds and water into the pot and then letting the process take over to make that cup of coffee].

“Let’s begin with the old-fashioned method: the percolator coffee pot. How does it make coffee? The percolator takes its time heating the water and then takes more time sending the water upward only to come back down over the coffee grounds. Then, the water seeps over the grounds, and the fresh aroma of coffee fills the kitchen as the coffee makes its way into the pot with a final brew. [Let’s compare this process with the creative process].

1^st Stage: Yahoo!

This is the moment in time when an idea arrives in your wondering mind, ‘Hmm… I have an idea,' you might say to yourself. This is the very exciting stage when you salivate at the very prospect of pursuing this idea. It’s like the first kiss, so savory delicious you can hardly contain your jazzed-up emotion over it.

2^nd Stage: Ouch!

Featured artwork: Landscape of the Mind
Abstract photograph. © Mary Rush Gravelle.
Purchase a print.

Your idea takes a nosedive after running it through your Reality Checking System. ‘It’ll never work. What was I thinking anyway?” is what you might be saying at this stage. You ramble on, “There are no new ideas, anyway.” You doubt everything about yourself and this idea: its feasibility, your skill level, your thinking abilities, blah, blah, blah, etc. Your acrimonious remarks continue. Pragmatism rules. The Critic takes over.”

End of partial article

So, think about these two beginning stages of this theory. Run them through your own creative process and see if it fits. I’ll continue this next week unfolding the final stages to the creative process.

Talk to an Artist about Creating

I just did this video on creating. Artists know how to create. Do you? Talk to me or your artist friends on how to create a life that you love. We know. If you do not have an artist friend to talk to, talk to me. Email me at marylovespainting@yahoo.com.

Is Creativity Learned?

Is creativity something you can call forth? Do you need to believe that you are creative to be creative? Is everyone creative or is it something that you are born with?

I believe that the creative spark can hit when we are receptive in some way. I seem to be most creative when I am full of wonder and curiosity. The questions that arise from this state seem to invite the bubbling forth of ideas. That seems to really get the creative process rolling.

When I begin a new painting or painting series, this is what happens. First, I begin noticing my current interests and intrigues. That leads me to curiosity and wonder about those subjects. I begin researching which leads to more questions. The process can be quite lengthy at times until the questions subside. Then there is an incubation period where all of this research and the answers coalesce. This is a space of the unknown or gestation. I just let ideas percolate and come to the surface. Then, these new ideas run through my filter of what I know about these subjects. The juxtaposition of what I know and what I just learned churn the creative process and bring forth something new.

What do you think about creativity? How do you get the juices rolling?

Image shown here: Number 3: Quintessential Creativity, 24" x 24", mixed-media on wood. ©2011 Mary A. Gravelle. Available. Email info@marysfineart.com for more information on purchasing this original artwork.

Maybe I Will Get my Book Written Now that I Have a Design Started

Hi all,

I began writing a book of my six-week workshop, Igniting Your Intentions™in 2005. My my, how time flies.

Now that I am in graphic design class, one of our assignments is to design a book cover. This gives me the perfect opportunity to begin again.

The image on the left is my first go at designing the book jacket cover. The book itself will be another design project.

I'll keep you posted as the design evolves. I welcome your comments and feedback.

Have a creative day,
Mary

Herbie Hancock: Possibilities

I just watched this movie. Wow, how inspiring. Herbie Hancock is the guru of creativity and human spirit ambassador. This is a must see for all creatives. So, I wonder how a visual artist can find collaboration like musicians do? Herbie seeks out talent of all kinds and works with them. They all grow from the experience. He treasures creativity in the moment. I loved what he said in Japan that he used to think he was a musician, now he thinks he is a human being serving humankind through his music. Just the best inspiration! Let me know your thoughts.

Movie Description from Netflix:

Herbie Hancock: Possibilities

2005NR 90 minutes

Cameras take you behind the scenes with Grammy Award-winning keyboardist Herbie Hancock as he collaborates with a diverse array of modern artists. Tracks include "A Song for You" featuring Christina Aguilera, "Sister Moon" featuring Sting, "Hush, Hush, Hush" featuring Annie Lennox, "I Do It for Your Love" featuring Paul Simon, "Safiatou" featuring Santana, "Don't Explain" featuring Damien Rice and "Stitched Up" featuring John Mayer.