🕳 To what depths will curiosity guide you?

August 25, 2022

Illustration of koi fish and seaweed in dark waters with the word DEPTH, illustrated by Bryan Moss

September’s Theme is Depth

Depth is a measure of distance. Get a feel for it by traveling along a rock fissure that tunnels into the earth, stepping across the expanse between our galaxy and the next, or diving into the mysteries hidden within ourselves.

Depth is a space that denies easy ways of seeing or comprehending — when we shine a light into the deep blue of the ocean, we cannot see much further than the surface. In our age of instant answers, we bristle at this resistance. It’s often easier to reduce people, places, and ideas into flattened renderings, rather than grapple with the nuanced and contradictory truths found in their depths.

In what depths could you submerge yourself if you let curiosity guide you? Ask open-ended questions and listen for responses to arise. With patience, watch those questions transform and transmute as they travel further. Blink your eyes open in the abyss, lose your frame of reference, and discover something altogether new.

Our Columbus chapter chose this month’s exploration of Depth and Bryan Christopher Moss illustrated the theme.

Explore upcoming events

The hashtags of the month are #CMDepth | #CreativeMornings

Timeless tips for developing good time management skills

Did you know that the 19th century French novelist Victor Hugo was a master procrastinator? According to his wife Adèle, Hugo locked his formal clothes away while he was working so he wouldn’t be tempted to go out during the frenzy to meet his deadline for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. You do not need to go to such extreme measures to manage your time. Explore Harvest’s timeless tips for developing time management skills to get your workload under control and reclaim your time.

(From our content partner Harvest)

Introducing the World Wide Wander!

We are thrilled to announce that we’re teaming up with our friends at Street Wisdom for a global CreativeMornings event on September 23: the World Wide Wander. Join thousands of kind, curious humans on a 24-hour relay of free, guided online WalkShops (yes! walking workshops) happening across the world as each city wakes up. Together, we will wander through our streets, finding fresh ideas and creative inspiration as we go. Sign up here, mark your calendars, and tell your friends, no matter where they are.

We’ll be providing more information in the coming weeks, so stay tuned (and stay curious).

Fun Stuff to Click On
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Agencies and freelancers share their proudest moments across the past year.

This worksheet helps you map the things that propel your passion along a wheel you can spin.*

Answer the Public is an amazing tool for audience and consumer research (we learned about it on Sarah Stockdale’s FieldTrip — you can join her next one!).

A gender equality organization is calling for art submissions that support reproductive health access.*

“Every animal is enclosed within its own sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world.

Make My Drive Fun plots interesting stops between your starting point and your destination.

Watch the Sydney Opera House’s gorgeous lighting of the sails.

NPR keeps a visual bookshelf of the best reads of 2022 (thus far).

Why neighborhoods and small businesses thrive in Tokyo.*

How you’re doing home organization wrong.

Two dancers perform a mutual trust fall.

Listen to the sounds of a black hole 🕳

*Thanks to Claudia Dawson, Sherri Hakimi, and Nikita Pavlenko for the link inspiration.

🤿 Explorations of "Depth"

We asked you how “depth” manifests in your life. For Angela Betancourt in Miami, depth appears in a literal sense when she does deep scuba dives. “Scuba diving is a form of meditation for me. Very few things make me focus on the present and quiets my mind like a deep dive.” Discover other readers’ offerings from the deep in this month’s theme round-up.

A photo illustration of a deep sea diver with a boombox underwater

🎧 DJ Jim Q’s Playlist: This month, DJ Jim Q pays beautiful tribute to both Columbus, Ohio and the dearly departed Olivia Newton-John. Listen along and discover deep cuts like Dead or Alive’s “In Too Deep” or go off the “Deep End” with Fousheé. This playlist might just reach the depths of your soul.

🎨 Meet Our Illustrator: Bryan Christopher Moss is a self-taught painter, muralist, illustrator, educator, and creative director who grew up in Columbus, Ohio where he has worked as a professional artist for the past 20 years. His first graphic novel, The Eightfold Path, which was written by Steve Barnes and Charles Johnson, was published this year. Explore more works by Bryan.

Animated illustration of a volcano with a smoke cloud captioned FUN

I made this newsletter by excavating the depths, some areas satisfying and others deeply uncomfortable. When we ignore what‘s submerged, inevitably it bubbles to the surface, and sometimes to explosive effect.

🌋 Waving,
Annie Yi, CreativeMornings HQ

GIF by @NastiaCistakova