darren r hill

the creative minimalist

I found this modern stone circle looking from on high at Honister Pass in Cumbria. Technically it is a slate circle, although there is some stone. I don’t normally say anything on these Wordless Wednesday posts, after all, that is the point, however, the marriage of ancient slate and stone laid out recently amongst the…
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I found some flowers turned to fluff… new life will soon arrive.
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This week’s creative prompt is adventure. Use the word adventure to inspire writing fiction, journaling and other creative work.
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The moon was bright on a wordless Wednesday
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This week’s creative prompt is rest. Use the word rest to inspire writing fiction, journaling and other creative work.
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Creative accidents Friday Field Notes

fig 1 brilliantly big hope – art journal page

Time for a Friday Field Note report from The Creative Minimalist. It seems I have found some creative inspiration. By some, I mean quite a lot. At times, it has felt like one idea has led to another and then another. I am quite certain that creativity breeds creativity. As I began to note what has been happening this past week or so, I realised that my creative cup was very much overflowing.

But there have been consequences. I don’t want you to think that the week’s creative adventure has been painless.

Injuries

fig 2 coffee injury

Coffee is an essential part of my creative process. However, carrying my French press and cup to the creative studio led to a nasty blister on my little finger. I didn’t realise the cup was so hot until my knuckle began to swell. If you are of a nervous disposition, you might not want to look at the picture on the left… I suppose I should have said this above the picture… sorry.

Songs and music

Seeing my little keyboard in the picture above leads me to report on my music progress. I have four songs that are coming together nicely. The lyrics are almost finished. The latest song is a reworking of a tune from many, many years back (yes, when I had hair). I have been pencilling in and then inking in the lyrics as they begin to work. I will work out how to share some audio snippets for future field note reports, but meanwhile, fig 3 shows you how I work on lyrics in my Music Grimoire journal.

fig 3 your touch lyrics from the music grimoire

ATCs and art journal pages

fig 4 ATCs

fig 1 at the top of this field note report shows a journal page that I created. I am not a painter or fine art artist, I do enjoy playing with mixed media and creating abstract shapes. Recently, I have been inspired by Dianne Fago’s ATCs. So, I pulled out the inks and some good watercolour paper and had a play. So far, the results are interesting, but the main reason for doing them is to learn and have fun. It is so easy for me to forget to play. fig 4 shows a selection of the ATCs I have been working on.

But there have been accidents along the way. In addition to my coffee injury, I had an ink spill. It could have been a lot worse. I am so grateful that it didn’t fall onto any of my electrical equipment.

fig 5 the desktop ink spill

Dianne and Darren Discuss

To finish off, here’s a link to our latest discussion video. In it, we talk about creativity and the process, and you’ll see that we’ve both been quite creative in recent weeks.

https://youtu.be/4QKj_B7HUUQ

I’ll be back with another Friday field note report soon, until then, may you find inspiration and may your creations bring you and others joy.

Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

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9 July 2021
Mushroom on a Wordless Wednesday

I found a mushroom in the garden

Then I found a few more.

7 July 2021
Turning up the heat on Music Monday
This past week, I have been working on several new music tracks. The way they are coming together, and new tracks seem to be wanting to join in, it feels like this could be a new album. I want to avoid committing at the moment, but it is beginning to feel that way. This week’s creative prompt is heat, which is apt as it feels like the creative heat is rising. A new album could be on the way. It’s a long way off, but the muse is beginning to weave her magic.

The current track list is:
- Astral Visions
- The Sun and the Moon
- The Path
- Your Touch (soon)
I know that is only four songs, but a couple of days ago it was only two. At this rate of growth, I might have the album outline by next Monday. And, seeing as Mondays are Music Mondays, I’ll keep you up to date.

Meanwhile, and to tie into the weekly creative prompt, here’s a version of Heat by Soft Cell that I found on that YouTube. Someone has spliced the recorded audio with an old TV recording, enjoy.

Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

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5 July 2021
Heat — Weekly Creative Prompt
Welcome to the new complete weekly creative prompt. We begin with a single creative prompt word and expand it to inspire fiction writing, journaling and a host of other creative activities. These creative prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.

When I planned out the creative prompts for this month, I had vague thoughts about summer. I had hoped the UK might be enjoying glorious sunshine and that I would be reading in the garden. As is so often the case here, we are not enjoying record temperatures. However, Canada and the US Northwest have, and it has caused many problems. Therefore, this week’s creative prompt is:

Heat — the quality of being hot; high temperature:

this is just one definition, the word can be used in a variety of ways, but high temperature was at the front of my mind when I was thinking about this prompt

Let the prompt ‘heat’ inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested:
- writing fiction
- journaling
- art journaling
- songwriting
- photography
- painting
- composing
- blog posts
- art therapy
- anything that could use a little nudge to begin
Let’s expand the word a little further…

Fiction Writing Prompt

The Fiction Writing Prompt aims to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.

I couldn’t think about anything else. All that mattered at this moment was the heat.

Writing Prompt Expanded

Thankfully, most of us have never faced extreme weather conditions, and if we have, they are rarely as bad as the disaster movies. But anything out of the ordinary, however short-lived, gives us a glimpse of what things are like. A UK heatwave has little in common with the temperatures in Death Valley, but how the temperature makes us feel is key.

This prompt is all about describing an extreme. We need to build on our experiences and exaggerate.
- What metaphors and similes can you use to describe the heat?
- How does the heat compare to what the ‘narrator’ has previously experienced?
- What sense are most affected and why?
The writing perspective is the first person, and as always, this makes it easier to explore the feelings of the character. The setting and everything else is open to your imagination. Is your writing about a hot day, or is it describing something long term and more sinister? Enjoy, but stay cool.

Journal prompt

Journaling allows us to hold conversations on paper. From private diaries to creative art journals, we pour out our deepest thoughts. Heat, as a term, and prompt is quite abstract. I find looking through a thesaurus can be a great way to find creative angles on words and terms. I also find it a rabbit hole that I easily fall down, so beware. For art journals, illustrating heat will be an interesting challenge.

Questions to answer, thoughts to explore or images to create in your journal:
- How have you coped with extreme heat in the past/present?
- What is the worst part of too much heat?
- What colours describe heat?
Theory of General Creativity

I now have ‘heat’ written on the board above my computer. I am hoping it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. Although I long for a nice, warm summer, I know that too much heat isn’t always good for my creativity. But, with the sea only a few minutes away, I have no excuse if I need to cool off. And what better place to explore creative ideas. No excuses Darren.

Let ‘heat’ inspire your music, photography, and painting this week.

Finally…

As always, these creative prompts are optional and entirely open to your interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story, something a little more grandiose.

As mentioned before, this isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below or tag me on any social platform.

Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

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4 July 2021
Found colour and texture at Teignmouth – Wordless Wednesday

Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

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30 June 2021
New Music on Music Monday

Due to a series of fortunate events, I was motivated into putting more of my music out into the world. A few years ago I released Pilgrimage and possibilities, and Transformation and freedom on Bandcamp. Since then, I have shared the music on Patreon. I have used it as background music on my YouTube videos and allowed others to use it. (And if any of you would like some music, please ask, it is a pleasure to create and share.)

Back to the series of events. Dianne Fago Art used one of the tracks from Transformation on a recent video. Now YouTube has an automatic copyright infringement detection tool. This clever AI goes through any music and video at the upload stage and flags content that belongs to someone else. This enables the copyright holder to get their fair share of advertising royalties. In theory, this is good. In practice, it doesn’t always work.

As Dianne was uploading her video, the music was flagged as belonging to someone else. Unfortunately, that person wasn’t me. The AI had got things mixed up and now there is the rigmarole of sorting it out. To point out that the AI had got things wrongs, I uploaded the piece of music to YouTube, and it didn’t get flagged. Here it is…

This isn’t the only incidence. I remember another piece of mine being flagged a few years back. Things should have improved by now, but they haven’t. Just the other week, someone on YouTube was going through a similar infringement issue when a singing bowl they were playing live was spotted by the AI. I know some people are afraid of Artificial Intelligences taking over the world, but I think it might be a way off.

Back to the music. Having remembered I had those two albums on Bandcamp, I decided to share them further. I jumped over to distrokid, where I was planning on releasing some music later this year, and set up an immediate release. If you follow the links below, you’ll now find Pilgrimage and Transformation on all the major (and many minor) streaming platforms. From Apple and Amazon to Pandora and Spotify, whatever music site you use, you’ll find my music. Alternatively, simply search for this temple eden and you’ll find me.

Transformation and freedom

Pilgrimage and possibilities

Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

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28 June 2021