I just completed reading Twyla Tharp's book titled 'The Creative Habit' & thought it was great reading & a book to get the old grey matter thinking about my own routines when it comes to my own creative practices.

Twyla is a famous American choreographer and uses her own experience as a backdrop to ideas on creativity and harnessing ritual, scratching (for inspiration), preparation, skill, spine & how to navigate ruts and grooves in one's practice.

I especially liked her thoughts on skill and passion- "Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life".

She also says- " Skill gives you the wherewithal to execute whatever occurs to you. Without it, you are just a font of unfulfilled ideas".

When I think I have reached the end of ideas in my own practice, I think about the skills I have gleaned along the way & ask myself how I can manipulate what I have learn't and somehow evolve that skill into a new work. Thankfully, I have not exhausted every ounce of passion as yet working with natural materials and paper. I still have skills to acquire!