2022 February's theme is MONUMENTAL

Our Richmond chapter chose this month’s exploration of Monumental and Mending Walls to illustrate the theme. 

When we call something monumental, we mean it as a matter of scale. Societies erect statues and build squares and dedicate memorials to prevent the past from being buried. These structures loom large and cast long shadows. They are meant to endure, to keep our ancestors alive in our memories, but sometimes they dwarf the living and engulf life itself. 

What does it mean to think on a monumental timescale? To honor the past in such a way that it paves a path for the unfolding of the present?  We have no way of knowing if our memories will outlive us, if they will manage to travel the vastness of space and time. But there are people in the future who will need our stories, stories capacious enough to hold all of our humanity. So what will you bear witness to? What will you leave behind when you’re gone?

2022 January's theme is FREE

What is free comes in many flavors. Free to come, free to go. Free to love, free to deliciously inhabit our own skin, free to try on all the possible version of ourselves. “Free,” as in not charging a single cent. Free to speak truth to power. Free to say no to what’s on offer.

However, to be free to — to dream, to create, to imagine — requires freedom from. To be free from want and fear, to be free from censoring forces, to be free from oppression. To strive for true freedom is to honor our obligations to each other, to fight for our mutual liberation.

When someone is free to achieve their fullest creative expression, they become a beacon for all of us. How will you make space for your own flourishing and that of others, so that the world around you might also bend towards freedom?

Our Charlotte chapter chose this month’s exploration of Free and Lo’Vonia Parks illustrated the theme.

December's theme is INVISIBLE

The invisible encompasses everything that does not fall within the hegemony of visibility. An entire world we cannot see exists but doesn’t show itself. From the electromagnetism coursing around us, to the flow of capital across borders, to the adaptive strategies of wildlife. The denizens of nature know that remaining invisible is power.

Many of us labor to avoid becoming invisible at all costs. We strive to create a constant performance in an age of surveillance. Being invisible is often synonymous for being marginalized, forgotten, and fallen out of view.

What if we take a cue from nature and reclaim invisibility as a strategy? What rich inner worlds can we cultivate when we remain out of view? How might we become aware of the things that have receded from sight, suddenly coming into focus with startling clarity?

Our Rome chapter chose this month’s exploration of Invisible and Cristina Spanó illustrated the them.

November's theme is LIMINAL

When we find ourselves in an in-between place, we might call our location “liminal.” Liminal space is found at the threshold, between leaving an old life and starting a new one. When we have shed a tired identity but not yet donned a fresh one. Liminality is a state of becoming. It slips away, eluding easy categorization. 

Invite yourself into the cocoon of transformation. Instead of asking what comes after the chrysalis, what if, in the words of anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, we look around rather than ahead? If we learn to trust the process, we can remain curious and open. We can surrender our certainty and leave ourselves vulnerable and open to the mysteries of being. What joy and sweetness can we find in all this, in the depths of liminal spaces and times?

Our Sofia chapter chose this month’s exploration of Liminal and Sevda Semer illustrated the theme.

MTLCM x Montréal Cowork

Par Diana Hor, hôte de CreativeMornings/Montréal

C’est avec grande joie que je vous annonce que CreativeMornings/Montréal s’associe avec Montréal CoWork pour relancer nos événements en présentiel 2021-2022.

Au cœur du Plateau Mont-Royal, Montréal CoWork est un beau mélange en matière de cultures, de professions et de talents. Je suis fière de pouvoir créer ce rapprochement entre nos deux organisations créatrices de communautés. Que la magie opère ! 

J’en profite pour remercier Francis Talbot - Cofondateur - Danielle Ouandji - Activatrice de l'étincelle humaine - et Raphael Dimanche - Guru des événements - de croire en la mission de CreativeMornings et de créer ces rencontres entre personnes passionnées.

Montreal CoWork est un espace idéal pour accueillir notre communauté MTLCM en toute sécurité sanitaire et pour faire rencontrer créatif.ve.s, entrepreneur.e.s et travailleur.e.s autonome.s de notre ville. Rien de tel qu’un espace collaboratif et stimulant où l’on se sent chez soi pour refléter les événements cozy de CreativeMornings. J’ai hâte de concevoir nos événements à chaque mois.

Au plaisir de vous voir le vendredi 29 octobre et en vrai, enfin !

October’s Theme is Design.

We live in a world of design, an intention behind every encounter, every technology we touch, every structure we step through. Design is an alchemy, a marriage of material and meaning, investigation and inspiration, form and function.

To design is to create — out of nothing, something. To design is to play — an invitation to stay open and curious and reimagine in new ways. To design is to think — a method of learning through making, scraping failed experiments for fresh insight. To design is to be human.

Designers are called to operate in a way that transcends disciplines, making it possible to understand the world in all its complexity and envision passageways to more just futures. At their best, designers center the experiences of people whose needs have been overlooked, stepping outside of themselves and into their shoes. Design asks of us empathy and humility, if we are brave enough to answer.

Our Trois-Rivières chapter chose this month’s exploration of Design, Olivier Charland illustrated the theme, and Skillshare is presenting the theme. 

🎨 MTLCM x LOOPKIN 🎨

Lancée en exclusivité pour notre 100ème événement, #MTLCM collabore avec l'artiste montréalaise Loopkin pour une oeuvre unique 100% CreativeMornings.

Vendu au prix unitaire de 25$, les fonds récoltés viendront à soutenir la relance de nos événements, les entrepreneur.e.s de bouffe d’ici, les microtorréfacteurs, les salles qui nous accueillent ; MTLCM fait appel à sa communauté de passionné.e.s.

🎨 Écrivez-vous & passez commande à montreal@creativemornings.com.

Faites vite il n'y a que 100 exemplaires existants !

*** À PROPOS DE LOOPKIN ***

Loopkin est une illustratrice et artiste française vivant et travaillant à Montréal depuis 2012. Sa pratique du dessin remonte à son enfance et s’est développée au gré des styles et des périodes de sa vie mais son univers a toujours été un mix entre l’actualité contemporaine, ses émotions et les sujets qui lui portent à cœur.

Depuis 5-6 ans, elle cultive cet univers avec la présence de petits monstres qui peuplent ses dessins, peintures et murales. De nature plutôt joyeuses, ces monstres permettent de passer des messages ou simplement de mettre de la couleur sur le passage du public qui les aperçoit.

Féministe et sensible aux enjeux sociaux, Loopkin exprime par ses dessins ses réflexions et questionnements en espérant que ceux-ci fassent écho et déclenchent ou appuient des réflexions dans son public.

 > Qu'est-ce que la créativité pour toi et comment l'appliques-tu dans ta carrière ?

“La créativité pour moi c’est quelque de précieux que chacun.e peut et doit cultiver. C’est d’être inventif.ve que ce soit dans des activités artistiques tout comme des activités du quotidien. Il n’y a pas juste les artistes pour être créatifs.ves tout le monde l’est à sa manière.
Dans mon cas c’est par le fait de rester curieuse et ouverte sur le monde, échanger avec des gens et essayer de nouvelles choses dans son dessin, ne pas rester trop sur la même formule.“

> Comment as tu trouvé ton style ?
J’ai commencé à dessiner des crânes aux alentours de 2012-2013 puis à développer les petits monstres à partir de 2015-2016.
j’aime beaucoup le travail de Ricardo Cavolo et celui de Jean-Michel Basquiat qui m’inspire beaucoup. J’ai également beaucoup d’intérêt pour l’univers du tatouage.

> Une oeuvre, un artiste, un livre, un film … à nous partager ?
Enki Bilal ! Mon nom LOOPKIN vient de son personnage NIKOPOL :) c’est un dessinateur dont j’aime beaucoup le travail.
Plus contemporain la bd « C’est comme ça que je disparais » de Marion Malle ; mon dernier coup de cœur lecture. très beau et touchant !

To dare is an act of faith. We work up the nerve to make the soaring leap, even when we don’t know what the outcome will be. At the core of daring, you’ll find bravery and defiance entwined. We dare to challenge the stories passed down to us that no longer fit, the stories that limit our imagination. 

As we shed the stories that no longer serve us, but a way forward seems uncertain, how can we summon the courage to do impossible things? In The Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit invites us, “Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.” The door is open. Do you dare step through?

CreativeMornings/Porto Alegre chose September’s theme of Dare and Mitti Mendonça illustrated the theme.

August’s Theme is Release.

Inhale. Exhale. Release. Let the breeze roll over you, let the water flow languid, feel the tautness behind your eyes go slack. Release is a universal law—every build-up of tension must give way. Everything from the flowers to the trees need to do it to survive.

Release is a critical part of growth, healing, and transformation. We can release each other from our claims. We can be the means of each others’ deliverance. It’s what gives the words “I release you” their power.

What happens when we let go of emotions, expectations, habits, relationships, or thoughts that no longer serve us? What do we release in ourselves? What do we let loose into the world?

CreativeMornings/Portsmouth chose August’s theme of Release and Allie Runnion illustrated the theme

July's theme is HOME

You can spend a lifetime looking for a sense of home. Sometimes we must leave our home in order to find it. In his poem “Journey Home,” Rabindranath Tagore writes, “The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own.” 

Home can be a place we belong, home can be found among people we love, home can be carried with you wherever you go.  Home can be formed by people creating together. 

Home is a direction we’re tilted towards. Home is something we have to remake again and again. What home have you built for yourself? What can we do to build a home for each other?

CreativeMornings/Kansas City chapter chose July’s Home theme, and Allison Kerek Williams created the accompanying illustration.