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26 Simple Ways to Nurture Your Creative Life

#13: Make Creative Smoothies

Experiment with blending ideas and elements.

By Chris Dunmire

Since reading the book Living Well by Montel Williams, I’ve been experimenting with the art of making blended smoothies. I say “art” because while I’ve learned that I can literally throw anything into a blender and mix it together (fruits, vegetables, water, extracts, grains, nuts, protein powder, and yogurt), the Law of Smoothie Blending demonstrates that not all experimental recipes will yield fantastic-tasting drinks. Believe me, I’m having a full measure of ‘I won’t do that agains!’ with some of very unpulpular drinks.

Yes, there’s plenty of tried-and-true recipes out there that I can follow, but I’m in a creative growth spurt earning my own smoothie wings. Template recipes are fine, but learning recipe improvisation is an invaluable skill to me, especially when I don’t have exact ingredients on hand. Plus, a successful twist on a theme is like adding a set of secondary colors to a palette of primaries. Oh, the possibilities!

This reminds me of the potential blending possibilities we have in creative expression. Pick any medium and liken its elements and procedure to a smoothie recipe. Too much of this or that or a particular mix of items can leave you feeling like you have a blender full of goop destined for the drain. Wait! Taste it first.

What comes up in you when this happens? When you’ve over-painted a canvas or collaged too much, or squeezed too many dance moves or notes into a piece? How do you feel when a creative risk goes all funky monkey and you have to start again at square one after all that time and energy — or worse, throw out materials consumed into your daring creative process? Are you mad? Glad? Sad?

The first experimental smoothie I made was a simple blend of celery and carrots. I was trying for a modified V8 and halfway through realized I was out of tomatoes. “We don’t need no stinkin’ tomatoes!” I assured myself as I compensated with more carrots. Five days later I was happy to see the last of that thick, bland, amateur carrot pulp juice empty from the pitcher because I stuck to my “no wasting” guns and could try again with a new recipe sans the carrots.

It's just like that with our art and writing; with our compositions of color and sound; and with our products and performances. Sometimes we try blending things that don’t end up as well as we’d like. Occasionally, a piece of that process is worthy of repetition and adapted into another work. Sometimes more carving or hammering improves it, but sometimes it flat out breaks it!

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