Self Portraits: Artist vs. the Functional Creative

This has been one heck of a professional week for me.  In my professional life, I have been gathering resources for my technology blog.  Doing this sort of activity has me use the part of my brain that problem solves creatively. I called it functional creativity.  I had absolutely no idea this part of me existed until I was working on my master's degree. It turned out all those problem solving skills I had learned in Design 1 and 2 would actually help me build multi-tiered education plans for children with varying ability levels. This is why I tell parents that if their child wants to go to art school, encourage it.  It will help them become innovative, real world problem solvers.  Art school taught me how to view design problems in a healthy light and enjoy the process of finding answers to the problem.  This is how I view my job as an educator and technology specialist-constant creative problem solving.

The collage below is my professional abstract self portrait.  It is where my functionally creative side has been this month in creating a blog resource for technology specialists like me:

Then there is the other part of my creative side--the artist--the one that is artsy for art's sake.  The one that went to art school and learned about graffiti art, Dada, Surrealism, and documentary photography.  Within my work day, I need this part of me to come out either by taking photos or drinking coffee at a funky space in St. Louis.  Anyway, I ventured right over to downtown Maplewood for this.

 Maplewood is a neighborhood in the middle of St. Louis that is full of artists, hippies, hipsters, up and coming restaurants, and walking/biking adorable families that shop at farmer's markets.  Today I drank some Kombucha at Foundation Grounds and just watched people for a good half an hour and stared out the window of the coffeeshop daydreaming--soaking in all the sun.  My artsy abstract collage looks like this today: