Feed Me! 15 Creative People to Follow Via RSS

Image and photo courtesy SXC.

I promised something special for World Creativity and Innovation Week, which started April 15 and runs through April 22, and here it is: a sneak-peek inside my RSS aggregator!

(For those of you wondering what the heck I’m talking about, please take a look at this description of what Really Simple Syndication is, as well as this cute explanatory video made by Common Craft.)

One of my beliefs about the creative process is that exposing oneself to a wide variety of perspectives and ideas cultivates cross-pollination, which can lead to quicker access to metaphors that might guide an innovative solution to a creative challenge. RSS feed aggregators such as My Yahoo and iGoogle are a great way to have great blog posts come to you, rather than the other way around.

Here are 15 blogs with RSS feeds culled from the dozens of cool feeds I follow regularly. They all have good content, and all post links on their sites that can lead to further explorations of the topics they cover.

1. Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together: Tammy Vitale’s thoughts on art-making and the photos of her work never fail to provoke me.

2. Daily Walks. My interview with photographer Dian Varner is one of the most popular posts on my blog, and with good reason. Her intricate, amazingly detailed photos of the world she encounters on her daily walks with her dog deserve wide viewership and commercial success.

3. Do Not Leave Unattended. A show-your-journal blog, where people sign up to receive blank notebooks, write or make art in them, then pass them along to friends. All contributions are recorded (digitally or otherwise) and posted on the blog. A fascinating look at what’s important to other folks and what they create out of those deep values and feelings.

4. The Cycling Artist. Tina Mammoser is a passionate visual artist and blogger from the UK who is not afraid to give readers behind-the-scenes info on her art career. She shares her wisdom via podcasts, blog posts, Twitter updates and whatever else she can get her hands on. She also is very proactive about the business side of her career, which is encouraging to see.

5. Open Culture: Excellent source of arts and media tidbits from around the world. As the blog’s “About Us” tag describes it, “Open Culture editor Dan Colman scours the web for the best cultural and educational media. He finds the books you want, the classes you need, and plenty of enlightenment in between.” True ‘nuff.

6. Presentation Zen: A good presentation blends written content, visuals and theater (and sometimes music!) seamlessly. Garr Reynolds’ blog, like his excellent book of the same name, drills down to discover how amazing in-person presentations happen.

7. The Heart of Innovation: Put together by the creativity consultants at Idea Champions, this blog is dedicated to all things innovation. Frequently posts great lists, wonderful multimedia and provocative propositions.

8. Innovation Weblog: Produced by the Innovation Tools website, the blog describes itself as a “meta-index” of innovation research and best practices. I can always find something interesting to stimulate my creative thinking here.

9. Art Biz Blog: Alyson Stanfield is a business coach for artists and a godsend to anyone who wants to sell their work and keep their self-respect. Her posts are filled with kindness, common sense and relevant goodies for working artists.

10. Creativity & Innovation: Keith Sawyer is a scientist who studies creativity, having also participated in it as an author, jazz musician and improve theater player. His blog always provides a solid “evidence base” for grounding one’s beliefs about the creative process.

11. Creative DC: My blogroll buddy Amanda Hirsch has created a great site (recently relaunched) that celebrates creative activity in our nation’s capital. I like the local emphasis (even though I live in Phoenix and have never visited DC), the type of material that she posts and her sense of humor.

12. QuinnCreative: Quinn is a local (Phoenix) creativity coach and gives workshops on all manner of art and writing topics. Her blog posts crackle with meaning and depth. She’s also fun to talk to in person, too!

13. Positivity: a personal development blog that tends to be practical, upbeat and original. Owner Henrik Edberg’s use of frequent guest bloggers helps keep the ideas fresh.

14. A Storied Career: Dr. Kathy Hansen’s blog, which covers far more than just the use of storytelling in career searches or job interviews. She is also deeply interested in organizational storytelling, social media’s impact on the way people tell the stories of their lives, the digital storytelling phenomenon, and much more.

15. Cake Wrecks: Just because it is so darn funny. Yes, it makes fun of the botched work of (low-end) professional cake decorators, but it also shows photos of amazing “successful” cake structures. I often say, “I didn’t know you could do that with a cake” when I see some of the better cake photographs.

Second helpings

Which blogs or websites with RSS feeds fill your creative appetite? Post them in the comment field below. Self-promotion is not only OK, it is encouraged.