As artist and author, Carrie Bloomston, flipped through the 127 colorful pages of her first book, “The Little Spark-30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity,” she couldn’t help but smile at the product of her journey.
“I could have written this very fluffy light book about creativity, but it wouldn’t have solved the problem. It wouldn’t have spoken to people in the way that I wanted [it] to, which is to be creative is much more than how to make pretty things. In fact, it’s nothing to do with that at all. It’s much more about how to dig far enough into yourself to have the courage to go find your creativity and then to listen to your heart and follow that,” Bloomston said, with the enthusiasm of an inspirational coach.
Bloomston is also a local fabric designer, artist behind her website and blog such-designs.com and mother of two children.
“I was sort of over supported as a child, which is such a rare treat and a luxury now that I’m grown up and have children.I kind of feel like…what this book is giving people is the supportive parent they might not have had,” Bloomston said.
“The Little Spark-30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity,” is an interactive roadmap not just for the artistically gifted, but everyone else struggling to find the creativity they had as a child.
“I’m trying to let them know they’re enough right now. That they can, they just have to start,” Bloomston said. “That fear and doubt and the inner critic and all these voices that we have inside of us that are kind of pulling us away from our dreams, those are normal and they’re something that we can work our way around and I give techniques for that.”
Bloomston has been an artist her whole life. If anything this book, dedicated to her kindergarten art teacher, is a full circle of Bloomston’s experiences and wisdom she has picked up along the way.
“First of all I think that any joy and love and sparkle in my heart and that I reflect is really a reflection of all the beauty and love and creativity around me. I mean I see myself as a mirror,” Bloomston said. “If anything I’m doing in this book, I’m just reflecting the light of all the people that I know.”
Art is Bloomston’s passion and medium for interpreting the world around her At age 12, Bloomston sold splatter painting T-shirts on her back porch in her hometown of Birmingham. At 13, Bloomston ventured into large-scale abstract painting. Bloomston even had her first one-woman painting exhibit at 17.
“I was a girl from Alabama and I wanted to be a New York artist. That was my dream,” Bloomston said.
Even though she was resistant at first, Bloomston found herself in Arizona in 1994. Since then the dream of New York died and her creative spark grew. After having a mural business with her husband for 17 years, Bloomston shifted gears five years ago to sewing.
While Bloomston was pregnant with her daughter, she wanted to make her son reusable lunch bags. So she began creating things and then found herself taking sewing classes. Every class people would tell Bloomston that she should sell patterns of her creations. At the time Bloomston didn’t know what they meant, but she eventually listened. After her brand grew from doing trade shows, publishers began approaching Bloomston to write a sewing book, but Bloomston realized she couldn’t do that.
“So I went through this process, and I realized I can’t teach people to sew, even though that’s what everyone wants me to do. But what I can teach people is about art and creativity and color and the things I’m passionate about,” Bloomston said
For five months, Bloomston found herself in places like her tree fort writing a book about something everybody loses at some point in time, and helping them gain it back.
For Changing Hands Bookstore, it made perfect sense to sell Bloomston’s book, being that she is a local author appealing to a wide audience and giving back to her community.
“I’m familiar with her blog and all of her writing and I even think it’s just going to be a really good book on the topic,” co-owner of Changing Hands bookstore Cindy Dach said.
Changing Hands Bookstore’s Phoenix location is even having a meet and greet with Bloomston on Dec. 2at 7p.m., where Bloomston will present, read and sign her book.
“I mean who are you? What do you want? When you stop asking that question, that’s when the trouble begins. That’s when you’ve stopped kind of being a kid when you’ve forgotten to ask that basic question: what do I want?” Bloomston said.
