Creativity Blog
Heighten your creativity for a better life.
![Two robots serving ice cream out of an old-fashioned cart.](https://mattdesingcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Robot_Ice_Cream_Cart-1024x683.jpg)
Ice Cream and the Invention of Summer, Part III
Ice cream is the most popular summer dessert. Hot fudge sundaes and root beer floats may fill our individual memories, but they also occupy our
![An assortment of colorful scoops of ice cream arranged in rows.](https://mattdesingcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Ice_cream_scoops-1024x683.jpg)
Ice Cream and the Invention of Summer, Part II
There’s so much to say about ice cream! When I first decided to write about creativity and this frosty treat, I assumed it would be
![A scoop of pink ice cream with tiny surfer figures perched on the slopes of scoop.](https://mattdesingcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Ice_Cream_Surfers-1024x683.jpg)
Ice Cream and the Invention of Summer, Part I
The old-fashioned Dairy Queen of my childhood hometown exclusively served ice cream treats. You ordered at a sliding window, and if you wanted to sit
![A colorful image of a sneaker gliding through a puddle.](https://mattdesingcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Shoe_Colorful-1024x683.jpg)
A Year of Play: A Six-Month Update
The phrase “a year of play” may conjure visions of a long vacation at a seaside villa with alternating sessions of building sandcastles and drinking
![A painting of a person in a landscape at dusk with fireflies.](https://mattdesingcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Firefly_Landscape-1024x683.jpg)
Lightning Bugs and a Return to Nature
I have lived most of my life in places where fireflies are uncommon. Then I moved to Indiana, whose official state insect is a species
![Black and white photos of people dancing positioned on a colorful background.](https://mattdesingcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Dancing_Retro_4-1024x683.jpg)
Reunions and the Creative Messiness of Memory
The musical Grease (not the film, but the stage production), begins at the 20-year class reunion of the Rydell High School Class of 1959. The
![An abstract painting in bright colors with a downturned face and a butterfly.](https://mattdesingcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Painting_Abstract_Head_Butterfly-1024x683.jpg)
Dementia, Coping, and Creativity
I have a loved one with dementia. Maybe you do, too. Each case is so different that it is difficult to say much of anything
![A caped superhero looking onto a futuristic skyline.](https://mattdesingcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Superhero_Cityscape-1024x683.jpeg)
Superpowers of Creativity and the Work of Neil Gaiman
I recently went to a live reading by Neil Gaiman, an author of immense imagination. Even if you don’t recognize his name, you probably know
![A Venetian street lined with colorful homes leading to the sea.](https://mattdesingcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Colorful_Street_Venice-1024x683.jpg)
Being Home, Getting Distance, and Creating in the Balance
The question of what it means to feel “at home” has been on my mind lately. Last year, my family moved from one region of