Field of Gold © Aliyah Marr (6 x7 ft mural)

Have you ever noticed that the words “magic” and “image” seem to be from the same root word?  A visual artist today has access to the entire history of art—to a vast museum of images from the subconscious that evoke ideas, emotions and feelings in the viewer.

I cannot always say where an image is coming from or where it is going. As an artist, my intent is to tap into what I call the “ocean of dreams” — what psychologists call the collective unconscious; a type of awareness that is pre-verbal and primarily visual in form and content. However, Jungian archetypes can only explain a portion of what is invoked during the process of painting. In my opionion, the best art uses images that defy explanation; things that cannot be traced back to any cognitive or logical origin.

Writers often speak of characters that spontaneously emerge in a novel, coming “alive” and even directing the author’s work. For me, a good painting also has a life and a direction of its own. Unpredictable and capricious, it can break free of the artist’s conscious control, and take an entirely new course. Instead of fighting this tendency, I welcome it; in fact I often set up the circumstances and environment where this kind of break can happen naturally. I look for the “happy accident” that allows me to glimpse something beyond my original intent — a chance to make the unseen seen.

By summoning the unseen participation of our collective unconscious, artist like me hope to evoke a “gut” reaction in the viewer —a feeling that defies words and logic. In my opinion, reaching that part of us is the holy grail in art. That is the magic, the alchemical effect, the distance abridged.

HUMOR!

Check out this little ditty in limericks.

The short answer is: I was compelled to tell my story. I felt it was time to show what it is like to live a creative life, to show what it is like to think like an artist, and to not feel fettered or bound to any medium or technique.

I wanted to show how a mind develops through the practice of art, to demonstrate how the view of the world becomes bigger with a creative mind, and to show how art makes bridges that connect ideas, emotions, and people.

Were there any books out there that did this? No. Are there any now? No.

It is my assertion that the best artists learn to use both sides of their brains in a balanced fashion. The crazy ideas that wake an artist up at night come from the uninhibited right-brain. In order to make that concept into art, the artist has to use the discipline and skills from her left-brain. It doesn’t matter what medium the artist chooses, the path to creation works the same way. This is, of course overly simplified for the purposes of understanding. Yet, most artists agree with me, that they feel that the practice of art engages the whole brain.

When I wrote my book, it seemed that no one had ever asked a visual artist what it is like to be truly creative. Why do they create? Certainly not to help their employer or their team, although that may happen once they have already developed their creativity.

Parallel Mind is one of the few books that talks about “pure creativity,” which I define in the book as below:

“Pure creativity is an activity that has no predefined destination or purpose, while applied creativity is an activity that always has a goal or application in mind. Pure creativity can be seen as a kind of play, while applied creativity is usually seen as work.

“Examples of pure creativity include (but are not limited to): a painter who paints from his heart, a musician who creates a symphony while toying at the piano, a writer who bases a screenplay on the people she knows at work, a scientist who discovers a new law of the universe by playing with raw materials and outlandish ideas. “

“Pure creativity” is divine play, a ready entrance to the greater sense of connection with the central energy of the universe. Many people find this feeling through meditation. The practice of art (meaning any purely creative work) is one of the active ways to experience the same thing. Our society, dominated by the values of the left-brain, only permits that which is useful and gainful. It allows very few avenues to the kind of pure existential enjoyment that artists know in their work.

So, I guess my answer to the question above is, simply, that I was compelled to create a book on creativity for the simple reason that I love to create. It doesn’t matter which medium I choose; the sheer enjoyment of creating something new is what keeps me playing in new mediums, with ever new toys, and with increasing delight no matter what form the final piece takes. My books show others how to access the amazing power that resides inside them: the human birthright of creative freedom.

• A book or an image is copyrightable.
• It is copyrighted the minute the book or image is produced.
• in order to prove you own it, you should register it, otherwise you may lose in a court battle.
• Copyright is a form of protection provided by U.S. law to the authors of “original works of authorship” fixed in any tangible medium of expression. The manner and medium of fixation are virtually unlimited. Creative expression may be captured in words, numbers, notes, sounds, pictures, or any other graphic or symbolic media. The subject matter of copyright is extremely broad, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, audiovisual, and architectural works. Copyright protection is available to both published and unpublished works.
• There is one more way to protect a book or magazine…

–>> read the rest of this post on the FreshAsylum blog

You may think that someone has stolen your idea, but it may not be so. After all, an idea is not copyrightable — you can only copyright a tangible rendition of your idea. And here is where your idea is guaranteed to be different than all other similar ideas — in the form you develop from your initial idea.

Let me give you an example: when I was writing my first book, I was asked what made my book on creativity different from all other books on creativity? Certainly not the idea to write about creativity! What made it unique was…

–>> read the rest of this post on the FreshAsylum blog

Stefan Bucher draws a monster-a-day. Check out his intuitive drawing technique in the video below. He sells original prints of his monsters and has even made a phone app. www.dailymonster.com

The Squirrel Mask is the perfect thing to freak out your neighbors. Just slip it on, sneak over and steal birdseed until they notice. If it freaks out people, just imagine what it will do for squirrels! They’ll never come back to your yard again. Do not wear around dogs. Latex. Fits most adult heads.

The full article, plus all the hilarious copy from the site are on my other blog, FreshAsylum.

The image above is printable and free to you. No email request or password: just download it.
Right-click or command-click on the image above and choose “save target as” (PC) or “save the link as” (MAC) to your computer, then print with your printer.

A few years ago I designed a Tarot deck. I admit that when I began, I didn’t actually believe that a mere deck of cards could have any meaning to me. I just wanted to conduct an intellectual experiment: what would happen if I randomized the titles to my paintings? Would a word placed near the image change the image; would the image change the word?

Try it for yourself. You can play the online version of my game here.

Play the Transformational Tarot Like a good friend, it is there for you, day or night. Available for Mac and Windows computers.

A few years ago I had a similar experience: a designer friend and I were strolling through the aisles of a new wine store in town. We delighted in the label design, both often drawn to the same design for the same reasons. Years earlier, I remember a graphic designer who remarked that she thought designing a wine label was a plum project (pun unintended).

The label on my new purchase is especially interesting, as the brand is called “Found Object.” OK, I did find it. But the reference is to an art movement in the early part of the last century. A found object is a surrealist trick whereupon the artist takes an object that is normally NOT considered art, and makes it into art. Often the artist achieves an “aha” in the viewer by turning the object over, or combining the object with others to produce a visual resemblance to another, unconnected subject.

The term found art—more commonly found object (French: objet trouvé) describes art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function.Pablo Picasso first publicly utilized the idea when he pasted a printed image of chair caning onto his painting titled Still Life with Chair Caning (1912). Marcel Duchamp perfected the concept when he made a series of “readymades”—completely unaltered everyday objects selected by Duchamp and designated as art—several years later. The most famous example is Fountain (1917), a standard urinal purchased from a hardware store and displayed on a pedestal, resting on its side.— Wikipedia

Needless to say, this little urinal-turned-fountain art-that-was-not-art had repercussions throughout the art world. Some people still react to this image even though this piece is now almost 100 years old.

One of my favorite examples of found art is the Picasso bull, made from the seat of a bicycle and handlebars. It’s an elegant piece that takes pieces from the same utilitarian object and presents it to the viewer in such a way that he is forced to a different conclusion.

It takes a creative mind to look at something that one sees everyday and suddenly see it in a new way. It takes an artist to transform that glimpse into a form that others can now see. —Aliyah Marr, The Art of Creativity

A few years ago I designed a Tarot deck. I admit that when I began, I didn’t actually believe that a mere deck of cards could have any meaning to me. I just wanted to conduct an intellectual experiment: what would happen if I randomized the titles to my paintings? Would a word placed near the image change the image; would the image change the word?

Try it for yourself. You can play the online version of my game here.

Play the Transformational Tarot. Like a good friend, it is there for you, day or night. Available for Mac and Windows computers.

The image above is printable and free to you. No email request or password: just download it.
Right-click or command-click on the image above and choose “save target as” (PC) or “save the link as” (MAC) to your computer, then print with your printer.

A few years ago I designed a Tarot deck. I admit that when I began, I didn’t actually believe that a mere deck of cards could have any meaning to me. I just wanted to conduct an intellectual experiment: what would happen if I randomized the titles to my paintings? Would a word placed near the image change the image; would the image change the word?

Try it for yourself. You can play the online version of my game here.

Play the Transformational Tarot. Like a good friend, it is there for you, day or night. Available for Mac and Windows computers.

….it’s magical, it’s what art is about. — Joshua Allen Harris

Artists don’t wait for the perfect studio, the perfect materials; they make art from whatever they find around them. Joshua Allen Harris combines garbage bags and the hot air from subway train grates and makes art.

$4.98 Ebook
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A Revolution of Birds

Bird Seed announces that a revolution has taken place under our very noses. Social media has created a new grassroots movement. The phenomena of social media shows us that a new paradigm has evolved.

Old paradigm verbiage
Consumers, corporate power, mass marketing, advertising, planned obsolescence, search-engine optimization, content mills, email blasts, 30-second commercials, broadcasting.

New paradigm verbiage
Individualists, informed buyers reporting on products and corporations, freedom of choice, democratized media, viral messaging, conversation, democratic media, inclusion and participation, flocking behavior, community, global reach.

Or to put it more succinctly, the old paradigm of the advertising and consumerism is being replaced by an exciting new era of individualism, free choice, and democratic grass-roots viral media.

Available from all major booksellers

Paperback book $12.98

Kindle Edition $4.99

Can You Digest Bird Seed?

If you feel victimized by nonsensical Ebay ads in your search sidebar…

If you are pursued by a growing mob of Facebook friends whom you have never met…

If you are deluged with double opt-in messages when you can’t remember a single opt…

If you find yourself confused by application upgrades that downgrade your experience…

If you are unable to see the social media forest for all the meaningless trees of content…

If you are afraid that your last precious half-hour of free time may be on the chopping block of Twitter…

If you bemoan the disappearance of time, depth, and real meaning…

If you find it sad that your iPhone has replaced your dog as your constant companion…

If you suspect your wife has left you for her blog…

…then this book may be for you.

New technology should not make us into a technician or slave to the application, but instead, it should free the individual to live a better life. The purpose of this book is to help you achieve the same goal.

I really love this book. I can use it as a serious reference and sign-poster towards a better understanding of the increasingly complex and confusing world of social media marketing which at times, for many writers and publishers can at best become overwhelming and at worst a nightmare.

But in addition, Aliyah has written not only a common sense description of easy to follow building blocks and integrated platforms but added her usual unique sparkle of wit, fun and creativity into the process, making this book a pleasure to read on topics which are often presented in such a tedious and off-putting nerdy way, rather than as Bird Seed does, by telling you how it is, straight and no messing about.

This book will make you laugh and smile as well as reflect and ponder. Writers are advised endlessly to Twitter our Facebooks and StumbleUpon our LinkedIn – now after digesting some Bird Seed I think I have at last informally learned something practical and useful at a cost effective price. — achillespubtalk

It’s an engaging read and I really enjoyed it. It should be a must read for anyone trying to get their ideas, business, product out there or anyone trying to navigate social media and all its positive aspects while avoiding the pitfalls.— Aaron B.

$4.98 Ebook
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Available on Amazon & All Booksellers

Print version available on Amazon for about $12.00

Kindle Edition $4.99

If you want to develop your natural creativity — I guarantee you, if you are human, you are creative — then this site can help you do that. (If you aren’t human, well, I can’t help you with that.)

Here’s what you can do here:

• PLAY creative games
• PARTICIPATE in creative groups, like Creative Caffeine
• BUY creative products
• DEVELOP your creativity
• FIND creative personal & business guidance
• GET INSPIRED— join the blog to get fun offers, site updates, and inspiration by email

Older posts on creativity and personal development may be found at:

The Art of Creativity Newsletter

I love interactive sites; sites that you can play with, interact with, and learn from. I use Flash to create interactive games and complex web sites. You can see some of my interactive work, and my book designs on my Flash site, FreshAsylum.com.

FreshAsylum.com

Radi8.org is also an interactive website that is set up like a game with lots of Easter eggs (hidden stuff for the user to find). This interface teaches you how to use it as you use it. You can see some of my paintings, videos, and interactive art on my Flash site, Radi8.org.

Radi8.org

This unusual Transformational Tarot Computer Game uses words and images to read what is current in your life. Find out where you are going, clear up mental confusion, divine someone’s real motives, find your true path.

Guaranteed to give better advice than a bartender and it’s cheaper than visiting a psychologist. This game is available to play on all computers. (Not a printed deck.)

Click here to see all the cards for the Tarot Deck.

Click to play a sample game

Transformational Tarot © Copyright 2004 Aliyah Marr. All rights reserved.

HOW TO USE The Transformational Tarot

Make sure that you clear your mind with a meditation: it is important that you have a small period of inner silence before you click on to reveal any of the cards in the spread. If you ask a question , it should be very general, involving the direction of your life.

Pay especial attention to the issue or bridge card, if there is one (spreads three and five). Sometimes the Tarot doesn’t answer the question that you thought you were asking, but instead answers you at a deeper level. Most of our real questions are at an unconscious level, so the player should be aware of this feature of the Tarot.

I believe that part of the “magic” of Tarot decks is in the intention (attention) of the person pulling the cards.

It doesn’t seem to matter that you cannot physically pull the cards from the deck; in my Tarot, the intent of the user is very important, because otherwise the computer is just pulling a random card. The “magic” is still there because it comes from you, not from the machine or even from the deck.

My goal with the Transformational Tarot was to create a unique Tarot that was philosophically very balanced, and applicable for the spiritual issues of contemporary life. While this tarot doesn’t adhere to certain traditions — such as card numbers — I believe that the Transformational Tarot embodies the spirit of the tarot — it is intended to work at a generally higher level than telling your fortune.

Exhibited at “Digital Concentrate Exhibit” Purdue University in March / April 2005

Recommendation from the editor of Inner Realm Magazine, Barbara DeGraw to a readership of almost 100,000 in the NY, NJ area
(see below)

An article I wrote about the making of this deck — META-Physics – featured in the January 2005 edition of Inner Realm Magazine

TESTIMONIALS

I think your Tarot site is wonderful and beautiful. I am recommending it to all of my friends and almost 100,000 readers from Inner Realm Magazine (January 2005). — Barbara DeGraw, editor of Inner Realm Magazine

I loved transformational tarot. It is the only tarot reading online that gave me very deep insight to the core of my problem. That is very rare to find. — A.C.

Never thought a computer program would be able to emulate the shuffling process, however, my reading was as profound as I would have found it with cards…. —C.K.

What a great tarot spread! It actually helped to clarify (and surely will continue to do so as I continue to think about it) some of the issues I have been struggling with. Thanks! — Chantelle L.

Beautiful experience – thank you! — W. Okoli

I Love your tarot deck and how it works!!! Thank you so much for creating this! — S.B.

This is wonderful work. I consider this a well constructed deck, offering a truly intuitive read. This deck offers intuitive cues without the sometimes chaotic input of the card collages of James Wanless’ Voyager Deck. Remarkable work. — J.H.

I am very impressed with the cards and the readings they perform. Very accurate and truthful. —Erin

Just read the cards. It was great..although I feel I can read others pretty well I’m pretty pessimistic about my own readings. This one was great. It totally addressed current issues (shockingly well, in fact). Congratulations. — M.K.

I love the art work. —M.M.

I would like to congratulate you on a job well done. Very intelligent and accurate. — M.H.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

“The Ghost In The Machine”

I had wanted to create a Tarot deck for years, but it was not until I was looking at the artwork of René Magritte that something inside of me clicked. I have always liked how he titles his work: the title does not describe the piece, but instead, the words of the title seem to set in place a kind of alchemic reaction in the mind. This relationship of words, image and concept is something that Magritte explored to a great depth, and something that I find quite fascinating. The combination of the mysterious image and the enigmatic words of the title serve to do what I call “stop the mind”, an effect that resembles what happens during certain types of esoteric meditative practices. When the mind is stopped, something extraordinary happens: another type of thought process starts to emerge.

My original idea was that I wanted a way to randomize the titles to my paintings. I posed myself the following question, “Does an image change when a phrase is placed next to it?” I wanted to see how the context of the words changed the perception of the image, and how the proximity of the image changed the meaning of the words.

A Tarot deck seemed to be an ideal medium for my experiment. Since I work in interactive media, I started creating the project in Flash. Rather than create new illustrations, I chose paintings from the last 15 years. These images became the Arcana cards. Then I culled words from three Tarot books that I own. Throughout most of this project, I had no idea whether my Tarot would actually work: did I choose appropriate images and words? Most importantly, I had no idea if a mere computer program would be able to perform the magic of a real Tarot deck.

Since the completion of the deck I have done several readings for myself and my friends. I cannot speak for the others, but when I draw a spread, the cards seem to address my current mental, emotional and spiritual state.

A mysterious thing I have noted: in all the spreads I have drawn, there are some cards in this deck that have never appeared in any reading I have done for myself. They do, however, appear for others.

Is this Tarot Deck merely matter of random scripts, chance, and mathematics? Or is there truly a ghost in the machine?

— Aliyah Marr, September 2004

Transformational Tarot © Copyright 2004 Aliyah Marr

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Paperback book on Amazon $19

Pocket Parallel Mind is a book of inspirational quotes for creative thinkers and those who wish to creatively transform their lives. Based upon Twitter-like quips from the first book, Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity, Pocket Parallel Mind is laid out like a calendar; one quote per day. Includes a table of contents, and a convenient index of concepts. Perfect for anyone who works in a creative field—musicians, visual artists, designers, actors, scriptwriters, mathematicians, etc. Others interested in personal development through creative development will also find this book an inspirational resource.

Below are some sample pages from the paperback version of the book. (The ebook has only normal text without the design, typography, or layout of the print version.)

The Parallel Mind series of books are written for creative individuals who are on a path of personal development through their art. The first book, Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity introduced the concepts of “pure” v.s. “applied” creativity.

Pure creativity is that which is created for the pure joy of creative activity, without material or practical concerns or goals. Applied creativity is the application of creative thought to a defined goal or purpose. Most artforms and pure science fall under the first term. Pure creativity is the subject of the first books in the series.Watch for future books on applied creativity.

ADVANCE REVIEWS FOR POCKET PARALLEL MIND

A stunning example of non-invasive brain surgery. —Mark Blanchard, Creative Group Head Baber Smith

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The fact that Aliyah wrote this book proves you need it. Brilliant thought vitamins for the creative mind: buy two copies, one for each half of your brain. —Steve Kaye, One Great Meeting, www.stevekaye.com

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I think the multi-talented creative people who are my clients will love this book…if they can stop coming up with new ideas long enough to read it! —Lisa Rothstein, The Da Vinci Dilemma

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Creativity Booster: Pocket Parallel Mind takes you on a walk on the right side. Use it as light reading to turn on the light in your creative brain. —Nacho Villoch

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Consumed daily, these tidbits of brainfood will improve your creative output, all without that annoying fish-oil burp. —Michael Plishka, ZenStorming Solutions, LLC

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Warning: this book is dangerous. I read it and now my brain is pestering me with too many ideas. —Thornton Sully, A Word With You Press

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The better of my two minds is thinking up a storm somewhere in a parallel universe. —Salvatore Buttaci, Flashing My Shorts

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I had no second thought’s on reading this book! Which in a parallel mind would total four. Therefore I read it twice.z —Paul Fitzgerald, Founder UGotStyle.Com

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E=MC2 was only the beginning. With this book, you can come up with a new theory of relativity that will blast my little idea right out of the (parallel) universe. — Albert Einstein

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Mr. Hyde recommended I read this book, now I’m beside myself with bizarre ideas coming from my Parallel Mind. —Dr. Jekeyl, M.D.

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Can I have my crayons back, now? —Thomas Sully, Portrait Painter

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Sybill: “I’m of two minds about this book.”
Sybill: “No, you are not.”

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Read this and you’ll have the creative, brilliant and witty brain that I originally intended for my creation. —Dr. Frankenstein

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Sautée the left-brain with onions. Whip the right with cream & sugar until stiff peaks form. Serve warm. —Julia Childs

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I’d like to comment, but I’m a little pressed at the moment. —Guttenburg

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Day 22…There’s the rub! —William Shakespeare

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Print version available on Amazon for about $11.00

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There is a treasure map inside you, a map to your deepest dreams, to a power that you have had since birth, a guide to a world of unimaginable riches.

Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity is a book about how to access creative potential by awakening the inner child within. Aliyah Marr draws from her experience as a teacher, visual artist, poet, author, and designer to demonstrate how you can change your body, your profession, your relationship, and your life just by changing your thoughts.

Parallel Mind is not about how to draw or paint, but how to think like an artist. This book celebrates the gift of creative consciousness.

All great artists and creative thinkers know that the way to tap into the power of freshness and originality is to revive the creative “inner child.” The author helps you reclaim the birthright of your natural creativity through exercises designed to develop and inspire your full creative potential.

You have the map, you have found the treasure — Parallel Mind invites you to open the lock and discover the life of your dreams.

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The Parallel Mind series of books are written for creative individuals who are on a path of personal development through their art. The first book, Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity introduced the concepts of “pure” v.s. “applied” creativity.

Pure creativity is that which is created for the pure joy of creative activity, without material or practical concerns or goals. Applied creativity is the application of creative thought to a defined goal or purpose. Most artforms and pure science fall under the first term. Pure creativity is the subject of the first books in the series.Watch for future books on applied creativity

Books on pure creativity:

Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity

Pocket Parallel Mind, 365 Days of Creative Inspiration in Your Pocket

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BOOK REVIEWS

Creative Analysis and Synthesis
One reason why I really like this book on creativity is the structure of words and ideas Aliyah Marr constructs her writing in. She has an unusual voice and a style of expressing difficult ideas which keeps the reader engrossed from the beginning with the flow of concepts. This is what good fiction writers do essentially as compelling storytellers. In Parallel Mind she does the same with non-fiction.

This is not easy when you are not, for example, writing a biography or a travel or cook book. The themes in Parallel Mind are hard to conceptualise as a compelling narrative but Aliyah synthesises it really well – it has kept my interest throughout, in a topic area which normally I would rarely read. In particular I like the continuous sprinkling, amongst the text, of academic references, quotes and links to science, maths and other hard concepts – I don’t know how she found her references and quotes but it is impressive – Aliyah has a broad and discerning intellect on a wide area of interrelated creativity themes. Overall an enjoyable read and highly recommended.

I think Aliyah should think about writing some creativity fiction in due course – adapting the same style but weaving in suspense and romance – and maybe some science and mathematics too! — Roy Baldwin, Creative Gateway, Achilles Publishing

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A Saavy Marriage Counselor for the Feuding Right and Left Brain
Parallel Mind is not about self-help–it’s about self determination. It is immediately appealing as a motivational guide because it does what few self-help books even attempt: it treats the reader as if they had a brain.

A right and left brain, to be more precise.

According to author and artist Aliyah Marr, the two halves don’t always make a whole. They seem to have conflicting agendas.

“The right brain–intuitive, holistic, and none verbal–is analogous to our definition of the inner child. The left brain–rational,linear and verbal…is the adult persona.” As long as the right and left brain bicker for dominance, we’re a cat chasing our own tail. Albert Einstein would seem to agree:”The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind the faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Through specific exercises and provocative insight, this accomplished artist/author empowers us to open up the dialogue between adult and child, left and right. With the kind of mathematical surprise that would have delighted Einstein, she helps us discover that when the two halves work in tandem, one half plus one half equals infinity, and our capacity for problem solving becomes limitless, and, more to the point of this unique guide, joyful!

Aliyah Marr has her own “E=Mc2″ equation, and it is this: “Vision + Passion= Manifestation.” For those with a vague awareness that something is missing in their lives, she makes a compelling case in this nutritious read that personal change is possible, and the rewards immeasurable, that joy and abundance is a nano-second away.

This ain’t for couch potatoes, but Ms Marr isn’t asking you to get to work–she’s inviting you to come out and play. “Creativity is play with purpose.” Who wouldn’t want to join her? — Thornton Sully, Editor-in-Chief, A Word With You Press

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Great reminders about Being Creative
Aliyah shares some great universal wisdom–and in a nice, useable sequence–about how to recognize, enter, and work with the creative mind. She gives us some good reminders about the characteristics of creativity, as well as a synthesis of many threads of ideas that pertain to the creative life. — Penney Peirce, author of Frequency: The Power of Personal Vibration and The Intuitive Way: The Definitive Guide to Increasing Your Awareness

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Getting Into the Flow
Aliyah Marr’s book goes directly to the heart of the creative experience. She leads the reader to the boundry of un patterned and habitual thought – pure creativity. Aliyah explores many of the different roads and perspectives to inspire your most creative self into being. — P. Avedisian

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Fantastic Expose on Creativity
Every individual needs a dose of this book. Creativity is the heart and soul of existence and Aliyah expertly explains this concept so that you fully understand and can absorb the message. Creativity is for everyone no matter what you do, who you are or where you dare to tread. — Julie Gengo

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This book has a beautiful voice…
It is encouraging, gentle, and kind. It speaks to you like a good friend. It’s about opening your mind to become the creative person that exists in each of us.

So, instead of providing a catalog of quick techniques, this book goes deeper into the heart of creativity. It goes into the fundamental mind-set that drives creativity. Once you master this, then you can use the tools like an artist. And yes, the book also provides techniques.

But the real value is in the profound wisdom about how people unfold into being creative. I found this to be one of those rare books that deserves to be kept and cherished. I strongly recommend this book. It belongs in any personal library. — Steve Kaye, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator, www.stevekaye.com

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It Takes You to the Next Level
This book moves beyond ideas and concepts found in other self-help books. In a refreshing way, the author presents steps for you to take to unlock the joy you were born with and should be feeling every day. Essentially she’s saying; if you aren’t happy you can train yourself to fix that, you were born with all the tools you need, now its time to unlock your potential. By using creativity you can unlock and discover abundance in all the good things life has to offer. — Mark N.

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Fundamental text on creativity
Aliyah Marr has clearly and eloquently tackled the subject of creativity. I am particularly impressed with her understanding of attention and its fundamental role in the creative process. Her book will serve as a fundamental text in the field of creativity. — Les Fehmi, Ph.D., The Open-Focus Brain

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An enlightened, engaging and provocative look at how to blend creativity and personal pursuits for a truly fulfilling life. Must reading. — David Heenan, Flight Capital and Double Lives

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When you make a living from your ideas…
you tend to forget about things like fun. Parallel Mind is a practical, poetic, and playful reminder. Even those of us in the creative professions need to remember to have fun and play; it can restore the very soul. — Bernie DeKoven, The Well-Played Game

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Pure Alchemy
As the founder of Alchemists International, my work has shown me that the most valuable element for any transformation is creativity. Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity shows how anyone can transmute ordinary
thoughts into the gold of pure creative action. — Jeffrey S. Edwards, Organizational Alchemist, Alchemists Intl

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In the magic play of personal development…
Aliyah Marr teaches us how to fully embrace our deepest desires and dreams. Parallel Mind is a sure guide. Read it and you will grow. — Marc Zegans, creative development advisor, Pillow Talk, and Night Work

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Practical Tool for Success
Packed with actionable insights and precise tools for breaking through self-imposed limitations and barriers, Parallel Mind is more than a book, it is a foundation for success and inspiration. — Stephen Sorkin, Co-author, Aha Performance: Building & Managing a Self Motivated Workforce

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Invaluable Information
As a marketer and creator of the Book Yourself Solid(tm) system, I know the value of creative thinking; it can make or break a business. Parallel Mind contains invaluable information on how to release the mental and emotional blocks that most of us encounter in creating a new business and in marketing ourselves. Highly recommended. — Michael Port, Book Yourself Solid, and Beyond Booked Solid

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Reference Guide to Creativity
As a life coach with a focus on developing self-awareness I found Parallel Mind a fascinating read. Aliyah Marr demonstrates how developing one’s own creativity can help anyone, from artist to entrepreneur, change their lives. Aliyah presents a compelling argument for the value of creative consciousness; showing how you can use tools from the arts to shift your thinking through the power of self-understanding and love. She inspires you to be in your highest creative self at all times. This book is an incomparable reference guide; keep it in your back pocket until the changes that she endorses become part of you like a pair of your favorite jeans! — Michael A. Nitti, Executive Life Coach, The Trophy Effect

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A Magic Carpet for the Creative Master
With a masterful blend of science, metaphors, wisdom, quotes, and storytelling skill Aliyah Marr brings the magic carpet of creativity to life. With this book we can become the creative masters of our lives. — Sharon Lund, Author & International Speaker, The Integrated Being: Techniques to Heal the Mind-Body-Spirit

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A Unique Look at Creative Development
Aliyah Marr’s book provides a unique look into the development of creativity. The wide variety of ideas and approaches to creating provide something for everyone to ponder. In addition to her views, relevant quotes from artists, philosophers and others offer much food for thought. — Bruce Wands, Art of the Digital Age and Digital Creativity

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New Ways to Look at Old Problems
As a person with autism, my visual thinking mind finds unexpected associations that help me invent new ideas. Parallel Mind will give you lots of new ways to look at old problems. — Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures

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This book is about the life-changing power of the creative spirit…
but it will also be relevant to those who primarily work with their left brain. As Aliyah shows, we all have deep reserves of creativity that we can draw upon to transform not only the way we interact with the world around us, but also the very thoughts and emotions that determine our reality. Aliyah Marr’s ideas are provocative, even challenging, but she presents them in vivid, accessible arguments supported by an eclectic assortment of quotations from philosophers, artists, scientists, and other famous figures. Parallel Mind contains the rare gift of a new, necessary angle on contemporary life. — Benjamin Kessler, playwright & managing editor of Graphics.com magazine

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$7.99 Ebook
All formats: computer, i-Book, e-reader or smart phone. (PDF • EPUB • MOBI • RTF)
You will be taken to the download page after payment.

Print version available on Amazon for about $18.00

Available soon in print: a collectible, limited edition direct from author/artist, Aliyah Marr.

EBook format (universal PDF file format). Essays on personal and social change from over 2 years of posts in the Parallel Mind Companion blog / newsletter. Illustrated with full-color paintings by artist and author Aliyah Marr.

This book is for those intrepid explorers of human expression—artists and social change agents. It doesn’t matter what field you choose—whether in the arts or sciences—if you do it in the attitude of curiosity and passion, you are an artist, not just involved with a certain medium, but with your own personal evolution. You are not satisfied with the status quo; you find your own answers. You are what author Aliyah Marr calls a “conscious creative.”

The journey of the conscious creative is one of adventure and courage. It is not the path often taken. It is not a “normal” life, one with a great deal of comfort, in fact, it is often a life of privation and loneliness. Can you imagine Leonardo da Vinci in a bar arguing about the latest football scores? Do you think that Shakespeare, Bach or Einstein had many contemporaries who understood them?

Most people today would rather choose to spend their lives working a job they hate and coming home to argue with their spouses and watch TV than spend one minute wrestling with themselves in front of an empty canvas or blank page. It isn’t easy, sometimes it isn’t even fun, but ultimately, a creative life is extremely rewarding.

Picasso said, “Why do you try to understand art? Do you try to understand the song of a bird?” I have a vision that when we are all freed to express ourselves, we will be, each one of us, like a bird that has finally learned to sing. Can you imagine the symphony of creativity that together we will create?

FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME:
Bird Seed

<< to download: right-click or control-click the pile of bird seed & “save link/target as” birdseed-ebook.pdf >>

A Revolution of Birds

Bird Seed announces that a revolution has taken place under our very noses. Social media has created a new grassroots movement. The phenomena of social media shows us that a new paradigm has evolved.

Old paradigm verbiage
Consumers, corporate power, mass marketing, advertising, planned obsolescence, search-engine optimization, content mills, email blasts, 30-second commercials, broadcasting.

New paradigm verbiage
Individualists, informed buyers reporting on products and corporations, freedom of choice, democratized media, viral messaging, conversation, democratic media, inclusion and participation, flocking behavior, community, global reach.

Or to put it more succinctly, the old paradigm of the advertising and consumerism is being replaced by an exciting new era of individualism, free choice, and democratic grass-roots viral media.

Paperback book $12.98

Kindle Edition $4.99
All other Ebook formats (pdf, epub, etc) $4.99

Can You Digest Bird Seed?

If you feel victimized by nonsensical Ebay ads in your search sidebar…

If you are pursued by a growing mob of Facebook friends whom you have never met…

If you are deluged with double opt-in messages when you can’t remember a single opt…

If you find yourself confused by application upgrades that downgrade your experience…

If you are unable to see the social media forest for all the meaningless trees of content…

If you are afraid that your last precious half-hour of free time may be on the chopping block of Twitter…

If you bemoan the disappearance of time, depth, and real meaning…

If you find it sad that your iPhone has replaced your dog as your constant companion…

If you suspect your wife has left you for her blog…

…then this book may be for you.

New technology should not make us into a technician or slave to the application, but instead, it should free the individual to live a better life. The purpose of this book is to help you achieve the same goal.

I really love this book. I can use it as a serious reference and sign-poster towards a better understanding of the increasingly complex and confusing world of social media marketing which at times, for many writers and publishers can at best become overwhelming and at worst a nightmare.

But in addition, Aliyah has written not only a common sense description of easy to follow building blocks and integrated platforms but added her usual unique sparkle of wit, fun and creativity into the process, making this book a pleasure to read on topics which are often presented in such a tedious and off-putting nerdy way, rather than as Bird Seed does, by telling you how it is, straight and no messing about.

This book will make you laugh and smile as well as reflect and ponder. Writers are advised endlessly to Twitter our Facebooks and StumbleUpon our LinkedIn – now after digesting some Bird Seed I think I have at last informally learned something practical and useful at a cost effective price. — achillespubtalk

In this audio segment, Aliyah interviews Marc Zegans who advises artists from all walks of life on their creative development and careers. Marc works with artists of all kinds and at all stages in their careers. He reveals how his work as a life coach and advisor is deeply satisfying because it is a creative process that helps others achieve their dreams. Zegans was the creative deveolpment advisor for Aliyah Marr’s book, Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity.

There is a creativity switch inside each of us, waiting to turn on the life we are meant to live!

Meet Aliyah Marr, modern day MUSE whose joy is for each of us to tap into and turn on our creative essence.

Everyone is creative. How do you respond to natural creative impulses? Do you work or play in Light? Learn the power of pure creativity versus applied creativity, and the role creative thought plays in human EVOLution.

Each of us is participating in a rare EVOLutionary quantum leap in consciousness, creative empowerment and positive social change. Step into your highest creative Self!

Author Aliyah Marr speaks with Rhonda Smith about individual creative empowerment and social change on Awake: Now What?

Aliyah states that there are more creative geniuses on Earth now than at any other time in the history of mankind. She says that if we rallied our individual creative power, we could change the world virtually overnight, eliminating pollution, crime, and inequality.

In this segment, author Aliyah Marr inspires listeners to create using the three elements of creative thought manifestation: Passion, Persistence, and Patience. Audio version of her blog and newsletter, Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity.