Departure by Yuko Oda, associate professor of fine arts, is a 66” x 48” painting created in 2010 with Japanese pigment, gouache, and conte on denril. 

5) How can I become more creative? 

Multimedia artist Yuko Oda finds creative inspiration everywhere. The NYIT associate professor of fine arts puts it to good use in her drawings of flowers morphing into galactic planets and animations of nature, such as digital renderings of insect metamorphosis at yukooda.com.  

“I find creativity permeating through all aspects of life,” she says. “It’s not something that is compartmentalized in my studio practice. For example, another passion of mine is cooking, a therapeutic artistic process for me. I utilize my sculptural skills to stack up a sushi tower, and my design skills to assemble it on a plate, contemplating the color, textures, and composition-negative and positive space of the dish.” 

She suggests some ways for anybody to get their creative juices flowing:

• Let go of your inner self-critic.

• Listen to music.

• Believe in your idea, no matter how “different” or “strange” it is.

• Turn off the computer, Internet, and wi-fi.

• Immerse yourself in nature and sit, walk, observe.

• Give yourself time to do something that you love to do. 

• Go to galleries, bookstores, performances, museums, or walk down the streets of your town or city.

• Collect inspiration. Always be on the lookout for images, songs, people, and ideas that you find inspiring. Grab them, take photos, or write them down.

• Remember that creativity doesn’t have to be about making art for a gallery. “It can be the way you write a letter to a friend,” says Oda.

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