From sunset picnics at Sycamore Highlands to legendary Zambian rock at the Farmhouse, community leaders reveal their favorite ways to make the most of long summer days in the City of Arts & Innovation.
Greetings, cork connoisseurs and unbottled imaginators! Last week, we freed our creative genies by rubbing up against the creative potential of that versatile and natural material. Did you carve a thumb-sized masterpiece or find new rhythms in its unique contours? Perhaps you found some parallels between the qualities of cork and your own winning personality? Even if your creative engagement was limited to the cork coaster keeping your cold drink from ruining your table’s finish, I hope you continue to find our natural world to be full of artistic potential.
Our drink coasters are actually a great place to start our quest for this week’s creative nudge: condensation. With our hot, dry Riverside summers, it might seem a scarce resource outdoors, but those icy cold drinks we reach for to beat the heat offer a front-row seat to its magic. Condensation, the visible proof of our perspiration’s counterpoint, invites us to observe, reflect and create.
Part of the fun of this nudge is the quest itself: seeking out condensation in unusual places. Where might it be found? Perhaps on the cool pipes in the back room of your workplace, clinging to the window of a heavily air-conditioned storefront, or even creating a temporary sheen on the lid of a cooler during an outdoor gathering. This search can lead you to unexpected corners of your community or even within the familiar walls of your home or office, inviting a fresh perspective on your surroundings.
As a writer and artist, I've found creative ways to harness condensation’s power. There’s a particular joy in leaving a short note of inspiration on a shared bathroom mirror, knowing that the message will only be revealed when the steam from a shower brings it to life. It's a multi-creative act of communication, a transient artwork that speaks volumes, then moves on.
It’s not just humans who appreciate condensation; in our modern world, many animals—from beetles collecting morning dew on their backs to birds sipping from an air conditioner's drip—rely on these tiny moisture gatherings to survive and thrive. It's a testament to life’s persistent drive to find resources in unexpected places. At a desert writing retreat I attended in June, the only distraction from writing my blockbuster memoir was the migration of quail, jackrabbits, chipmunks, coyotes and dragonflies outside my door, where the A/C unit created an actual desert oasis.
Let's embrace this delicate, temporary canvas and see what fleeting beauty and profound insights it can offer using one or more of these creative exercises:
Ephemeral Notepad (Visual & Narrative): Find a surface with condensation (a cold drink glass, a steamed-up mirror, a cool window). Use your finger to write a message, a small image or an abstract pattern on the misty surface. Before it vanishes, quickly capture it with a photograph. Reflect on the transient nature of your art and perhaps write a haiku or a short prose piece about its fleeting existence.
Slick Trick (Touch & Observation): Lightly touch a surface covered in condensation. How does it feel—cool, slick, slightly textured? Close your eyes and run your fingers across it, noticing the sensation. Then try to replicate that tactile experience on paper using a medium like pastel, charcoal or even just pressing your finger into a soft surface. Focus on conveying the feeling of moisture and coolness without explicitly drawing water.
Drip Dry (Sound): Listen closely to surfaces where condensation might be forming or dripping. Do you hear the faint sound of condensation forming (a subtle hiss or crackle)? Or the soft plink of a drip hitting a surface? Try to replicate or exaggerate these sounds using vocalizations, found objects or simple instruments to form a “condensation soundscape.”
Nose Prose (Smell & Imagination): Condensation itself is odorless, but the surfaces it forms on—or the environment it’s in—often have distinct smells. Seek out condensation in a unique spot (e.g., a refrigerator door, a plant leaf). What scents are present around it? Let these aromas inspire a descriptive paragraph or a quick sketch that embodies the smell of that condensed moment.
Dropped (Conceptual & Scientific): Think about the journey of a single water vapor molecule as it turns into condensation. It was once in the air, then it touched a cold surface, transforming into a visible droplet. Trace this journey conceptually. Write a tiny story from the perspective of a single water droplet, or create a series of quick doodles depicting its transformation and adventures.
This week’s search for condensation asks us to slow down, to truly notice the interplay of temperature and moisture, and to find artistic potential in things that typically fade away. Embracing these brief, transient phenomena allows us to integrate creativity seamlessly into our day. By sharpening our senses to such subtle occurrences, we cultivate a deeper appreciation for the delicate artistry woven into everyday existence, enriching our lives one droplet at a time.
This column was written with the help of Google’s Gemini Advanced, a powerful generative AI writing tool.
