Why the name “Owl Create”
A few years ago, I realized I wanted to start a creative business.
I wanted to build a creative reuse center where we promoted creativity through a retail shop that resold used art supplies and reusable/recyclable materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill. Items that would be suitable to repurpose or reimagine and give new life. This place would be a creative gathering place for my community sustained by modest second-hand sales. (Maybe that’s still a piece of a future iteration.)
When I considered what to call such an endeavor, I felt immense pressure for this name to summarize all that my imagination might dream into the space. Maybe it comes as no surprise, but I got a little stuck. A little stuck led to paralyzing self-talk like “maybe this is a dumb idea for me to do this? Who am I to take on this project? There’s definitely someone out there more qualified or at least who knows more and enough to do this important idea more justice…” Ugh. It was a sticky trap.
The idea stayed stuck there collecting dust and decaying for several seasons. I didn’t talk about it. I thought about it stuffed in a dirty basement corner, but I didn’t feel confident enough to pluck it out, clean it up, and say I’m sorry. I waited to read the announcement that someone else had discovered it and birthed it into fruition. It didn’t happen.
Seasons came and went. Until one day I attended a work trip with my husband as his plus one, and during my time away, I got some solo time to explore the Alexandria, VA. I walked the streets dreaming, and I visited their local Upcycle Creative Reuse Center as well as the brilliant Torpedo Factory. That night we had this social thing with his coworkers, and people kept asking “what do you do?…”
I just think a lot, I thought. That’s not very fun, I thought.
So, I made the bold choice, right there in the company of a bunch of passionate technology-loving scientists, to talk about this idea as I pulled it out of the cobwebs and picked off crusty glue. I felt a renewed sense of passion and purpose. I didn’t know exactly where this would lead, but I wanted to give it a name.
Riding home in the passenger seat, I played with words about the project, words that gave me energy. I played with acronyms. I played with possibilities. My lists had animals, birds, and other material things. Lists of feelings and activities and actions and descriptive words. I love a good pun. A little wordplay. My eyes softly resting on the full page, I asked, “What is it that I’ll create in this space?” My focus sharpened. I’ll create. I’ll = Owl. Owl Create a pun and symbolism. What’s in a name without it? Owl Create a space for you, too.
