ON CREATIVITY AND THE CREATION OF ART
We are all creative, the way we drive, we cook ,we make love, we garden, we decorate, etc etc. You could put the word art in front of each to describe a book for instance “The ART of Cooking”.
Art is a much used word, so over used that it is a difficult to use it as a descriptive word for ART. But it is always linked to the act of creation/creativity. When a human takes a material, a medium and through his or her own will and intellect creates something new, that hasn’t ever existed before, then this is creativity.
There are degrees of originality, take for instance a cookery recipe, you may decide to follow it exactly, in which case there is very little creativity, or because you understand the concept and ingredients that make the recipe successful, you change it to make it your own unique and original recipe.
This seems to be a good analogy as someone can be a good cook, understand the ingredients, methods and techniques required but not ever be a creative cook. Being original and creative is not necessarily a positive addition in its own right as you could be creative with ingredients and techniques but make something foul tasting and inedible. An artist is one that has his methods techniques and materials under control, but then uses them in a creative way to create something interesting and aesthetic.
Using this analogy further it can be used to view other forms of creative activity, and how to rate them on a scale of :
Craftmanship Art and High Art
Obviously I know my own field the best, but principles that apply here must in a general way apply to other forms of art. I have been teaching adults for a few years now and the one thing I have learnt from the experience is that being creative is all to do with confidence. If you are afraid that what you will produce will be poor, you may never start. Or you may be put off after your first attemps because you are so dissapointed in what you have produced. My students that do the best are those that understand that to be dissapointed in what you produce is a very possitive thing. It means they are being critical of their work and will want to do better next time.
“Creativity is a complete emptying” Picasso after paining Guernica
Here are some definitions from the Oxford Dictionary of English which help to understand my next statements:
CREATIVE “Relative to or involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to create something”
“Change unleashes people’s creative energy”
TO CREATE
“To bring something into existence”
To create something successful to my mind is to create something that is believable. Either by using language and situations that the consumer/viewer/audience can accept as corresponding to their own perception of reality or by creating its own language and then operate consistently within it. Such as abstract art or a fantasy story. The work fails if it fails to be consistent within its own language.
SUPEREGO
“The part of the mind that acts as a self-critical consciences reflecting social standard learned from parents and teachers”
ARROGANT
“Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or ability”
SELF CONSCIOUS
“Feeling undue awareness of oneself, ones appearance or one’s actions”
Or the flip side
“Deliberate and with full awareness, especially affected”
SELF CONFIDENCE
“A feeling of trust in one’s own abilities, qualities and judgement”
SELF CONTAINED
“Quiet independence: not dependent on or influenced by others”
SOCIALIZED
“From an early age we are conditioned “Socialised”, made to behave in a way that is acceptable to their society”
INDIVIDUALISM
“the habit or principle of being interdependent and self reliant”
EGO
“the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity”
Also “A persons sense of self esteem or self importance”
Arrogance and ego battle with fear against self consciousness to assert one’s own self worth. In this respect arrogance and ego can be tremendously valuable attributes.
For me the opposite of creativity is paralysis.
Fear of what peole will think of them, what we are and what we create. This can lead to parlysis or creative block. It is not good enough!
Mimetic or intellectual evolution. Organic synapse jump.
Know what you like or like what you get.
Evolution life. Early stages lots of dead ends, many didn’t evolve. Eventually a simple organism did and became the ancestor of all life. Characteristics gave it this ability were strength, good in the short term and the ability to procreate but flexibility in the long term to evolve and develop.
Creative Emotional Force
Being open to your emotions, closer to your creative force. Having your emotions bear and on the surface. Makes you more intuitive, the part of your brain that is given more access is the amalgyda. The difficulty is to know which of those emotions are good and which are bad. You have to be able to read yourself. A great many emotions are universal. We all feel them, but we aren’t all in touch with them. A phrase came into my heard the other day, which seems to sum up what I am getting at here. I’d rather be an artist than be middle class. My definition of being middle class in this context, is knowing how to be socially acceptable, know how to say the right things be politically correct, be hard working conscientious, educated and try to be intelligent. Quite a lot to live up to. And it works for a great many people for the vast majority of their life. BUT it can stifle your creative spirit. Control your thoughts, control your creative urges. This is because may of those creative urges may be unacceptable behaviour, violence, sexual activity, inappropriate sexual thoughts, anger, prejudice. All of these emotions are just under the surface in civilized society, kept under lock and key by our conditioning as to how we should behave. But there are other emotions and creative forces that are necessary to have original thoughts, dynamic power creativity. There are elements of megalomania in an artist. Also there is a belief that the world owes us a living. That our creativity and art make us special. Probably one of the forces that drive us forward. We want to prove to the world that we should be given money to be able to create the more.
This belief in the rightness of being in touch with our emotional reason can be very dangerous. It seems likely to me that Men like Hitler believed that because he could connect with millions of Germans through his creative rhetoric, because he could touch a chord within them, (that he had discovered with in himself) that those thoughts were right. History has proved different. It can only be right if the emotion can be assessed as positive value and not negative.
CREATIVITY AS A TURBUELENT SEA
Creativity can be experienced on many levels. But there is a degree of creativity that can be experienced as “Flow” it is highly pleasurable, highly addictive almost an ecstatic meditation. It is in this state that artists and writers and composers get to create work. It is an intense place to go and from outside it can seem quite scary.
Imagine you are on an island, it is safe – you know how to live there, but it is becoming boring and frustrating. All around the island is a seething rough sea with strong currents. Within view there are other islands that you would like to visit, you don’t know what you will find on these other islands, it may be dangerous it may be exciting, it may be pleasurable or some great tragedy and sadness may befall you. Each island represents a mystery, but you know that not for one minute will the journey you take ever be boring or frustrating.
There is a small boat waiting for you to jump into. It has a rudder and a small sail, but the currents are so strong you are not sure if you will be able to steer the little boat away from danger, you have never sailed a little boat before and the currents are so strong.
Eventually the frustration is so strong you jump in and away you sail, and maybe you get in to bad trouble and only just make it back to your island, you got into trouble because you hadn’t the experience to steer the little boat away from danger. Maybe you don’t want to jump into the boat ever again, maybe it takes years before the boredom and frustration get so unbearable that you have to go out again. Maybe you are older and have more experience of the world, more confidence in your abilities, more focused and in control and you quickly learn how to steer that boat to where you want to go. Then what joy to shim on the wave with a full sail going where you need to go finding a place that fulfils you, that excites you.
In this analogy – if you hadn’t figured it out already, the creative force is the desire to jump into the boat and be free, the block is the fear that you won’t be able to control what happens when you allow your emotions be the rudder of your boat, being affected by the strong currents on the water. Learning to sail and control the craft is the ability to control your emotional creative state which can spill out into love, lust, the need for an adrenalin rush, gambling, addiction, infidelity or other unwanted dangerous adventures.
If you are engaged in a creative project – painting, sculpture, writing, and you don’t attain “Flow” but it is dull chore, a slog, then you aren’t on the sea at all, you are floating about on an internal lake that is bounded by your familiar island and won’t take you anywhere interesting at all. You had best land, give up what you are doing and go and look for the sea and rough weather and decide to go for a sail.
We are all creative, the way we drive, we cook ,we make love, we garden, we decorate, etc etc. You could put the word art in front of each to describe a book for instance “The ART of Cooking”.
Art is a much used word, so over used that it is a difficult to use it as a descriptive word for ART. But it is always linked to the act of creation/creativity. When a human takes a material, a medium and through his or her own will and intellect creates something new, that hasn’t ever existed before, then this is creativity.
There are degrees of originality, take for instance a cookery recipe, you may decide to follow it exactly, in which case there is very little creativity, or because you understand the concept and ingredients that make the recipe successful, you change it to make it your own unique and original recipe.
This seems to be a good analogy as someone can be a good cook, understand the ingredients, methods and techniques required but not ever be a creative cook. Being original and creative is not necessarily a positive addition in its own right as you could be creative with ingredients and techniques but make something foul tasting and inedible. An artist is one that has his methods techniques and materials under control, but then uses them in a creative way to create something interesting and aesthetic.
Using this analogy further it can be used to view other forms of creative activity, and how to rate them on a scale of :
Craftmanship Art and High Art
Obviously I know my own field the best, but principles that apply here must in a general way apply to other forms of art. I have been teaching adults for a few years now and the one thing I have learnt from the experience is that being creative is all to do with confidence. If you are afraid that what you will produce will be poor, you may never start. Or you may be put off after your first attemps because you are so dissapointed in what you have produced. My students that do the best are those that understand that to be dissapointed in what you produce is a very possitive thing. It means they are being critical of their work and will want to do better next time.
“Creativity is a complete emptying” Picasso after paining Guernica
Here are some definitions from the Oxford Dictionary of English which help to understand my next statements:
CREATIVE “Relative to or involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to create something”
“Change unleashes people’s creative energy”
TO CREATE
“To bring something into existence”
To create something successful to my mind is to create something that is believable. Either by using language and situations that the consumer/viewer/audience can accept as corresponding to their own perception of reality or by creating its own language and then operate consistently within it. Such as abstract art or a fantasy story. The work fails if it fails to be consistent within its own language.
SUPEREGO
“The part of the mind that acts as a self-critical consciences reflecting social standard learned from parents and teachers”
ARROGANT
“Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or ability”
SELF CONSCIOUS
“Feeling undue awareness of oneself, ones appearance or one’s actions”
Or the flip side
“Deliberate and with full awareness, especially affected”
SELF CONFIDENCE
“A feeling of trust in one’s own abilities, qualities and judgement”
SELF CONTAINED
“Quiet independence: not dependent on or influenced by others”
SOCIALIZED
“From an early age we are conditioned “Socialised”, made to behave in a way that is acceptable to their society”
INDIVIDUALISM
“the habit or principle of being interdependent and self reliant”
EGO
“the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity”
Also “A persons sense of self esteem or self importance”
Arrogance and ego battle with fear against self consciousness to assert one’s own self worth. In this respect arrogance and ego can be tremendously valuable attributes.
For me the opposite of creativity is paralysis.
Fear of what peole will think of them, what we are and what we create. This can lead to parlysis or creative block. It is not good enough!
Mimetic or intellectual evolution. Organic synapse jump.
Know what you like or like what you get.
Evolution life. Early stages lots of dead ends, many didn’t evolve. Eventually a simple organism did and became the ancestor of all life. Characteristics gave it this ability were strength, good in the short term and the ability to procreate but flexibility in the long term to evolve and develop.
Creative Emotional Force
Being open to your emotions, closer to your creative force. Having your emotions bear and on the surface. Makes you more intuitive, the part of your brain that is given more access is the amalgyda. The difficulty is to know which of those emotions are good and which are bad. You have to be able to read yourself. A great many emotions are universal. We all feel them, but we aren’t all in touch with them. A phrase came into my heard the other day, which seems to sum up what I am getting at here. I’d rather be an artist than be middle class. My definition of being middle class in this context, is knowing how to be socially acceptable, know how to say the right things be politically correct, be hard working conscientious, educated and try to be intelligent. Quite a lot to live up to. And it works for a great many people for the vast majority of their life. BUT it can stifle your creative spirit. Control your thoughts, control your creative urges. This is because may of those creative urges may be unacceptable behaviour, violence, sexual activity, inappropriate sexual thoughts, anger, prejudice. All of these emotions are just under the surface in civilized society, kept under lock and key by our conditioning as to how we should behave. But there are other emotions and creative forces that are necessary to have original thoughts, dynamic power creativity. There are elements of megalomania in an artist. Also there is a belief that the world owes us a living. That our creativity and art make us special. Probably one of the forces that drive us forward. We want to prove to the world that we should be given money to be able to create the more.
This belief in the rightness of being in touch with our emotional reason can be very dangerous. It seems likely to me that Men like Hitler believed that because he could connect with millions of Germans through his creative rhetoric, because he could touch a chord within them, (that he had discovered with in himself) that those thoughts were right. History has proved different. It can only be right if the emotion can be assessed as positive value and not negative.
CREATIVITY AS A TURBUELENT SEA
Creativity can be experienced on many levels. But there is a degree of creativity that can be experienced as “Flow” it is highly pleasurable, highly addictive almost an ecstatic meditation. It is in this state that artists and writers and composers get to create work. It is an intense place to go and from outside it can seem quite scary.
Imagine you are on an island, it is safe – you know how to live there, but it is becoming boring and frustrating. All around the island is a seething rough sea with strong currents. Within view there are other islands that you would like to visit, you don’t know what you will find on these other islands, it may be dangerous it may be exciting, it may be pleasurable or some great tragedy and sadness may befall you. Each island represents a mystery, but you know that not for one minute will the journey you take ever be boring or frustrating.
There is a small boat waiting for you to jump into. It has a rudder and a small sail, but the currents are so strong you are not sure if you will be able to steer the little boat away from danger, you have never sailed a little boat before and the currents are so strong.
Eventually the frustration is so strong you jump in and away you sail, and maybe you get in to bad trouble and only just make it back to your island, you got into trouble because you hadn’t the experience to steer the little boat away from danger. Maybe you don’t want to jump into the boat ever again, maybe it takes years before the boredom and frustration get so unbearable that you have to go out again. Maybe you are older and have more experience of the world, more confidence in your abilities, more focused and in control and you quickly learn how to steer that boat to where you want to go. Then what joy to shim on the wave with a full sail going where you need to go finding a place that fulfils you, that excites you.
In this analogy – if you hadn’t figured it out already, the creative force is the desire to jump into the boat and be free, the block is the fear that you won’t be able to control what happens when you allow your emotions be the rudder of your boat, being affected by the strong currents on the water. Learning to sail and control the craft is the ability to control your emotional creative state which can spill out into love, lust, the need for an adrenalin rush, gambling, addiction, infidelity or other unwanted dangerous adventures.
If you are engaged in a creative project – painting, sculpture, writing, and you don’t attain “Flow” but it is dull chore, a slog, then you aren’t on the sea at all, you are floating about on an internal lake that is bounded by your familiar island and won’t take you anywhere interesting at all. You had best land, give up what you are doing and go and look for the sea and rough weather and decide to go for a sail.