THOUGHTS ON THE NATURE OF CREATIVITY

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Recently I went in to Captains Book Store in downtown Asheville and found a wonderful used book on Creativity and It's Cultivation.  The book was written in 1959, but I found some interesting chapters with wonderful statements and insights into the nature of creativity.  I thought I would share these with you all.  The book at times can be a bit dry, but with a little mining it is full of wonderful thoughts.  

In the first Chapter on Scientific Creativity is a thought I wanted to share:

"Each person is born into an environment with a language and culture that provide a more or less complete world view.  He usually assumes, correctly, that his first conflicts with the notions he has learned will be resolved when he understands the accepted views better.  Sooner of later, however, he comes against glaring inconsistencies which bring his conceptual world into serious question. The necessary reconstruction is the beginning of a creative process.  This intellectual construction of a world picture is an extremely important aspect of scientific creativity." by Henry Eyeing.

That statement says so much in a short paragraph, that where ever we are born, what ever environment we grow up in we assume our language and culture give us our world view.  We cannot help but to see the world from the point and culture in which we grew up.  We can think our view is absolutely correct, but then we come upon someone else that presents us with a new answer and a new set of ideas from their point of view and culture.  

The Coming Together/Convergence

Stage 4

The Coming Together

In this stage one has moved through the doubts, weathered the storm of negativity and self distraction/sabotage coming out on the other side of darkness to light.  I have faced my fears and stopped feeding them.  Now I am focusing on how the piece will work as a whole, what elements will tie it together for the finishing touches.  I still have the assembly and the practical parts of making the sculpture in  all its various parts stabile and durable for shipping and showing and handling. But now I can see all the elements working together, and I have found elements to unify the piece as a unit.  Now I know I can direct the viewers eye from one section to another and convey a unified message with many individual triggers of thought and meaning, like subtext. So if we think of this in literary terms, there is the body of the work, the title, the central theme, and then the chapters and sentences.  

photo of hand with world spinning resting precariously on man's finger tips
photo by Elizabeth Gordon of Elizabeth Gordon's art work.

I once worked at a writing focus school where I learned to team with writing teachers using art and writing to support each other.  I learned many of the art elements and processes parallel those in writing.  I thank those writing resource teachers for helping me to see the creative process in a different discipline.

science vials with insects and image transfer

Wasp nest on rusty disk

You will never know these wonderful women, one has passed away at a very young age to cancer. Janie 
Guillbalt you will always be in my heart.  Mary Osborn, who continues on fighting the battle in making writing important to a doubting bureaucracy.  To Christy Curran, an innovative teacher and writer who went on to work in the larger world of NYC and making a difference on a wider scale.  To all of these strong vibrant women I am thankful, for it enriched the lives of children and exposed them to importance of art and writing, but also it enriched me as an artist to have a clearer vision of my own art and the process of creation.

TRUSTING THE CREATIVE PROCESS

The Creative process is a surrender not a control.
Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way

Gaudi            Photo by Elizabeth Gordon

I cannot tell you how many times as a teacher and as an artist this advice comes into play.  Elementary students were wonderful at being creative in Kindergarten and first grade, but not long after came the x out's and doubt.  Adult students are even much worse, the fear and self doubt of doing art is so great, it causes intense anxiety for many people.  Even practiced artists that have been trained to strictly face periods of not letting go and their work becomes stale and staid.  It is almost like being in a zone, like runners get, a meditative state where one consciously lets go and and goes with the flow without doubt and judgement of ones work...it is hard to explain to students and other beginning artists.  And it is equally hard to tell people who want to do art, that until they do relinquish that control, their art will not achieve what aspire to.  There is a trusting of self and something beyonds ones self that is an unknown factor...but trust one must, and then the whole creative process just flows.  It is kind of like a free dive from a high dive, one jumps and trusts the water is below.  But it is not as scary as it seems, it is actually enjoyable once one learns the process...beyond enjoyable really...addictive and exciting and strangely peaceful.  Dive, you will flow....