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This is another brain-dump type post. As seems to be my way, these things percolate in my head for too long, so I’m just trying to get them out instead of trying to be too structured and lucid. Apologies if it seems a little scattered, but I wanted to share these thoughts and the resources I’ve come across.
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I watched the video Everything is a Remix and listened to the audio on the topic ‘We are all artists’ for week two of DS106.
It seems like a jumped the gun a little early with my post ‘Steal Like an Artist’. I made a similar point to that made in the video and audio, namely that copying is a source of learning. Art is imitation. My friend Nick, offers an interesting opposing view in the comments.
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I’ve been thinking about creativity quite a bit lately. One persistent theme is that creativity is about ‘action’. The title of Patti Digh’s fantastic book on this subject is Creativity is a Verb 1.. I want to emphasis here the word verb — a word used to describe action!
Similarly, in The Element, Sir Ken Robinson talks about creativity as ‘applied imagination’ 2.:
Imagination can be entirely internal. You could be imaginative all day long without anyone noticing. But you would neve say that someone was creative if that person never did anything.
In other words, to be creative is to do something — to apply the imagination! Creativity is a dynamic process.
I subscribe to the idea that everyone is an ‘artist’, or IS creative. If you go by the definition above, anyone who can imagine something can apply themselves to making something of that — of being creative.
But — and here’s another dominant theme — we often don’t believe we are creative, or apply ourselves to the creative act or process because of fear, resistance, or what Michael Ray calls the ‘Voice of Judgement’. 3. Our creative capacity is always there, it’s just covered over.
To overcome this, he tries to set up situations where people can attack this ‘Voice of Judgement’ to access their deeper creativity. Paying attention is an effective way to do this.
Patti Digh offers lots of practical advice in this regard. She also argues that ‘seeing more’ helps access your creativity. Another method she offers for overcoming the resistance — one that resonates strongly with me — is ‘Be ordinary: Put down your clever’. Similarly, centuries ago Rumi said:
“Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment.”
Worrying about being clever, smart, funny, creative enough, comparing etc. stops us from doing – from the creative act!
I also loved this Ricky Gervais quote from a recent interview he did ‘on not having a real job’. In it, he says:
If I do something that makes me genuinely laugh, with no ulterior motive other than, ‘that was funny’, then there’ll be someone else in the world that will find it as funny as me … and that will do for me.
What he’s saying is that he’s driven by the creative process rather than the fear or resistance associated with what other people think about his work. Fantastic stuff!
This whole topic of fear and resistance (in relation to creativity) is the subject of entire books, so my intention is not to cover that entire subject matter here. I just finished reading Do the Work by Stephen Pressfield. It’s not a difficult read, so I recommend you go get that if you’re interested in exploring this further.
We ARE all artists — we’ve just need to create; do; make; to unleash that artist within.
1. Digh, P 2011, Creativity is a Verb. Skirt!, Connecicut.
2. Robinson, K & Aronica, L 2009, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. Viking, New York.
3. cited in Senge, P et al, Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society. Crown Business, New York.
