October 10th, 2005 by admin
Building on positives, Creating from strengths
Years ago, when I taught tennis and played it competitively; I had the privilege of hearing one of the most well known instructors of the time and perhaps still, Dennis Van Der Meer. One of the stories he told has stuck with me to this day. He relayed the story of a tennis student who repeatedly pounded his serve into the fence on the other side of the court. When asked what he was doing, he replied that he was "learning from his mistakes".
It is not hard to figure out that what he was really doing was reinforcing his mistakes. Furthermore, all he could learn from a mistake was what not to do. A mistake can tell you that is a path not to try any more (at least if circumstances remain the same), but it will never tell you what path to take unless there is only one path left. And sometimes things which did not work in the past will work.
More importantly, it is the success we should build upon. As an instructor of anyone: self, children, pets - the positive experiences are what we try to repeat. A more current quote of the Van Der Meer technique says: "The idea is to create confidence by building on successes and thus minimize the frustration of learning a difficult sport."
Frankly, having just completed a basic training course for my dog - it seems to me, it all works the same way. Getting caught up in the negative only reinforces it, but praising what is good is miraculous. Furthermore, note the parallel in business about focusing on the right things. In the Hotel News Resource, in an article about the best general manager, it says: "The 80/20 rule is amazing in its myriad of applications; 20 percent of everything you do will result in 80 percent of your successes. Finding the right 20 percent takes focus." And note this heading which follows: "The Best Hotel General Manager I ever met looks for small successes."
So in terms of one’s creativity, finding what works is worth building upon - not to get stuck in a rut, but as I said to build upon. If all one looks at is what not to do, one will do nothing. Creating is about not being afraid to make mistakes. Focusing on what went right versus what went wrong will not just make one grow faster, but make the path much more enjoyable as well.
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Relevant Tags:building, create, focus, grow, mistakes, positive, reinforcment, success
October 5th, 2005 by admin
Sharing, Participating, Interacting Fuel Creativity
Though many times it seems that artists find ideas and create in their own world, it is truly not the case that any of us live in a vacuum. In an article in the Metronews(article now gone)one of the participants of a think tank for designers is quoted as saying, "Creative media is about inspiration. We all work in a void and we’re out of touch with each other."
What we see and what we will continue to see, is that inspiration is found in some form of human interaction. In a fascinating article in FastCompany, it spotlights a company in Switzerland called The Brainstore which creates and sells ideas to anyone and everyone from what I can tell. Rather than wait for the kind of flash of inspiration we all love so much, they "approach the manufacturing of ideas with as much rigor and as much discipline as you apply to the manufacturing of assembly-line products."
Creating ideas, creating new art, creating new music, etc. requires discipline, systems and time. There will be flashes of inspiration, but the practice of creating when they aren’t there helps increase their frequency.
Going back a step, the participation with other people - feeding off each others’ ideas is the biggest starting point. Note the quote in the Santa Monica Mirror - "The role of the arts is not to motivate, but to inspire, bringing us a higher perspective." Even without discussion, art, music, culture, architecture etc. can fuel the creative juices.
I don’t know who said it, but there is nothing completely original under the sun. We all share human bodies and human experience and our role is to add from our particular perspective and vantage point. Inspiration and creativity which seem like such independent activities are actually communal.
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Relevant Tags:art, create, Creating Ideas, inspiration, Interactive, perspective, Thinktank
September 24th, 2005 by admin
Creating Beauty Requires Imperfection
Years ago when I used to create beautiful produce displays as my way of making a living, it became clear that sometimes a display could look too perfect, too beautiful for people to want to touch. In an article in the Kentucky Kernal about a sushi place, the author states: "The food often arrives too beautiful to eat."
The comment struck me as I ironically remembered how it is common in all Japanese art to leave a piece intentionally imperfect as perfection is only saved for deity. It seems to me that some of the offness is part of what allows any work to be accessible. In an article in the Georgetown Voice about an exhibition of portraits taken from almost too close for comfort, it says: "Close manages to capture in this series that beauty present in all of us: imperfection."
This concept of imperfection, is perhaps like the mistakes which keep us moving forward in life, keep us growing. Perhaps in order to be creative and human it is necessary to to have such imperfection just to keep striving. Perfection is not just untouchable, undesturbable, but no longer part of the process or journey.
Of course, from my perspective, kind of flipping it on its head and due to the nature of learning and growth, I tend to think things are only perfect when they have such an imperfection.
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Relevant Tags:art, artistic process, beauty, create, imperfection, perfection, process
September 16th, 2005 by admin
Art, Community, Sharing, Creating Meaning
As I write today, it is with the type of process that one might use to create any work of art or piece of music. Something strikes you - you either stumble upon it, see it, hear it etc. A little later you stumble upon something else which strikes you. You don’t see a connection except for their proximity to you. But being the creative sort who looks for connections or meaning - you string together or weave together what might be otherwise disparate events.
So with that said, as I searched for news stories related to something I might feel like writing about - I found several articles which each had something interesting in them.
The first article I saw had a great title "Open Your Art". It was about a new art center that was 30 years in the making and how the artists had no place to congregate or share and there was "no place for them to create art bigger than their individual dreams." I love that line.
This idea of art being community oriented came up again in another article about a trio converting a warehouse space into art studios. What I enjoyed the most about this article, was how the group described wanting to have control over their own space while also wanting to share it; but more amusing was the photo where they all wore masks - wanting to be in control of their own images - but of course.
In another article - about being in control - an artist/professor insists “I want students to begin to see themselves as artists; because, as I tell my students, the first person who needs to think you are an artist is you.”
The two other articles will be referenced below. One I found interesting because it was about creating art using what you have available - a theme I have been writing about. The second was a tale which though absurd pointed out the difference between the sum of the parts and the whole and is a fun story.
To sum up, if that is possible. Open your art to community, to sharing, to believing in yourself and what you have to offer. Don’t underestimate what you have available and don’t over analyze what you create.
And finally, don’t hesitate to put together the disparate pieces of your world in a way which is creative and perhaps meaningful.
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Relevant Tags:art, community of artists, connections, create, music, sharing
September 9th, 2005 by admin
Creative Inspiration, Recognition & Process
In three recent web news articles, three different people were quoted about their views on creating art and what is most important. All three took a very similar posture that art can not cater to what is accepted but rather should answer to its own voice.
Artist Pratuang Emjaroen was quoted in the Bangkok Post(8/9/05 - article now N/A)as finding his inspiration from current news and events - that he sees art and his work as a "counter balance for the suffering. The world today is very commercial; nothing is free. But art is free, with no expectations. It can provide support for the whole world.”
Similarly in Pitch.com Eleanor Heartney is quoted as describing what creativity isn’t: "It’s not about finding the thing that pleases the greatest number. It’s really about finding the thing that isn’t particularly welcome at the moment it comes forward."
The general theme is to not create so much to please others but let the creative mission rule. And though I believe they are generally correct about how to create, we are not living in a vacuum and many of our aesthetic choices are necessarily dictated by common culture and consensus.
However, there is a message that can be taken from this thinking and applied completely. So much of what inspires us, we reject. We look at the thought and say trite, boring, overdone, who would care, etc. Sometimes being creative means developing the mediocre idea and finding out where it leads. Just like life being a journey - creativity is about the process - the finished pieces are like a gift. Try not to reject them before you even create them - advice I wish I could heed better myself.
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Relevant Tags:art, change, create, creative inspiration
