The wet weather made them sad, and their sadness made them more attentive.
- Jonah Lehrer
So you don’t have to suffer for your art, you just need to get yourself into a depressed state before you begin to create it. Apparently you pay more attention when you are bummed out. Probably to further flaws.
Someone said to me recently that everyone sees the flaws first, it’s just rude to point it out. I disagree. First of all some people never see the flaws, they are focused on what is right about the thing or the situation instead of what is wrong. Secondly it’s usually simple force of habit, not an actual conscious choice. But most of all not to point it out would be a lie. For me to sit in your face thinking this or that and not bothering to tell you is a bit two-faced for my taste.
I am really enjoying reading this book about creative process. It is fascinating to hear about how artists find their way past giving up to the breakthrough that becomes their major contribution. Apparently giving up is a very important part of the process. That is when you make new connections.
I read something in the Upbeat Times the other day about training your brain. They are saying that if you speak nicely to your brain and ask it politely for what you want it will learn to respond with the memory you need or the word you forgot. This seems reasonable to me, I have found that most things will do that if you are polite and speak in a non-selfish tone of voice as Rob Brezny says, the universe included. But I find it reassuring to see it in print nonetheless.
Becoming bored with one’s own artistic contributions is the key to finding a new voice and breaking ground according to the author of Imagine. You really do have to make the art for yourself first, if it’s not inspiring you then you can hardly expect another response from others. I tend to get bogged down in the whole I’m not exactly sure what it is I want to say part, so the expressing part isn’t really my issue. Once we get to expressing I am all over it, the words, movements, melodies and images just come through me, or to me, or however that works, in a flow almost too fast to record. Once I am put in the position of being creative it just happens. I rarely choose to do it to myself.
The limits imposed on you inspire your creative choices. Faced with a limitless sea of possibilities the blank paper seems acres wide. If I am told I must stick to a certain topic, or stay within a specific format, then I can’t stop. Coming up with things that don’t fit that criteria LOL just kidding. Both of those things happen. It pushes me to want to fulfill the request, and it also produces scads of other ideas that I can note to the side and use later for other things. Learning to give yourself those limits, and then making yourself stick to what starts to seem like an arbitrary line in the sand once things start to get difficult, that is where the good stuff starts to happen.
Related articles
- Takeaways from Jonah Lehrer’s ‘Imagine’ (distilled.net)
- Creative Experiments (popcorntheblog.com)
- 5 Ways to Break Through A Creative Block (psychcentral.com)
- The Little c and Big C of Creativity (psychologytoday.com)
- I Love to Watch You Work (spreadinformation.wordpress.com)
- What Inspires You To Creativity? (dlaiden.wordpress.com)
- It’s The Doing That Makes the Difference (creokardia.wordpress.com)
- Einstein at the Beach: The Hidden relationship Between Risk and Creativity (forbes.com)
- 9 Great Reasons for Getting Creative (No Artistic Experience Needed) (cherieroedirksen.com)
- The Creative Process (reflectionsinhindsight.wordpress.com)
I usually find it hard to pursue anything creative when I am depressed. On the other hand, I find it cathartic to pursue something creative in order to regenerate and not be depressed. So for me, it’s a double edged sword for creativity. Writing has always helped me process and there is something so satisfying about putting most of my thoughts about how I am processing something out here into the Interwebs and just letting them cascade into something far beyond my tiny brain farts. Like you, I have a difficult time when I can’t be transparent. I think that hiding myself behind social niceties or pretending to be someone I am not is the worst thing a person can do to themselves. I say we all just let it hang out. The ones that stick around are the ones we want and the ones that run away in fear aren’t worth the trouble.
I rarely write when I am happy and content. It is despair that moves me to put thoughts on paper, outside my head. I’ve been trying to remember to write at other times but I forget…guess I’m too busy having fun. Writing is where I go to deal with feelings I can’t contain. It helps me to process fear and irrational paranoia.
When I do remember to write happy it’s good, I like it. But I have to work at it. Sad writing pours out of me like tears, I stop from fatigue or mercy on the readers of long pomes and tomes, not because I’ve run out if things to say or clever ways to say them!