Visual
artists find it harder to separate their working lives from their personal. The
powerful force that drives a motivated, productive and fulfilled artist is
their creative vision – something that encompasses painters, photographers,
writers, graphic designers, art directors, film makers, musicians and includes
in-closet artists such as plumbers, lawyers, engineers and professors. Without
a desire to develop and use a creative vision, there’s little point in going
on. A willingness to nurture it can release the slumbering artist or
technologist professional from an unfulfilled existence into a bright, vivid
world, where an insightful and highly creative working life exists.
Creative
vision is a process, a permanent state of openness and a willingness to
challenge everything you’ve ever thought about yourself and been taught about
in general. Creativity is driven by questions, not answers – by understanding,
intuition and the subjective. The search for an artist’s practice begins with
the artist himself or herself; a revealing personal self-analysis is one of the
first hurdles to negotiate. Artists are too often labeled or categorized and
too often they are instrumental in labeling themselves. By doing so, they wear
one hat at all times. Wouldn’t it be more fun to try on lots of different hats?
Step outside our ‘normal’ selves and play a little.
Creativity?
Is it a process? A way of doing things differently? An ability to drive
forward, to constantly innovate and create challenging art? To break the rules?
To produce work with passion, and to inspire passion in others?
Perhaps
it’s easier to define what it’s not. It’s not derivation or imitation, it’s not
being experimental for the sake of it, to show off or to demonstrate technical
or mechanical mastery. It’s not slavishly following the fashions of the day or
eagerly jumping on to arty bandwagons.
Creativity
is a process that requires you to question everything and allows you to
challenge every assumption, every unwritten rule. It lets you experiment freely
in the knowledge that your experiments may provide the vehicle for bringing
into being a sense of clarity or it may fail but still be useful to your
learning. It’s about being relentlessly positive and maximizing your
imaginative power to drive your productive output. It also allows people to
dispense with their adult egos and adopt the curiosity and playfulness of a
child.
Creativity
begins internally with the personality, experiences and nature of the artist.
Eventually it seeps externally into the world through the eyes and hands that
capture the thought. Our task is to understand this journey, make rewarding
choices along the way and allows ourselves to wander without barriers or
restrictions.
Creativity
can be defined as:
- A willingness
to present ambiguity with simplicity
- An interest in
the surreal
- An interest in
what lies under the surface
- Exploring the
emotional challenges truth
How to get most out
of your big thoughts?
Challenge
every rule
Where
do rules come from? Who says this or that is so? The art world is full of
rules. Some are very formal, such as the rules on composition laid down in
rigid Victorian times. While others trickle down informally from positions of
cultural power, permeate educational institutions and become stifling
straightjackets that can directly and profoundly affect the course of an
artist’s practice.
Use
a notebook to keep thoughts flowing
Memory
can’t always be relied upon when one is preoccupied with the business of
creation. Jot down ideas as and when they occur
Give
yourself doodling time.
Time
to fiddle about absent-mindedly is a gift. Experiment without outcome purely
for the fun and see what develops
Develop
and trust your intuition – not technology
Intuition
can only flourish once technology is mastered or at least until the technology
becomes familiar
.jpg)
