Creativity and the Creative Process
What is Creativity? How does the Creative Process work? Can it be enhanced, forced, manipulated, structured or restructured? What do the terms “Right Brained”, “Left Brained” and “Centered” really mean? What drives us to become artists, writers, performers and engineers?
Where does Creativity come from?
What have others said about creativity?..and what do their musings mean?
Picasso:
“I copied paintings at the beginning so I wouldn’t have to copy later on.”
Picasso seemed to accept as fact that our own creativity can be enhanced by observing the creativity of others. This would seem to indicate that Picasso viewed creativity as maturing through a learning process as opposed to being genetically inherent.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), Italian Renaissance artist:
“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.”
Michelangelo is recognized as being “gifted” well beyond what most “artists” can hope attain in a lifetime, even with the more advanced tools we have at “hand”. In some circles he is labled as “Gnostic”. He certainly seemed to have felt the need to draw a distinction between the source of creativity and it’s matriculation or realization.
Nikos Kazantzakis (1885-1957), Greek novelist:
“What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.”
Are we creativity machines? We do seem to create something, no matter how hard we try, or don’t.
Charles Darwin, “The Origin of the Species”:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.”
Darwin seems to indicate that creativity is so inherent in our nature, existance and world, that it occupies a position of a dominant force. Is creativity fed to all species by energy from the “plasma state” of the mass elements we are composed of?
Come to think of it, I do have an uncut Rotweiller that gets real creative about getting out of the yard if there is a bitch in heat within 2 miles.
Anna Freud, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense, 1946
“Creative minds have been known to survive any sort of bad training.”
Albert Einstein:
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Both Anna Freud and Albert Einstein seem to refer to opposition that many creative people encounter along their path. These conflicts can come from within and from the outside. It seems as if the left brain and right brain can battle for dominance sometimes. Battles between the factions seem to abound all around us; creative vs intellectual, the art community vs the scientific community. Ultra creative people seem to scare everyone around at times. Creative engineers even draw ire from jealous collegues. Gifted and Creative children often grow up misunderstood and become rebelous without proper nuturing of their creative spirit.
People that are gifted both intellectually and creatively, can live a dichotic lonely and unproductive lifestyle until they bridge the gap by reconciling the confusion.
While you are thinking about creativity, here are a couple good reference websites on creativity:
The International Center For Studies In Creativity
7 Stages of The Creative Process
Creativity & Innovation in Science & Technology
The American Creativity Association
Let’s work together here to understand creativity, what it is, and how to nourish it. If we can better understand this elemental tool within our existance, we all stand a better chance of not only survival, but are looking at better probabilities of success in our personal and business lives.
Ken
