Purposeful Creativity
So I was walking down around Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia one day and I came upon this painter/sketcher sitting in front of a blank canvas, looking blankly ahead as life passed all around him. Curious, I carefully approached him and hesitantly asked what he was waiting for.
“Hello sir. How are you?”
“Fine, thanks. And you?”
“Just fine also. You chose a great day to paint today – inspiration is all around!”
“Just taking my time”
“But what’re you waiting for? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I don’t intend to be intrusive or bossy, and not that I’m a stellar artist or anything. I’d just think that with so many people walking around, things happening all the time, combined with this sunny, cloudless, perfect day, sparks of creativity must be firing all around!”
“I guess so. I’m just waiting for the right time, right moment, you know? Something to let me know that the scene is just perfectly set.”
I sure hope that he found his moment, that he didn’t let anything slip by. And as I left him I began to wonder, why is it that creativity is now synonymous to random chances in time? Granted, there are many moment in life where one just knows that everything is perfect, inspired to capture that moment in some form of expression. But why is inspiration now also known as waiting. For some reason, our communities have begun to define creativity as these spontaneous bursts of “inspiration”, instantaneous thoughts of revelation that can also be so quickly lost if not somehow artistically articulated.
Creativity is so much more than a mere passive waiting. Instead, it is so much more of a continuing thought process, a phenomenon that is slowly and carefully developed over countless hours of trial and error. From what I’ve seen, those that have labored and weeded out the unwanted are the ones that have produced awesome, passion-filled pieces. Only those that have stepped out of their comfort zone and mixed their blood, sweat, and tears into their work have earned the right to be called successful individuals of self-expression. We must begin to see that we hold so much more in our hands than we have previously thought before. We must begin to give ourselves more credit, to begin to take responsibility for the art that we produce. No longer can we blame our unpolished work on a lack of creativity and inspiration; no longer can we sit around and wait for our creative minds to come to us, to be developed on their own.
It is only those who have seen the ugly that can conceive the beautiful.
Jon Hu is a student at the University of Pennsylvania who loves skateboarding and discovering new projects.
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Maybe I’m a bit old school, but I do believe in space and time creating better ideas. The theory that creativity is “now synonymous to random chances in time” is nothing new.
We all know that moment, when you’re just drifting off to sleep, completely out of the “zone” or whatever it is, then suddenly a really cool idea presents itself. You can’t force that, you can’t make those moments happen. Good ideas take time and sometimes, yes, you just have to wait until that moment comes along.
So much of creativity comes from the subconscious mind and isn’t necessarily something that you can tap into whenever you want. Sure, try it, but don’t be surprised if your next idea floats into your mind and out again when you’re doing something else.
I’m not saying what you are suggesting has no merit, maybe there is a way to tap into those moments, however I have never found it (and you’d probably be very rich if you could figure it out,) abut from my point of view, the best ideas i have seen have come in moments of chance, often when you least expect it!
Man, if I sat around waiting for inspiration, I’d never do anything!
Working as a commercial artist, I can’t afford to wait for inspiration. I just gotta jump in and start working… and make my own inspiration.
I believe in this busy world with every form of communication being so instantaneous it is important to reflect and just observe. I always thought that is what is so wonderful about art. It forces us to observe everything around us more slowly and think about things in a different perspective. I’m not saying sit around all day and stare at a blank canvas but just take a few minutes to look at your environment.
Great article! I completely agree. Creativity is like slippery bar of soap. You have to have a tactic to capture it.
haha slippery bar of soap..lol I like that
Beautifully written. Deliberate creativity opened up a new world for me and my young calculus students. It can be applied to any profession with excellent results.
for sure….success is a planned event. It takes hard work and hustle, but anyone can make it in the down economy…but not by waiting
great post
Creativity has to be cultivated, just like any other skill. But it’s a skill of the mind. The way you think intertwined with the feelings and desires that you have deep inside. Reminds me of an article I read about positive thinking. Here I relate it to creativity. Both are states of the mind. But if you wait for the state to come first before you move your hand you’ll wait forever. In the article the author arguments that it’s better to focus on behavior rather than on attitude. So if you have a fixed routine or plan to execute you’ll slowly enter the positive state. And through repeated attempts, you’ll create good work, which will reinforce your own creative genius. So as Edison put it, it’s 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.
well i like to believe that creativity is kinda random though its all around.
Great article, I couldn’t agree more. Creativity is something that is inside of us that we must learn to hone in on and focus to a certain task at hand. It’s all there, we just have to learn to use it. :)
In case you did not get the old man right, he wasn’t waiting to be creative, but to be “inspired”. You can NEVER force inspiration, unlike creativity. That is why I agree with you on the concept of purposeful creativity (a.k.a Work), which can be forced, but not on the fact that inspiration has nothing to do with waiting. You must wait to be “inspired”.
Haven’t you noticed how long it takes to produce “created” craft compared to what it takes to produce “inspired” craft?
I find that the spaciousness that meditation brings very conducive to creativity. Conversely, the more crowded in I am by views, emotions, plans, ideas and agendas …. the less likely anything worthwhile will arise …
This is why I love our medium, you can just jump into work and click back on your history. Just get to work and start assembling! Inspiration will come to your if you have that eye and knack for generating and delivering powerful ideas. You don’t have to worry about waste(except maybe time) and you don’t have to worry about destroying anything… just save copies and work in non-destructive ways. Your inspiration will come to you. It always does…
Creativity is the key to innovation. I’d like to hear some input about what companies are doing to increase creativity.
keep eyes and ears open to inspiration in everything and encourage others
Great post! What an inspiring random chance encounter!
You never know where wisdom/inspiration will come from next, and open your mind to new perspectives!
yea, it is about getting inspired. :)
I would like to say that simply waiting for an inspirational idea will not do me any justice. But I do agree with you, it requires lot of toil to attain the best. So I believe the more you draw or design (or even write), the more ideas you will get. You can find the places which need more polishing. And this in turn will lead to creativity
My simple formula for being creative: Just keep your eyes open and look around. Inspiration will come automatically when you keep your senses wide awake.