The Creative Act: A Way of Being
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How do we pick up on a signal that can neither be heard nor be defined? The answer is not to look for it. Nor do we attempt to predict or analyze our way into it. Instead, we create an open space that allows it. A space so free of the normal overpacked condition of our minds that it functions as a vacuum. Drawing down the ideas that the universe is making available.
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Artists who are able to continually create great works throughout their lives often manage to preserve these childlike qualities. Practicing a way of being that allows you to see the world through uncorrupted, innocent eyes can free you to act in concert with the universe’s timetable.
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There are tiny fragments of the vastness of Source stored within us. These precious wisps arise from the unconscious like vapor, and condense to form a thought. An idea.
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The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. To see past the ordinary and mundane and get to what might otherwise be invisible.
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The more raw data we can take in, and the less we shape it, the closer we get to nature.
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The act of creation is an attempt to enter a mysterious realm. A longing to transcend. What we create allows us to share glimpses of an inner landscape, one that is beyond our understanding. Art is our portal to the unseen world.
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A helpful exercise might be opening a book to a random page and reading the first line your eyes find. See how what’s written there somehow applies to your situation.
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We begin to see ourselves as part of a greater whole that is constantly regenerating itself. And we may then tap into this all-powerful propagating force and ride its creative wave.
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Living life as an artist is a practice. You are either engaging in the practice or you’re not. It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it. It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.” You are either living as a monk or you’re not. We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.
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Nonetheless, exposure to great art provides an invitation. It draws us forward, and opens doors of possibility.
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The objective is not to learn to mimic greatness, but to calibrate our internal meter for greatness. So we can better make the thousands of choices that might ultimately lead to our own great work.
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Simply be aware of moments when your breath gets taken away by something of great beauty.
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We recognize aspects unnoticed before. Reread the same book over and over, and we’ll likely find new themes, undercurrents, details, and connections.
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It helps to realize that it’s better to follow the universe than those around you.
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One of the reasons so many great artists die of overdoses early in their lives is because they’re using drugs to numb a very painful existence. The reason it’s painful is the reason they became artists in the first place: their incredible sensitivity.
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One thing I learned through having spellcheck is that I regularly make up words. I’ll type a word and then the computer will tell me it doesn’t exist. Since it sounds like what I’m aiming to say, I sometimes decide to use it anyway. I know what it means, and perhaps the reader will understand the meaning better than if I used an actual word.
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A painting is just a painting until you put a frame on it and hang it on the wall, then it’s called art.
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Intention is all there is. The work is just a reminder.
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The templates of the past can be an inspiration in the beginning phases, but it’s helpful to think beyond what’s been done before. The world isn’t waiting for more of the same.
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If there is a rule to creativity that’s less breakable than the others, it’s that the need for patience is ever-present.
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Innocence brings forth innovation. A lack of knowledge can create more openings to break new ground. The Ramones thought they were making mainstream bubblegum pop. To most others, the lyrical content alone—about lobotomies, sniffing glue, and pinheads—was enough to challenge this assumption. While the band saw themselves as the next Bay City Rollers, they unwittingly invented punk rock and started a countercultural revolution.
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Approaching the practical aspects of your day with military precision allows the artistic windows to be opened in childlike freedom.
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Find the sustainable rituals that best support your work. If you set a routine that is oppressive, you’ll likely find excuses not to show up. It’s in the interest of your art to create an easily achievable schedule to start with. If you commit to working for half an hour a day, something good can happen that generates momentum. You may then look at the clock and realize you’ve been working for two hours. The option is always open to extend your creative hours once the habit is formed.
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Limit your practical choices to free your creative imagination.
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Editing prematurely can close off routes that might lead to beautiful vistas previously unseen.
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To dismiss an idea because it doesn’t work in your mind is to do a disservice to the art. The only way to truly know if any idea works is to test it. And if you’re looking for the best idea, test everything.
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Art may only exist, and the artist may only evolve, by completing the work.
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Switching to other projects will engage different muscles and patterns of thinking.
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Do not let the scale of your imagination get in the way of executing a more practical version of your project. We may come to realize that this version is better than the initial, seemingly impossible vision.
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The Beatles were inspired by American rock and roll, artists like Chuck Berry and the Shirelles. But when they played, it was different. It wasn’t different because they wanted it to be so. It was different because they were different. And the world responded.
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If you’ve truly created an innovative work, it’s likely to alienate as many people as it attracts. The best art divides the audience. If everyone likes it, you probably haven’t gone far enough.
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When making art, the audience comes last. Let’s not consider how a piece will be received or our release strategy until the work is finished and we love it.
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Avoid overthinking. When you’re happy with the work and you’re moved to share it with a friend, it might be time to share it with the world as well.
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If you’re immediately turned off by an experience, it’s worth examining why.
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why would we want to create with the purpose of diminishing someone else?
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Artists are ultimately craftspeople. Sometimes our ideas come through bolts of lightning. Other times only through effort, experiment, and craft.
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Art made accidentally has no more or less weight than art created through sweat and struggle.
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The world is only as free as it allows its artists to be.
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There is no wrong way to make art.
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As Arn Anderson once noted: “I’m both a professor and student, because if you’re no longer a student, you don’t have the right to call yourself a professor.”
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It is a disservice to the project to weigh our contribution to it. Believing an idea is best because it’s ours is an error of inexperience. The ego demands personal authorship, inflating itself at the expense of the art. It can reject new methods that appear counterintuitive and protect familiar ones.
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When I work with artists, we make an agreement: We continue the process until reaching the point where we are all happy with the work. This is the ultimate goal of cooperation. If one person loves it but another does not, there’s usually an underlying issue worth paying attention to. It likely means we haven’t gone far enough and the work hasn’t reached its full potential.
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In many of the greatest bands, collectives, and collaborations, a degree of polarity between members was part of the formula for greatness. The magic comes from a dynamic tension between different points of view, creating works more distinctive than a lone voice would.
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Friction allows the fire to come.
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When on the receiving end of feedback, our task is to set aside ego and work to fully understand the critique offered.
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A poem can convey information that can’t be transmitted through prose or conversation. And all art is poetry.
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“Making the simple complicated is commonplace,” Charles Mingus once said. “Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
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Art is a reverberation of an impermanent life.
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In a song, when you hear a dissonant harmony suddenly fall in tune, there’s a pleasing effect. That’s why the discordant choice may be of interest. It creates tension and release, drawing our attention to the harmony we may not have otherwise noticed.