These are photomicography–photographs from microscopes. I especially like the Differentiation of Unicellular Dictyostelium. Looks like penguins (or ducks?) ice skating. The photos speak for themselves. Enjoy.
Facilitating Creative Breakthroughs
These are photomicography–photographs from microscopes. I especially like the Differentiation of Unicellular Dictyostelium. Looks like penguins (or ducks?) ice skating. The photos speak for themselves. Enjoy.
My friend Elka Vera just completed some wonderful water color paintings, where she attempted to capture the “essence” of a flower (rather than its form).
They came out beautifully, as you can see.
I like that notion of the essence of a thing. After many years of searching, I’m finally entering the essence of my own work. The essence of a thing must be its heart, and the heart is way more important than what the form looks like on any particular day. Don’t you think?
If you want to see Elka’s other art works, check out her open studio on Saturday October 18th in San Francisco. She has ActiveSpace #516, 3150 18th Street @ Treat. (See www.artspan.org for more info.)
When I was in graduate school, I was expected to KNOW THE LITERATURE. But what I began to notice, was that slogging through reams of other people’s stuff felt dead to me. After all, I was slogging through it with the only purpose of trying to stick names and articles in my brain somewhere. It was somewhat mechanical. But when I allowed myself to be lighthearted and read something fun (a children’s story, a magazine article on some quirky topic), my inspiration (and voice) would return. I think my dissertation was ultimately much better because of it.
Academia has probably changed a lot since I was in graduate school. At least, people probably don’t spend so many hours in the library, because there is so much research that can be done on the internet from your home computer. But I still find that the same principle applies: I don’t want to read other people’s blogs or writings on creative process. I want to stay inspired, and it feels too heavy to “hafta” read other people’s writings “i-n m-y f-i-e-l-d.” My mind starts getting involved and I compare myself. The “shoulds” creep in…”I should be doing what this person’s doing.” Whatever. But I DO read blogs.
My secret passion is clothing design (you wouldn’t know that from what I wear on a daily basis.) I LOVE Project Runway–the reality tv show where aspiring designers compete with one another to make something stunning (and they’re given about a day to do it). About half the challenges involve using unusual things–like items from a grocery store, or a trash recycling center, or whatever materials they can cut out from the inside of a car. The quirkier the materials, the more fascinated I am. On the first season, designer Austin Scarlett made a beautiful dress from nothing but corn stalks. Take a look:
(Austin’s dress looked much better before the corn stalks dried up…) In any case, my secret inspirational blog is also about weird runway fashion. It’s called The Swelle Life, and the woman behind it can really write (she’s witty). But more than that, she provides runway photos that give me endless sources of amusement, smiles and . . . inspiration. (These aren’t the weirdest ones, they’re just today’s faves….)
If the most important thing is my own creative process (and that IS the most important thing to me), then I need to pay close attention to what inspires me, and close attention to what dispirits me (by the way, Merriam-Webster’s definition of dispirit is: to deprive of morale or enthusiasm.) Wacky stuff made into clothes that odd-looking women march down a runway seems to keep me feeling light, happy, and inspired.
So all this is to encourage us to embrace our secret inspirations. Unless you’re in graduate school and “hafta” know the literature, let your own secret passions feed you. It’s all hooked up together in there somehow.
In their book Art and Fear, David Bayles and Ted Orland argue that art that deals with ideas is more interesting than art that deals with technique. I could not agree more! Ideas are not only what make art interesting, but ideas also give all of us a way to participate in art. We all have ideas, even if we’re not trained artists. In yesterday’s class, I gave the assignment of exploring the different ways in which we could explore the idea of “Art in Nature.”
Here are two different examples from the students.
The first photo is of fall leaves. The composition of the leaves together created art.
The second photo is a tapestry perched in a tree.
Very different, but both are examples of ART in Nature.
Creativity is all about relationship. When we create something new, we create a stronger relationship with our selves and our inner voice. We’re also connecting with whatever is inspiring us at the moment–the subject we’re studying, the tree we’re painting, and so on. But there is another relationship as well–when we create, we’re related with Something BEYOND ourselves. We’re plunging ourselves into something unknown, something that is not realized yet.
In Symbol and Metaphor in Human Experience, Martin Foss writes,
“In the process of life, [creative] expression means always communication with a Thou which is never fully realized but remains an inexhaustible power…”
Artists often say that when they create something, they aren’t actually doing the creating. They’re expressing something else–Something greater than themselves.
When we create, we’re in relationship with Something that is never fully realized.