Facilitating Creative Breakthroughs
Joseph Campbell said, “The way of the artist and the way of the mystic are very much alike, except the mystic does not have a craft.”
Creativity is not just a personal tool for our projects. It’s an alignment with a higher intelligence.
The creative process allows us to have a conversation with Something greater than ourselves. It puts us in touch with transcendent wisdom. Artists engage in a process that lets them touch something that’s alive. 🌱
One of my favorite books about art-making and creativity is Robert Henri’s The Art Spirit.
Here are a few passages that stood out to me:
“…we must get rid of this outside feeling of looking in on art. We must get on the inside and press out. Art is simply a result of expression during right feeling. It’s a result of a grip on the fundamentals of nature, the spirit of life, the constructive force, the secret of growth, a real understanding of the relative importance of things, order, balance. Any material will do. After all, the object is not to make art, but to be in the wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
“All things change according to the state we are in. Nothing is fixed.”
“There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom. If one could but recall his vision by some sort of sign. It was in this hope that the arts were invented. Sign-posts on the way to what may be. Sign-posts toward greater knowledge.”
Henri (1865-1929) was an American painter and teacher. Click here to read more of my thoughts on The Art Spirit:
https://www.kimhermanson.com/2008/12/26/robert-henris-art-spirit-part-two/
There’s a reason bank buildings are square. There’s a reason that when we need rest we go to a large body of water… or the desert. There’s a reason web designers use lots of white space. (Space allows readers’ eyes — and brains! — to stay calm so they can absorb the material.) There’s a reason why group facilitators seat people in a circle (rather than lines of chairs) when they want to create a sense of cohesiveness and group bonding.
Corporate advertisers consciously and strategically use shapes in their buildings, products, and advertising because different shapes appeal to and awaken different parts of our brain. But shapes aren’t just for corporate advertisers and web designers. Every one of us can tap their potent power.
Confused about the direction of a project? Getting distracted by other things? a LINE brings clarity, definition, precision, and focus.
Feeling anxious about an upcoming presentation? a SQUARE brings the beautiful qualities of a line (clarity and definition), along with safety, sturdiness, and strength.
Ready to launch a new program? a TRIANGLE also brings clarity and definition (line) and the sturdiness of a square. But the triangle has a particular vision it’s reaching for. The triangle honors and develops this vision from a place of sturdy groundedness.
Something is missing but you’re not sure what it is? Work with a CIRCLE. Circles gather the stray threads and…
The physicist Arthur Zajonc says that our culture needs the artist’s cognitive capacities. But what ARE those cognitive capacities?
Perhaps those capacities include the artist’s willingness to be confused, welcoming any unlikely connection that shows up. Perhaps it’s his or her sensitivity to nuance and qualities of beauty that others miss. Perhaps artists are more flexible and disposed to “go with the flow.” Maybe they’re more comfortable with risk-taking and more inclined to let curiosity lead the way.
Perhaps artists have found a way, through their art, to go beyond ordinary capacities of human reasoning.
The artist Paul Reynard wrote: “A work of art is necessarily incomplete. It is a way of learning.”
We’re all in this process of art-making, whether we think of ourselves as artists or not, because we’re all learners.
Reynard was asked before he died, “What is the place of art in contemporary life?” He responded, “The question could well be formulated as ‘What is the place of love in contemporary life?’”
I’ve always loved that statement. It says so much.
The best artists show us how to see the world with love.
Or perhaps we could more simply say, “art is love.”