The Creative Self

A flash of insight. A solution to a longstanding problem. We all
long to express ourselves creatively, admire the capacity to be original.
It seems to be part of human nature.

Immersion in creative enterprises is hugely rewarding by itself.
And often during that immersion we experience that special state called
"flow," a feeling outside of time, of effortlessness that is
so extraordinarily satisfying it bestows on us the sense that life is
worth living.

How do we develop and nurture creativity within? Many people see
creativity as a capacity far beyond them. But it is not.

In a lovely little book entitled Creative Authenticity, artist Ian
Roberts argues that at some point you just have to jump in, fears and
all. There is something courageous about it.

It's finding what you want to say that's the really
tricky part. Usually, it lies just beneath the grip of the conscious
mind. It springs from hard-won personal inner synthesis, experience and
insight acquired firsthand. In our mind it is not logically structured,
but it may take logic to get it expressed.

"Ultimately, it doesn't matter to the world whether you
paint or dance or write," says Roberts. "The world will
probably get by without the product of your efforts. But that is not the
point. The point is what the inner process of following your creative
impulses will do to you. It is clearly about process. Love the work, love
the process. Our fascination will pull our attention forward. That, also,
will fascinate the viewer."

Roberts enunciates a number of principles essential for creative
authenticity.

• Searching for beauty. Beauty is something that seizes your
  attention, stops you in your tracks, silences you. It can be the way
  light filters through the trees in your backyard or the magnificence of
  a fifteenth century Italian painting. The subject is irrelevant; it is
  only a vehicle for your attention, to engage the intensity of your
  feelings. That intensity is what viewers ultimately respond to.
• Communication. Creativity fundamentally involves expressive
  power; it is the catching of the "gleams of light" that flash
  across our mind and forming that vision into something.
• Your home turf. It could be a garden. Or a studio. But you
  need a creative home base that always stays open for your arrival and
  bestows on you a readiness to begin your work.
• The Van Gogh syndrome. Don't buy into the myth that
  creativity is the province of tortured geniuses.
• Your craft, your voice. Practice, practice, practice your
  craft. It gives you fluency in the creative process and in technique.
  It's technique that gives life to your creative ideas. Learning
  your craft opens the channel for your voice to flow.
• Showing up. "Nothing determines your creative life
  more than doing it," says Roberts.
• The dance of avoidance. Starting is always a
  psychologically messy process, because there are no rules surrounding
  what you want to do. Setting up a dedicated space for the practice of
  your craft helps you shift gears directly into your creative
  process.
• Full-time or part-time. You can't expect to fly
  consistently at a high level of inspiration.
• Follow something along. If you are going to say something
  authentic, you need to stick with an idea for a while, an idea that has
  personal resonance.
• Wagon train and scout. Creativity involves the interplay
  between where you are and where you see yourself going to keep your
  expression growing. Always be on the lookout for new paths, and observe
  how others solve the problems you face.
• Working method. Creativity is in the process, not in the
  finished results.
• Limits yield intensity. Unrestrained freedom is a myth, and
  it's not productive.
• Being ready to show. Don't spend your time marketing
  your creations. If you spend it creating, you are investing your work
  with the authenticity that will draw others to your efforts.
• You are more than creative enough. The question is not
  whether you are creative enough but whether you will free yourself to
  express it.
• Finding poetry in the everyday. Develop the power to see
  the ordinary as poetic.
• Holding the big picture. Always keep a sense of the whole.
  That commits you to making the moves that will ultimately represent what
  you see.