Insights from creativity expert Eric Maisel about the need for persistence and courage in pursuing creative work and the need for trusting the process itself by recognizing and accepting that you will indeed make messes and mistakes — which will prove in the end to have been necessary.
*
The Key to ‘Inception’: It’s a Movie about Making Movies – The Awl – July 21, 2010
Is Inception a movie about the creative process? A parable about the artistic danger of being so uncritically addicted to your muse that you follow her into a black pit of solipsism?
*
Christopher Nolan Never Created a ‘Bible’ for Inception – MTV – July 16, 2010
Director Christopher Nolan on the creative artistic experience of conceiving and realizing the world of the movie: “You feel like you’re uncovering something that already exists”
*
The Benefits of Losing Control – Mark McGuinness – Lateral Action – July 19, 2010
To bring your muse or unconscious mind into creative work, learn the benefits of losing control and letting things just happen.
Creativity in the 21st Century – Psychologist and Harvard lecturer Shelley Carson, Ph.D. – Huffington Post – July 20, 2010
Creativity is important for artists, writers and musicians, but it’s also crucial for societies, businesses and individuals who need to juggle fulfillment with the demands of the rapid-change culture.
Imagination, Creativity, and Confidence – Creativity Matters – July 18, 2010
It is the perfect triad: imagination, creativity and confidence. Imagination is the cognitive state of dreaming up new ideas or solutions, creativity is the process of developing those innovative thoughts to action and confidence happens as a result of making those dreams a reality. Trust the creative process.
On Mozart’s creative process – Joon Report – July 20, 2010
Mozart described how he would get relaxed, receive a spontaneous flow of ideas, and then gently work with them.
Feeding Your Muse – American Horror Blog (blog of horror writer Scott A. Johnson) – July 15, 2010
Complacency and letting yourself get into a rut is the surest way to drive your muse away. Indulgent curiosity will keep her well fed and happy, and when she’s happy, she’ll visit more often.
Creativity, dreams, premonitions, and quantum reality – Rod Dreher – Science, religion, markets, and morals (BeliefNet blog) – July 15, 2010
It started when my son Matthew told me he thought that “morphic fields” — a concept he picked up from reading a book from the heretical scientist Rupert Sheldrake — might be responsible for human creativity.
Artists of World Change – Artist, illustrator and writer Cat Bennett – The Huffington Post – July 21, 2010
How can we create a new world when so few of us understand the creative process? When we don’t know how to be creative, we tend to be passive and expect governments to solve problems. To address our mounting global problems, we must learn to enhance individual and collective creativity, and we must recognize the importance of creative thinking as a complement to analytical thinking.
The Creativity Crisis – Newsweek – July 10, 2010
Research shows that American creativity is declining for the first time, but science can tell us the steps that leads the elusive muse right to our doors.
Humility and the Creative Moment – The Fate PROJECT – July 12, 2010
Creativity belongs to the realm of the daimon — but it doesn’t belong just to artists.
Freeing the Muse – Red Room – July 12, 2010
It’s hard to judge how inspiration comes. I find myself stuck to certain sets of ideas, but there’s a letting go of spirit that begets new ideas, new moments and new senses. It’s a fine balance. While dealing with the muses of inspiration, with their passions and their cycles, things can get tricky.
Book: The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life by John Daido Loori (2005)
Excerpt at The Zen Community, July 20, 2010:
Before engaging the creative process it is helpful to understand some of the basic elements that are functioning in it. The first of these elements is the muse, a sense of inspiration that initiates the process of creation. The second is the hara, a place within us that is still and grounded. Then there is chi, the energy contained both in us and in the subject. Out of chi emerges resonance, a feeling of recognition between the artist and subject. Finally, there is the act of expression itself, where the expression is allowed to flow unhindered from the artist to the creation. The artist steps out of the way and lets the art happen by itself.
Review at Spirituality & Practice:
After a career as a research scientist and a professional photographer, John Daido Loori embarked upon full-time Zen training under Maezumi Roshi, which would eventually lead him to become a Zen priest. He opened the Zen Arts Center in Mount Tremper in 1980 as a place where “Zen training would be used as a vehicle for studying, enhancing, and cultivating a creative life.” In this illuminating resource, Loori presents practices that can help us develop new ways of seeing and creating. He then discusses how the truths of the Zen arts can assist us in our quest to live more freely and generously.
Related posts:
