By Douglas Eby
“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” Psychologist William James
Our needs for attention and appreciation may be basic, and grounded in survival as a child, but for some people, those needs are especially potent.
In a recent article, Ben Kingsley commented about being a performer as a child, like so many other gifted actors, and some hurtful responses from his parents.
“I had always been the song-and-dance man of the family,” he says. “I remember my father referring to me as ‘our little Danny Kaye’ when I was about seven. That was the only remotely positive comment I remember from them. They never praised me or acknowledged a gram of talent in me.
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By Douglas Eby
Creativity coach, author and psychologist Eric Maisel, PhD, notes “Some people become doctors, lawyers, accountants, or marketing executives. Some people stay at home and raise a family.
“But millions of people make another sort of choice, maybe only as part-time employment if you count the money they earn but as their full-time identity: they become artists.”
And, he adds, “they struggle.”
[Quotes from his site www.makingyourcreativemark.com]
In one of the chapters (“The Stress Key”) of his new book “Making Your Creative Mark,” he writes about how the creative life can be an ongoing source of stress – if we interpret or frame it as such.
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By Douglas Eby
“Well, obviously you need a writing instrument and you need an idea. I’m just not sure which should come first.”
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan (Emily Deschanel), from TV Series “Bones” (imdb.com)
Creative expression is not just about using outside materials and tools, but actually being an instrument oneself.
It is a valuable and challenging idea that has been a theme of a number of acting coaches, but also applies to any form of creative work.
One example was the acclaimed teacher Sanford Meisner who said, “Every actor’s instrument is different because every actors instrument is their humanity, their sensitivity. Their soul. And there is no ‘right way’ or ‘one way’ to get to that instrument. That soul.”
[Book: Sanford Meisner on Acting.]
The following inspiring and insightful perspectives by dancer, choreographer and teacher Martha Graham have been around many years, and widely quoted – but it may be valuable to think about them every now and then.
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By Douglas Eby
They may be identified with one form of creativity – such as writing or acting, one of the visual arts, or performing music – but so many people work in multiple ways, in more than one area of creative expression. And they may not even think it is extraordinary to be so multifaceted.
In his post Creatives With Multiple Talents (on his blog The Artist’s Road), writer and instructor Patrick Ross mentions meeting two students in a Masters in Writing program who are about to graduate.
“They told me about a talent show their class held at their last on-campus residency. One of them said he had performed on the violin. The other told me he has acting experience but didn’t want to do a one-man show, so he performed magic tricks. I said it was interesting that all of these writing students had another talent they could perform.
“The violin player looked at me as if I had just expressed bafflement that an orange was the color orange. ‘All creative people have multiple talents, don’t they?’
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By Douglas Eby
Psychologist Ted Zeff, among others, notes the personality trait of high sensitivity can be particularly challenging for men, especially in this culture.
But many boys and men find that creative expression is enhanced by the many positive qualities of the trait.
Writer and entrepreneur Peter Messerschmidt [aka 'Denmarkguy'], who – like myself – identifies as being highly sensitive, writes in one of his informative articles on the topic of highly sensitive men (HSM) and how much they “accept” or make use of this aspect of their personality.
He notes, “One group– typically the largest– display all the characteristics of high sensitivity, but forcefully deny and reject the possibility that they are ‘sensitive.’
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By Douglas Eby
With the increasing demand for “content” in so many channels of entertainment and other media, are people who write, create visual art and movies highly respected, in high demand and getting great compensation?
Not so much.
According to at least two people in a position to know, the present “system” is far from encouraging of artists.
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By Douglas Eby
This is a photo of Merrill Joan Gerber, a novelist and short story writer, who also teaches fiction writing at Caltech (the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California).
She is another artist featured in the documentary Lost in Living.
See Part 1 of this post for a trailer and more.
Director Mary Trunk comments on the site for the film that Gerber “had over 25 books published, was a former fellow of the Wallace Stegner Writing Workshop at Stanford and was contemplating giving it up altogether.
“Her children had been among her subjects and at times they felt that their privacy had been invaded. She was conflicted between her need to write and her desire to maintain relationships with her daughters.”
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By Douglas Eby
How does being a mother affect a creative woman, especially someone engaged in a career in the arts?
“The motherhood thing – I think of it like a marathon, except a marathon is over in a day. It’s an endurance test and it’s something you absolutely can’t stop for a second.
“Part of what makes it really cool and interesting is almost anything [besides motherhood] you commit to, you can take a breather.”
Caren McCaleb “is an award winning documentary editor and filmmaker. Her work has shown on PBS, A&E, and at numerous film festivals including Sundance, AFIFest, and the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films.” [From her site: www.carenmccaleb.com]
The image is from a new documentary Lost in Living – “the story of four extraordinary women who share their personal triumphs and struggles as mothers and as artists and who uniquely define for themselves what it means to be a woman in our modern world.” [From statement by Director Mary Trunk.]
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By Douglas Eby
“Anxiety is the great silencer of the creative person.” Eric Maisel, PhD
One form of anxiety is so-called writer’s block. This photo is Nicolas Cage as screenwriter Charlie Kaufman in the movie “Adaptation” by the real screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. It’s a great film about the kinds of insecurities, anxieties and distractions that can so often affect us as creative people.
Therapist and creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD notes there are many different kinds of anxiety around creative expression, with different symptoms including confusion and a “weakness of mind and body” and persistent worry.
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By Douglas Eby
“If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude.”
That is a quote by creativity researcher and author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who describes a number of pairs of “paradoxical” traits exhibited by creative people, such as both convergent and divergent thinking; extroverted and introverted; humble and proud.
See my post The Complexity of the Creative Personality and my SlideShare presentation below.
In his book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention he makes some interesting comments about evaluating artists using projective tests like the Rorschach (ink blot) or the Thematic Apperception Test.
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