Archives for June, 2012
Tolerating Chaos to Create
At least part of creating is a non-linear process involving the inner chaos of divergent thinking and imaginational intensity - and often the outer chaos of messy desks.
Stephen King has commented about his creative mind: "It’s as though something in there is running all the time.”
But this inner process is not easy to articulate or describe to other people.
And there is often a high level of pressure to produce tangible creative results.
As author and...
Stephen King has commented about his creative mind: "It’s as though something in there is running all the time.”
But this inner process is not easy to articulate or describe to other people.
And there is often a high level of pressure to produce tangible creative results.
As author and...
Creative Inspiration In The Shower and Fixing The Hubble
Getting flashes of creative insight or inspiration can solve real problems. But be wary of thinking you have to wait for them to be creative.
Psychologist R. Keith Sawyer says creativity researchers refer to "the three Bs—for the bathtub, the bed and the bus—places where ideas have famously and suddenly emerged."
The photo shows an un-corrected Hubble telescope image at the left, next to an image at the right made with corrected optics.
Sawyer explained in a magazine...
Psychologist R. Keith Sawyer says creativity researchers refer to "the three Bs—for the bathtub, the bed and the bus—places where ideas have famously and suddenly emerged."
The photo shows an un-corrected Hubble telescope image at the left, next to an image at the right made with corrected optics.
Sawyer explained in a magazine...
Unconscious Creativity, Conscious Creating
"Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious." Jean Cocteau
How much of creative inspiration and problem solving is from our unconscious, and how can we get more in touch with our vast inner landscape?
This famous "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" is a 1907 painting by Gustav Klimt.
In his book "The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to...
How much of creative inspiration and problem solving is from our unconscious, and how can we get more in touch with our vast inner landscape?
This famous "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" is a 1907 painting by Gustav Klimt.
In his book "The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to...
Visual Spatial Learners and Creativity
In her definition of visual spatial learners, Dr. Linda Silverman, who pioneered the concept, includes the quality of being a late bloomer, as well as "creatively, mechanically, emotionally, or technologically gifted."
People who are 'auditory-sequential' learners are considered more academically talented and likely to be an early bloomer.
There are certainly many people who are creatively productive earlier in life, but painter Robert Genn notes there are a number of artists who are late bloomers.
In...
People who are 'auditory-sequential' learners are considered more academically talented and likely to be an early bloomer.
There are certainly many people who are creatively productive earlier in life, but painter Robert Genn notes there are a number of artists who are late bloomers.
In...
Confidence and Creating
Assurance, backbone, boldness, brashness, daring - engaging in a creative endeavor takes confidence.
Large scale collaborations like movies often take years to develop, requiring intense commitment on the part of writers and directors and other filmmakers.
A bit of hypomania and creative obsession can help.
Individual creators also need that kind of energy, motivation and confidence to keep working at projects for long periods.
This is a photo of "Fallen Star" by artist Do Ho Suh - a...
Large scale collaborations like movies often take years to develop, requiring intense commitment on the part of writers and directors and other filmmakers.
A bit of hypomania and creative obsession can help.
Individual creators also need that kind of energy, motivation and confidence to keep working at projects for long periods.
This is a photo of "Fallen Star" by artist Do Ho Suh - a...
Self-care and Creative Achievement
Developing our creative ideas and projects demands focus, energy and emotional balance, in addition to tools and materials.
Especially if you are a highly sensitive person, as many or most creative people are, you will be more effective and productive in your creative life by exercising conscious self-care.
Creativity and life coach Jenna Avery notes that for "Sensitive Souls, standard formulas don’t work well, like 40-plus-hour workweeks, commutes, fluorescent lights, and cubicles.
"We require physically and emotionally supportive...
Especially if you are a highly sensitive person, as many or most creative people are, you will be more effective and productive in your creative life by exercising conscious self-care.
Creativity and life coach Jenna Avery notes that for "Sensitive Souls, standard formulas don’t work well, like 40-plus-hour workweeks, commutes, fluorescent lights, and cubicles.
"We require physically and emotionally supportive...
Using The Skills of Disruptive Innovators
Einstein was expelled from school for “undermining the authority of his teachers and being a disruptive influence.”
I was reminded of that item when reading the article Can Innovative Thinking Be Learned? (Forbes mag.), in which writer Erica Swallow lists several "disruptive innovators": Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Pierre Omidyar, referring to the book “The Innovator’s DNA" - which fortunately also includes a number of women innovators.
She writes that they...
I was reminded of that item when reading the article Can Innovative Thinking Be Learned? (Forbes mag.), in which writer Erica Swallow lists several "disruptive innovators": Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Pierre Omidyar, referring to the book “The Innovator’s DNA" - which fortunately also includes a number of women innovators.
She writes that they...
Taking the Fool’s Journey to Develop Creativity
"What kind of fool would do these things?" Cynthia Morris
Don't we need to be intelligent to be creative?
Psychologist Dean Keith Simonton, PhD thinks creativity in everyday life “is very closely related to intelligence because intelligence includes, as part of it, problem-solving abilities," but "big C creativity" - which involve "generating new ideas, a poem, a patent, a short story, a journal article or whatever…involves a whole bunch of other characteristics besides...
Don't we need to be intelligent to be creative?
Psychologist Dean Keith Simonton, PhD thinks creativity in everyday life “is very closely related to intelligence because intelligence includes, as part of it, problem-solving abilities," but "big C creativity" - which involve "generating new ideas, a poem, a patent, a short story, a journal article or whatever…involves a whole bunch of other characteristics besides...
Using Research to Enhance Creative Thinking – Part 2
In Part 1 of this post, I mentioned two articles that refer to multiple research studies; here are more excerpts from those articles, plus additional material.
In "The science of creativity," Amy Novotney notes a study at Harvard Medical School in which creativity researchers suggest sleeping on a problem.
Psychologist Deirde Barrett, PhD "asked her students to imagine a problem they were trying to solve before going to sleep and found that they were able...
