As one person wrote, "An empty canvas, apparently really empty, that says nothing and is without significance. Almost dull, in fact. In reality, however, [it's] crammed with thousands of undertone tensions and [is] full of expectancy. Slightly apprehensive lest it should be outraged ... It can contain anything but cannot sustain everything ... An empty canvas is a living wonder -- far lovelier than certain pictures." (~ Wassily Kandinsky).
No matter our medium, we have a vast potential for opportunity or a vast potential for waste and the difference is our attitude. Perhaps our creativity works over time, after lessons, after great pains, or if we are lucky after the inspiration 'gods/goddesses' stuck us; however it works for us, it will only work if we turn the creativity we are stuck with, fight the fear and get to work. Creativity alone is simply imagination, but true creativity is imagination in action - it produces and creates. Creativity is what binds us all and creativity is not exclusive to some. What differentiates us is that creativity must be harnessed into action of value. The artists who work in their valuable ways are no different than a professor/instructor/teacher who inspires even one student or community member, art historian/historians who preserves history for future generations and in the mind of one human, business persons figuring an ad campaign or creating a marketing strategy, lawyers arguing a trial, accountant working on numbers, the person who does land acquisition dreaming of what will become of the space, IT programer using binary code to create a new cyber world, and so on....
All humans are creative in their own way. They each start with an empty canvas and cram it with expectancy!
This is an excellent post, Jen! I completely agree that blank canvases are full of potential, but they can also be very intimidating. Making that first mark is often the hardest part. It takes courage. This is what we have to teach our children. Risk taking is an important part of creativity. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Hilary.
DeleteI followed up to a friend with this and it is applicable to all.... the power of creativity and that of courage, blind faith, or just sheer craziness that makes us leap off the precipice is what delineates the mere dreamers from those who dream first then act..... Failure does not exists. Doing exists.
DeleteWhen you do and do not get your expected result then, you have learned.
Perhaps you learned how to do something better. Perhaps you had a EUREKA! moment and found greatness! You never fail when you try! This is the plight of a standardized society where the need for the 'right' answers are fabricated.....
There is not a wrong answer to any given situation. There is only a varying perspective and new learning opportunity.....
Just ask the inventer of post-it notes glue and floating soap.... ((: