Comments for THE CREATIVE BLOCK http://babayard.com/blog obstacles to creativity / strategies to prevail Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:27:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 Comment on Schools damage creativity by Diana Hartel http://babayard.com/blog/2010/02/schools-damage-creativity/comment-page-1/#comment-220 Diana Hartel Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:27:39 +0000 http://babayard.com/blog/?p=82#comment-220 Both Fortunately or unfortunately I have long been on the margins in school and work. It allowed space to be creative whether in visual arts, social activism, science, or human services. Eccentric or oddball or some other kind of categorization serves well to evade the punishments of institutions. One is often in the company of some very damaged people also on the margins. Our culture of money excuses all behaviors including the creative but most artists don't have that kind of cover. It is no wonder the class topic was about "making a living" as an artist. This is the question I get most often when people come up to see what I'm painting when working outdoors. They rarely ask how I'm seeing this, why I veer into the borderlands between realism and abstraction. Do they wonder what is a mistake and what is a true paint stroke in the way I work? Those who ask real questions are usually under 10 years old. In one such instance a father and daughter came up to me as I was painting on the Rogue River. The father prizes photo-realism and pulled a near-disgust face as he made critical remarks. At some point I offered up the goal of painting as keeping it alive. When he walked away, his little daughter said "This is really GOOD!" with accompanying energized smile. Good or not, she felt probably felt the lively brush strokes, the play of color and form. She heard and saw the "alive" part of it. Most interesting was that she chose to not agree with Dad. And I wonder how long before she gets shut down in life. I pray it doesn't happen. Authentic artists know the art process itself is what is important and in creative moments there really is truth and beauty, intelligence and compassion. Along with biodiversity loss, we have human creative diversity loss. Since when did creativity become so dangerous we had to throw everything we could into shutting it down before reaching adulthood? We need to restore our schools to truth and beauty as we change our heavy footprint on the planet. The arrogance of human dominance is killing everything including our own true creative natures. Both Fortunately or unfortunately I have long been on the margins in school and work. It allowed space to be creative whether in visual arts, social activism, science, or human services. Eccentric or oddball or some other kind of categorization serves well to evade the punishments of institutions. One is often in the company of some very damaged people also on the margins. Our culture of money excuses all behaviors including the creative but most artists don’t have that kind of cover. It is no wonder the class topic was about “making a living” as an artist. This is the question I get most often when people come up to see what I’m painting when working outdoors. They rarely ask how I’m seeing this, why I veer into the borderlands between realism and abstraction. Do they wonder what is a mistake and what is a true paint stroke in the way I work? Those who ask real questions are usually under 10 years old. In one such instance a father and daughter came up to me as I was painting on the Rogue River. The father prizes photo-realism and pulled a near-disgust face as he made critical remarks. At some point I offered up the goal of painting as keeping it alive. When he walked away, his little daughter said “This is really GOOD!” with accompanying energized smile. Good or not, she felt probably felt the lively brush strokes, the play of color and form. She heard and saw the “alive” part of it. Most interesting was that she chose to not agree with Dad. And I wonder how long before she gets shut down in life. I pray it doesn’t happen. Authentic artists know the art process itself is what is important and in creative moments there really is truth and beauty, intelligence and compassion. Along with biodiversity loss, we have human creative diversity loss. Since when did creativity become so dangerous we had to throw everything we could into shutting it down before reaching adulthood? We need to restore our schools to truth and beauty as we change our heavy footprint on the planet. The arrogance of human dominance is killing everything including our own true creative natures.

]]> Comment on Expanding the context by babayard http://babayard.com/blog/2009/10/a-different-context/comment-page-1/#comment-71 babayard Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:18:56 +0000 http://babayard.com/blog/?p=69#comment-71 Thanks for the link, Denissia. I look forward to delving in a bit more. At first glance, it looks like there's a huge amount of information. Thanks for the link, Denissia. I look forward to delving in a bit more. At first glance, it looks like there’s a huge amount of information.

]]> Comment on Expanding the context by denissia http://babayard.com/blog/2009/10/a-different-context/comment-page-1/#comment-70 denissia Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:06:28 +0000 http://babayard.com/blog/?p=69#comment-70 I like that "doing art is growing things." We are learning about patterns in nature and design - and the synergy of all things and relatedness/connectedness and it's remarkable how the study of permaculture translates to many other activities and practices. Here is a link to some reading we did. We focused on Chapter 4 - which is about restoring prairie lands - interesting. Kevin Kelly is pretty out there, but the reading got me thinking about evolution and relatedness. http://www.kk.org/outofcontrol/contents.php Denissia I like that “doing art is growing things.” We are learning about patterns in nature and design – and the synergy of all things and relatedness/connectedness and it’s remarkable how the study of permaculture translates to many other activities and practices.

Here is a link to some reading we did. We focused on Chapter 4 – which is about restoring prairie lands – interesting. Kevin Kelly is pretty out there, but the reading got me thinking about evolution and relatedness.

http://www.kk.org/outofcontrol/contents.php

Denissia

]]> Comment on Expanding the context by babayard http://babayard.com/blog/2009/10/a-different-context/comment-page-1/#comment-63 babayard Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:24:39 +0000 http://babayard.com/blog/?p=69#comment-63 Absolutely. The edges are the most exciting place to be. Doing art is growing things. Absolutely. The edges are the most exciting place to be. Doing art is growing things.

]]> Comment on Expanding the context by denissia http://babayard.com/blog/2009/10/a-different-context/comment-page-1/#comment-62 denissia Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:09:35 +0000 http://babayard.com/blog/?p=69#comment-62 In permaculture, it is called expanding the edges. Design work is often about working with edges, and creating more edges creates more space - to do art or grow things. What do you think? In permaculture, it is called expanding the edges. Design work is often about working with edges, and creating more edges creates more space – to do art or grow things. What do you think?

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