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Eight Keys to Enhanced Creativity
Aunty Edith chanting. She titled this
photo, Ulu A'e K Welina A Ke Aloha,
which translates to "the growth
of love is the essence within the soul."
Franco Salmoiraghi
Creativity lies in the realm of mystery;
Like the finger pointing towards the moon, it should not be confused with the moon itself;
Yet, we strive to find an approach.
The Creative Response
“Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to remain an artist
once we grow up.”
—Pablo Picasso
Matthieu Ricard: Interview Excerpt Very often creativity is confused with a spontaneous expression of one’s habitual tendencies and conditioning. The artist says, “look at me.” It is selfish and narrow-minded and can be confused with knowing the nature of your own mind. Sometimes with nature or with art, you experience greater insight, a real moment of enlightenment, or a luminosity that connects you with the world or nature or others. … So intuition or inspiration is really the experience of your own wisdom. It is like seeing a small patch of blue sky amidst the clouds – and you try to widen that patch through personal transformation.
David Ulrich
Trauma
Psychotic states
Drugs
Great emotional stress
Damage to brain; autism, savants
Suffering
Medical conditions
How do we access the right side of the brain?
Are these the only ways . . . ?
Meditation
Play
Yoga
Drawing
Contact with Nature
Guided visualization
Imagery
Journaling; writing
Creative art
Dance
Movement
Exercise
Memory
Living with ambiguity; Discomfort: Mental,
physical or emotional
Sexuality
Open to creative parts of brain
• Lifelong quest: Self inquiry, the examined life • Authenticity: What is my own? • Search for what one needs to do / one's deepest responses or heartfelt questions • Inner necessity (Kandinsky)
• Transcends commerce or rationality: What do I really care about?
I. Who am I?
Blind boy by Charles Harbutt
“I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has
taught me - shapes and ideas so near to me - so natural to
my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me
to put them down.
I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been
taught . . . To accept as true my own thinking.
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I
couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.”
— Georgia O’Keeffe, Painter
“Finally . . . A Woman on Paper.”
— Alfred Stieglitz
Expand
Expose
Examine
Exalt
Excavate
Excite
Exceed
Exclaim
Exchange
Excise
Exercise
Exhaust
Exhilarate
Exhibit
Exist
Explore
Experiment
Express
Experience
A time to play; to take risks; to find what you resonate with
What medium, which style, what form of
expression suits our temperament and capacities,
that grows naturally out of our lives and
experiences, out of our very being?
Tadashi Sato
• Relaxation needed to open to authentic voice or vision • The body is always in the present moment • Wisdom of the body and feelings . . . Combined with rigor of the mind. • Neurological changes / heightened awareness / Entering the flow • Staying open • Lie on the couch; it’s a good place to begin. • Entering the Flow, the zone
II. Going within; Entering the body
Hengki Koentjoro
This leads us to the second element in
the creative act—namely the intensity
of the encounter. Absorption, being
caught up in, wholly involved, and so
on, are used commonly to describe the
state of the artist or scientist when
creating or even the child at play. By
whatever name one calls it, genuine
creativity is characterized by an
intensity of awareness, a heightened
consciousness.
—Rollo May, from The Courage to
Create
David Douglas Duncan
Senses
The meaning of a line,
shape, volume or
rhythm. Drawing,
typography, design,
composition.
Feelings
The meaning of color,
the sense of light, the
inner meaning, the
knowing of emotion
Mind
Lends depth, substance,
and meaning.
Communicates personal
observations or highlights
social or natural
conditions.
Zhang Xiaogang has symbolically clarified memory, reality and experience. 16:9 format. He
found a collection of old family photographs that would serve as the inspiration for a long running
series of paintings set during the Cultural Revolution.
The series of works, which he would later dub "Bloodlines: Big Family," now
constitute some of the most sought after paintings in the world; and 48-year-
old Zhang Xiaogang is considered one of the country's pre-eminent painters.
Critics now say Zhang pointed Chinese contemporary art in a new direction;
he fused old charcoal-like portraits with modern pop art to create iconic
images of the troubled Chinese family.
Alan Arkin’s Butt Theory
In improvisation workshops:
“I have an almost infallible guide that tells me when
somebody’s being truthful or whether they are showing off
— and that’s my rear end. My rear end tells me.
If I find myself sitting forward in my seat, something is really
happening and it’s interesting because it’s out of ego
control. If it’s smart ass stuff, then I find myself sitting back
on the chair and saying, ooohh he’s clever, but he’s not
smart. It’s a gauge that I have that I feel I’m good at
because I pay attention to it.”
David Ulrich
• Living the question. What if I try this? And this? • Not knowing; Beginners Mind • Living with ambiguity. Mystery. • Asking questions; allowing for gestation • Need to extend beyond one's own current viewpoint — beyond the known. • And what else?
III. “Try to love the questions themselves” — Rainer Maria Rilke
Hengki Koentjoro
“Have patience with everything unresolved
… and try to love the questions themselves.
Don’t search for the answers … the point is,
to live everything. Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you
will gradually, without even noticing it, live
your way into the answer.”
“Everything is gestation and then birthing…”
— Rainer Maria Rilke, as translated by Stephen Mitchell
A 1902 portrait of poet Rainer Maria Rilke by Helmut Westhoff
• Trusting instincts and intuition
• The depth mind: the unconscious • Search for inspiration; new understanding • Put question in back of mind / allow to gestate / activate unconscious • Open to unconscious / deeper layers of response beyond conscious mind • Heightened consciousness and awareness / need to be open and flexible
IV. Natural Wisdom: Opening to the Unconscious
Kaho‘olawe by David Ulrich
No problem can be solved
from the same level of
consciousness that created it.
— Albert Einstein
How to get to the depth mind . . .
Preparing the ground, hard work
The quiet mind
Taking artistic risks
Allow for gestation
Dreams
Letting go of dominance of surface mind
“Just lie on the couch; it’s a good place to begin”
—Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones
Natalie Goldberg recounts
attempting on a number of
occasions, without success, to
write about her father’s death.
She describes this effort as
exploring and composting the
material.
Then suddenly, and I can’t say
how, in December… a long
poem about that subject poured
out of me. All the disparate
things I had to say were suddenly
fused with energy and unity — a
bright red tulip shot out of the
compost. …
Isamu Noguchi
“I don’t think that art comes from art. I think it comes
from the awakening person. … It is a linkage to
something flowing very rapidly through the air, and I
can put my finger on it and plug in.”
Be simple, but go deep. The exquisite
"cutouts" of Matisse and elegant line drawings
of Picasso came late in long careers of
painstaking work and wild experimentation. In
writing as in painting, simplicity often follows
considerable torment.
—Constance Hale in Sin and Syntax
From where does inspiration spring? Differing beliefs: The unconscious / depth mind Sources beyond oneself Voices of ancestors that live within Energies that pass between us: cultural conditions or collective mind Transpersonal Forces: the muses
Maciej Duczynski
… the most amazing fact about it is that every time we
went to sit down -- and it was normally about a three-
hour writing session -- we never came out without a
finished song. So that was like 200 days that we sat down
to do that. And never had a dry moment.
RD: You've said that "Yesterday" emerged fully formed
from a dream. What is your personal understanding of
inspiration?
McCartney: I don't understand it at all. I think life is quite
mysterious and quite miraculous. Every time I come to
write a song, there's this magic little thing where I go,
"Ooh, ooh, it's happening again." I just sort of sit down
at the piano and go, "Oh, my God. I don't know this
one." And suddenly there's a song there. I find the magic
in it so -- it's a faith thing. … With creativity, I just have
faith. It's a great spiritual belief that there's something
really magical there. And that was what helped me write
"Yesterday" … I don't quite know what it is and I don't
want to know.
• Overcoming fear, insecurity, doubt • Courage to become who you are. • Learning to see what is
• Going against the grain of established ideas • Seeing what is needed and finding the courage to proceed • Taking risks — go beyond oneself
V. Creative Courage
Olivia Harris
Malala Yousafzai, 16, the Pakistani girl who was shot in the
head by Taliban fighters, signed a copy of her memoir, “I
Am Malala,”
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and
magic in it. Begin it now.”
W.H. Murray, on Goethe
I have a dream . . .
“Good Enough" is the enemy of excellence. – Unknown
Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon, Martha Graham, Muhammad
Ali, Alfred Hitchcock, Mahatma Gandhi, Jim Henson, Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso,
1997-2002
I have a dream . . . Coffee table revelation
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
—August 28, 1963
Doug Mills
August 28, 2013
• Striving Towards Excellence • Attention to craft • Dialogue with materials & with the moment • Right Time; Right Place • Need for supportive conditions • Time and place to work • Craft as a living exchange between oneself and materials
VI. Craft and Love of Materials
Anselm Kiefer
"Peace and an hour's time — given these, one
creates. Emotional heights are easily attained;
peace and time are not. ...”
— Edward Weston
Nobody sees a flower, really … We haven't time - and to see takes
time like to have a friend takes time.
— Georgia O’Keeffe
• Creativity grows from relationship
• Deeper interests, passions, commitments
• Artists are only the vehicle for work / understandings
to be born
• The hero’s journey
• A durable connection to a larger dimension—social,
cultural, historical, psychological or spiritual—and the
discipline required to maintain and deepen that
connection
VII. Deepening Connections
David Ulrich
“If one believes in something sufficiently, one
will find a form through which to create what
one must ... It is not the spasmodic burst of
activity based on ideas, but the sustained
growth and devotion to a dominating force—
a force upon which one’s very life depends—
that moves me.
—Alfred Stieglitz
• One's creative work—insights and intuition—are not
for oneself alone; interdependent world
• Creativity is a form of communication
• Collective intelligence; collaboration
• The tavern, the coffee shop, the bedroom
• Ideas build upon ideas; exchange; in the air
• Making one’s contribution; contributing the to the
dialogue of our times
• Making love as a metaphor for living creatively
VIII. Who Are You? . . . Other People
“If what one makes is not created with a sense of
sacredness, a sense of wonder, if it is not a form of
lovemaking; if it is not created with the same
passion as the first kiss, it has no right to be called a
work of art.”
— Alfred Stieglitz
Plastic Bottles, 2007 60 x120"
Chris Jordan
Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes.
Paper Bags, 2007 60x80"
Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour.
Cedar Tavern: Abstract Expressionists Sharing insights and questions,
internet, the tavern, the classroom.
Art MauiOnly large juried exhibition in State of Hawai‘i
Community Benefits
• Educates broader community about art
• Provides a snapshot of the current state of the visual arts on Maui
and in Hawai‘i
• Helps us better understand our region
• Communicates concerns of artists to broader community
• Creates dialogue between artists; mutual influence
• Source of inspiration for people
• Enhances community pride
• Creates dialogue between artists and general public
• Distinct benefit for visitors
• Provides opportunities for personal interaction between artists,
public, patrons, and interested people
• Assists in perpetuation of diverse cultures in Hawai‘i
• Brings accomplished jurors and presenters to Maui
Individual Benefits
• Provides exposure for individual artists
• Economic stimulus for artists: potential sales
• Helps artists see their work in context
• Source of individual pride of accomplishment
• Provides useful deadlines for completion
• Gives artists a forum to communicate their concerns to
broader community
Intersections: The Artist and the Community
. . . Exalted individualism, for example, is hardly a creative response to
the needs of the planet at this time. Individualism, freedom and self
expression are the great modernist buzz words. To highly individualistic artists,
trained to think in this way, the idea that creative activity might be directed
toward answering a collective cultural need rather than a personal desire for
self-expression is likely to appear irrelevant, or even presumptuous. But I
believe there is a new, evolving relationship between personal creativity and
social responsibility, as old modernist patterns of alienation and confrontation
give way to new ones of mutualism and the development of an active and
practical dialogue with the environment.
—The Reenchantment of Art by Suzi Gablick
www.creativeguide.com
www.theslenderthread.org
Life itself can be approached as a creative challenge, through the medium of whatever we do on a daily basis, whether it be painting a picture or cooking a meal. In The Widening Stream, author David Ulrich gracefully illustrates the series of stages encountered on every creative journey, regardless of the form of expression. Using the stream as a metaphor, Ulrich takes readers from the moment of inspiration to completion, helping us navigate the joys and frustrations inherent in the process.
From years of studying the work of artists, scientists, philosophers, and spiritual teachers, Ulrich has identified a common thread running through the diverse perspectives of these great minds, and developed a unique theory of creativity, useful to people at any level of creative development, from novice to professional.
Complete with tools and exercises to help readers develop and nourish their innate artistic spirits and abilities, this book is an invaluable resource for all of us who desire to live with passion, courage, and insight, and to explore the connection between creative longing and our deepest, truest selves.
“ This is an exciting and informative book...helpful to anyone interested in the creative process.”
—André Gregory, costar and cocreator of
My Dinner with André, author, and avant-garde director
David Ulrich has taught hundreds of classes and workshops on photography,creativity, and visual perception nationwide for over twenty-five years. He has served on the faculty of several universities, including fifteen years as Associate Professor and Chair of the Photography Department at The Art Institute of Boston. As a photographer and writer, his work has been published in numerous books and journals including Aperture, Parabola, Manoa, and Sierra Club publications. Ulrich’s photographs have been exhibited internationally in over seventy-five one-person and group exhibitions, including the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. He lives in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
Personal Growth / Art
Photo credit: Sheila Cody
$16.95( $27.50 CDN )
Publishing
David U
lrich
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the Seven Stages of Creativity
David Ulrich
THE IDENING STREAM W
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“Ulrich has written an important and readable book that offers usable insights and answers to the question he poses: ‘What is the nature of the creative process?' Both inspirational and practical, the author has many useful things to say to the art student, the professional artist, and all those with an interest in knowing more about the creative process, which Ulrich shows to be ‘a metaphor for life itself.’”
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! —Nathan Goldstein, author of
�����������������������������������������������The Art of Responsive Drawing
“My wish for you, the reader, is that these insights may ignite your own creative gifts, fanning them into a blazing conflagration of authentic transformation; that there be no turning back for you once you hear the thundering voices of spirit; that you will be shattered into fullness of being through your soul’s longing; that you will discover with unshakable conviction that you have some indispensable thread of awareness to weave into the fabric of the world; and that your guiding lights will show you the way to grow gracefully into who you already are.”
—From the introduction
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