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

Brain science

Two sides of the brain

+

Four Quadrants

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

1918-1959

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

Toshiko Takaezu

Devotion to an Ideal . . .

Ansel Adams

Ai Wei Wei

• 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.

Contemporary art: performative and conceptual; installation

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.

Henri Matisse

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

Working from questions . . . not answers

— Harry Callahan

Painting is an investigation of being.

Squeak Carnwath

Anna Marie Hamilton

Ad Reinhardt

Art is inquiry:

Let go of what you know. Discover something new. Live with ambiguity and mystery.

• 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

Unconscious (or Subconscious Mind)

Seat of Insight, Creativity, and Intuition

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,”

the cruel radiance of what is — James Agee

David Ulrich

“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

I have a dream . . .

1976

Personal Risk: Change the world: make a dent in the universe

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 . . .

I have a dream . . .

1976

Artists = Taking risks for the betterment of the world

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

I have a dream . . .

• 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

Love of materials

Mastery of materials

Constantin Brancusi

Brancusi at MOMA, April 2010

Ansel Adams

Moonrise over Hernandez, NM

Populate your Mind

Books

Ideas

Techniques

Art

Music

Observation

Critical Thinking

Culture

People

• 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

Guernica, by Pablo Picasso

Mark Rothko

“The silence and solitude of consciousness”

“I don’t express myself …I express my not-self”

Diego Rivera

Jean Charlot

• 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

Dorothea Lange

Justin Lane

The Human Condition

Influence and Response

Georgia O’Keeffe

Anna Marie HamiltonJulienne Kost

Ghost Ranch O’Keeffe Home

Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait,

Chris Jordan, 2007

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.

We exist by their grace . . .

1956 1969

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

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the Seven Stages of Creativity

David Ulrich

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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

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“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