Filed under: Creative Personality, Creative Process, Creativity, Giftedness | Tags: Creativity, Giftedness and creativity
“Curving back upon my own nature, I create again and again.”- Bhagavad-Gita
In the gifted person the calling to create can frequently be a relentless yearning. Innate characteristics of the gifted individuals such as seeking a deeper meaning and purpose; immense satisfaction in problem solving; constant curiosity and viewing a creative task from different perspectives, naturally urges them towards creativity. It’s as if all these traits merge together and become a compelling force from within to seek out creative challenges. In Mary-Elaine Jacobsen’s book, The Gifted Adult, she best describes this drive as never really ceasing, but instead oscillates in intensity, always to return.
“Everyday Geniuses’ need to create the best that they are capable of is not something that goes away with time. It’s not something we can excise, or a job from which we can expect to happily retire. To be sure, the intensity of creative pressure does ebb and flow, but like the tide, it always comes back. Unless we are extraordinarily hindered, sooner or later we must comply with the creative spirit’s urgings, because it is more persevering than any attempt by our thinking mind to ignore our gifts. Living everyday with the need to create is like sharing a room with a hyperactive little brother who elbows you, tugs at your shirtsleeve, and tweaks your ear repeatedly until you give him your undivided attention.”
Perhaps what fuels this drive is the tremendous satisfaction, the gifted person experiences during and after the creative process. Resulting in a release of such overwhelming pressure to utilize their talents and skills. Annemarie Roeper, founder of Roeper School of the Gifted and the Roeper Review, best describes this aspect as a “feeling of aliveness.”
“Gifted adults may be overwhelmed by the pressure of their own creativity. The gifted derive enormous satisfaction from the creative process….the whole process is accompanied by a feeling of aliveness, of power, of capability of enormous relief and of transcendence of the limits of our own body and soul. The ‘unique self’ flows into the world outside. It is like giving birth. Creative expression derives directly from the unique Self of the creator, and its activation brings inherent feelings of happiness and aliveness, even though they may be accompanied by less positive emotions, such as sadness, fear and pain.”— Gifted Adults: Their Characteristics and Emotions (Advance Development, 3)
She also touches on what can happen if the gifted person is suppressed or hindered from releasing such creative energy. “Just as the creative process creates a feeling of happiness, the greatest unhappiness can occur if it is interfered with or not allowed to happen. In that case the inner pressure cannot be released.”
It is common for the gifted person to suppress his or her own curiosities and creative urges as an attempt to avoid being perceived as odd or different. However doing so, can bring about a deep dissatisfaction in one’s life. Instead the gifted person should honor and embrace such natural forces and channel them in ways that will express his or her creative potential.
Filed under: Creativity, Creativty & Wellbeing | Tags: Creativity, Self-doubt, Validate Your Art
by Lisa A. Riley
“If you hear a voice within you saying ‘You are not a painter,’ then by all means, paint…and that voice will be silenced.”-Vincent Van Gogh
Do you look outside yourself and to others to validate your art? Is your confidence easily deflated when you hear a negative comment about your work? Do you automatically discount yourself as an artist when you don’t get the approval from others?
It’s easy to have our artistic ego bruised when we feel others don’t like our art or maybe don’t get it. Why is this? Making art can be a very personal process, often revealing the deepest parts of us as well as our artistic abilities. Our art is an unveiling of the true colors that paint our internal world. It is putting a big part of ourselves out there for others to witness and to share that experience can leave us open for possible scrutiny. This can be vulnerable and emotionally risky for the artist.
How can an artist protect his or her delicate and fragile ego? It’s important to keep in mind that each individual views the world from their own unique experiences and perceptions. Therefore, every viewer will have a difference of opinion, taste and preference. This is why art is so subjective. It’s almost impossible to accommodate every person’s unique viewpoint. To develop a strong belief in one’s own unique style and abilities, can only provide a firm foundation to stand on. Having a strong anchor can be a helpful defense against negative comments.
Secondly, hearing the opinions of others triggers our sensitivity to our own inner critic. Allowing others to fuel insecurities that already exist can energize our reaction to criticism and can cause us to feel intensely judged. We must first learn to treat our work as well as ourselves with compassion and unconditional love. Just as a parent would when his child brings home a crayon drawing of a sun and without question the parent pins up the artwork on the refrigerator for the whole world to see.
Another helpful tip to survive negative comments, is that you have the power to choose what you wish to allow in or not. Although being open to “constructive” criticism, is necessary to evolve artistically, it is crucial to separate out helpful observations from the personal preferences. Regular practice of discerning feedback, leaves you less susceptible to being a victim to criticism and instead helps you be a more empowered artist.
Lastly, as an artist you must first and foremost validate yourself and your work. All that is required of you is to develop an unwavering belief in your natural yearning for self-expression and on going surrender to making art. Creative individuals often possess such an innate drive and passion to create and externalize their world that more often then not they are willing to take the risk. It requires courage to stay true and honor this drive. That in it self is the core validation to your work. In other words your work is valuable simply because you created it.
Content © 2008/2009 by Lisa A. Riley, The Art of Mind’s Blog. All Rights Reserved.
Filed under: Creative Process, Creativity, Creativty & Wellbeing, Uncategorized | Tags: Grief and Art, Grieving, Loss
by Lisa A. Riley, MA
There might come a time when the safe cushion of our routine lives is suddenly jolted by a loss. It could be an unexpected loss of a job, an ending to a relationship, a death of a loved one or a dream we watched slip out of our reach. In either situation, grief can result and often consume our lives during such times. This can disrupt the flow of our routine especially in our artistic life. Startled and paralyzed, we are unable to tap into what was once a river of creativity. Although, grief is a natural remedy to move us towards healing and recovery, it can often put a suddenly halt to our creative process.
Grief may require us to shut down both physically and mentally in order to cope. The very same energy that once cultivated inspiration is now forced to focus on recuperating. This can often leave us feeling creatively dried up and dull. Yet, in the midst of suffering also lies an opportunity to heal from it and what better avenue then to try to express it through our art.
During grief, our creativity pulls from a different source, our own emotional suffering. Sometimes emotional pain and trials can force us to become more introspective, present and sensitive to our internal world, allowing feelings to be closer to the surface making it much easier to tap into. We can clearly see this occurring in the pieces of some of our old masters.
For example, Picasso’s well-known “Blue Period,” was prompted by the sudden suicide death of his friend Carlos Casadgemas. His grief can be felt through the blues and greens that dominated his paintings during this period. Picasso also painted multiple portraits of Casadgemas as an avenue to express the deep loss and yearning for his friend. Another example is a writer telling the story of his own trauma over and over again as a reoccurring theme in his writings. For instance, Shakespeare’s repeated theme of death that shows up in his plays can be attributed to witnessing multiple fatalities in his family. Because of the high mortality rate during his time, many of his brothers and sisters died at an early age.
The intense feelings of loss and grief can be overwhelming. Being able to process some of these feelings through our art can help lesson the intensity as well as bring some relief. Creatively expressing our grief can help us work through the pain and bring more meaning and depth to our experience.
Just as Picasso began his Rose Period soon after his Blue Period, we too can have hope that there is a light at the end of the dark tunnel.
Content © 2008/2009 by Lisa A. Riley, The Art of Mind’s Blog. All Rights Reserved.
Filed under: Creative Process, Creativity | Tags: All children are born artists, child artist within, Creativity
by Lisa A. Riley
“All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.”– Picasso
If we sit and observe whenever little kids draw, finger paint or play, it’s intriguing how they seem without self-doubt, judgment or fear of doing it wrong. A preconceived expectation of the end product doesn’t seem to play a role in what they are engaged in and in that moment they simply get lost in the doing of it. It’s as if they approach their art, free of inhibitions and with an openness to take risks, experiment and most importantly have fun. It’s as if being fully present in the moment and entering that space of spontaneity, comes so easily.
I once spoke to someone who ran a local community art school. She shared with me that they had noticed a decreased attendance in their children’s art classes. When I asked why, she speculated that it was the result of kids being less and less encouraged to do art for the sake of the experience and for play. Instead, in order for parents to feel they were getting their money’s worth they were expecting their kids to produce a nice finished product at the end of each class. If the art piece resembled something out of preschool, their child must not be learning something valuable.
Is it possible that in this day and age of video games and computers, where shapes are colored within the clean lines of digital images, we’ve suppressed the urge to color outside of the margins? Are our children losing touch of their innate nature to create something in the mud, draw in the sand and venture down the road of their own imaginations? Is the art of trial and error no longer valued?
As we “grow up” the courage to create slowly moves into the background of our lives and we measure what we produce with labels of “Success” or “Fail,” with nothing in between. We develop an apprehensiveness towards taking risks and the fear of doing it wrong keeps us from looking foolish in the process. Is learning to suppress free expression, suppressing our own imaginative instincts that we were naturally born with when we first entered this world?
I once heard a grade school teacher encourage parents to, “Praise the effort rather then the outcome.” We often have the bad habit of discounting the process in it self. Undermining the steps in the middle that hold moments of exploration while focusing too much on the end product. If we approach our careers or our art giving value to the effort perhaps we will resurrect the courage to create; remembering what it was like to drenched our fingers in paint and draw out of the lines.
Perhaps as adults, in order to tap into our well of creativity, we need to let go of the rules we adopted while growing up and reconnect with the child artist within.
Content © 2008/2009 by Lisa A. Riley, The Art of Mind’s Blog. All Rights Reserved.
Filed under: Creativity, Creativty & Wellbeing, Uncategorized | Tags: authentic self, Creativity & depression, depression, repressed creativity
by Lisa A. Riley
“The distinctive characteristic of human beings is namely, to influence our own evolution through our own awareness.” – Rollo May, The Courage to Create
To be creative is to be human. We were born with the innate drive to pursue creative inclinations. Creative energy has motivated us to build shelter in challenging climates, find food when resources were scarce or develop weapons to protect against predators. Our built in innovativeness has also motivated men and women towards advancements in medicine and technology, driving artists to create masterpieces on ceilings or philosophers find meaning in life’s complexities. It has helped us to survive as a species.
But what happens when one does not pay attention to this instinct to freely convey their creativity? When one buries such needs under the fear of disappointing others or under the expectations of society or family, it finds a way to express it self and in ways that are unhealthy. Creative energy turned inward and suppressed can manifest into depression.
In The Woman’s Book of Creativity, C. Diane Ealy, Ph.D. mentions that, “Repressed creativity can express itself in unhealthy relationships, overwhelming stress, severe neurotic or even psychotic behavior, and addictive behaviors such as alcoholism. But perhaps the most insidious and common manifestation of repressed creativity in women (and men) is depression.”
Depression is most commonly known as a quiet suffering, however perhaps it is a silently screaming of the soul to express it’s authentic and creative self. In addition to the sadness and hopelessness that is commonly experienced with depression, we feel disempowered, invaluable and non-existent.
“If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.” – Rollo May, The Courage to Create
I have found when my clients begin to honor their creative voice and give it the nurturing attention it deserves they feel more alive, more themselves. They become empowered by the discovery and appreciation for their own sense of uniqueness. Found in the act of art making there might be a renewed meaning and purpose in their lives. Rather it is through a visual image, a poem or a piece of music, they reconnect with those authentic parts of who they truly are. These qualities can counteract some of the aspects of depression and maybe serve as an antidote to a loss of self. In turn, as one’s genuine voice becomes louder the voice of depression perhaps grows fainter.
Next time feelings of discontentment or depression come knocking on your mental door, maybe it might be helpful to pause and listen to what your true inner voice is asking. Perhaps it is creative time and self-expression is what the soul is starving for. Honor that voice by providing an avenue to thrive and exist. To censor one’s creative voice is suppressing one’s need to be truly human.
Content © 2008/2009 by Lisa A. Riley, The Art of Mind’s Blog. All Rights Reserved.
