photo credit: Josiah Mackenzie
I recently trained for and ran my 5th marathon, and as often happens since I started this blog, I began to think about what the experience might offer in terms of creative insight. I’ve written recently about the joy of creativity – about how good it can feel when it’s going well. This post will continue this theme, but also form a bit of a segue into what to do when it isn’t going so well…
(The title appeals to me because it contains a nice double entendre: the positive spin is that we are searching for and moving towards a lasting kind of creativity, a lifelong habit that brings joy and fulfillment to our lives and the lives of others; the flipside is that creativity can sometimes feel like an ordeal, something that must be endured, cannot be avoided. We just have to muscle through it somehow. The reality, at least in my experience, is somewhere in between, or more precisely a bit of both…)
I’ve noticed that sports and athletic metaphors are used quite often in talking about creativity. Perhaps setting the complexities of the creative mind against the different and somewhat simpler backdrop of physical activity makes it easier to observe and notice patterns.
Running, which happens to be my sport of choice, seems particularly fruitful as a metaphor, especially when tackling the thorny subject of creative burnout… Read the rest of this entry
photo credit: whiteafrican (from the Maker Faire Africa, Ghana 2009)
What’s the difference between an artist and a technician? I suspect that the answer to that really depends on whom you’re talking to. I’m sure a lot of artists would say there’s all the difference in the world, but I’m not so sure I agree. I also think there are a lot of artists who get a lot done who might question the notion that there’s a cut-and-dried categorical difference between the two.
A lot of what really separates people who make art on an active, daily basis from people who don’t (but perhaps imagine that they could, or would like to) is not some mysterious source of ‘inspiration’ but technical skill and the experience it’s based on. And maybe even more than that, it’s about attitude. It’s about fearlessness.
I’ve been thinking about this lately because I’ve been immersed in a task that was highly technical in nature, and less overtly ‘artistic’ than usual. However, it has in a way been highly creative and satisfying and I thought it would be interesting to explore that a little – and get around the music-and-art-bias that sometimes pervades things around here.
Read the rest of this entry
photo credit: gildas_f
This is more of an update post than anything, just a quick note to let people know I’m back in Berlin after a couple of months away. It was a dense summer, there was a lot going on in both our families… but we have made it back intact and are settling into our routines, such as they are.
Actually, speaking of routines, I have just published a guest post for Mike Cliffe-Jones TransGlobe Blog project, which is a neat idea where bloggers from all over the world give a kind of ’slice of life’ of wherever they are and how they spend their days.
My own entry is typically rambling but I think it gives a good impression of what goes on around here on an average day, as if there were ever such a thing. You can find it here:
TransGlobe Blog Project
Alternately, if you’ve just arrived from there, even better! Welcome, make yourself at home and have a look around the archives or ‘best of’ collection (links at right) to see what this place is all about…
I should have things up and running a bit more smoothly and bring the post frequency back up a little in the coming days; I’ve got a couple of interesting things on deck, so I hope you’ll bear with me…
Have a fascinating day!
