ARE CATS CREATIVE?
Are cats creative when they play with a pipe cleaner as though it is a hairy, long-legged insect? If there is an element of playfulness in creativity, then are cats creative? What is the difference between play and creativity? One answer obviously involves the difference in product. If you are a serious artist, writer, or preformer, you expect a serious product. Is the act of play itself enough of a product to be considered valuable and creative? Where does play fit into your creative life at the moment? I do not have a link for this. If you have a link or thoughts to share, please send them via my email at chrisyocca@hotmail.com.
Thursday, February 06, 2003
"There isn't time for writer's block."
Composer John Williams and National Symphony Orchestra conductor Leonard Slatkin both conduct in the concert series called "Soundtracks: Music and Film." NPR's Liane Hansen interviewed the two for Weekend Edition Sunday, January 26, 2003. You can hear the interview online.
Slatkin who thinks highly of film music is excited by the collaboration with Williams. Williams describes his working process. He uses a piano, not a computer and works back and forth between the film and the piano. He listens for the kinetic tempos of the movie, the breathing of the film. He writes six and a half days a week. "It's a working life," he says. "There isn't time for writer's block." He does admit that some days are better than others, but attributes his success to "a lot of elbow grease." If Williams produces a successful soundtrack, you may not even notice it as it threads in and out of the film's other sounds and dialogue.
Composer John Williams and National Symphony Orchestra conductor Leonard Slatkin both conduct in the concert series called "Soundtracks: Music and Film." NPR's Liane Hansen interviewed the two for Weekend Edition Sunday, January 26, 2003. You can hear the interview online.
Slatkin who thinks highly of film music is excited by the collaboration with Williams. Williams describes his working process. He uses a piano, not a computer and works back and forth between the film and the piano. He listens for the kinetic tempos of the movie, the breathing of the film. He writes six and a half days a week. "It's a working life," he says. "There isn't time for writer's block." He does admit that some days are better than others, but attributes his success to "a lot of elbow grease." If Williams produces a successful soundtrack, you may not even notice it as it threads in and out of the film's other sounds and dialogue.
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
Leonardo: Genius or Blocked Artist?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an exhibit of Leonardo daVinci's Drawings, Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman.
Leonardo is a name synonymous with genius. Yet, he was often a blocked genius. Carmen C. Bambach states in her introduction to his drawings, "By temperament he never managed to fit within the traditions of production and socioeconomic structures of the Italian Renaissance, and he disappointed a good portion of the patrons who commissioned work from him."
While little is known of Leonardo's personal life, his blocking lead to an itinerant life as he left one city's project to work in another city. He was unable to complete the Battle of Anghiari mural in Florence despite extensive drawings. He never finished a sculpture project. When he should have been painting for Giuliano de' Medici, his Roman patron from 1513 to 1516, Leonardo obsessed over recipes for varnishes, the last step in a painting.
Did Leonardo procrastinate? Leonardo was not lazy, as his accomplishments speak for his productivity in his artistic, scientific, and engineering careers. It's not laziness, but a phenomenon called "output failure" according to Mel Levine, M.D., author of "The Myth of Laziness" (Simon & Schuster). In a January 13,2003 interview on Wisconsin Public Radio, Dr. Levine talks about students and adults who lose momentum and stall out. They can't deliver the goods.There are many aspects to consider for each individual. For Leonardo, organization may have been a problem. Dr. Levine encourages you to take an inventory of your organizational strengths and to exercise your organizational muscles whenever you find a weakness. According to Dr. Levine, we all have organizational strengths and weaknesses.
Consider these four types of organization. Each type requires its own set of skills. The first is time management. Do you know how long it will take you to do something? The second type involves handling the props of organization. This includes papers, your desk, and your workspace. Third is the ability to prioritize. The fourth is the ability to deal with task complexity. If there are many parts to a task, do you feel overwhelmed?
What are your organizational strengths and weaknesses?
Develop strategies to deal with your weak areas. If you don't know how long it takes you to complete a painting or an magazine article, start to keep a log. Write down the date and time of each work session. A log is an invaluable tool. It helps you to discover work patterns that work for you and patterns to avoid. It also will give you a written record of how long it takes you to finish a project. Once you know how long it takes to work on a given project, you can develop time lines. You can tell an editor how long it will take you to write a book. You can ask the art center for three weeks to complete an on-site installation, not just one. You will know if you need to rent space at the recording studio for two weeks or two days.
Set up your work environment so that you can work when you enter it. Develop routines that keep the workplace in order before the clutter becomes overwhelming. Set a timer for 30 minutes and do a studio cleansing once a week. Buy the folders that you need for filing important information. Invest in bulletin boards or white boards. White boards make an easily edited space for lists and deadline notes.
Give high priority to your creative activity. Commit time to your work. Commit yourself to some time each day. Most people are more productive in chunks of time. Carve out a chunk of time each week. Find small slots of time in the midst of your daily life where you can take a small step on your creative project. Practice thinking about your project several times a day. Take a minute during your day job lunch break to turn your heart toward your studio or writing room. When you get to your own space, follow your heart and enter your room, ready to work.
Do not get overwhelmed. Do things in steps. Think about starting, not about finishing. Ask yourself, "What is the next step I can start on my project?" Then, "What is the next step?" Or, "Where can I start today?" Many daily starts add up to a completed project.
You can develop each of these four muscles. Do not give up.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an exhibit of Leonardo daVinci's Drawings, Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman.
Leonardo is a name synonymous with genius. Yet, he was often a blocked genius. Carmen C. Bambach states in her introduction to his drawings, "By temperament he never managed to fit within the traditions of production and socioeconomic structures of the Italian Renaissance, and he disappointed a good portion of the patrons who commissioned work from him."
While little is known of Leonardo's personal life, his blocking lead to an itinerant life as he left one city's project to work in another city. He was unable to complete the Battle of Anghiari mural in Florence despite extensive drawings. He never finished a sculpture project. When he should have been painting for Giuliano de' Medici, his Roman patron from 1513 to 1516, Leonardo obsessed over recipes for varnishes, the last step in a painting.
Did Leonardo procrastinate? Leonardo was not lazy, as his accomplishments speak for his productivity in his artistic, scientific, and engineering careers. It's not laziness, but a phenomenon called "output failure" according to Mel Levine, M.D., author of "The Myth of Laziness" (Simon & Schuster). In a January 13,2003 interview on Wisconsin Public Radio, Dr. Levine talks about students and adults who lose momentum and stall out. They can't deliver the goods.There are many aspects to consider for each individual. For Leonardo, organization may have been a problem. Dr. Levine encourages you to take an inventory of your organizational strengths and to exercise your organizational muscles whenever you find a weakness. According to Dr. Levine, we all have organizational strengths and weaknesses.
Consider these four types of organization. Each type requires its own set of skills. The first is time management. Do you know how long it will take you to do something? The second type involves handling the props of organization. This includes papers, your desk, and your workspace. Third is the ability to prioritize. The fourth is the ability to deal with task complexity. If there are many parts to a task, do you feel overwhelmed?
What are your organizational strengths and weaknesses?
Develop strategies to deal with your weak areas. If you don't know how long it takes you to complete a painting or an magazine article, start to keep a log. Write down the date and time of each work session. A log is an invaluable tool. It helps you to discover work patterns that work for you and patterns to avoid. It also will give you a written record of how long it takes you to finish a project. Once you know how long it takes to work on a given project, you can develop time lines. You can tell an editor how long it will take you to write a book. You can ask the art center for three weeks to complete an on-site installation, not just one. You will know if you need to rent space at the recording studio for two weeks or two days.
Set up your work environment so that you can work when you enter it. Develop routines that keep the workplace in order before the clutter becomes overwhelming. Set a timer for 30 minutes and do a studio cleansing once a week. Buy the folders that you need for filing important information. Invest in bulletin boards or white boards. White boards make an easily edited space for lists and deadline notes.
Give high priority to your creative activity. Commit time to your work. Commit yourself to some time each day. Most people are more productive in chunks of time. Carve out a chunk of time each week. Find small slots of time in the midst of your daily life where you can take a small step on your creative project. Practice thinking about your project several times a day. Take a minute during your day job lunch break to turn your heart toward your studio or writing room. When you get to your own space, follow your heart and enter your room, ready to work.
Do not get overwhelmed. Do things in steps. Think about starting, not about finishing. Ask yourself, "What is the next step I can start on my project?" Then, "What is the next step?" Or, "Where can I start today?" Many daily starts add up to a completed project.
You can develop each of these four muscles. Do not give up.
Is it Good Enough?
On another link within the Doonesbury site, Garry Trudeau answers questions about how he creates Doonesbury. Here is a great question:
"Are there any strips you wish you could have done over?"
--Tony F., Albuquerque, NM
GT: "Almost all of them. In a deadline-driven business, most syndicated cartoonists haven't the luxury of asking themselves, "Is the work any good?" Instead, like people everywhere, we ask ourselves, "Is it good enough?" Success is measured in percentages."
When you look at your own work, can you ask yourself, "Is it good enough?" If not, find a way to measure success that takes to heart your human condition. You don't want to give yourself permission to do shoddy work, just to do humanly possible work with the mark of your struggles and a sign that you are alive. If your perfectionism keeps you from producing on a regular basis or you redo or rewrite the same piece over and over, give yourself permission to be more productive by accepting and loving your work. Apply the measure of success to your effort, not to the end product. "I worked today." "I worked for x hours today." "I completed this step today." "I started a new piece today." "I was frustrated and I continued to work." "I was true to myself today as I worked."
Soon a work will be completed. Apply your new humanistic measure of success to the work. Then move on to the next song, the next chapter, or the next piece.
On another link within the Doonesbury site, Garry Trudeau answers questions about how he creates Doonesbury. Here is a great question:
"Are there any strips you wish you could have done over?"
--Tony F., Albuquerque, NM
GT: "Almost all of them. In a deadline-driven business, most syndicated cartoonists haven't the luxury of asking themselves, "Is the work any good?" Instead, like people everywhere, we ask ourselves, "Is it good enough?" Success is measured in percentages."
When you look at your own work, can you ask yourself, "Is it good enough?" If not, find a way to measure success that takes to heart your human condition. You don't want to give yourself permission to do shoddy work, just to do humanly possible work with the mark of your struggles and a sign that you are alive. If your perfectionism keeps you from producing on a regular basis or you redo or rewrite the same piece over and over, give yourself permission to be more productive by accepting and loving your work. Apply the measure of success to your effort, not to the end product. "I worked today." "I worked for x hours today." "I completed this step today." "I started a new piece today." "I was frustrated and I continued to work." "I was true to myself today as I worked."
Soon a work will be completed. Apply your new humanistic measure of success to the work. Then move on to the next song, the next chapter, or the next piece.
Humor and The "Day Job"
Thinking of getting a professional degree in order to find a well paying day job? Tired of the starving artist life? Read this classic Doonesbury comic, "Hug Me".
Thinking of getting a professional degree in order to find a well paying day job? Tired of the starving artist life? Read this classic Doonesbury comic, "Hug Me".
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