Alex Alvis Art

Setting Yourself Up for Creativity - Pt.5

Now the next factor, number four - is Confidence.

When you are in your space/time oasis, getting into the Open Mode - nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.

Now if you think about play, you'll see why. To play is to experiment - "What happens if I do this? What would happen if we did that? What if…?"

The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen. The feeling that whatever happens, it's ok. So you cannot be playful if you're frightened that moving in some direction will be "wrong" -- something you "shouldn't have done."

Well, you're either free to play, or you're not.

As Alan Watts puts it, you can't be spontaneous within reason.

So you've got risk saying things that are silly and illogical and wrong, and the best way to get the confidence to do that is to know that while you're being creative, nothing is wrong. There's no such thing as a mistake, and any drivel may lead to the break-through.

And now, the last factor.  The fifth - Humor.

Well, I happen to think the main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.

I think we all know that laughter brings relaxation, and that humor makes us playful, yet how many times have important discussions been held where really original and creative ideas were desperately needed to solve important problems?...but where humor was taboo because the subject being discussed was "so serious"?

This attitude seems to me to stem from a very basic misunderstanding of the difference between 'serious' and 'solemn'.

Now I suggest to you that a group of us could be sitting around after dinner, discussing matters that were extremely serious like the education of our children, or our marriages, or the meaning of life (and I'm not talking about the film), and we could be laughing, and that would not make what we were discussing one bit less serious.

Solemnity, on the other hand… I don't know what it's for. I mean, what is the point of it?

But solemnity? It serves pomposity, and the self-important always know at some level of their consciousness that their egotism is going to be punctured by humor -- that's why they see it as a threat. And so dishonestly pretend that their deficiency makes their views more substantial, when it only makes them feel bigger.

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Labels: Alex Alvis Sculpture, art business, confidence, creating art, creativity, How Many Dogs does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?, how to be creative, humor, John Cleese on Creativity

Setting Yourself Up for Creativity - Pt. 4

 

So when I say, create an oasis of quiet, know that when you have - your mind will pretty soon start racing again!

But you're not going to take that very seriously.  You just sit there for a bit tolerating the racing and the slight anxiety that comes with that...and after a time your mind will quiet down again.

Now.  Because it takes some time for your mind to quiet down it's absolutely no use arranging a space/time oasis lasting 30 minutes - because just as you're getting quieter and getting into the Open Mode you have to stop and that is very deeply frustrating.

So you must allow yourself a good chunk of time. I'd suggest about an hour and a half. Then after you've gotten to the Open Mode - you'll have about an hour left for something to happen.  IF you're lucky.

But.  Don't put a whole morning aside. My experience is that after about an hour-and-a-half you need a break.

So it's far better to do an hour-and-a-half now and then an hour-and-a-half next Thursday and maybe an hour-and-a-half the week after that - than to fix one four-and-a-half hour session now.

There's another reason for that.  And that's factor number three - Time!

Yes, I know we've just done time.  But that was HALF of creating our oasis.

Now I'm going to tell you about how to use the oasis that you've created.

Why do you still need time?

Well, let me tell you a story. I was always intrigued that one of my Monty Python colleagues who seemed to be - to me - more talented than I was - did never produce scripts as original as mine.

And I watched for some time and then I began to see why. If he was faced with a problem - and fairly soon saw a solution - he was inclined to take it. Even though, I think, he knew the solution was not very original.

Whereas if I was in the same situation - although I was sorely tempted to take the easy way out and finish by 5 o'clock - I just couldn't. I'd sit there with the problem for another hour-and-a-quarter, and by sticking at it would, in the end, almost always come up with something more original.

It was that simple.  My work was more creative than his simply because I was prepared to stick with the problem longer.

So imagine my excitement when I found that this was exactly what MacKinnon found in his research!

He discovered that the most creative professionals always played with a problem for much longer before they tried to resolve it - because they were prepared to tolerate that slight discomfort ...this anxiety ....that we all experience when we haven't solved a problem.

You know - I mean - if we have a problem and we need to solve it...until we do we feel -inside us - a kind of internal agitation.  A tension - or an uncertainty - that makes us just plain uncomfortable.

And we want to get rid of that discomfort. So, in order to do so, we take a decision. Not because we're sure it's the best decision - but because taking it will make us feel better.

Well.  The most creative people have learned to tolerate that discomfort for much longer. And so - just because they put in more pondering time - their solutions are more creative.

Now the people I find it hardest to be creative with are people who need all the time to project an image of themselves as decisive.  And who feel that to create this image they need to decide everything very quickly and with a great show of confidence.

Well.  This behavior I suggest sincerely - is the most effective way of strangling creativity at birth.

But please note; I'm not arguing against real decisiveness. I'm a hundred percent in favor of taking a decision when it has to be taken - and then sticking to it while it is being implemented.

What I'm suggesting to you is that, before you take a decision, you should always ask yourself the question; "When does this decision have to be taken?"

And having answered that - you defer the decision until then - in order to give yourself maximum pondering time...which will lead you to the most creative solution.

And IF - while you're pondering - somebody accuses you of indecision say, "Look, Babycakes! I don't have to decide 'til Tuesday, and I'm not chickening out of my creative discomfort by taking a snap decision before then.  That's too easy."

So, to summarize: the third factor that facilitates creativity is time, giving your mind as long as possible to come up with something original.

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Labels: accidental art, Alex Alvis Sculpture, art business, creating art, creativity, How Many Dogs does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?, how to be creative, undisturbed time

Setting Yourself Up for Creativity - Pt.3

...and that's it.

Well…

....So, how many women's libbers does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer - 37, one to screw it in - and 36 to make a documentary about it.

....How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb? The answer - only one, but the lightbulb has really got to want to change....

Oh, there is one - just one - other thing that I can say about creativity.

There are certain conditions which do make it more likely that you'll get into the Open Mode, and that something creative will occur.

More likely… you can't guarantee anything will occur...you might sit around for hours as I did last Tuesday, and ...nothing.

Zilch...bupkis....Not a sausage.

Nevertheless, I can at least tell you how to get yourselves into the Open Mode. You need five things:

One - Space

Two - Time

Three - Time

Four - Confidence

and Five  - a 22 inch waist!

Sorry.  My mind was wondering...I'm getting into the open mode too quickly...

Instead of a 22 inch waist, we need Humor. I do beg your pardon.

Okay, so let's take Space first. 

You can't become playful and therefore creative if you're under your usual pressures, because to cope with them you've got to be in the Closed Mode, right?  So you have to create some space for yourself away from those demands. And that means sealing yourself off.

You must make a quiet space for yourself where you will be undisturbed.

Next - Time. It's not enough to create space, you have to create your space for a specific period of time. You have to know that your space will last until exactly  -say - 3:30 ...and that - at that moment - your normal life will start again.

And it's only by having a specific moment when your space starts, and an equally specific moment when your space stops, that you can seal yourself off from the everyday closed mode in which we all habitually operate.

And I'd never realized how vital this was until I read a historical study of play by a Dutch historian called Johan Huizinga and in it he says "Play is distinct from ordinary life, both as to locality and duration. This is its main characteristic: its secludedness, its limitedness. Play begins and then (at a certain moment) it is over. Otherwise, it's not play."

So.  Combining the first two factors we create an oasis of quiet for ourselves by setting boundaries of space and of time.

Now creativity can happen, because play is possible when we are separate from everyday life.

So, you've arranged to take no calls, you've closed your door, you've sat down somewhere comfortable, you take a couple of deep breaths ...and if you're anything like me, after you've pondered some problem that you want to turn into an opportunity for about 90 seconds...you find yourself thinking:

 "Oh I forgot I've got to call Jim… oh!  And I must tell Tina that I need the report on Wednesday and not Thursday...which means I must move my lunch with Joe...

And Damn! I haven't called St. Paul's about getting Joe's daughter an interview...and I must pop out this afternoon to get Will's birthday present... 

...and those plants need watering and none of my pencils are sharpened and Right! I've got too much to do!

So!  I'm going to start by sorting out my paper clips and then I shall make 27 phone calls and I'll do some thinking tomorrow when I've got everything out of the way."

Because, as we all know, it's easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking.

And it's also easier to do little things we know we can do, than to start on big things that we're not so sure about.

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Labels: Alex Alvis Sculpture, art business, How Many Dogs does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?, John Cleese on Creativity, play, quiet spaces, undisturbed time