When listening to Elizabeth Gilbert's speech for Ted on nurturing creativity, she mentioned how she had written an award winning book and how this was not necessarily a good thing, in terms of her future career, as it was likely that her greatest success was already behind her. She appeared to have inherited an attached stigma that her next book will not be as successful. People speak to her as if she is "going to die in a scrap heap of broken dreams", with her "mouth filled with the ash of failure".
There is no such obvious negativity attached to scientific works and only artists appear to be suffering the anguish of anticipated failure which generates mental instability, manic depression and occasionally allows suicidal tendencies to develop.
Elizabeth was left asking the question "should anyone feel afraid of doing what they have been put on this earth to do?". She also pondered "what it is about creative ventures that really make us unsure about each others mental health, in a way that other careers don't do?" I consider it to be that the imagination is closely linked to the subconscious mind.
Other cultures historically have handled this issue in the past. The Ancient Greeks and the Romans found a way to protect their creative artists by putting psychological distance between the artist and their work. By introducing Damans and Genius they shared the weight of responsibility with these spirits so that no one was fully to blame for failure, which reduces mental anguish.
Ruth Stone (poet) described how she could feel a poem coming towards her and if she missed it and didn’t write it down in time it would look for another poet.
Tom Waits (musician) describes how an idea came to him while he was driving. As he couldn’t take down the ideas he looked to the sky and said out loud, “I am driving”. His approach was that he was doing the best he could and if the inspiration wanted to be helpful that would be appreciated. If the song wanted to be written it would need to return to him at a better time when he could do something about it.
New rationale is that people are being a genius rather than having genius.
Less anxiety is involved if the creative process is perceived as something that happens to you rather than comes from you.
Ideas will appear and can be captured or lost. Brilliance happens to you.
The artist role is to recognize what is happening, do their best “turn up and do their job” without being daunted or afraid of failure.
Sometimes dancers seem to be divine rather than mortal as they become transfixed in what they are doing. In Spain the audience calls out Olle. This is a word that derives from the word Allah, or God. The next day the dancer wakes again and is mortal rather than divine. It does not have to be difficult, brilliance is not from you but it happens to you.
In order to convey this message to the public I intend to create a web site that will deal with multiple issues raised. As a modern media form this will reach a wide audience and appeal particularly to artists seeking support and reassurance.
The main function of the web site home page will be to set out the site details and explain the purpose of the site.
It is intended that the style of the web site will be inviting yet simple in design and will briefly summarise the sites key aims and objectives. The 10 commandments of art and design will set out the format in a familiar way and add an element of light hearted fun to the site through illustrated design.
A principal function of the site is to help people to manage their creativity in a positive way.
An interactive question and answer page will enable people to seek and offer advice on creativity and share their experiences and ideas. On this page people can put up briefs, ask questions or specify work which they are seeking creative guidance on.
There will be an opportunity for other artists to leave comments on the site which will be monitored to prevent damage to creative minds. Constructive criticism will be encouraged.
The design format will be simple, concise and to the point in order to not distract from peoples ideas.
The page on how to boost creativity will invite helpful hints from psychologists on how to generate ideas and manage creativity.
Again, because there is a tendency amongst some artists to feel doomed, then the overall look of the web pages will be illustrated in a lighthearted, fun, simplistic style that does not detract from the key objectives of the site.
The site will provide space for story telling where people can leave a picture or design showing the places that they go to when they want to think about ideas, or, where they were when they got an idea for something. The examples in Elizabeth Gilbert’s talk of how Ruth Stone (poet) and Tom Waits (musician) became inspired would suit this forum to benefit other artists.
Other pages will provide useful contacts and reference pages, with a key objective to create a useful directory that can be used as a good place to research information. This will be divided up into different categories, such as a dictionary of photographers, illustrators, printmakers, designers, writers and other artists.
Feature pages will spotlight innovative thinkers of each month as an incentive and there will be profile pages linking to other sites and blogs effectively enabling people to network.
Support will be available to encourage positivity rather than negativity in order for artists to feel less isolated and share their experiences as part of a wider support forum.
The web site will enable poets, dancers, writers and other creative artists to learn from each other how to meet the challenges that face them realistically without becoming overwhelmed or depressed.
The web site will feature Bloggs to enable people to communicate directly with each other via news and updates pages.
Finally artists using the site can portray their own work on an exhibition page where they can invite constructive comments and take the opportunity to display individuality, creativity and genius on a day to day basis.
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