Saturday, May 9, 2009

One blog leads to another

Davi's hooked on this:

I just can't commit to it right now, though I am intrigued.
When I explored the author's website ordinary courage I saw Ali Edwards' blog: aliiedwards
I haven't visited it in some time, but hers led me to this: Creativity which is a very thoughtful essay on creativity by Alain Briot

He explores several valid points but
I particularly liked this small excerpt:

#4- We all have the potential of being creative
Eventually I discovered for myself the utterly simple prescription for creativity: be intensely yourself.

Don't try to be outstanding; don't try to be a success; don't try to do pictures for others to look at - just please yourself.
Ralph Steiner

All of us have within ourselves the resources we need to be creative. In a way, being human means being creative. Why? Because being creative is being able to solve problems in new and unique ways, in creative ways. From the beginning of mankind the ability to solve problems is one of the things that has given man an advantage over other species. I should add the ability to solve problems effectively, so that the problems do not come back. Doing so means finding new solutions to old problems. How do you find new solutions? You find new solutions by being creative and imaginative.

In other words being creative is not something that is specific to artists or to photographers. It is not something that is used only to create original art. Being creative is something that is used in all walks of life and in all professions, whenever a new solution is necessary. Being creative is being able to bring new solutions to both old and new problems.

Being creative is also being imaginative. It is being able to think ahead, to think into the future, to brainstorm, to imagine what may happen down the road. Scientists, mathematicians, engineers and all other professions need imagination and creativity to continue growing, to push the envelope further, to create new things, to be and to remain competitive, to do better than everybody else, to visualize something that does not exist yet, to imagine this new “thing” from conception to construction and finally to implementation.

Creativity and its sibling imagination are all around us. As soon as we seek to create something new, no matter how insignificant it may seem, as soon as we seek to solve a problem effectively and pro-actively, we become creative by using our imagination to find new and effective ways to complete the task we set to achieve.

From there we only need to take a small step to apply our creative abilities towards the arts and towards photography in particular. We only need to make minor adjustments in order to use our imagination towards creating photographs that are ours only, images that are new, images that we constructed in our mind and that are the result of our unique personal creative abilities.

Appreciate the creative activities you do each day, even if they aren't conscious efforts!

1 comment:

Davielle aka Princess Magpie said...

Beautifully tied together, Ann. It all does come full circle in the end, doesn't it? Hey, I've been known to practice "creative" dishwashing, or trash-emptying, or dinner-fixing. :-) HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, my friend. xo - Davi