Although I came from a family of artists and was brought up with a background of appreciation for the arts, I never was particularly encouraged as a child to develop my artistic gifts. I remember growing up thinking that I had to be an artistic “genius” or at least outstanding to merit becoming an artist. In fact, when I thought of becoming an artist, I could imagine members of my family whispering behind my back, “It’s a pity she’s decided to become an artist; she doesn’t really have the talent”. This effectively stopped me in my tracks. However, in my late twenties, I felt more and more the call to follow my artist’s soul. I had to learn to steel myself against my inner critic, who kept saying, “You are not really creative,” ”Why bother,” and “You will never succeed at this.”

In her book, “Loving What Is” Byron Katie says these wise words: “If I had a prayer, it would be this: “God spare me from the desire for love, for approval or appreciation.” This is true in all aspects of our life, and particularly true with our art. We can get absolutely paralyzed in our artistic practice by fears that our work may not be appreciated, that we may fail to impress, that people may not like our work and think badly of us.

There’s a very interesting paradox that exists in art making. We have to be conscious that we are creating our artwork for an audience; that it is a form of communication, a way of creating beauty and magic and of giving other people pleasure. However we cannot be bound by the dictates of trying to please those people while we are doing our art.

We have to listen to our inner voice, to the inner truths that the art making process reveals. We have to tune our sensitivity to the messages and images that are contained within the subject and medium we are working with. If we turn our sensitivities and attention to what people may think, we deprive ourselves of the true nature of art.

Art is an examination of life, a noticing and extracting from life, its lessons and essence, and conveying it through the molding and shaping of our artistic medium. It is the expression by our bodies or our voices of our individual and collective experience of joy and sorrow and of the mysteries of the universe. It a cry of rage against injustice, it is a celebration of beauty, it is an examination of our own and others values.

It is not through pandering to our ego’s need for acceptance that we find such truth, because in doing so we turn away from the call which is shaping our art and towards the voices in our head that dictate and create boxes in which our creativity cannot thrive.

All the technique in the world used to dazzle the eyes and ears of others is of little avail when we are not tuned into the soul of art, the deep message it wants to convey. Of course when technique is married with full soul expression, it is a marvelous thing, but never let your concern for impressing others let you forget the true source of your art.

Part of the job of being an artist is to be a warrior for your own soul project, the artwork that you know the world needs, even if its message will not be understood by all and may confront opposition or rejection.

These qualities of courage and tenacity that the artist must have often don’t get full acknowledgment, but they are the protectors of your creativity. Take a moment and think about how you can be a warrior for your creativity. Summon up that inner courage that lives inside of you, along with the deep knowledge of artistic truth that needs to be aired and go forth. Only then will your creative self  thrive.

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Attention Artists in Any Media:
Like to showcase your art. I’d love to have more artwork in my blog so if you’d like your work exhibited on my internet pages, just shoot me an e-mail at katiecurtin.com and we’ll talk.

Needing a way to help more your imagination flow and to see more clearly how a performance or other arts project will work out. Story boarding works really well not just for the film industry, where it first was developed. It can be adapted for theatre, for novel writing stories, plays and even for designing a creative website to market your art work or productions.

Story boarding, first developed by Walt Disney, is used in the film industry to pre- visualize the scenes of a movie by showing a layout of events as it will be seen through the eyes of a camera. Others have adapted it for different media, such as the design phase of web sites and other interactive projects.

A number of puppetry artists I know use it when designing their shows. I found it very useful when I was working on writing and staging my play “The Sorrowkeeper.”  Since I was adapting it from a short story I had written earlier, it allowed me to translate the story to the stage and visualize the scenes.

Not only did I do drawings of the scenes, I also added words to my story board to convey the atmosphere, and the sounds and the music I  wanted.

In the performance we were integrating ritual, dance, theatre, live music, masks and puppets. Many of the actors had to play multiple roles. Story boarding really helped me see how the different elements of the production would weave together, to visualize the rhythm of the play, and to plan scenes that would work.

So if you are planning a creative project, consider how you might adapt story boarding to the media you are working with, and use it to both plan your production and stimulate your imagination.

Do you know that there are deeps wells of creativity within you?  Are you often or sometimes stumped trying to access them?  Funnily enough, turning outwards and observing the works of other artists, can be one of the best ways to increase your own creativity.

I know our culture is obsessed with art work being innovative and original.  You may fear that studying others’ creative work will limit your own creativity and originality.

Quite the contrary!  The more you can expose yourself to the work of other artists, and the more you can absorb these works deep into your bones, the better for your artistic and creative growth.

It doesn’t mean you copy them. Although even doing that can be very helpful.  That’s how all the old masters learned how to paint.  And even though it’s gone out of fashion to do this in art schools, I think a good case could be made to bring back some of those ways of learning art.

Learning the foundations of your art by modeling the works of others, can teach you all kinds of things that it might take years to learn on your own. It can increase your sensitivity as to the nature of your art form and the possibilities within it.

By learning and reciting the poetry of your favorite poets whether they be T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Rilke, Rumi or some other muse, you absorb deep within you their rhythms and their images. By doing this your own creativity can be kindled, your sense of rhythm attuned, their images sparking in you more images.

Be less afraid of being unoriginal: anything you do will be different from what another does even if you draw exactly the same rose, or sing exactly the same song, or dance the same dance.

You can not only model other artist but use their ideas as a springboard for learning more about your own particular creative voice, or to get ideas for artist projects.

Just look at what they are doing that appeals to you. What don’t you like? This will help inform you about what you want to create.

As well, when you have a special project on your mind, you will be more perceptive than normal, more naturally curious about what they are doing. You may find an idea that you can adapt and use for your work, whether it’s the material they use, a theme they are treating, or the way they handle the medium.

Perhaps a painting by Georgia O’Keefe might inspire you to zero in and magnify part of a flower. Or you could adapt that idea by magnifying a part of the human body such as somebody’s lips and make it fill the whole canvas. Or you might like the colours and hues of a particular painting and use them in a weaving you are doing or a glaze for a ceramic piece.

Or you could take this passage from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

What powerful images even just title evokes!  Does this passage startle you with it’s depiction of spring as the cruelest month?

You could write another poem on  based on your experience of being in a very empty desolate, emotional waste land. You could create a dance on that theme, or  a sculpture of found objects, or a collage of “Memory and Desire” or a photograph of a land laid to waste by war, or drought.

The possibilities are endless.

Take a piece of paper out now, and take two minutes to jot down some ideas of what different art works or projects that you could do on the theme of waste land. And then turn it around and write down some notes on what you could create based on the opposite theme “land of milk and honey.”

Have you ever watched “The Iron Chef”. I was just watching it tonight with my 12 year old son and was struck by how the methods they use, can be adapted to fire up your creativity.

For those who have not seen the show, it involves top chefs competing to produce the most tasty, visually exciting and creative dishes in under an hour.

They have on hand top notch cooking equipment, and top quality ingredients. At the beginning of the show, they are given one surprise ingredient which they must incorporate in a central way in their menu.

What they create in an hour is truly astounding. The surprise ingredient forces them to improvise, and the short amount of time, allows them little time to think and plan. They must rely on their right brain to come up with inspiration, and their left brain to very quickly plan. The element of competition adds to the excitement and creative impetus.

So how can this help you creatively?  When you are doing a creative project, whether it be creating a sculpture, writing a poem or book, or doing a drawing, see if you can incorporate some of the elements of “The Iron Chef. Put a crazy deadline so that you are doing it so quickly that your left brain can’t get in the way and  over analyze.  Introduce a surprise ingredient. For example, go to any page of a favorite poetry book and take the first quote you see.  Use it as a central ingredient or theme for your work.

Or bring some friends together and see what is each is able to create in 5 minutes, 10 minutes or an hour.  Or enter one of these competitions where authors or other artists create a literary or visual arts project in an evening or a weekend. So you might not win, but it will get your creative juices racing, and get you out having fun with other artists.