Genius & Creativity?
by Silvia Hartmann
How do you get to be a "creative genius"?
I've always thought there's two parts to
this.
One is the creativity, and the other is the expression thereof.
I've met many extremely creative people who have "nothing to show for it".
One is on the high end of that, an artist who literally smashes everything up he
produces before the paint/clay etc has even dried.
Another is a bit further down that scale and he thinks and talks but doesn't
actually ever pick up a chisel or paintbrush in actuality.
Now I personally pull projects quite brutally through all the domains and levels
until they become manifest in the hard. In spite of the fact that according to
many, I should not because I'm not a good enough writer, painter, songwriter,
html writer, poet etc etc etc etc etc to "inflict my creations on the general
public".
But I do it anyway. Just because I can. LOL.
Unless someone produces a court order to stop me from singing and selling CDs to
the public, I shall do so. I mean it is everyone's right to do that, just as it
is everyone else's right and ability to say, "Eeeouwh!" and NOT listen any
further and NOT buy the damned CD!
I think I wrote in the ad for the Storyteller something along the lines of, "If
you can't express yourself out aloud to an audience, you might well be a genius
but no-one would ever know that, including yourself!"
So that's that end.
The other end is "creativity" itself.
I had a sticking point with that because of this strange idea that creativity is
doing something that no-one's ever done before and that THAT should be hard or
difficult.
But of course, it isn't.
-
Anything at all that a person does
and it comes from THEIR OWN HONEST AND TRUE EXPERIENCE AND ENDEAVOUR in the
Universe at large is by definition, entirely unique. It has never been and
thus, denotes "creative genius".
Where people go wrong is that they
orientate themselves on stuff that's already been done by OTHER HUMAN BEINGS so
they're re-cycling stuff, second hand stuff.
Instead, if one orientates oneself directly to a sunset, say, and tries to
describe the experience of that in colours, words, shapes, or music, from a
state of full on connectedness and from within the experience, one - anyone! -
immediately creates absolutely unique art because of course each individual is
absolutely unique and so will their expression be.
Once I got my head around the fact that I could absolutely paint MY OWN
EXPERIENCE OF A SUNSET and that I did NOT have to attend 15 years of
indoctrination college, sorry, art school I meant, AND that I have a right to do
so as a human being by virtue of birth already, I could paint.
I could paint and I could further, exhibit, because then when someone turns up
and says, "Oh but these paintings are childish. They lack subtlety, texture, and
you're not supposed to use felt tip pens!" I have a smile and an answer for
that.
I can say, "These are my paintings. If you don't like them, by all means, paint
your own."
Which I do believe was what I said about the ideas for changing In Serein so it
would be "more acceptable to the general public". I said, "Well that's my book,
and that's how it is, why don't YOU write a book that YOU like?"
This is classed in general muppetville as utter arrogance, and if that's what it
is, then so be it. I write my books and I paint my pictures. End of story. They
are my best, my very best attempts at describing something I've seen, felt,
heard, experienced and they are what they are, much as my life and my person is
what it is.
I think that this basic centre and attitude is what makes you in the end, a true
genius.
Every picture I paint, I learn something new.
My hand gets steadier and more confident with the brush. I know the paints
better and what happens when you mix them, make them do things you want them to.
I'm basically, becoming a better painter whilst I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm in
my very own custom made art school where EVERYTHING is fascinating, has a
reason, turns me on, makes me want to learn more, stretch further, try something
more difficult and demanding as my confidence is growing.
One day, I'll really be a very good painter as well - it is inevitable if you
keep going long enough! - and then I might even be able to paint my own window
frames without blotching on the glass! What a bonus!
LOL.
But anyway. Creativity is something you do all the time if only you knew it, its
only expression of experiences with the creative on a personal level. It has no
rules or regulations at all, because no-one can come between you and the
creative. It is everyone's right, it's built into everyone by right of birth and
courtesy of the Creative, and it is completely uncriticisable as an endeavour
(although muppets will try, and the parts of us that are still muppet entrained
will try as well to be afraid when you first start, but it soon fades away!).
And it is in the act of *actually DOING* creativity in whatever medium that one
becomes, over time, a genius.
© Silvia Hartmann 2004
Genius And Insanity
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