Three
2008 Creative Action Newsletter
number three
ebb, flow, pause:
FIRST:
It’s always good to hear from you. We are all connected.
Keep in touch. I read everything you send, even if I don’t respond individually.
OLA FROM SANTA FE
Hello there, creative sparks!
This issue aims towards both our individual relationship to creativity,
and the larger global context of our actions and beliefs.
In this issue:
Two Halves of the Creative Cycle
-understand them and why they exist
- identify each quickly
- use each successfully
- combine for best effect
The point of change betwen them: ‘delay’ or ‘wait’?
Dealing with the point between
Exercises for your Aha! Muscles
New Design Game
Upcoming Classes and Retreats,
INTENTION
Apply these ideas to any project you want in life and art, and see if they work for you.
I’ll talk mostly about art-making. All of life is creative action.
My goal is these ideas could work anywhere. Write and let me know what you find out.
IN, OUT, EVERYWHERE
Have you noticed how easy it is to see everything in pairs?
Black / white, yes / no, stop / go, men / women…
Did you notice what happened in each case?
IN, OUT, EVERYWHERE, BULLETED
- Recognize dualities
-m
Clarify what you want
- Trust the map you get
- Take action
- Follow through
- Integrate your accomplishments
GOOD / BAD
Subtle or obvious evaluations begin in our minds when we see pairs.
Some obvious ones are Peace / War, or Rich / Poor.
Some are less obvious.
APPLES / ORANGES
Apples / oranges is more neutral.
But check it out more carefully. Most of us will find a very low-level judgement there.
I am more prone to eat an apple than an orange.
The image of the orange has slightly less positive associations: ‘orange’ conjures up a citric astringency on my tongue not as pleasant as the crisp tartness of the apple.
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ART?
When we see things, we evaluate them. This one is more pleasing than that one. This color works better on my skin than that one. Appropriate assessments that enhance the function of the art, right? Why get a pair of earrings that makes me look funny?
APPLES / ORANGES
This happens encountering anything. Ideas, people, stuff, experiences.
It’s our brain’s job to figure these things out. Pairs of things engage the brain to separate, and choose between.
Which one works better? Which one gets me further ahead, by my own standards?
( Our brain evolved as a tool to maximize our chance of survival. “Everything might kill me”, reasoned our brain a hundred thousand years ago; “so I need to keep judging, and making sure I am safe from threat”.
Language, tool-using, invention, social networks, big business, everything we have invented has an aspect of this at its core; each more or less benign in their impact.
This is fine, as far as it goes. Identifying and making a choice is self-evident in its necessity and application.
The problem arises when I agree with my mind that that’s all there is.
Paranoia, xenophobia, witch-burnings, all arise when this either / or response, this life / death response, is seen as all there is. Who are we really though? Aren’t we more than just our brain? What about our hearts? And who is it who can ask ‘ is there more than just my mind?’ If there was only mind, it couldn’t see itself to ask the question. )
GOD / HUMAN
Which one will enhance our survival? Which might threaten us?
Mmmmm.
AHEM. ART?
Remembering that our brain does all this is useful when we look at things.
It’s even more important to remember this when we make things.
Art is all about choices. Which gets this whole judgement thing all tangled up.
All aspects of art-making have this evaluation of polarities involved.
GOOD / BAD
intention is like having a great map.
We see where we are now, we see where we are going to end up.
And we now have good guidelines about how to get from Here to There
We know what needs to happen along the way.
We can take one step at a time, do what we need to do, get it done, and feel good about it.
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You will notice I have changed the form of these newsletters.
( You are all so smart! )
My intention is to make them easier to read, and get them out more frequently
Please respect my copyrights on the material here.