The Creative Act: A Way of Being (Book Review with Quotes)
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The is an absolutely wonderful book on creativity. I took my time and took loads of notes, which you can see photos of below.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Artists are all translators for messages that the universe is broadcasting.
- Be more spontaneous than analytical
- Meet ordinary experiences with awe
- Have no facade and no attachment to story
- Preserve your childlike qualities
- Art is the circulation of energetic ideas
- The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity
- The act of creation is a longing to transcend.
- Art is a portal to an unseen world.
- Look for what you notice that no one else sees.
- Awareness needs constant refreshing.
- Live your life in a constant state of openness to receiving.
- We tend to think of artist’s work as the output. The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world.
- There is always something new to notice and it is up to us to find it.
- The people who choose to do art are often the most vulnerable.
- Adversity is part of the process of making art.
- Getting to create is a privilege.
- You’re not playing to win, you’re playing to play.
- All art is a work in progress.
- Remove intention and all that is left is an ornamental shell.
- Art is confrontation.
- Approach your work with as few accepted rules, starting points, and limitations as possible.
- For any rule you accept, it would be helpful to try the opposite.
- Examine your methods and consider what the opposite would be.
- Formulating an opinion is not listening. To listen impatiently is to hear nothing at all. Listening is suspending disbelief. Listening without prejudice is how we grow. Listening opens up possibilities.
- Patience is accepting that the majority of the work we do is out of our control.
- Tune into what enlivens us in the moment, instead of what we think ‘will work.’
- Innocence brings forth innovation.
- Act out of inate instinct, not learned behavior.
- Value play above all else.
- See the extraordinary in the seemingly mundane.
- Inspiration is the immediate influence of the divine. Treat moments of inspiration with devotion.
- Consider varying your inputs. Break habits. Look for differences. Notice connections. Find awe.
- The only person you are ever competing against is yourself.
- Discipline and freedom are not opposites, they are partners.
- Believe you are good enough. Claim and accept that you have enough energy. Question suggestions of limitation.
- If you know what you want to do and you do it, that is the work of a craftsman. If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of an artist.
- Failure is the information you need to get where you are going.
- “The personal is universal.” Carl Rogers
- The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are, and how we see the world.
- Great art opens a conversation.
- The best art divides the audience. If everyone likes it, you probably haven’t gone far enough. In the end, you are the only one who has to love it.
- “Comparison is the thief of joy” Theodore Roosevelt
- Living in discovery is at all times preferable to living through assumptions.
- We are required to believe in something that doesn’t exist in order to allow it to come into being. Have faith in experimentation.
- Even spontaneity gets better with patience.
- Actively stretch your own point of view. Try to see beyond your filter. Curiosity doesn’t insist on a single way of doing things. When we are making things we love, our mission is accomplished.
- The artist’s job is the work of doing and the work of being. This is why it is never done.
- Art is far more powerful than our plans for it.
I loved The Creative Art: A Way of Being and I encourage you to read it. I give it an enthusiastic five stars. It will probably be the best thing I read this year and is destined to become a classic.
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Thank you Polly! Going to get this book! I love the cover too…so simple and pure- oneness…