Be Creative!

1. Be Creative! Perspectives on Creativityby Dr. Carol Stensrud

2. Why Creativity? • Dr. Carol Stensrud reminds us that: • Creativity is vital to one’s well-being • Creativity is hard to define • Creativity allows you to meet your unconscious need to • express your individuality • test your limits • define your existence • Creativity holds the key to unlocking your personality

3. Why Creativity? • Dr. John B. Nash’s research indicates that: • Creativity is expressed culturally through dance, art, music, wood working, love making, food making, party making, poetry, ceramics, etc.

4. Why Creativity? • Dr. Nash adds that: • Creativity presents itself (if we let it) in all aspects of everyday life: starting a new career, raising a family, how to pay your bills (financial management), maintaining sanity during crisis, sparking romance, etc. • It is in this sense that creativity is actually critical to our survival as individuals and as a species

5. Creativity • Use your right brain • Stimulate creativity by taking “left turns” • Use mistakes as part of the process to the final result—look at them, learn from them—they may offer the key • Without mistakes, there would be no creativity

6. Left vs. Right LogicalSequentialRationalAnalyticalObjectiveLooks at parts RandomIntuitiveHolisticSynthesizingSubjectiveLooks at wholes

7. Left vs. Right • Most individuals have a distinct preference for one of these styles of thinking • Some, however, are more whole-brained and equally adept at both modes • In general, schools tend to favor left-brain modes of thinking, while downplaying the right-brain ones • Left-brain scholastic subjects focus on logical thinking, analysis, and accuracy • Right-brained subjects, on the other hand, focus on aesthetics, feeling, and creativity

8. If You’re Left… • Lab scientist • Banker • Judge • Lawyer • Mathematician • Bacteriologist • Librarian • Skating judge, skiing judge, etc.,

9. If You’re Right… • Forest ranger • Wildlife manager • Beautician • Politician • Athlete • Artist • Craftsman • Actor/Actress

10. Creativity • Stimulate creativity by taking “left turns” – or perhaps we should say “right turns” if we’re using brain hemispheres

11. Mistakes and Creativity • Use mistakes as part of the process to the final result—look at them, learn from them—they may offer the key • Without mistakes, there would be no creativity • In photography, for example, for every picture that is a “take” there are 35 shots not used • In television, for every minute you see, there was an hour of video shot

12. Mistakes and Creativity • Artists often lay out a painting several times before attempting it at full-scale • In writing, it is advisable to always begin with drafts and continually improve – this is part of the creative process

13. Creativity • Creativity requires that you find the right outlet…follow your interests and be passionate! • A major obstacle to creativity is searching for the right answer or the right way

14. Stopping Creativity • Are we all born to be creative? • Where do we learn to be afraid of expressing or creativity to others (or even ourselves)? • Do creative people worry about acceptance or approval?

15. Creating from Wealth • Proposed by Van Oech • States that creativity will be spurred by surrounding yourself with a wealth of stimuli…whatever you are creating will dictate this. • The combining of elements develops creativity…the more elements, the more possible combinations.

16. Creating from Poverty • Proposed by Van Oech • “Poverty is the mother of invention…” • States that creativity is spurred by the need to make due or make something from nothing • Often the creative process is enhanced after suffering a major blow…life altering situations can cause you to become very inventive

17. Piggybacking • Proposed by Van Oech • A process in which one idea, notion or thought is combined or added to another notion to make a new result • Become excited and inspired by things in your environment and use that inspiration to accomplish your goals

18. Creativity and Art • While creativity does exist in nearly every profession, the various arts tend to be viewed as being the more creative (again, this isn’t always fair to the artists and to the non-artists)

19. Art Therapy • Art therapy has existed since the 1960s, and is now becoming more and more popular • It’s one example of using art to reach people that may not be so “artistic”

20. Christo’s Umbrellas

21. Christo’s Art (??)

22. Pont Neuf

23. Pont Neuf

24. Biscayne Bay

25. Rifle Valley, Colorado

26. Picasso • Le Reve (1932) • Theme for Wynn’snew Las Vegasresort • In 2006, Wynn tore a $40million hole in the painting

27. Picasso

28. Picasso • Guernica (1937) • Reina Sofía, Spain

29. Matisse • Icarus (1933/34)

30. Van Gogh • StarryNight(1889) • MuseumofModernArt

31. Kandinsky • Composition VIII(1923) • Guggenheim, NY

32. Renoir • The Luncheonof the BoatingParty (1881) • The PhillipsCollection, DC

33. Monet • Thames at Westminster(1871) • National Gallery,London

34. Caillebotte • Rue du Paris, temps de pluie(1877) • Art Institute of Chicago

35. Monet • Garden at Saint Adresse • Metropolitan Museum of Art

36. Seurat • Sunday in the Park on the Island of La Grande Jatte • Georges Seurat • 1884-1886

37. Seurat

38. Millennium Park - Chicago

39. Millennium Park - Chicago

40. The Cloud

41. Crown Fountain

43. Crown Fountain

44. Mondriaan

45. Chagall