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breakTHROUGHArts Thanks to all who have passed breakTHROUGHArts on to other artists! To share this newsletter with friends who want more creativity in their lives, use your e-mail Forward button. To subscribe or schedule your complimentary coaching hour click: connect@dianreardon.com. May 2007 Contents
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“The most common reason we hesitate when presented with the opportunity to express ourselves creatively is our fear of other people’s negative opinions. Studies show that people form evaluations based on their own needs, but we tend to accept other people’s evaluations as though they were objective.” Langer, Ellen. On Becoming An Artist. 2005, p. 43. |
This Harvard social psychologist has been studying mindfulness for many years and has put together those ideas with what she’s learned while becoming a painter. Beware! Her ‘mindfulness’ is that of a Western mind rather than the Eastern world’s meditation-based view. She sees mindfulness as “learning to switch modes of thinking about the world.” Most of her social psychology experiments are about how creativity is enhanced when folks notice new things. Thus, her study of people’s attention patterns is somewhat like Duncan’s, described above, in that we can choose where to direct our attention. Many of her studies point out the blunting of mindfulness when people conform to expected perceptions, and how this changes in different social contexts.
When it comes to her own art, she tracks how her reactions to
evaluations affect her developing work, giving a new slant to how we
all respond to criticism. She points out that we need to give up the
false expectation that others will think as we do and at the same time
realize that all evaluations depend on context (remember the
Parisians’ first reactions to the Impressionists). As artists we can
choose not only where to direct our attention but in what contexts we
show our work.
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III. Friends in Print
Duncan, David James. My Story as Told by Water. 2001
This collection of Duncan’s essays on the state of nature in the
American West conveys his love of its rivers and his heartbreak at
their worsening health. Even if ecological issues are not your main
interest, to read his work is to treat yourself to some grand writing
that highlights the creative connections between us all. Some
paragraphs peak like fine jazz solos (clarinet or drum, I think) on a
very good night.
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“Photography should be honest. If you can understand how light describes everything, you do not need tricks and gimmicks. If you do it right, you can take a subject that people often walk right past, and present it in such a way that it stops them in their tracks.” Dick Garvey, photographer, p. 26. Harvesting the Light. 2007. |
IV. Creative Links
www.skagitcounty.net/museum
A small sample of the agricultural art photographs described above are
available on this site and contact information to order the exhibit
catalog:
Skagit Valley Historical Society. Harvesting the Light: Images of
Contemporary Skagit Farm Life.
The range of photographs makes it clear how 14 photographers’ eyes
search out different scenes.
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breakTHROUGH Creativity Coaching
(website
www.dianereardon.com) All material is copyrighted ©, 30 April
2007, Diane Reardon. All rights reserved. Visit the website for
back issues and details on scheduling a complimentary one-hour
coaching session.
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