over the summer just past I completed about 3 dozen
paintings of this 12″ x 12″ format…. here are just a few and I hope to post more , along with lots of new student work SOON !!
over the summer just past I completed about 3 dozen
paintings of this 12″ x 12″ format…. here are just a few and I hope to post more , along with lots of new student work SOON !!
Here it is …..#7 hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading these..
BUT HOME IN…
Meditation and mindfulness techniques can help bring a measure of focus to your daydreaming. “positive, constructive daydreaming is where you ‘re thinking through an issue or doing some mental simulations of possible futures,”Kaufman suggests. “that can be very productive. But what isn’t productive is a type of meditation through rumination, which doesn’t seem to be helpful to creativity.” Meditation can help hone the mental muscle to enhance concentration, he adds, but we tend to ‘focus too much on the ability to concentrate on the outside world” instead of training people to plumb the depths of their own inner world – where there is so much fertile soil for creativity.
Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman
LET YOUR MIND WANDER…
ONE APPARENT PARADOX IS THE TENSION BETWEEN DAYDREAMING AND MINDFULNESS, TOW APPARENTLY OPPOSING FORCES THAT ARE BOTH CRUCIAL TO THE CREATIVE PROCESS. ” THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN MIND WANDERING AS THE OPPOSITE OF ‘GOOD’ THINKING IS A FALSE DICHOTOMY,” SAYS KAUFMAN. ” A LOT OF DAYDREAMING AND MIND- WANDERING- LETTING THE MIND GO SPONTANEOUSLY WHERE IT WANTS TO GO – IS VERY CONDUCTIVE TO ‘GOOD’ THINKING, OR AT LEAST IT CAN BE.”
DR. SCOTT BARRY KAUFMAN
EMBRACE OPPOSING FORCES
HIGHLY CREATIVE PEOPLE TEND TO WELCOME PARADOXES, MELDING TWO SEEMINGLY CONTRADICTORY IDEAS THAT LEAD TO GREATER INNOVATION.
“There are a lot of so-called dichotomies that aren’t really dichotomies at all,” says Kaufman. For example, when it comes to the creative process, there’s no sharp demarcation between work and play. Other lines blur as well. ” People who are really creative are good at trusting and having faith in their intuition but also at being rational in their analysis of whether or not something is correct.” Strength and sensitivity also seem contradictory, but the distinction may not always be so clear . “Creative people tend to have extraordinary sensitivity but also are capable of staying true to their values, even in challenging environments.” Highly creative people have a tendency for post-traumatic growth, an ability to learn from distressing experiences.
Dr. Barry Scott Kaufman
‘My own types of touch as a painter, I think, generally exist within a narrow range that is relatively slow, measured and gently sensuous.’ ~ Ronnie Hughes
I will be showing my work during the month of December at the Goodman Community Center in Madison WI. The opening reception will be on Sunday , December 9th, from 1-4pm.
If you are in the area I’d love for you to stop by !
BE OPEN TO NEW EXPERIENCES
According to Kaufman you need to create a space where you can discover things about yourself, and that is most likely to happen when you leave yourself open to new experiences. And what exactly does that mean? At the core it’s ” the drive for exploration and curiosity, and the constant temptation to get outside your comfort zone and embrace the unknown, ” Kaufman explains. “In your everyday life you could be open to new experiences in any moment. Try as best as you can to keep your prior stereotypes and anxieties to yourself and try not to impart them into the world. Try to see things as they truly are and be curious about everything. Be curious about ANYTHING.
3. Break Beyond IQ
“Standard ways of thinking about intelligence leave out the whole person,” says Kaufman. “They leave out the passions or the values that one holds, the personal goals and dreams that someone has and what they want to achieve, as opposed to imparting a certain task on the person.”Frank X. Barron , a psychologist who pioneered the study of creativity in the 1960s, broke away from the longtime assumption that intelligence was the essential trait of highly creative people. Scientists now agree with Barron that to understand creativity , you need to look beyond the IQ test. ” There’s this traditional notion of intelligence solely comprising cognitive information processing , like we’re robots, our ability to problem-solve abstract information,” says Kaufman. “But I do think that’s a hindrance, because intelligence is moe broadly an adaptation to our environments, and the creative thought processes that come into play are so connected to being able to adapt to any environment, not just for abstract information that is derived from your everyday life.
I teach drawing and design and one of the first sketchbook assignments I give to the students is to pick a shape and draw it 50 times 50 different ways. This gets their imagination flowing and allows them to address different design concepts we’ve discussed; line,value,variety , etc.
I myself engage in this exercise often, making a several variations of a shape . I have posted the many variations on a shape….. there are definitely more I could come up with.. color being an additional aspect I have even touched yet. try it yourself with a shape of your own choosing.
Do you see the basic shape I started with and it’s variations throughout all the sketches?