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.

1. Don’t force inspiration..   Sometimes you have a deadline that compels you to be creative, or task that requires some imaginative elements.  But focusing on goal-driven production may backfire.  “Inspiration is not something willed. It’s hard to wake up in the morning and say , “I’m going to be inspired today.” The more you try to force it , the less likely you are to start. , you need to create a space for people to discover things about themselves.   -Dr.Barry Kaufman 

” I have no  special talent,” Einstein once wrote to a friend, “I am just passionately curious.” Leonardo actually did have special talents, as did Einstein, but his distinguishing and most inspiring trait was his intense curiosity. He wanted to know what causes people to yawn, how they walk on ice in Flanders, methods for squaring a circle, what makes the aortic valves close, how light is processed in the eye and what that means for the perspective in a painting.  He instructed himself to learn about the placenta of a calf, the jaw of a crocodile, the tongue of a woodpecker, the muscles of a face, the light of the moon and the edges if shadows. Being relentlessly and randomly curious about everything around us is something that each of us can push ourselves to do, every waking hour, just as he did.

from the book, LEONARDO da VINCI  by Walter Isaacson 2017

Leonardo was not blessed with the ability to formulate math equations or abstractions.  So he had to visualize them, which he did with his studies of proportions, his rules of perspective, his method for calculating reflections from concave mirrors and his ways of changing one shape into another of the same size. Too often, when we learn a formula or a rule- even one so simple as the method for multiplying numbers or mixing a paint color- we no longer visualize how it works. As a result, we lose our appreciation for the underlying beauty of nature’s laws.

– The Science of Creativity –

https://benjamincookart.com/section/413302-Paintings-14-15.html

In an effort to get my blog up and running I’ve decided to start posting long saved drafts of various artists.

Benjamin Cook’s art spoke to me when I first saw it a few years ago so I figured it’d be a good visual to start with.

ENJOY!!