THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATIVITY

Before we set out on our creative journey, let’s first take a moment to imagine a world with no creative inhibitions. Constant innovation in health, STEM, sports, and countless other fields would most likely be the norm. This would be something most likely accomplished in a Utopian (essentially perfect) world, which we generally know is impossible. However, I am not here to propose a utopia; what I am here to propose is that we get as close as possible by expressing our highest creative potential, through our collective personal efforts. This will not be an easy feat, of course, but my hope with this community is to light a path that continuously stretches out toward a better future, for as many as possible. 

Believe it or not, this was not even a goal of mine, until recently. Through my studies, practice methods, and contemplations, the Philosophy of Creativity was something more of a discovery, than a planned goal or route. And so, I am certain that what I have to share can and will light the fire in many of you to live creatively, through this frame of thought. 

So, without further ado, let us begin our journey into The Philosophy of Creativity.

This is a philosophy that describes the entire reality we live in as an environment that we each affect directly, perhaps indefinitely, through specific actions. Shown across history, these various, specific actions create a countless- maybe endless- ripple of outcomes throughout the tangible (physical) world, what we consider the “real world.” The single common trait about every one of these various actions is that they all originated in the human mind. In short: Every single thing you know, and have come to understand about reality, even the tools for that learning, are a product of the human mind, your imagination. Creativity, therefore, is the heartbeat of progress and the driving force of the future. 

When it comes to imagination, the subject is far too often overlooked, underrated, and even mocked. Most believe that imagination is something that comes naturally only to children and is to be “grown out of” (whatever that means), eventually sliding into a life devoid of most of its passion, direction, and even fulfillment. This is a massive error, one for which there is no proof whatsoever. There are countless examples, in fact, to prove the opposite. One of humanity’s greatest minds, Albert Einstein, has said himself that “knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” While one of painting’s most influential minds, Pablo Picasso, said “Everything you can imagine is real.” These are just a couple in the endless sea of quotes from great minds, explaining creativity’s influence on their lives. But we don’t need to just look back on the words of the past, we are bombarded with the proof all around us in the present day. 

Let’s take a moment and think about our most liked and popular celebrities in society; what do most of them do, or more specifically, what do the majority of them have in common? Besides the fields of health and athletics (and we will revisit those subjects in the future), the vast majority of the life paths that lead to stardom are in the arts. Music and acting just about dominate the celebrity space, while great writers, sculptors, poets, and painters have been a staple of human civilization for as long as anyone can recall. Inventors, of course, cannot go unmentioned in this discussion either. According to this philosophy, true inventors might stand among some of the most exemplary of creatives. Now, I do not want to give the idea that I am any kind of fan of celebrities. I’m certain that some of the most depraved of all of us are a part of that social class, but it cannot be ignored that they’re popular because they represent something specific; something that we all, as a collective, find valuable. 

Many of those most-known artists, inventors, and writers were terrible people, and some were even thieves. This was a tragic side effect of the money driven system that most of us in the western world are feeling the harsh effects of. But many others, similar Tesla, lived hard working lives and made big contributions with little in return for them in the end. Yet, they relentlessly continued to free their inspirations out into the world around them. And because they did that; Because Tesla, for instance, did that, we now are able to communicate with each other through thin air, at light speeds, constantly. We can make the sounds of instruments emerge from a speaker, yards away, when there may not be a single musician for thousands of miles. Smartphones, radio signals, car engines, city systems, and Bluetooth are all luxuries that exist because Nikola Tesla chose not to hide his inspirations. Even the name Bluetooth is inspired by the famous king Herald “Bluetooth” Gormsson, who managed to unite the two kingdoms of Denmark and Norway under one crown. It would be pretty safe to assume that Herald never, in his wildest dreams, would have imagined how his name would continue through the libraries of history for such a use. 

“These are all great examples,” you may say to yourself, “but that was a LONG time ago, and life is not even close to similar now.” That is a fact. It is commonly agreed that things are not going in a great direction around the world right now. But our perceived difference from those great and influential minds of the past, is actually not very different. Again, your creative actions have a rippling effect on the world. And now, in our specific time with all of its advancements, there is a golden opportunity. While global communication is instantaneous, those same actions, simply releasing our creativity into the world, will make massive and fast ripples; that is our advantage. This has been proven through this worldwide social experiment we call Social Media, that influence now can have nearly instant, cascading effects. I believe creative influence has the biggest, most lasting, and most positive effects for human beings. Thus, the steering wheel of our collective progress is in the hands of the creative person. Personally, I don’t believe we could ask for a better opportunity, as there is absolutely no barrier of entry to creative, it is a HUMAN experience on this planet; if you’re human, you have it within you, no matter how small. And since you have it, you can grow it. 

In conclusion, this is The Philosophy of Creativity: Life moves in waves and rhythms. This is demonstrated through time, history, planets’ orbits, and seasons’ cycles. These waves and repetition always have, and as far as we know, always will exist. Therefore, they are likely a building block of our reality. Creativity lends humankind a unique ability to make its own waves throughout its world; each individual, in fact, can make their own. This statement is meant as literally as possible. One of the greatest ways to make those waves is simply fanning that creative flame within us, and once it gets strong enough, we have to let it through. 

It is this philosophy which has inspired this blog, and the motivation for which I undertook the mission to build a method for drawing from the imagination. As time goes on, we’ll have various exercises and discussions on visual reality, the mental library, warmups, physiology, classic comics, Da Vinci, and animation. We will also take various breaks to dive further into the philosophies that stand behind each approach and exercise, to help you not only learn to make art, but understand it. 

THE ANSWER IS NOT WITHIN YOU, THE ANSWER IS YOU

In the next post, I’ll be discussing the dream that started this all, years ago. This awe-inspiring experience changed my life path completely for the better, and I hope the information I share can help to do the same for many of you as well. And with our third post, we will begin our discussions and first drawing exercises, so stay tuned!