From "In the Beginning"

From Solitude to Creating with Others
Most people envision creativity as a solitary and quasi-magical activity in which individuals acting alone make something from nothing. God is portrayed in the Bible as making the world from an abyss. An idea of a desired outcome exists, and God calls light, earth, and living creatures into being with striking immediacy, thus initiating the solitary and directive notion of creation.

Many of us give up on the creative process when we find ourselves unable to bring mental ideas of desired expressions into the world with the same ease attributed to God's creation of the world in Genesis. I remember my frustration as a child when I could not precisely paint the pictures that existed in my mind. Like so many other children, I transferred my interests away from the arts to other things. When I returned to creative activity in college, I became more aware of the give and take that occurs between painters and their materials. My teachers and the other students helped me to stay committed to the process of learning through sustained experimentation with materials and ideas, and careful study of the works of other people.

Everything is shaped from something else and in cooperation with agencies other than ourselves. Life is always created from interplay among different participants who make contact, influence one another, exchange their essential natures, merge, and generate new forms. Yet we still imagine ourselves like the Creator in Genesis, making things from "the void" and according to the dictates of the strategic mind. Creativity does not happen this way for most people. Solitude has a crucial place in creative practice but it is only part of a larger exchange among people, places, and things. Even in our most solitary moments creativity is a group process of interacting forces, images, ideas, and possibilities, all gathering together to make something that is shaped from the unique qualities of their relationship to one another.

We also assume mistakenly that creativity is a gift given to a select few and believe that it exists "inside" people as an attribute of some kind. Creativity is inside and outside us. It might be more accurate to say that creativity is in us and we are in it. Creativity is ubiquitous. It circulates through our environments like the air we breathe. But not everyone uses it. We engage this essential creative energy of life when we join ourselves to its transforming movements through interactions with other things and people.

I am frequently asked whether there is a difference between art and creativity. For me the former is a discipline and the latter is an energy or force. In this book, art is the practice and creativity is the medium. The two will be integrated into the art of leading a more creative life. Any person can do this and do it well.

The contemporary focus on the interplay of body, mind, and spirit reflects a deep yearning for integration in a world where knowledge, professional practice, and even the most intimate qualities of our personal lives have been compartmentalized. We are rediscovering how everything is connected to everything else in a creative ecology where small and large things influence one another. Nothing lives in isolation, and everything that we do has an impact on ourselves as well as the overall environment.

This book will explore the genesis of human creations in a reciprocal world of inspirations and collaborations. The benefits of this way of approaching creativity are many for our personal, family, and community lives. Without rejecting the actions of individual creators working alone, we will discover that even the most solitary forms of creation are based upon relationships of some kind. As we gain a more complete understanding of the interactive basis of creativity, we might even be able to revisit Genesis with the goal of continuing where God left off in creating the world. Communities and relationships committed to the mutual creation of new forms will change the world as we know it.

Creativity Is Everywhere
Have you ever sat alone trying to get started on a project? The experienced creator knows what it is like to spend hours, sometimes days, trying to decide what to do, how to get started. How about the times when you got started and then abandoned the project for any number of reasons—distractions, doubts about its value, a loss of self-confidence, or simply shifting attention to another area of interest.

Compare these indecisive times to occasions when you work with others on a job that needs to be done. There is group energy, a contagion, and a spirit of support among the group members that draws you into the action. You might perform a small role in a project, but what you do is necessary to the creation of something larger than yourself. The collective creation takes shape around you. It also grows inside you, because you feel the effects of what is made and you are influenced by the energy of cooperation.

In a group you might take the risk of giving a suggestion as to how to solve a problem, and someone says, "Great idea," and there is an immediate adoption of the new direction. Everyone begins to focus on what you recommended. There is a sense that people are far more generous and supportive than you expected.

Not all of your ideas are likely to be adopted but you understand that suggestions are simply part of the interactive flow. Sometimes outrageous or impractical proposals spark other insights and different ways of approaching the problem. One thing is generated from another and every contribution plays its part in the movement of creation. There is a sense of connectedness and you realize that no one could do this alone. You get past the feeling that your recommendation must be adopted in order for you to be a valued contributor to the action. You might even get to the point where you take more pleasure in affirming and implementing the ideas of others.

It can be wonderful to stand back and reflect on the whole, realizing that your contribution helped make it possible. A sense of creativity pervades the event. From the perspective of these aesthetic reflections, the challenges, the give and take with others, and even the unpleasant memories, are necessary to the ultimate completion of the project. We realize how there was a general sense of purpose, but otherwise everything took shape in an improvised way in response to whatever presented itself at a particular moment. Within these group activities, creativity is experienced as a responsive process, as something we do within a particular context where problems and the expressions of others play an essential role in stimulating our reactions.

Do you have a vision of creative imagination that involves others in this way? Perhaps you are one of the many people who see creativity as a special gift given to a select few who exercise their talents in an individual pursuit. Do you feel that creativity has passed you by in life?

"I'm not creative," you say to yourself or to others when given opportunities to express yourself. You know that judgments about creativity are highly subjective, but nevertheless you keep yourself tagged as uncreative.

The large majority of the people that I encounter in my work with the arts say that they are "not creative." This fairly common self-perception is ripe for change.

Creativity exists everywhere as potential energy, always inviting us to participate. Yet most people stand on the sidelines while only a few participate. The more we watch, the further removed we become. Contemplation without action breeds paralysis. Ours is a culture of onlookers, spectators who are keenly observant and full of critique but far removed from the action. We think in terms of the "creative few," as contrasted to the rest of us. We have lost the all-encompassing whirl of creative energy that draws everybody and their different gestures into "its" expression. So many of us are afraid to stand out. There is often an absence of creative role models. It is safer to blend in. Creative types are all too often seen as living on the fringes of life and this perception threatens our universal desire to be socially accepted and included.

A change in the general perception of creativity may be the most viable way of expanding participation. Rather than focusing on what you do not have or what you are not capable of doing, concentrate on what is uniquely yours. Find the creative vitality and opportunities in the community where you live, the school you attend, or the place where you work, and do something with it. Creativity is everywhere, ready to be engaged.