Filling up on creativity

A great way to enhance creativity is to fill your mind with lots of stuff and by stuff I mean lots of things that relate to the areas you want to be creative in.  The idea is to expose yourself to a wide range of raw creative material.  If you are an artist, look at lots of art. Spend time in museums and galleries, experience art shows and artists, and put a certain amount of time into browsing the internet.

Remember also the importance of stepping outside your world and looking into other seemingly unrelated areas for fresh creative ideas.  Creative breakthroughs often occur when seemingly unrelated things come together in a new way.  If you embrace this perspective and let it become part of your daily experience it will open your eyes to things you might not otherwise see.  Steven Johnson (Author of Where Good Ideas Come From) touches on this in the following video.



An example of this stepping out benefit is the discovery years ago that knots (like when you tie your shoes) play a significant role in understanding DNA and the genetic instructions they contain.

Another example is Guido Daniele’s hand paintings.  He paints animals on hands rather than canvas creating something much more interesting and unique.

Begin filling your mind with this open perspective and note the new levels of creativity that come.  They will often come during simple daily activities that need little mental focus.  You may be showering, driving to work or vacuuming the floor.  Be open to your creativity and comfortably let it happen.  Know that breakthrough ideas are floating about your mind.  You have filled it with lots of raw creative material and it’s natural state is to create.  When an idea comes don’t judge it, instead simply make note of it.  Always have a way to capture your new ideas whether it be a sketchbook, a journal or even a voice recording.  Know that collecting these little gems will lead to even greater breakthroughs if they are not breakthroughs already.

        In a nut shell

   1-Fill your mind with lots of "good stuff"
   2-Include “seemingly unrelated” stuff with an open mind
   3-Let the ideas come to you while doing simple activities
   4-Comfortably capture the ideas (sketch book, note, voice memo, etc.)
   5-Let them lead to creative breakthroughs

Quotes 

Oliver Wendell Holmes

 “A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience."

"The human mind once stretched by a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions."

Video
I recently was able to fill my mind with lots of amazing creative material at ArtPrize 2010.  My wife and I spent the weekend in Grand Rapids, Michigan enjoying top-notch art, entertainment and food at this inspiring event.  ArtPrize is the world's largest art prize awarding almost a half a million dollars to the top ten artists.  According to their website www.ArtPrize.org the competition drew 1,713 artists from 44 states and 21 countries.  Note David Spriggs three dimensional light piece near the end.  Imagine the fun he had taking his idea from concept to reality.  I’m sure he made many exciting discoveries in the process and he took 5th place over all in the competition.  First place went to Chris LaPorte for his meticulously drawn “Cavalry, American Officers, 1921” (also in this video).