Creativity and Fear

Cold wax and oil paints with collage bundle, 2016, Donna Watson

NOTE:  2 Day Workshop - Boro/Wabi sabi:  The Japanese Spirit of Collage.  May 28-29, 2016 in Minneapolis, MN.  For more information on the workshop, supply list, venue and how to register go to www.artandsoulretreat.com  

Sometimes I have a hard time "beginning"... starting something new.   The books on creativity basically say... just get started..  do "it".  If you can release yourself from the anxiety that might be associated with the word creativity, you'll see, in fact, that you are an enormously creative person.

That sounds like great advice but how do you do it?  

collage, 2016, by Donna Watson

What's your personal definition of creativity?

"Starting with nothing and ending up with something.  Interpreting something you saw or experienced and processing it so it comes out different than how it went in."  punk rocker

Henry Rollins

Fear and creativity go hand and hand on the same road trip.  Work hard and stay focused and do not allow fear to have a vote or to drive.

BIG MAGIC by Elizabeth Gilbert ( author of Pray, Eat, Love)

I have been reading BIG MAGIC...  basically it is about getting started... just begin... leave fear in the dust.  It is easy to read, and easy to say... but hard once I get in to the studio.  

"Its all just an instinct and an experiment and a mystery, so begin....  Begin anywhere.  Preferably right now.  And if greatness should ever by accident stumble upon you, let it catch you hard at work."

Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic.

Collage, 2016, by Donna Watson

Always this energy smoulders inside

When it remains unlit

The body fills with dense smoke.----  David Whyte

So, what is your definition of creativity?

The Zen of Creativity

FLIGHT, cold wax and oil, collage 16"x16", by Donna Watson

Note:  Upcoming Workshop.  There are some openings in my upcoming 4 day workshop, 

Sept. 15-18, 2014 in beautiful Coupeville, Whidbey Island, WA for the Pacific NW Art School.

Personal Expression:  A Design Approach is for all mediums and all styles of painting or art creation.

At their website here look for more information or contact me.

SANCTITY, cold wax and oil, collage  18"x18", by Donna Watson

I have read this book, THE ZEN OF CREATIVITY by John Daido Loori, 3 times.  This book taps into the principles of the Zen arts and aesthetic as a means to unlock creativity.  "Well written, wise, insightful...enhanced by fine Zen dialogues and stories, poems, koan, photographs and illustrations as well as apt, stimulating quotations from many writers and Zen teachers."  Peter Matthiessen

The creative process is intuitive, and based on our experiences.  It points us to our essential nature which should be reflected in our artistic work.  As artists, we should always be looking inward to discover our true expression.  To do that we need to quiet our minds, empty our minds, and only be

aware of each moment around us.  Once our minds are empty we are open to new ideas.

                              

All images here are by Donna Watson in her studio

How do you go straight ahead on a narrow mountain pass which has ninety-three curves?

An old Zen Koan

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.

Leonardo da Vinci

To study the Way is to study the self.

To study the self is to forget the self.

To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.

Eihei Dogen

The inner ---- what is it?  if not intensified sky....

Rainer Maria Rilke

When you look, it is formless;  When you call, it echoes...

Fuyu

No muse appears when invoked, dire need 

Will not rouse her pity.  May Sarton

WHEN I MET MY MUSE by William Stafford

I glanced at her and took my glasses 

off -- they were still singing.  The buzzed

like a locust on the coffee table and then 

ceased.  Her voice belled forth, and the 

sunlight bent.  I felt the ceiling arch, and

knew that nails up there took a new grip 

on whatever they touched.  "I am your own

way of looking at things", she said.  "When

you allow me to live with you, every 

glance at the world around you will be

a sort of salvation."  And I took her hand.

The Beauty of Nothingness

THE BEAUTY OF NOTHINGNESS, book by Donna Watson

"Creativity has more to do with the elimination of the inessential than with inventing something

new."  ----  Helmut John

THE BEAUTY OF NOTHINGNESS,  Donna Watson, page 9

I found some blank journals that were perfect for creating a book.  They are square in format which I like.  The paper seemed sturdy enough for collage and the best of all, the pages lie flat when opened.

And the journal is not too thick....just 45 pages which was perfect for what I wanted to do.

THE BEAUTY OF NOTHINGNESS,  Donna Watson,  page 14

I had been reading books on Zen all summer and I wanted to use words and phrases that helped to explain a Zen tenet... the importance of NOTHINGNESS.  Emptiness or nothingness in Zen philosophy can be mistaken for sheer nothingness, but is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.

THE BEAUTY OF NOTHINGNESS,  Donna Watson,  page 20

In meditation, one can 'empty' their mind of all the daily clutter, the constant inner dialogue that can be distracting, negative or creating barriers.

THE BEAUTY OF NOTHINGNESS,  Donna Watson,  page 21

The Still Point is at the heart of creativity.  In Zen, you access this still point through meditation.

To be quiet, to simply be in the moment, and in stillness.... is the basis of our existence.  It is not a void... but a means to empty yourself from the incessant flow of thoughts and create a state of

consciousness that is open and receptive.

THE BEAUTY OF NOTHINGNESS,  Donna Watson,  page 27

As one counts the breath:  inhale, one;  exhale, two...  the mind empties of all the incessant inner dialogue of judging, complaining, analyzing, wishing and so on.  We can spend our time preoccupied

with the past, or with the future which has not happened yet.  As a result we miss the moment to moment awareness of our life.

THE BEAUTY OF NOTHINGNESS,  Donna Watson,  page 29

After 2 trips to Kyoto, Japan and their flea markets, I had accumulated a large supply of old envelopes, old letters, post cards, receipts and books.  I used these envelopes and letters as well as my hand painted rice papers to create 43 collages (43 pages in the book).  I have posted some of the pages here as examples from the book.  You can view the whole book at this Blurb.com link here.

You can also purchase the book.  There are 3 options:  soft bound and 2 hardbound versions.

THE BEAUTY OF NOTHINGNESS,  Donna Watson,  page 37

"There are two journeys in every odyssey, one on worried water, the other crouched and motionless, without noise."  ---  Derek Walcott

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

The Way

Donna Watson, The Ancient Way, 20"x20"

Creativity is an integral part of being human, as basic as walking, talking and thinking.  The creative process is intuitive.  It points us towards our essential nature.  Zen teachings can help us understand and cultivate our creativity.

Donna Watson, page from handmade book, MEMORY LANDSCAPE

Zen is about experience and activity and not about words and ideas that try to describe it.  THE TAO OF PAINTING, a book written around 500 C.E. is a classic canon on the art of painting as a spiritual path.  In the action of no-action (wu-wei) the mind is silenced and the work is allowed to express itself.  

Donna Watson, image of tools and journal pages

Zen masters began to use art as a way of teaching enlightenment.  Zen arts, creativity and realized spirituality are seen as inseparable.  Zen aesthetic developed to express eternal truths about the nature of reality and our place in the universe.

Donna Watson image, sunrise, view from my bedroom window

These Zen arts do not exist for the purpose of creating a work of art, but rather a method for opening the creative process.  They comprise means of training the mind and living our lives.  These arts were called ways because they were disciplines or paths to the artist's understanding of him or herself.  The suffix "do" means way.

Donna Watson, image of ways to create new art works from flea market finds

Chado, the way of tea.  The ritual of the tea ceremony (simplicity, purity) influences all of Japan's fine arts.  Creating harmony with opposites is an important aspect.  Inside the tea room, it is important to display a piece of calligraphy in harmony with the spirit of the tea and an ikebana (flower arrangement) in a pure and simple style.

image from Museum of Fine Arts Boston website

image via Flickr, fujijardins, Thierry Del Socorro

image via Flickr, fujijardins, Thierry Del Socorro

Shodo, the way of the brush.  Calligraphy is a striving for inner perfection, yet it is always incomplete, open like the enso (circle) of infinity.  Shodo is a discipline that takes many years to master.  It is a way to enlightenment.

  calligraphy tools

an ancient pond/ a frog jumps in/ the splash of water..  Matsuo Basho, 1686

Ginkaku-ji temple, Kyoto, Japan, by David M. Bryne

Kado, the way of the flower.  Ikebana or flower arranging is another art form that incorporates harmony and balance.

Toshiro Kawase

The emphasis is on the creative process--- not on technical skill.  The creative process is unique to each individual.  It is unique to YOU.  The creative process helps each of us discover our own way of expression.

image via Flickr, lightsongs, Kerry Singh

This process of discovery is the endless spring of creativity.  It is already present in each of us, waiting to be uncovered.  Ultimately, the experience of the arts helps us to see into one's own heart and mind and to bring to life that which is realized.

  

 

 

 

 

    

...INNER STILLNESS

It seems keeping company with stones is
Keeping company with eternity
From such a distant place
That still resides in me.
We hear it in silence.
We feel it in stones.....
And you release it in this gathering together.
----- Neva Gagliano

The above piece of poetry was written by Neva who also sent me these wrapped rocks and heart shaped rock. Her wonderful blog is called Openings Connecting and you can find it here.

Newest acquisitions: One Ammonite and two trilobites - fossils

"Although cycles of time can express permanence, in the garden the clearest symbol of eternity is the rock, an image of the mountain." Marc Peter Keane, The Art of Setting Stone

"I speak of naked stones.. in which there is both concealed and revealed a mystery that is slower, more vast, and heavier than the destiny of a transitory space." Roger Caillios

The stone was there before the wind,
before the man, before the dawn:
its first movement
was the first music of the river.
---- Pablo Neruda, Stones of the Sky

In Japanese gardens, compostion follows from placement of the first stone: all elements become interconnected. The same can be said for painting, or collaging papers, or assemblage. We make decisions whenever we make a mark, place a paper, paint a shape, or attach an object. There is something in the artistic experience, in the moment of creation, that is entirely onto itself, private and untransferable. Finding this stillness within ourselves for every moment of creativity, is our connection.

ELEGANCE

All that is cared for.

Left Alone in the stillness

In that pure silence married

to the stillness of nature.

---- Linda Gregg

"Because I cannot work except in solitude, it is necessary that I live my work and that is impossible except in solitude."
----- Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973