Comment: Creativity and Art

The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union; the heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity.

Julia Cameron

This editorial comment emerged from many conversations we've had about creativity during the incubation and production of this issue of the Journal. Living so closely with the topic over the past six months, we've been debating the nature of creativity and the artistic process. Following are a few of the many points that fascinated us. This is only one of many ways to look at creativity. It is intended to be thought provoking rather than definitive.

The creative spirit

Many people feel that during the act of creating they are in contact with some eternal force, personified in various forms as the muse, the daimon, inspiration or the higher self. Often people who consider themselves creative feel driven by their creativity. Even if creativity destroys relationships, health or the quality of life, it becomes an irresistible element, a life and death matter. For some people, creativity is like a divine calling to a spiritual path: it's next to impossible to refuse the summons.

One common view of the relationship between spirituality and creativity is that the artist is a conduit for a muse or creative spirit. The idea that the human steps out of the way and lets divine inspiration do the work has a long tradition. Ancient Greek poets called upon the Muse to speak through them. Medieval European church artists did their works for God. Since their expression was from and for God, not for individual recognition, these works were never signed. In this view of creativity, the artist's identity needs to step aside long enough to allow whatever is trying to emerge to find its way out. Being creative becomes a relationship between the person, or the artist, and the energy or spirit that is channeled or expressed. The artist's job is to learn how to relate to this spirit. As in spiritual traditions where one's goal is to express god's will, many creative people say they struggle to learn how to get out of the way sufficiently to let the creative spirit through.

From a slightly different angle, spirituality and creativity are related by the desire to contact a greater spirit. In this view, the artist's identity remains intact, and being creative is a meditative practice, similar to prayer, a way to reach a state of grace. Regardless of whether creativity is perceived as passing through a person or as a way to contact the spirits, people seek this ecstatic state, longing for inspiration and a sense of connection to a source.

Many of us find inspiration in wild and far out times when we are possessed by an idea or an image, when we forget to eat and sleep. This state of grace is seductive. The idea of perpetually living in an inspired state of connection to a creative source seems ideal. It is wonderful to imagine, but there are at least two problems with it. First, inspired grace is elusive. It's like trying to remember a name you've forgotten. When your goal is remembering, it's next to impossible to remember. The name is more likely to float back in the middle of the night, or when you're involved in something else. So it is with inspiration. The harder we try to have it, the further away it seems.

Second, if one of your goals is to create art, this state alone isn't sufficient. It is ideal for the initial inspiration but falls short of forming the final piece. The ecstatic state exists in relationship to ordinary reality or daily life. Many people find that in order to be creative, their normal identity needs to "die." When we enter the inspired state, we lose our "I," our sense of identity. We have to get out of the way enough to allow space for the unknown. At the same time, we need an identity to mediate communication between the inspired state and the ordinary world. This is a delicate balance. Too much attachment to the "normal'' identity may block creative impulses that might be around. The identity takes over, and life can grow dull. On the other hand, we need an identity to help sift through, shape and express what has been experienced in wild and inspired states. The state of ecstasy, connection with the spirit, is one stage of the creative process. Another stage is "translation," capturing the experience from the inspired creative state and transforming it into the finished piece of art, be it sung, danced, painted, sculpted or written.

Living life as art

If creativity and art are seen as a means for getting closer to the spirit, it would seem that living as if one were a piece of art would make life richer: we would become the artwork and the creator would be some larger spirit. But we are more than clay waiting to be molded by a greater spirit. We actually co-create along with a larger spirit. We have our own impulses, and the interaction between our impulses and impulses that seem to come from the spirit is what makes life truly creative. Sometimes we have conflicts about what the spirit sends us. For example, it might give us the impulse to yell at someone, and we don't want to yell. The conflict between these two impulses has the potential to shape the original impulse into something new, like talking about our irritation with the person rather than simply screaming at them. In this case, the impulse to yell probably made us aware of our feelings about the person. The artistic life results from the relationship between inspiration and our normal identities.

Group life can be seen similarly. If we see individuals as conduits for a creative spirit, then whatever impulse one group member experiences is a relevant part of the group's experience. For instance, if someone has the courage to say that they feel sad in a group where feelings are not welcome, often others will say that they also feel sad but were afraid to say so. Expressing this feeling can relieve the atmosphere of the group. We could say that the person who expressed sadness is connected with a spirit or creative source in a similar way that an artist is connected to creative impulses. Expressing this emotion in the group is actually the creation of art, in the sense of bringing something new into the environment.

The person who lives creatively can help change the entire group's identity. The ability to use oneself as an indicator of a direction for a group is a characteristic of leadership or wisdom in a group. One of the skills of a leader, especially one with a caring attitude for all parts of a group, is being aware of and valuing both inner impulses, which may be radical, and the reactions that we have to them, mediating the relationship between them in a way that turns the impulses into something useful for the whole group. In both art and group life, creative people, who are willing to explore the unknown, often illuminate emerging trends. Thus creating art and being a leader in a group are similar. Both involve mediating an original impulse, shaping the original spurt from the spirit into a finished piece of art or an artistic contribution to community life.