Everyone works therefore everyone is creative. All of us are confronted with problems every day — some mundane: what to eat, what to wear, how to furnish our home. Some are major: how to earn a living, mend a quarrel with a loved one, how to raise a child….All command the creative impulse.
Artists (and scientists, architects…), however, invent their own problems to solve:
- how to depict movement of leaves and light in a painting,
- how to show the personality of the person in a portrait,
- how to state a political point of view about peace, war, equality, etc.,
- how to express sexuality – how far to go,
- how to make the composition dynamic, the textures alive, the colour compelling,
- how to make the materials do what you want them to do.
And finally there is the problem of whether or not success has been achieved, when to stop, when to revise, when to start all over again, when to abandon the idea. Sometimes a single brushstroke is all it takes to change failure to success. And failure always hovers over one’s shoulder but must never win. Failure is a lesson, an experience that helps us move forward in art and in life.
Art by Alannah Anderson 