Some people are just too creative for their own good.
Seriously. “Overly” creative people seem to be driven mad by their creative genius. Just look at Van Gogh and Basquiat.
What is it that makes a sculptor, author, actor, etc., go insane? (And for the purposes of this Pondering, I’m lumping all creative types under the heading “artist” – not just painters.)
Personally, I think it’s all the ideas bursting to life in their minds. It must be difficult sometimes to tell where the ideas end and real life begins. A bit like trying to see what is going on around you through a foggy lens. I think we all have brief moments of creative genius – in our dreams, or right when we wake up in the morning, always when our brains are at their most receptive. Just imagine – the real creative geniuses out there live these moments 24×7 and the rest of us have to really work at it.
I think the challenge for the truly creative is to translate those ideas to reality – get them out of your head. It’s a bit like bleeding excess air out of a tire or a soccer ball. The tire or ball is no good if it’s overinflated. At what level, then, is perfect “inflation”? Does an artist leave some ideas in their head, not on paper/film/canvas, just percolating until they bubble forth and can’t be denied any longer? What if more than one comes forward at the same time?
How frustrating is it if an idea doesn’t translate the way an artist “sees” it? How many times can an artist go back and “tweak” something before they just have to walk away?
What is creativity to all of you? What do you think is your personal area of creative genius – because, after all, we all have it, don’t we?
For more creative genius, have a look at the Duck Sauce Theater in the lower left corner of TGTBTU’s home page. Post-It’s as a medium – who knew…
