Imagine Chapter 3 – The Unconcealing

He starts to lose me a little bit in Chapter 3. I like the part where he reminds you that creativity is a verb. It's good to have that insight, but to turn that idea into something real takes a lot of sweat, boredom, failure, and a lot of work. I experience this almost every time I got to work in my shop. I start working, then I think of about 20 other 'really important' things I need to do... get the mail, pull some weeds, load the dishwasher, wash some clothes,... the list is endless and they do need to be done, but in this instance I am just using them as a distraction. I have the idea, but I don't really want to cut out all of these boring shapes int he hopes that I can construct them into something beautiful. BUT if I ignore the thoughts in my head and work through them, I get caught up in what I'm doing and start enjoying the process.

The part of Chapter 3 that I didn't like, didn't agree with... was the part where he investigates the link between negative moods and creativity. It comes down to the suffering artist syndrome. How really great artists are depressed and bi-polar. He shows studies that reflect that thinking. Well, I think that you can take any profession and find a good percentage of people that are bi-polar or depressed, not just artists. I've just heard this all my life about all these famous artists being so intensely disturbed. But I'm thinking that maybe all great artists are disturbed because the art critics and media that made them famous are the ones who are disturbed! 

So leave me a comment, do you think you have to be depressed or bi-polar or disturbed in order to make great art?