Is there just TMI when it comes to the creative process? Some think so, especially in the full tilt confessionalism of blogtown. On Mind the Gap, one of my favorite art/culture blogs, Wendy Perron from Dance Magazine is quoted on this topic: There’s an annoying new trend of blogging about the process of making a […]
Creativity
Enabling Through Limits
Icicle propagation on a building facade in Pittsburgh: Living with constraints A few months back I posted a quote from the artist Carroll Dunham that has a great deal of meaning for me: The most basic thing to say about painting: it’s a limiting condition within which absolutely anything goes. But it’s a negative premise. […]
- Creativity
- ...
Fitzgerald and Creativity
F. Scott Fitzgerald I have never been keen on the idea of a creativity elite. Since 1959 when C. P. Snow wrote his legendary essay “Two Cultures” about the breakdown in communication between the sciences (“the white coats”) and the humanities, other us/them dichotomies have emerged. Creativity is one of those, highlighted in recent books […]
- Aesthetics
- ...
Outside the Lines
Siva drinking World Poison, Nandalal Bose (Photo: National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi) I have been participating in an ongoing conversation with my friend Supratik Bose about the nature of creativity. Over dinner a while ago he told me he didn’t believe something could be deemed creative unless it demonstrated market value. Bose, trained […]
I Feel Your Pain
Desert landscape near Alice Springs, Australia I’ve gone through creative dry spells. Everybody does, but when it is happening to you, it is hard to not take it personally and forget that the condition is common. It is easier to talk about it when the episode is over. It’s a little like childbirth: Give me […]
Open Hand, Open Mind
A moment of homage to the hand. My hand. Your hand. I started the morning reading about the relationship between a person’s problem solving skills and their ability to work with his or her hands. The correlation is significant enough that some recruiters look for cerebral problem solving candidates with car repair experience on their […]
- Aesthetics
- ...
Creativity 2.0
Margaret Kilgallen at work A provocative article on Slate reviews Jaron Lanier’s latest book, You are Not a Gadget. Written by Slate senior editor Michael Agger, the essay digs into many of Lanier’s ideas and just says No. Lanier, one of the leaders in the early days of virtual reality and an respected Wired alum, […]
Unfolding A New Reality
Zaha Hadid, in her home. Now that’s what flamboyant looks like! (Photo: Miles Aldridge) Two weeks ago I read the article written by John Seabrook for The New Yorker about architect Zaha Hadid. Up until now I’ve watched her international success with a curiosity and respect, but with a certain detachment. Her work doesn’t exhibit […]
Cooper-Hewitt Update
Palace, by Janice Arnold (All photos courtesy of the Cooper Hewitt Museum) At the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York, two excellent exhibits: Fashioning Felt, a show that is much more than fashion, fabric or costuming the body. Wool felt is the earliest textile fabric known, and some samples found date back to the Bronze […]
- Creativity
- ...
Learning from Master Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert Thanks to top notch blogger Judith H. Dobrzynski (Real Clear Arts) for finding a fascinating article about Flaubert in Prospect Magazine. I needed this, especially today. To read about how arduously Flaubert reworked Madame Bovary (and one would assume, everything he produced) helped eliminate some of the stress and discomfort with a very […]