Managing a creative environment
Creativity cannot take place in a sterile environment. Inspiration often comes from the world surrounding us, the objects that we see and the personal beliefs that we hold. For this reason it is important that any practitioner works in an environment that is unique to them. This can help broaden the mind and generate further ideas.
Having a personal work space can enhance what an artist can do. It doesn't matter if the space is just a desk area or a loft apartment part of the creative thinking comes with utilising that space.
Many artists collect things in their work spaces which are of interest to them. It could be action figures, scrap pieces of interesting fabric, anything; it does not have to relate directly to the practice. Collections give a sense of identity. The process of collecting is one of selection, classification and appreciation which provide a stimulus.
Every individual has a different workspace. Some of the interesting ones that I have looked at are below.
I think that both of these are effective creative environment, using a small amount of space to harbour a great deal of inspirational and practical objects. The trick to keeping creative ideas flowing is to work in these environmennts. Another workspace, pictured below is that of someone who works for Disney Pixar, clearly from all of the belongings placed around the room. The practioner has surrounded themselves with the thing that they love to do.
I have also included some pictures of my own personal workspace and collections which I expect come across in my work.
The cork board is covered in images that I appreciate and things that I have collected. It acts as a constant source of inspiration and a reminder of who I am.
Overcoming Mindsets
As people we are all prone to falling into a common trap. Mindsets are a pattern of thinking and something we learn out of habit. This can restrain people from opening up and being fully creative. For every problem there is a conventional solution but as creative’s this is something that we want to avoid. Overcoming schemas (the preconceptions we have based on our experiences and what we have been told) is difficult as psychologically they are built into us. Habitual thinking in the art world leads to predictable results that lack any exciting elements.
For someone to break convention they first need to be aware that thery are following them in the first place. Changing your attitudes and opening up to new mindsets is the best way to generate fresh ideas.
A good way of doing this is too think about things that you might usually out together and turn them around to be opposites. Metaphors and similes are a good way of doing this.
A good example is artist, Christoph Niemann, who produces lively colourful images, which really get you thinking, 'how did he think of that?'
It is not always easy to break habits and to be constantly inspired to come up with original ideas ( in fact does originality even exist?!) however people have come up with ways to get around this creative block, for example the book 'How to be an explorer of the world' by Keri Smith encourages people to think about various different things in a new way.
Simple things can work really well as this image shows. The relationship between the toothbrush and the toothpaste is an obvious one when thought about, but it is something that is not really thought about at all in reality. This is what makes this image so effective. A cliche term would be 'thinking outside the box' for this example of work.
The First ever published book in Europe...
These copies carried 42 lines per page and were exquistely finished though the pages were not bound. This copy of the Bible has been highly praised for its aesthetics and the technical level involved with producing such a work. The printed Bible was not cheap but it sold for significantly less than the handwritten versions available, which also could take a full year for a scribe to complete. As the handwritten copies, Gutenberg had the copies illustrated by hand to capture the elegance of previous copies. Every detail was cared for.
