Mr.Luke- All I can say is thank you. This book, The Creative Habit, taught me some amazing lessons dealing with creativity. This may be unknown to you, but my biggest problem with creativity is that, I cannot let ideas flow- I either turn them done too early or they just don’t come; which I can positively say is almost everyone’s problem as well. Except this book helped solve that- and so will show you what I want, that I learnt from the book, to implant more in my “process/ work”(in no specific order). Firstly, I learnt that everything/ anything can only be achieved through hard work and the desire to do it. It said on page 9 "No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding." and pg. 173 "Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft."Only after you put your heart, soul and sweat in something, can you see the results- only then can you feel proud of having accomplished a feat. I don’t know if this sounds quite “repetitive” of what is already known in the World, but I am telling the truth. Sometimes, I can get lazy, and just do something half heart-heartedly, and other times, I try and put all my efforts into trying to get “past the moon,” and this kind of acts like a reminder for me. Secondly, what many people may define me by: fear. I can be brave at times, but at other times, I get nervous, and partly of others/ what they think, or even what God may think. In my book there were a couple of pages, that really made me confident… pg. 32 "There's nothing wrong with fear; the only mistake is to let it stop you in your tracks." and pg. 213 "But there is a therapeutic power to failure. It cleanses...Private failures are great...The more you fail in private, the less you will fail in public." This reminds me of the Indian movie I told you about; everything has another side to it- one through which you can learn, so it kind of makes me look at life a bit more positively. You know, at one point, I was actually quite positive, and then I don’t know what happened, but these quotes kind of made me feel good about life in general, especially creating – I feel as if I will try something new, something that I may not actually “want” to do- and I feel I have done a bit of that in STAC Art; I created/ am creating a drawing that I usually wouldn’t do. Plus, she targeted specific fears, which I absolutely loved…. pg. 22 "Someone has done it before?....Get over yourself." and pg. 23 "Once executed, the idea will never be as good as it is in my mind?...But better an imperfect dome in Florence than cathedrals in the clouds." and pg. 89 "My solution for them: This isn't working. Free yourself. Get out of this box. Out it away for another day and start a new box...You can always come back to it." Now, before I go on, I want to apologize for kind of just stating the quotes and not explaining them to you regarding context, but I have a lot to say, and want to keep it as short as possible :). Solitude. I find this scary, to tell you truth. She writes on pg. 31 "You're seeking thoughts from the unconscious, and trying to tease them forward until you can latch onto them. An idea will sneak into your brain....Solitude is an unavoidable part of creativity. Self-reliance is a happy by-product." I don’t know what it is about that, but I literally might start crying if I ever have to stay in seclusion; I want to say it is something to do with self-confidence. So I am not asking for pity, but instead will work on re-connecting with myself, and maybe I will allow the juice to flow in my head- allow ideas to come out without any fear :). So, this is where I stop about this….I told you about me wanting to work harder, gain more courage, and even confidence- and these three, will definitely help me use it “my art-” I hope I was able to explain to you fully what exactly I learnt; sorry, this is kind of new to me :).
Now, on to my blog, I actually like this. Okay, so some days, it feels like, ahhhhhhh! but then other days, I really enjoy it because you learn so much! I “technically” missed a day based on the calendar- and am now up to my 19th day; which even though is much, I am proud. I accomplished keeping something up for more than half a month. Oh wait! I forgot to explain to you exactly what I was doing! So I am reading books (regarding creativity of course) and posting my favorite quote(s) and reactions of mine- which doesn’t sound much, but it helps a lot in viewing what exactly I learned. My goals for the future with this, is that to make it continue. To be able to say that I have a blog in which I write every day, dedicatedly. As a parting word, I have to say that this really helps in implementing what you learn from the books you read, in your “work.”
I’m not sure if I did this right, or if it is good, but this felt good; it’s nice getting your thoughts out in the open (sometimes).
-Kadambari
Great post. I am catching up on many things after Carousel, and am bouncing around here looking at your writings in hopes of getting some reference points for helping you deal with your artists statement revision.
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