Hello all,
I have a favor to ask. If you find the time, please comment on my posts. Comments on my posts will provide two things. First, it will let me know what audience is looking at the material. Second, it will promote dialague and hopefully give me good suggestions on how to improve the content in future posts. I welcome any and all types of comments and will make every attempt to respond in the same thread. If you just want to say hello and/or ask me a question about my experiences, by all means, comment. If you want to tell me my material is great, sucks, or is just plain mediocre, by all means, comment. I am eager for feedback. In no way feel that if you comment, it needs to be a long well thought out post. A one sentence comment is perfect.
Many thanks to those who have already commented.
5 comments:
Your "Thoughts on creativity" was great. I am hoping your graduate studies are in writing or philosophy, your gift in both is quite evident..
Chris Doody -- Ortho Clinical Diagnostics
Hey,
Your videos inspired the girlfriend (see http://www.world-with-an-i.blogspot.com/)
And I think I have your charger, yes?
JK
Hey bro! Thanks for the acknowledgment w.r.t. the workout program ;). Here's my 2 cents on your blog thus far: Your video posts that pack in a lot of content in an undiluted punch are my favorites. These include your lumberjack museum visit and the other ones that had some music in them - the graveyard visit and fonda property videos also nice audio work. I also got a real kick out of your jam session with Fonda ;) You two were having a blast and you did the right amount of thinning [read editing] for me.
Your composition in the camera work, music, editing, and continuity were outstanding in the lumberjack post especially. I loved your choice of the nickel creek song and the shots of Fonda's baby! Reminded me of the "happy times" montages that you sometimes see in the movies I also liked the beginning of that video on his land where you did elapsed video work similar to what survivor man does. It was a pleasure to watch!
If you had time and patience, I think you could do something really beautiful with your Detroit footage . As it was, it was a little long and didn't have enough variety to really keep me glued like the other ones. I think Dad's comment on the creative process he sees Mom go through has some real wisdom to it. Getting the stuff out there is where the "flow" occurs. The work and crafting that follows can be much more involved and maybe even painful.. (Not to say you can't hit a flow in that too.) However, in video footage especially, the end result for the viewer is true appreciation. When all the work has been put into your video and the product has a beauty factor to it, you really shine!
I also like the experimentation I saw even in your first post. You have a real straight man / goofy guy duality that works well for the one-man show. The accordion (or klezmer as I'm told by Sandy and Sid - Sandy actually was a kick-ass accordion player when she was young btw) playing was cool and it was clear to me that you were having fun. That kind of experimentation is valuable. The camera shots of you riding from different angles is another great example (How da F*** did you do that!??) I would recommend that the amount you show of each experiment be short in duration, and you show a bunch of different things you're trying out.
Post the experiments even if you don't like them after you're done working on them. Post 'em as experiments! It's as much fun for me to see an experiment as it is to see a beautiful product.
As for writing - don't be hard on yourself in your standards of how well everything has to be documented along the way. The experience as a whole will open the door wide to creative bursts. Just be faithful that they will come. They will come. And occasionally, they will come when you ARE able to capture them and the results will be golden ;)
Love ya bra,
Ethan
I agree with everything Ethan said and everything Dad said. I agree with everything you said about the creative process. We have some wise men in our family!
Everything you said about the creative process resonated with me - the intensity, frequency, and flooding of the insights, counterpoised with their fleetingness. There is pain in this.
The accumulation over time of a backlog of treasures, but the apparently "disappearing windows" for getting them down. There is pressure in this.
How does one "freeze dry" each fresh insight, and preserve it? How does one adequately love it, honor it, reconstruct it, and give it to self and to others down the road? Is the uncaptured beauty wasted? Is it lost? There is grieving in this.
One could make an argument that art is an aching. An aching to love, render, keep, and give insight.
The other evening I perfectly spoiled my own twilight walk by feeling compelled to set in poetry the astonishing night-time chorus of insects, tree frogs, and whatever other wonderful creatures filled my ears, heart, and universe with heartbreaking music. I could not reproduce it. I wept. Maybe in ten years, maybe not. Maybe I will never have the skill. But the nighttime chorus is still available to me - every evening - and in memory.
Don't confuse fleetingness with fragility. As your wise bro Ethan says, trust the process, perform the experiments, enjoy and offer them as you are able. Great suggestions!
Common myths about creativity:
Myth One: Creativity is rare. It isn't. Generativity theory says the normal human brain is creating all the time. New thoughts fleet through continuously. The difference between the "artist" and everybody else is he is attends - and takes the time to capture some of it. And then of course the practice of attending and capturing makes him better at attending, and so on...But creative brain activity is always available. The mind is always generating. It is your friend and it is with you, and it is very seldom inactive. What a relief!
Myth Two: Creative thoughts/insights OUGHT to be captured. They cannot all be captured. There is too much sheer volumne (not to mention speed). This is good news. One gets to choose what one captures. (Sometimes. Sometimes it chooses you). And the uncaptured stuff isn't wasted. The very practice of noticing more than one can capture prepares a richer soil for the eventual seeds that fall there.
Myth Three: The artist has to obey chronology. One does NOT have to render in order the insights one has had. Thinking you do fetters and frustrates because you can't ever get to the current and most vivid insight because of the compulsion to overcome the backlog. You will never overcome the backlog. Practice "last in, first out". Actually a lot of the backlog will come with it, once you give yourself permission to just work the present one.
Myth Four: You have to get down not only everything, but each thing. Well you don't, and you can't. But even if you miss the vivid orange of the carrots, and the green of the peas, and the savoryness of the meat, maybe you are going to deal with the slow cooked stew, the delicious blend of many ingredience, simmering away on the proverbial back burner. Incubation is an imporant part of the creatitive process. Many beautiful things emerge out of immediacy; many other beautiful things emerge out of incubation.
Sometimes what the artist renders is a distillation of many insights across time, a culling from many many insightful encounters. You can talk about the little creek and what grows along its banks, or solitary rock and its load of moss, or you can experience hundreds of little creeks and capture the confluence of the raging river fed by them.
The artist eye is a camera. There is a zoom lens, a wide angle lens; there is literal photography, monotonal photography, and computer enhanced photography. All of this is available to you - the endless smorgasbord of subject matter - and the endless array of possible treatments. And the endless choices of possible focuses. Do you soliloquy the solitary petal, the complete flower, or the whole garden? Or do you visit the truth behind a hundred gardens just from the memory in your mind's eye? It's all good, and it's all there.
My best insights occur when I'm driving too. Usually over Irondequoit Bridge. Sometimes you just have to pull over in a safe place and write something down.
You can talk about a beautiful town, a beautiful building, or one single brick.
There is no end to the elasticity and wealth of beauty and insight. So feed it, even when there is no time to render it. It will be rendered in some other form, or inform some other rendering.
Love it all, and love the mind that loves it. And honor the flowing (never stopping) river of your mind. Dispel frustration. Trust the river. Let is flow. Nothing is wasted.
Loaf and Martha- thanks for your kind words...too kind!
JK- Sorry I haven't called you yet. Will soon after cell phone gets some charge. Yes, you have my charger but I bought another one so it wouldn't hold me up. Thanks for letting me know. Sorry for the lapse in communication.
Bro- great comment. Taking the time to articulate it in this forum means a lot. Thanks for your encouragement and constructive criticism.
Mom- beautiful writing as always. If other's see your use of language and structure, they will better understand my crazy and thoughts. Thanks also for the encouragement and words of wisdom.
Love,
Joel
Post a Comment