Blog: Stretching Your Mind When Creating

Featured image: Horizon

“ A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension.”  Oliver Wendel Holmes

Have you ever asked yourself how did I come to this thought, this place?  This space I am currently in? For example how did I come to think that is all about the idea/the concept and the unique, original, one of a kind creator the artist?

The answer is simple – I had to think about it and figure out how I wanted to support my thinking.  How I wanted to back up my thinking with examples. That took a very long time. One of the things I learned along the way was that I was dealt a particular hand, the cards I held were all I could play.  There were choices as to which one to play at what particular time, and these choices effected the outcome of my thinking. Sometimes my thinking about art changed, and other times my thinking about art became strongly reinforced.  

The two key elements in all my journeys and travels through life was and still is 1. the “I” in art and 2. I had to think.  I didn’t want another to think for me, I did want to know how others thought about art, experienced art. I wanted to experience and create form from my own ideas not someone elses.  That meant I had to come up with an idea a concept. I chose topics that were important to me, and how does it work for me. Is it unique? 

How I have traveled, journeyed to this spot in my life?  I had to think about it and stretch my mind to the point that it could never go back to its original dimension.