The Creative Process: Can We Get Some Empathy Up In Here?

This series about the creative process is sort of an outlier when it comes to the world of genealogy where what we know is based on factual (preferably;) sources we can point to and cite. Hopefully, the creative process doesn't influence that work, even though we've all see a tree or two that looks like there's been some creativity going on.

What this series is about is using creative thinking and creative problem solving to work out genealogy problems. Where did they go, what did they do next, and looking for answers when the obvious solution just doesn't pan out.

We can also use the creative processes and strategies and stretch our creative muscles when we bring our research back to the family and present it in a form and format that gets them interested in their heritage or preserves it in a way that informs generations to come. Guess I'm thinking about all of this because I'm participating in the Family History Writing Challenge.

So with that in mind let's take a look at a very useful tool in the creative process, our human ability to empathise with another human being.

While reading Eric Maisel's book A Life in the Arts, I was struck by his exploration of how artists use empathy. Artists, he says, have an overly large empathy thing going on. Did you ever look at a painting and think, how did the artist get it so right? Artists are able to "leave" their own reality and put themselves in the other persons shoes, and do it so very well that they get inside the mind and state of being of the subject. They jump in their skin, so to speak, and get us viewers or readers totally lost in the subject matter.

Here are a couple of works of art that usually do this for the viewer: Rodin's Piata, and one of Monet's Waterlillies Series. They usually make the viewers wonder and marvel at how the artist can allow the viewer to enter the scene and feel what's going on. And which of us hasn't gotten so lost in a novel that we'd swear the people were just about real? Because the artist is empathetic and has the skills to write or paint, we see what they did, and feel it in our own hearts.

Piata by MICHELANGELO Buonarroti.

(Courtest, Web Gallery of Art)

 

Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond by Claude Monet.

(Courtesy, Wikipedia Commons)

Maisel points out that this ability to set yourself aside isn't normal. Who does that just for fun... set your own ego out to dry and inhabit the very skin of someone else? Most people can be compassionate and sympathise with someone else but to empathise is special. Maisel says this about empathy:

It is rather a certain kind of insight, an ability to correctly identify the thoughts and feelings -- even the whole inner reality -- of another person.

And further along he points out that the artist who empathises most can often have the hardest time maintaining sufficient boundaries between herself and the subject.

Ever get so lost in imagining the adventures and trials of an ancestor that you dream about them or think about them all the time? Have they entered our consciousness in an overly deep way? Maisel points out that empathy is the key to a deeper understanding of someone else... but don't get lost. Tricky, that!


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-creative-process-can-we-get-some.html

The Creative Process: My Muse

My muse is a bitch. Harsh? You don't know her. (And I'm using the b*word here in the vernacular of the day to mean any girl who isn't sweet like us;) Some days my muse is my BFF, other time she's not to be found and probably at a mani/pedi appointment. But the b* is mine and mostly I love the little scamp.

OK, so here's the situation: I'm writing what's known of my crazy-wonderful family history: it's a book project. Want to get the stories down for future generations. Have a working title, an outline, a prologue, and am into the meat of The Introduction. The Introduction is falling out into three distinct parts: the why and how of the book, the family groups, and a short description of the two grandmother's kitchens. Except, not in that order. There was a fourth section about Frostburg, Maryland which is the theme of the book but that's sitting like a Christmas lump of coal in my writer's stocking so it's getting worked on separately.

The three sections of the intro were written in a sort of stream of consciousness and then edited a bit to clean up the gross stuff. Once that was done I put it on the back burner to simmer. I think it boiled over while my Muse went to Miami Beach for a short time to renew her tan, and now that she's back she's scolding me and saying that the order needs to change, any fool can see. But she went for the mani/pedi before she left a note to say what the best order was. B*! Maybe I can do this without her...? Doubt it. She's be back soon, she always is.

My personal creative process has always been like that, no matter the media. I can make all the schedules I want from here to next year (oh wait, short trip;) and devote myself to "regular hours" but it's all for naught if the Muse isn't ready. For me and the way I work, I have to laugh every time I hear a presenter talking about getting your family history written say, "write for a half-hour a day at a given time". Ha! Not gonna work for me, I've tried.

And the funny thing is that I have learned over the years to give my muse room to roam because when she's gone something is cooking and I need to wait around and be patient for the good stuff to come: something big is on the way. I just leave it be and every once in a bit turn a casual thought to the project to see what's up. I find that she returns on no regular schedule but when she comes back, she has great input.

Ever program yourself to solve a problem while dreaming? You just think on a problem or concept or whatever as you go off to sleep and overnight it's quite possible some very clever ideas will come to you. As we all know, especially if we've tried this, it's important to write down what you dream before the night fairies steal the thoughts from under your pillow:)

I first became aware of my muse while reading a book by Eric Maisel. He's written a whole bunch of stuff about the creative process and you'll find his web site here: http://ericmaisel.com/
The first one I read was, Fearless Creating. You'll find his page with a write up on that book at: http://ericmaisel.com/fearless-creating/ , and of course there's a click through to Amazon and Barnes and Noble if you wish to purchase it. It really helped me at the time I needed it to better understand that I wasn't a crazy or lazy artist! I was just an average run of the mill creative person so no need to beat up on myself for unusual work habits.

As frustrating as it might get every now and again creating a work, I know that the trouble will pass, and eventually with patience all will eventually be well. And the work will be better for the pause taken.That said, everyone has a different and unique-to-them creative process. Hope your muse is a sweetheart ... with a regular schedule. Mine is a wild child.

Photo of the day from the Archive:

Me, about 1951:

Muse in training?

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-creative-process-my-muse.html