…Creativity is an act of defiance. You’re challenging the status quo. You’re questioning accepted truths and principles. You’re asking three universal questions that mock conventional wisdom:
“Why do I have to obey the rules?”
“Why can’t I be different?”
“Why can’t I do it my way?”
These are the impulses that guide all creative people whether they admit it or not. Every act of creation is also an act of destruction or abandonment. Something has to be cast aside to make way for the new.
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For one day, be completely contrary, to the point of orneriness and belligerence, with anything and everything you do. Turn everything upside down.
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This fighting mode is not for everyone, but there’s something to be said for getting into a warrior’s frame of mind, especially when you’re troubled by some aspect of your creative life. If something isn’t right in the piece you’re working on, you can’t always fix it by sheer application of skill. Tinkering and tweaking will only take you so far. Sometimes, to force change, you have to attack the work with outrage and violence. You see this a lot of times with students who, in their work, pick fights with their teachers; instinctively, they sense they’ll be judged on whom they do battle with. They know that in order to break away and find their own voice, they must defy, even mock, their artistic mentors.
The Creative Habit
I cut out a lot to keep it short – basically, pick fights with your routines – do them backwards, ask what good they produce, etc. I really like this exercise because many people, particularly in the art journaling community for some reason, seem to imagine creativity as some sort of delicate muse who must be coaxed out with strawberry tea and tiaras. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, but I think there is something to be said for being deliberately contrary and obnoxious (as an artist).
If you are creating you are basically implying that there is something missing in the world and you’ve taken it upon yourself to put it there (as Tarkovsky said in the video I posted a while back, art would be useless if the world were perfect). In that sense, you are defying the status quo simply by creating – so why not nurture that energy just a little?
Creativity is not one way or another, and even within myself I have muses and warriors. Interestingly, I find myself favoring the warrior aspect and I’m pretty sure it’s a reaction to the overly lovey-dovey art journaling thing. So in my case, I do create out of defiance (I don’t think it’s very obvious, though). Don’t get me wrong – I love how kind and supportive AJers are, but you can be difficult in your art and still be a nice person. At least I think I’m pretty nice, commenters can let me know if I’m fooling myself. 
So I guess what I’m saying is, be a jerk for like 5 minutes. You don’t necessarily have to get mad at the page (although it can help, and so can a sense of entitlement if you can manage it) just ask why you do the things you normally do and why you should do them now? Do something different just to spite routine, do the opposite of what your teacher has always taught you or what others are doing. I think a lot of art-niceness actually has to do with fear – that others won’t accept something new or that you’ll lose your muse if you don’t always do things the way they’ve always worked. At the very least doing something to shake things up will remove some of that -as Tharp says, “You may not always win, but the exercise is liberating.”
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“you have to attack the work with outrage and violence.” … a long time ago, I was working on a painting, and it was nice enough, but didn’t have the X factor, you know? And then there was an accident, leaving the piece with a very big hole in the middle. In fixing that up, this is where the piece became amazing. I think the importance in what you are saying is that creativity comes from the unexpected, and if you are feeling stuck, well, question that which is expected. A common mistake is to become too “precious” of my work, sometimes I have to take the drawing and just tear it up.
yes! I love that example. thank you for putting it so succinctly.
I think the other thing I was (somewhat unsuccessfully) getting at was the idea that sometimes you need to get a little mad to question the expected in the first place – especially if you feel like you’re not “good enough” as an artist to even throw away the rules at all. for me, adopting the eric cartman “Whateva, I do what I want!” mentality helps me get over that.
Okay, you just added this book to my wishlist. This sounds like a very cool book!
.-= Betsi Goutal’s last blog ..Eyecandy and a Giveaway! =-.
I recommend it! Twyla Tharp is a choreographer so a lot of her examples are dance-based, but even for non-dancers her techniques and exercises are really useful.