The Art of Creative Thinking by Rod Judkins

Author:Rod Judkins [Judkins, Rod]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-03-01T13:26:28+00:00

IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR ART, CHANGE YOUR HABITS.

—Clement Greenberg

Not quite convinced? Become immersed in the moment here.

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I watched the most mysterious and enigmatic man I’ve ever seen stride across the room. He emerged from nowhere and was going nowhere. His thin limbs seemed to stretch out endlessly and gave him a fragile appearance, yet he exuded inner strength. Six feet tall, he leaned forward with determination and seemed knowing, yet tentative and questioning. A universal man encapsulating our times.

Walking Man 1 was a 1960 bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti that strode into the record books in 2010 when it sold for $104.3 million. Giacometti was an artist who felt he could never capture another person in paint or plaster because people were too unfathomable and complex. When painting or sculpting, Giacometti searched but never found. More importantly, he enjoyed that state of ignorance. There was more freedom in it than knowing, than being certain. He worked from real life, yet he was wise enough to understand that he could only ever try to, but never truly, capture reality.

Don’t be ashamed of being ignorant. Ignorance is natural. Creativity exists in not knowing. You have to be happy to admit that you are ignorant and may never find a solution. Be willing to look stupid, to risk the emotional pain of getting it wrong.

When the Delphic oracle declared the philosopher Socrates the wisest person in Greece, he suggested that it was because he realized how little he knew. He also realized how little everyone else knew! Socrates didn’t have a philosophy and didn’t write anything down; he simply asked his followers questions. He considered it a success if, at the end of a session with him, his followers knew less than at the beginning.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t know what you can’t do. Use what you’ve learned to create a higher-quality ignorance. Embrace your not-knowing and stride forward with determination and uncertainty.

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