Academic Blog Response #2

I will be looking at Creative Act #7 and the article, "Who's afraid of a cognitive neuroscience?"

The painting has been on the back burner of my mind for a long time. Finally getting down to getting her out has taken a while as life distracts us so easily from some of our dearest goals.

That said, I will compare my work the article's outdated idea number 3: Creativity occurs in a state of defocused attention. The article goes on to say that this is true, but it does so in a state of focus. I have tested this to be true, through previous live improvisations, and this painting.

I like to think that when I perform certain creative acts, I am in a trance-like state. I am over-exaggerating, but I am relaxed and letting things flow. I am an improviser. I've learned how to accept and to return/make an offer. I've gone places onstage I've never considered, and I believe that building off of offers is what I do in my other creative genres. The painting itself is an example of this as I just started with one brush stroke and went from there. I discovered what I wanted to paint and where I could go with it with each stroke. I was focused enough to notice these painted offers and to accept them. Three behind the girl was one of those examples, I had no idea that I was going to outline it, but when my brushstroke ended right at its trunk I continued to do it again and again til it was outlined.

This proves what the article meant in its description of focus and defocused creativity. There is an active balance with the two. You need to be able to let the creativity to come out without any large analytical thought (which might plugged the process) and you must be focused enough to find the offers.

To discover where your creativity might take you.