Creatian

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Creativity Manifesto

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Abstracts are Creative

Art is not a puzzle. We have grown up with the mentality that art has to make sense, that if you do not draw well, be a recognized artist or be someone who can do art that can be seen and admired then you are not an artist. Abstract art is not supposed to carry out a meaning, nor it is any “job” of any art piece of meaning something. We have also grown up with the idea that if you are an artist and want to make a living out of what you create you are pretty much poor. 

Abstract art is hard to understand, because it is difficult to make up what the artist intended to communicate or persuade the audience about. If we really think about it though, nature is abstract art. What for some might just be a pile of rocks, for others can be art made by nature or specifically by God who created everything.

Thinking about how we are different from the crowd. What does it mean to be swimming against the tide, as Christians not everything that we do or how we think about certain matters, but as long as we are standing firm in what we believe what others say and think should not be a problem. As Christians and as individuals we are each our own world and we are pretty similar to abstract art, we might be hard to read or interpret but yet we are a kind of art, we are a piece made by a perfect creator to be creatives.

After having our class discussion on abstract art I looked at some of cubism inspired abstract pieces of Pablo Picasso included the image on the bottom which is a picture of that piece from Picasso that was sold for $179 million. “Pablo Picasso’s 1955 painting Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) fetched $179.4 million in a Christie’s auction, the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction. The buyer was not disclosed, and the bidding for the auction”.

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Abstract Art

1.) “Art aș a Twenty-First Century Calling”: This chapter describes the journey of the christian artist and how being an Christian in the arts can influence a lot on how others see you and your art. The author talks about an existing gap between what the public relates to and that which is only observed by the elite, and how we as Christian artists should actually be standing in the middle to make that gap disappear. He also focuses a lot on describing the importance of telling our small stories just as Jesus did when he taught through parables as those can have bigger impacts than telling big stories without purpose. The author also talks about how we should be swimming against the tide, because of the labels that we get as Christian artists. With this being said we still should take responsibility for our actions as God commissioned us to be stewards of his cultural earth. Finally, the author reveals his secret which I deeply share with him, I need God.

2.) Joe Lloyd about abstract art in an essay he wrote for a book called “How to Look at Abstract Art”: I thought this essay was very helpful. I kind of expected that he’d go into more depth about what abstract art is and how to look at it, but instead what the reader gets is a simple description of what abstract art is. He focuses mostly on describing how meaningful artwork is only achieved when the context of the piece is carefully constructed. I appreciated the fact that he gave the football example. I was able to relate because there are quite a lot of sports of which I have no idea about, but that does not mean that I am not willing to know more about and that after doing some research about how they work I still won’t like them. In conclusion, the context of a piece of art is fundamental to understanding the meaning behind it. 

Joe Lloyd Abstract paintings 

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Questions of the Week:

What art is most challenging for you? Why?

What makes an artwork good or bad?

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The art that is most challenging for me is that which we try to re-create based on what others have done. As humans we tend to compare ourselves to others in many cases, and art can be a particular one that I seem to struggle with. I tend to attempt to be as good as others are and it just doesn’t happen like that. Art that has my essence is going to come out of my imagination and my creativity alone, I might be able to get inspired in other’s art, but not based on it. The art we try to “copy” from other creatives is the most challenging, because we have different perspectives and different purposes than the ones that the original artist once had. 

What makes art good or bad is the amount of effort that was put into it, the originality, and background story of the piece. A piece that I produce might seem meaningless to others until they know the purpose and story that I am trying to tell. What differences good from bad art is the commitment that the artist puts into it.

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Street murals

Defining success for ourselves before deciding what art being successful means. Success is feeling successful when we play it hard and that hard work pays off. Using art as a tool for success to be our full self. Success gives us confidence to keep making art. Having knowledge about the artist and what they were going through when they made the particular piece can give a full understanding of it. Street murals that we have a deeper meaning of all the architecture of the urban environment being interrupted. Art affects or emotions, changes our perspectives,  and solidifies thoughts that we might have. The art that we interact with can compliment and deepen emotions that we might be going through.  

We are living in the past while looking at past art instead of being present today. A Christians we have to understand what the issues that society is going through in order to understand the audience to which we are trying to connect. Acknowledging that listening does not have to be the end of it,  but actually doing something to change the issue. 

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Be Intentional with What You Consume

SWatch the Art Assignment video “Love the Art, Hate the Artist”: Picasso mistreatment of women is an example of how art that we enjoy does not only match with the artist. Our reading of an artwork is always affected by the information that we have or lack. How we see an artist’s work continues to change by outside forces that we can not control. We have to be intentional about what we are consuming, since it is okay to like the art but not totally agree with the artist.

“Let the Games Begin” by Stephanie Sabo: Reading this report about Tina’s art presented at the University where she taught before Jessup felt easy and satisfying. Having her as the creative figure this whole semester has made me get to know her and her art, but it was definelly helpful to read what others have to say about it. The first idea “Love is an action word” caught my attention, because it is such an easy phrase that can be very hard to live out. We all talk about love, write about love, paint about love, draw about love, but what if love is one of those things that is not only based on theory but rather in practice. “Linville’s games create boundaries but also provide an opportunity for creative action”, this is another quote that I thought did a great job on explaining Linville’s purpose with her art.  Linville’s work reminds us to stay in the present moment and look for opportunities to play, and this reminded me of that article that we read a few weeks ago about art and a playful God. We are meant to grow old, but not to stop playing and whoever put the opposite idea in our heads was wrong.

“Art as a Proper Job” PDF: Being an artist is not just  a job, it is a mission where one is to not only share the gospel but also live it out. Being an artist makes it very difficult to make enough money for a living, but there are always ways through which God will provide, some of the recommended ways from the author are: seeking commissions, being willing to compromise, be a conciliator, listen to criticism, and work in the community. Finding a community is not only helpful but indispensable to thrive in the artworld since there will be many ups and downs in which one will need the spiritual and emotional support from others. When making art it is not wrong that one seeks success, but just as anything in life it has its limitations and it can become a threat if it is not paid attention to, a responsible balance is crucial. We are always talking about keeping our balance, however this will get tipped the other way and as Christians we have to grapple with this and try to do our best to not spend the energy that corresponds with other areas of our lives. Being an artist is not an easy job, however, being willing to take on risks and change the routine around once we feel like we have had enough of it to smooth tasks and make life and art more enjoyable.

Mind blowing illusion painting by Oleg Shuplyak 25 to check out at: https://www.fineartandyou.com/2014/02/25-awesome-and-mind-blowing-illusion.html

Admiring Frida Kahlo a bit more this week

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Questions of the Week

What types of art are you most drawn to? Why?

Has an artwork ever changed your mind about something? Explain.

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I am most drawn to what some may call simple art. Art that is very original to the individual artist, that is simple and yet represents something meaningful about life. Realism is a type of art that seems to never be enough for me, it is amazing how something that can be just an art piece based on something in real life can hide that amount of meaning. This is because the artist chooses the piece wisely and puts in it the effort to make that piece so it communicates something deep that one will only understand when looking at it closely and paying attention to even the smallest details. 

Artwork has changed my mind about many things in different stages of my life. A piece of art can always speak hundreds of times louder than a million words and there is something beautiful about that. A piece of art can communicate feelings and emotions that words will never do. The most recent example of this that I can remember about is when Grace showed us the piece she did during the protests last summer. I thought it communicated the message that God cares and loves us more than all the protests that took place due to the Black Lives Matter movement, it only took a few seconds to be amazed by the power of art but also understand what her drawing was communicating and how understanding that message was life transforming. 

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1.) Imagine, The Times: In chapter seven, Steve Turner expresses three main points. First, he narrates how the changes in the cultures throughout the span of time have led to misconceptions about Christianity and christian art. According to to Turner, the view of christian artist is changing to being conformists and followers of other Christians. Christian artists want to remain in the “Christian art” box for fear of being rejected by others. His second point is closely related to the first, it is that art responds to times in several different ways. Changes in technology can make it easier to present art in larger platforms to larger audiences. Technology can be used to present art in different dimensions and that should be taken advantage of. The second way art responds to times is through science, God’s ability to create everything perfect is an amazing reason to worship him and fulfill the what if. The third way that art responds to time is through politics, artists are able to create art in times of instability whether that be health, financial, marital/relational and the artist will have a bigger impact in his/her audience. Christians do not need to believe or feel like life is perfect but rather represent the truths that the world is going through and from there draw conclusions to possible changes that can be implemented.

2.) Read this interview with Los Angeles based artist Lynn Aldrich: Lynn’s Aldrich is a story that truly touched my heart. During her interview she touches some points that I was able to relate to such as how faith comes into practice as an artist, and how our art can say a lot about how we think about environmental and other issues. 

Julian Rosefeldt Video: I do not think I have ever played so much attention as I did when they were setting up the table (funny). The prayer was interesting. It was long and confusing, in the beginning I had to go back a couple of times to make sure that what I heard was what the woman was saying. And the animals at the end… sad and creepy.

Weird aesthetic art can be tripping but also fascinating. 

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Yay&Boo!

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Question of the Week:

What makes art successful?

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Art is considered successful is the demand for it is high, meaning if people want to consume it, it must be because it is worth it. Art is successful if it connects to the audience by incorporating themes that relate to each individual as well as their experiences. What makes art successful is if it contains a meaning or message with a purpose and if that purpose is achieved.

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Lukewarm Destructive

Making art that glorifies God should be something that we do  in a practical way in everyday life.  Grace’s protest sign truly explained the genuineness in the complexity of life, just like the Black Lives Matter movement Jesus is always the answer and us being able to communicate that through art makes the difference, differences that a thousand words can not explain. 

Your heart and purpose should be behind your art, but also check if in your art you cover any of the fruits of the spirit, if one of those is included, you are giving glory to God. It is easy to fall into the trap of bringing glory to yourself instead of to God, and the discernment behind that is what makes our art to give glory to God. Theory and practice lining up as one, practice what you preach.

Figure out how to identify if a script is positive or negative and how we can work into that, have people over you who can speak life over you but also have the accountability on them to call you out when one is messing up or  being arrogant. Perfectionism idea shifting from the head space where scripts get negative to know when that takes place and shift it. 

Having technology so accessible that we start to lose the appreciation for actually going out and creating something.  Intentional about having time off of technology so we can actually be creative and glorify God through all of what we do. Our time is our life and our attention is the doorway to our hearts.

The enormous destruction that technology can cause.

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Create to See What Emerges

1.)“Emerge (truth)” pages 66-72: Our inner voices or “self talk” as psychologists call it, has a big influence on how we perform on an everyday basis. There are four scripts mentioned on Emerge: Demanding, barrier, faulty and excusing. I was able to relate to all of them sadly, I have at least once told related things to myself to not get out of my comfort zone. When those scripts are part of who we are, this is when the renewing of our mind comes in, we are not directly able to change our behaviors, but we can change our thoughts which then leads to changing our behaviors. Changing the scripts we listen to can be challenging, but Don Perini offers us these five steps: Listen what you tell yourself, define which scripts are healthy and unhealthy, design a support system that will help you focus on the healthy scripts, be aware of others trying to drag you down, and imagine yourself to be capable. These five steps will help you to make the process become a reality.

2.)“Emerge (Usefulness)” pages 117-125: Laodiceans were described as lukewarm water, this meant that they were spiritually useless. Back then the Laodiceans had gold, clothes, and possessions that kept them to look away from God. Similarly to the Laodiceans, today we have things that can pull us apart from God some of them are: technology, it can easily make us addicted to the use of it to escape from the real world to make our own, entertainment has made us change our vocations into a way of sliding away from God, and consumerism, we buy food and clothes because we feel empty and we are trying to fill that gap with materialistic things. Humanity is lucky, we did not only have Jesus died for us on the cross allowing us to be free from our sins, but we also have the Holy Spirit pursuing us to do better and seeking to renew our minds so that we do not conform to the earthly things.

3.)“Emerge (part 3)” pages 127 to end of the book: In this last part of Emerge, the author introduces and explains seven additional habits for creative emergence. They are: frequency, prototype, brainstorm, learning culture, observation + senses, start and slay Guardians. Becoming comfortable with your creative self and seeing what ideas emerge it is important to follow these steps. Change the routine of your days, design different prototypes of your ideas, re-generate your ideas, learn something outside your talents to see what you come up with, observe it and see how you can make improvements to that idea, beat procrastination, and finally overcome obstacles that will appear. 

4.)“All That is Made / Creativity as Devotional Practice” pages 50-52: The ending question of what if you quit or what keeps you from quitting? And the beginning question of why did you start creating in the first place? Remind us of our childhood, remind us of where we come from and where we are headed. These questions remind us how we once did art as a hobby and we made it part of our lives by now. Creativity is a devotional practice to reconnect with our first love, and remember that we were created to dwell on God’s presence. Oftentimes we challenge ourselves to be the generation that would change certain things about humanity, let us not, since we do not need to put anymore pressure on ourselves. We were created to enjoy what we do and not to make art more “productive”.

5.)“All that is Made / When you get there, Remember that you were carried by the Spirit” pages 58-61: When we get to the point where we truly have made creativity a part of our lives we are to tell the story of how you got there, so that we can serve as inspiration for others. We are to remember things that carried us forward and like Samuel we should lay ebenezers along the road of our individual journey. When we get to the point where we once dreamed to be, we must remember that God carried us through and the people that also help us, because once one is at the top it is easy to become the center of it all. Being thankful and humble about our journey will take us even further. 

Topiary: art of shaping trees, blew my mind as a child but also made me so happy :)

Cubism is mind blowing too!

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Question of the Week:

How can art be made “to the glory of God”? What does that look like? What doesn’t it look like?

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Art can be made “to the glory of God” if it is representing a truth about our identity, about life or about eternity. Humans are God’s creation, therefore anything that represents our identity such as art will be to the glory of God. We all tell a story through art, and put ourselves into it, it can be understood in many different ways, and interpreted differently, but there is always something that points back to our identity and therefore to God. Making art that glorifies God will look differently according to who the artist is, what it should not look like is as something that introduces people to lies and to believe in hell, because if that happens instead of leading people towards God we would be leading them away from him.

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Who Creative Project?

Creative types

Taking the creativity test was very helpful, because it helped me to better understand my creative side. I thought it was very accurate, simple definition of my abilities as the artist and how the producer would be the idea aide to strive in projects. 

Smells have such a great power in our brains, they can trigger emotions, past experiences and even memories of people. At first I as having trouble deciding on the labels, but then I opened each of the lotions and I had trouble narrowing down all the labels that could have been used. This project was such a nice experience, since I am not longer going to see these lotions the same ever again since now each of them will be used purposefully to do that activity better.

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Silence Needed for the Craziness of Our Lives

Renewal is a combination of inspiration and restoration. It is finding little things in life and simplifying the craziness and business into sitting in my car in a parking lot listening to music while it rains. Taking a step back from our routines and changing things that are drawing us and replacing them with things that fill us up. Renewing our minds is a continual change of noticing that as much as it hurts sometimes we need to shut down the doors to certain activities or people who are bringing us down, so that we can welcome and have the space needed for new and better ones. In order for God to renew our minds we need to set up our eyes on him and surrender to him and He gives us that redirection thoughts. God gives us the confidence of moving forward with our minds renewed. Art in church should be used to glorify God, functioning as a spiral that always comes back to sharing love, and with that sharing God because God is the definition of love. God renews our minds, but it does not stop there, He renews us physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and in friendships.

Simplicity takes bravery, putting aside our day to day life and noticing the little things that make the difference between the craziness and messiness into clear thoughts that give us the ability to try to go back and reorganize our messes. There is a finite time and energy in a day, but it is all about intentionally and where we spend all of that energy. Doing one task at the time, being present in the moment and putting all your focus into one thing is a reminder that we all need everyday, because it is something that we constantly need to keep practicing.

Community, home is where they challenge you, but in that they offer to support you through those changes. Being brave and loving enough to get people to push people to be a better version of yourself, but also appreciate where you are now. Home is where God is, because He is the only one who can truly understand ourselves. 

Habitat, get rid of things you do not need and invest in those that help you and bring you joy. How we set up our space matters and having a sense of identity and senses that trigger different times in our days.

Silence

Emptiness

Simplicity

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Supporting Points to Have Talents

1.) Simplicity: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” -Leonardo Da Vinci. Task management is a skill that creatives must count on, as creatives there are goals that we want to achieve. We will not get to them unless we work out a way of setting that time aside on a regular basis. As humans we are often busy with unimportant tasks, and we choose to give those tasks the attention that we probably should not. Having a system of organization for time management and what we spend our time on is extremely important, because it not only impacts the way we keep developing our creative habits, but in the long run it gives us more wisdom to put up with life later when we have more tasks to balance. We ought to seek living a simple life, buying cheaper, eliminating things that add stress to our lives, practice reducing the unimportant, don’t over schedule our schedules, learn to say no to be able to open the door to things I want to say yes to, eat and drive slowly (notice the little things), live smaller, do one task at a time, and evaluate new opportunities.

2.) Village: Creatives live our lives needing praise and criticism and in order to get that we must be surrounded by community. We need a village of people to help us conquer and achieve our creative goals. Joining a village is important because it helps you to have a healthy and successful creative life. Some people that we can include in our villages are: the encourages, the mentors, the consultants and the collaborators.

3.) Habitat: Our surroundings affect the way we think and create. Things like color, sound and environment affect the ways we behave and respond to certain situations. Some suggestions that the author of Emerge suggests for inspiration are: white boards, paint, couch, wall dressing, candles, and fun stuff, sometimes we might just need to have the time to make the ideas flow.

4.) Watch “Art + Life” a video by The Art Assignment about artist and educator Corita Kent:  Corita Kent developed 10 rules to determine if one is a creative, a teacher or what, when she became a nun and was teaching at Immaculate college in LA.

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Questions of the Week:

How should art be used in church? What should that look like? What shouldn’t it look like?

In what ways does God “renew” our minds?

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Art in church should be used to glorify God by the talents He has given to individuals. Art should function as a physical representation of stories in the bible and to help us understand certain concepts of the bible. Art in the church should look like support for us to understand the goodness of God, but it should not look like the main portion of the glory so that it becomes idolatry.

God renews our minds when one accepts Jesus as our one savior. The person’s thoughts, mindset, behavior, goal, purpose, and calling change as if this person becomes a new creature. Some ways that God can use to continue renewing our mind are: through scripture, prayer, journaling and the identity that Jesus gives us.