Several conversations over the last few months have left me pondering questions about genius and creativity. How do we get inspired? Where does that inspiration come from? What does genius look like? Can we manipulate our circumstances to encourage or, indeed, hinder our capacity for creativity? Can we anticipate the creativity of others from their circumstances?

Wordsworth inspired by Lake District Daffodils

To some extent, these questions are subjective existential reflections on my own sense of creative ability or lack thereof. Remedies I have considered include, for example, a dash back to either New York City or London for a shot of city vibrancy, where the gritty mass of quotidian lives is matched by the sheer power of millions of minds processing visible innovative concepts. I also have wondered about a road trip to some bucolic and cloistered retreat. Then again, pragmatism also produced the idea that perhaps I should just stay home, away from distractions, and let creative inspiration well up in the peace and quiet of familiar surroundings. The common thread through all of this, however, is the construct of environmental circumstance to facilitate creativity. (more…)

Color. It seems simple enough. Add it to anything and it changes the vibe instantly. Color creates a mood, evokes emotion and puts a visual dialogue in motion. Wait. That sounds more complicated. Can color really do all of that? Now, that’s intimidating.

I must admit, as a designer, I struggle with color. The choice of combinations is overwhelming. You can begin to narrow your choices by using basic color theory – primary, secondary, analogous, complimentary, monochromatic, achromatic…Wow, where to begin, indeed. Isn’t there an easier way? I want something unique. Something that isn’t just the latest trend but a color palette that makes my art sing. Where can I find that inspiration?

Above left to right: Van Gogh's 'Starry Night', Monet's 'Water Garden and the Japanese Footbridge' and Seurat's 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'

As a long time admirer of the Impressionist art movement, I often look to those artists and their work for color inspiration. I feel that they interpreted nature and their surroundings with amazing compositions of light and emotion. It’s hard for me not to be drawn in to their work and immediately begin to feel the summer breeze on my face or the chill in the air after an early morning rain. It is because of this movement that I will never see a field of grass as just green or brown. I will always see the rich reds in the highlights of a wheat field or the cool blues and purples in a shadow under a tree. (more…)

The Film Forum in NY is doing a retrospective of Otto Preminger‘s work and I have to say that it’s a dubious enterprise. Watching The Man with the Golden Arm once again confirmed to me that his reputation of the maverick and auteur, rests very heavily on a series of poses and presumptions that his films made as being outre, modernist pieces of film art. The reality, for me, is that Preminger, with very few exceptions (like Laura), was firmly of the second rank of directors aping everyone from his fellow Germans, like Von Stroheim to William Wyler to Orson Welles.  (more…)

Imagine the power with just a thought to close or open doors, turn lights on and off, manipulate a thermostat or move a cursor across a computer screen. Or imagine the ability to delve willfully into your own subconscious and surface those hidden secrets. Science fiction, right. Right? Wrong.

Dr. Sanjay Singh last night presented six illustrations of huge advances in neuroscience discovery at a UNMC Science Café event hosted at Slowdown. In this Part I today, I will provide a brief snapshot of three of the wonders that he had to reveal. I will post the other three in Part II on Friday.

1 – What is art? Why are we attracted to some things and not others and why is art so subjective? Can science define it? Can it be defined through neuroscience? It is early days to answer this question, but Dr. Singh suggested an ancient Sanskrit text may hold one part of the answer, because it provided a definition of art that scientists could test against. The definition was that art is the defining characteristic of an object exaggerated.

Scientists have tested this using seagulls and rats. The rat experiment gave the rats the choice of a rectangle or a square. If they went to the rectangle, they got cheese. If they went to the square, they got nothing. (more…)

From the first time I was reprimanded for drawing Bart Simpson or a favorite logo during class, I have always said, “Yes, I am paying attention!”

You see, for me, doodling has always been my way of paying attention. It’s like this: If I had to sit through a lecture delivered by Ben Stein’s vocal protégé on the topic of igneous rocks and how they differ from metamorphic rocks – without some outlet to keep me sane – I’d still be in the 5th grade. It’s that simple.

Mindlessly doodling doesn’t mean I’m not listening, mind you. I stand by what I said earlier…I am paying attention, Helen! But instead of mentally fighting the painful drone with thoughts of being anywhere but in the present, doodling allows my brain to relax just enough to let the information flow in through my ears and settle into my brain cells.

Sketching has always kept me in the moment. Surely I’m not the only person on the planet who has developed the fine art of passive listening while doodling. So, why is it that some people think just because you’re not staring directly into their eyes, you must be a troublemaker who doesn’t pay attention to anything? On behalf of all doodling passive listeners, I’m here to say we are not all troublemakers. (more…)