Submitted by Mary Shell (not verified) on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 9:36am.
It is wonderful to see scientists explain how and why we create art...but they could never know what it is like to emerge your whole being into creating art. I am an artist and have been studying the creative process for over 15 years. What I have come to realize is that the human creative process was at one time in mankind's evolution,a survival tool. At the beginning of mankind,when shaman painted animals on walls of caves and everyone danced around a fire in altered states of consciousness preparing for a hunt,we did not know the difference between reality and imagination. The figures that were painted on cave walls were images of the future and past and they did not know the difference. Creating art was not a carefree craft for playtime. Art was serious voodoo. It carried messages deep within the psyche and touched the soul. At first man did not think from a logical standpoint. Our ancestor's reality was based on spirit and they acted upon the calling of the Gods through art.
So the question is: Do we still need art is our lives? Has our logical thinking surpassed or shadowed our creative process in creating art? What does art do to us when we gaze at it? A client once told me that 'artists are here on earth to remind us we have a soul? Does the soul still need art? yes, art is still a major aspect of being human. The images bypass the logic and go right to the subsconscious (or the soul). It is the true language of humankind...and our first language and it is universal...everyone understands art, and it has a different message for each of us.
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Narrative is determined not by a desire to narrate
but by a desire to exchange. (Roland Barthes, S/Z)
The Creative Process as a survival tool in evolution
It is wonderful to see scientists explain how and why we create art...but they could never know what it is like to emerge your whole being into creating art. I am an artist and have been studying the creative process for over 15 years. What I have come to realize is that the human creative process was at one time in mankind's evolution,a survival tool. At the beginning of mankind,when shaman painted animals on walls of caves and everyone danced around a fire in altered states of consciousness preparing for a hunt,we did not know the difference between reality and imagination. The figures that were painted on cave walls were images of the future and past and they did not know the difference. Creating art was not a carefree craft for playtime. Art was serious voodoo. It carried messages deep within the psyche and touched the soul. At first man did not think from a logical standpoint. Our ancestor's reality was based on spirit and they acted upon the calling of the Gods through art.
So the question is: Do we still need art is our lives? Has our logical thinking surpassed or shadowed our creative process in creating art? What does art do to us when we gaze at it? A client once told me that 'artists are here on earth to remind us we have a soul? Does the soul still need art? yes, art is still a major aspect of being human. The images bypass the logic and go right to the subsconscious (or the soul). It is the true language of humankind...and our first language and it is universal...everyone understands art, and it has a different message for each of us.