I took close to ten years off from Art. Through my late teens & early twenties. Not because I didn't still love doing art but because I felt the need to finally explore my world. I got into retail management & thoroughly enjoyed business marketing as part of it. It opened up another side of art to me. The art of business.

My daughter is kind of in a panic about not knowing what she wants to be when “she grows up”. As I explained to her, your late teens & early 20's is the perfect time to explore who you are and what you want to be. I've always known I was an artist an wanted to be one but since I didn't have the money to go to The Institute of Art in Philadelphia or Minnesota. I took my general college classes at the local community college Rock Valley an explored work. I took odd jobs: like part time printers assistant at the local Newspaper. I worked in restaurant management. I worked in bars as part of the local scene. Explored opening my own business as a painter & stainer in residential construction. Found myself really interested in business: Taking accounting certification. Then took a full time management job as a Cstore manager. An a couple of years after my child was boring opened my own business as a Daycare provider.

I didn't get back to ART art, until I was 26ish.

One of the reasons being, is I didn't see the need to spend a lot of money on art college if the jobs where not there to make a living doing it. I was interested in marketing because it was practical application of art. It which one could make a reasonable living. When home computers came out: Then I knew what I wanted to do as an art career. An through myself into it. I returned to college, in my late twenties. Learned everything but the kitchen sink that was available in computers. I learned a lot of hardware stuff, I wasn't really interested in. An harder programming then just the self taught html. But the what I was most interested in was computer multi media graphics & interfaces: Which they really didn't have degrees for back then.


An this is why I'm telling my daughter to explore for a few years.


Find out what you are interested in most. I didn't know that I'd be so interested in business. I just knew I wanted to be an artist. An I'm thankful I took the time to explore other things out in the real world before I settled down into art again. Because the truth is, being an artist can be hard without business skills. I'm glad I learned retail. Management. Business. I take it a lot less personally when someone doesn't like my art or buy it.


An the truth is: Explore has always been my first step in art to begin with.


It's the first step I always take in any art piece. You have to know what your wanting to do, learn or teach yourself to do before you even embark on a project. When I was very young, it was just wanting to be able to replicate my favorite cartoon characters. So, I would draw them over an over until I could do it perfectly. When I was 7-8 years old I couldn't wait for my next Disney book so I could read it an redraw everything in it. I'd explore the book fully. Then set out on a mission to replicate everything in it. I spent one whole summer just learning how to paint on tshirts, an would explore what I wanted to put on them.


Making a colleged portfolio of ideas.
I started this habit of collecting ideas from magazines & clippings early on. Which later on, professionally was told to do. That it's a great habit to be in. Exploring & putting together inspiration for my own work. I use to have a full size file cabinet of nothing but clippings that would remind me of works I wanted to do.


It wasn't to copy another work.


But a collection of things would remind me of something I wanted to draw or paint later. For a completely different piece of work. An example would be me saving the way a arm looked in a photo, to be able to draw it in a painting doing something completely different later. Every piece of art I've ever done has started off with exploring.


I spent one summer just exploring calligraphy. Font.


Until I could sit an draw different type of fonts on my own off the top of my head for different work. I spent a year exploring how to come up with my own cartoon type characters. Another year, just exploring animals. Drawing those. Another just working on faces & the human form. A couple of years painting in acrylics. Oil. Watercolor. Ect.


It always started with exploring a topic or medium.


Around 11-12 my art expanded with the realization that what made one drawing of an animal stand out over another I had drawn was Expression. I remember it pretty clearly that I was drawing a monkey that had a certain laugh in his eyes. They had a shine to them. Clearly conveying happiness. An up until that point, my drawings of say horses kinda had a deadpan look in their eyes. I worked on this moneky for a week, making sure I could reproduce that expression an finally had it perfect. It was perfect. His expression I managed to convey. An people reacted to it deeply. That's when I knew:


Expression is important.


Art is emotional. It's to express emotion. Convey a feeling. Elicit a response. Make a person do a double take. In photography they use the term: Making it “pop”. Really grabbing another's attention. I worked with a lot of folks, if your familiar with Sears Portraits that really would push proper posing. Which don't get me wrong is important: but not near as important as being able to snap someone authentic expression. Expression is what makes the difference between a simple photo and a portrait. Expression is what makes art good or great. It has the ability to pull from it's viewer a emotional response. My studio sales went up 30K a year because I would take expression over posing someone to death.


I once watched a senior photographer spend 20 minutes posing a family. The family was so sick of her by the time she got her proper pose; they had dead pan eyes. The whole shot looked great other then that. They didn't buy it. The experience was enjoyable. An it showed. Photography is a interactive art form. Folks, aren't just paying you to take photos they can take on their own. They are paying you for the experience as well. You have to be part clown, likable an enjoyable to get those precious expressions worth buying & printing. An it doesn't just have to be just smiles. The expression can be serious, sad, curiosity: you name it. But without authentic expression photography just isn't as good as it could be.


Expression is important to me. It's a part of my process.
No matter what kind of art I want to do, I learned early on expressing something is what makes it stand out. So I tend to think about what it is I want my art to express. Joy? Sorrow? Anger? What you want is an observable verbal and nonverbal way to communicate an internal affective state. An you want it conveyed so well that the other person doesn't even have to be consciously aware for it to registrar with them. It sounds like magic, but it's not.


If you think about it ahead of time, what your wanting to express.


Growing up, I wasn't really allowed to verbally express myself a lot. So I found fifty million ways to through art. Either by subject matter, color, texture ect. Artist are here to communicate: Even if it is non-verbal. We express our selves in numerous ways. You want to leave a impression. You do that by thinking about what you want to express. What expression would one's face & eyes make? An then go about giving off that “feeling” in what ever art style or material of your choice. It's easier to explain by talking about my photography but it's just as important in traditional & non traditional art forms.


I see a LOT of art daily.


It's always the one that expresses a feeling or mood well that stands out. So, Express is an important step in my creation process. I think about what impression I want to leave my viewer. What emotion I want to get out of them. Do I want them to feel joy? Then I'd make sure the monkey I'm drawing conveys his. My family subjects I'm photographing are having a good time. So their eyes smile. Or in my fractal art uses colors that the mind process as that.


It's not enough to just be good at drawing.


I see lots of younger folks drawing anime characters. A lot of them, while drawn well lack. They are just kinda blah even though drawn well. Why? Because they lack depth in expression.


So Express is part of my creation process an motto.


My last step is to actually create the piece.


In fractal art I would spend a day just going down the “rabbit hole” of a software program to get inspired. I'd explore. Think about what is I wanted to express with different snap shots: then go into photoshop an create it using color, light & enhancements. In drawing or painting, I've spent years studying spirituality, mythology, folk lore, symbolism an color to convey meaning. With computers I spent a lot of time just exploring how to do technical things so I could get to the point of doing art well with one. So, expressing with one is second nature to me. Just as I had studied calligraphy once upon a time on paper. I studied it & collected them on computes.


I just tend to pick a subject, explore it.
Think about what I want to express.
Then create it.


Even in my portrait studio, the process was the same.


It's a simple effective system for getting really good at any art form. It works with traditional art, caricature, font, writing, photography, programming, computer art. I haven't really ran into an art form it doesn't work with yet. The creation process no matter what art form you choose get's better each time you do it. I wasn't the best portrait photographer in my area when I first started my process. But by the time I had done over 3000 photo shots, I was 80th nationwide. All using this process. So, you if you keep creating with this process in mind. Your creations improve. Your art improves.


It's what makes art stand out.

Explore * Express * Create

I grew up on a farm, outside of a small town in Missouri in some ways they where the happiest years of my life, an the worst. Depending on which part of it I want to look at but the reason I'm writing this to tell my story. It's not actually here to complain or focus on all that was bad that happened to me. It's to examine where some of my beliefs came from, an reroute them. Because what you believe you become. Or can hold you back.


So I have had to look at some of those painful memories to see if they stuck.


An they didn't, an I'll tell you why they didn't. I had plenty around me that encouraged me to be my biggest brightest self. They invalidated the your unlovable aspect that could have stuck with me had I choose to believe my mother at age four. It just didn't stick.


I knew she was wrong.


An I believed that deep down all my life. I just buckled down on what I was good at. It started out as a way to stay out of trouble actually.


Art.


It became one of those household of been seen, not heard. Later in my life, I figured out I was kinda sound sensitive myself. Maybe because of it. But I enjoyed quiet as a child. Sitting at the table, drawing was enjoyable an it didn't set anyone off. I could be just what I was. A kid. An as long as I was “good” there was no drama in the house. So, although I was an active kid that enjoyed outside a lot: I learned from an early age to sit still. An focus on something else.


My dad came in one day, while I was sitting there drawing a tree.


An instilled something in me: That's great he said but then the criticism came: but can you draw something else besides a tree. I'm not sure he meant it critically either. He just saw I was stuck on one thing: Trees. He said, “Your trees good, but can you draw me a house?” I had never thought about drawing a house before. So, he sat down next to me an showed me how. He didn't do it for me. He instructed me to draw a box, then a triangle. He was working on my shapes with me.


That is how much I remember of my childhood.


Details like that. Who was actually teaching me things. He walked away, an I drew windows in it an he was pretty proud. An that's probably when I decided to become an artist because I've been doing art since as far back as I can remember, an being rewarded for it on a emotional level the more I improved.


“That's a nice house”


An he's the one that got me thinking, what else can a draw: An off I went with it. Next came the dog, the cows ect an it wasn't long after that, I saw Disney's “Alice in Wonderland” an got inspired. I sat and watched in awe cause it was all drawn. An they moved. Its really the first animated cartoon I saw. They weren't on at our house. We didn't have Sesame Street or any of that. It was a very rural area that only picked up three channels.


I wanted to know how they did that. I really did.


I was seeing how far drawing could take someone. So, I really became all about it. Plus, it kept me out of trouble. It was a winner to me! I'd still go outside and play with my dog, run but my time in doors became all about drawing and stories.


“Alice In Wonderland” was one of my first real novels I read.


An still, my favorite. My dad, use to sit on the couch an teach me my colors. We'd go through the whole box, while he'd show my infant sister as well. They where good memories. Anything associated with stories, learning or art where the best of memories. He'd watch Captain Kangroo with me before we would get dressed. He'd go over whatever lesson, he was teaching drinking coffee. Then we would get dressed, head over to my grandmothers to eat breakfast. I'd go hang out with Pappa.


So my childhood wasn't all bad.


It was after four that it got difficult an that is when my grandfather passed. That's when the tension happened. Looking back it's understandable as an adult. It was a huge loss for all of us. There was a lot of pressure on everyone. My dad, took over running the farm. My uncle moved in to finish high school. My grandmother moved up north to work to support the farm. An no one was in a good mood, most days. If not down right pissy, you'd say.


I myself didn't understand what happened.


I was four, an no one talked about it. He just disappeared. Poof! Gone.


An I remember having a conversation with my dad about what it.


What do you mean, he's in heaven?


Can't you call him? Tell him to come home?
You can call grandma, why can't you call him?


An I'm sure the conversation was difficult on my dad, cause I got pissed. An kept demanding someone call him. An at some point, my dad said well here: You talk to him an handed me the phone. He can hear you, he just can't answer you. He's with God.


Well who's God? An why won't he let Pappa talk?


So he called my grandmother instead. Here you talk to her for a while.
An that would take my mind off it I guess.


At some point, my dad wouldn't let hold the phone anymore like that. An told me I could talk to him without it. In my room. So I would. That was my introduction to God, Prayer an Spirit. Later, it when my grandmother returned from up North. She took me out on a drive and explained “Heaven” to me. I didn't much like the concept.


But I continued to draw.


It was the best way for me to be with everyone so upset. Quiet. The adults around me needed it. An I guess his passing made me grow up a little more serious then other kids. Shortly after that, my sister was born. An the dynamic in the house changed like it always does. I was no longer the center of attention, but that was okay. I kinda liked this idea of a child around. I've liked babies since I was a tot. Everyone kinda cheered up. Including me. An life moved on.


But I really was into art.


An my grandmother took me to see Snow White in theaters. It was my first movie.


I was blown away. You could do all that drawing?
So, I've always thought about drawing & stories.


It was just instilled in me from a very early age.
Books, stories, drawings...all of it.


I wanted to grow up an do that! After the baby came, my mom decided to redecorate my room or our room. Not sure which. I was entering Kindergarten an she decided to go with Precious Moments stuff for the theme. I use to play she was a great artist who did that. I'd sit an try to redraw it until I had it as perfect as the one on the folder. I'd spend hours in my room doing it.


I didn't want to just draw stick figures like my grandmother taught me.


I wanted them to be as cute as the figurines I saw down at Hallmark. As cute as the baby was. An I'd focus all my attention on it. I'd play I was that great of an artist. An even worked on what “my signature” symbol should be. That's how into the idea I was of being an artist & story teller I was. Still am. I'd play that all the time.


One playtime ritual revolved around a suitcase.


I played that a famous artist had stopped by. Painted an oil painting on it of a VW bug, traveling. Which actually was a famous ad back in that day. That it was worth millions, an he just gave it to me and my dad to protect. An inside was my mom's typewriter. An I'd take it out, pretend to type my story then draw the artwork for it. I'd pretend the “bad guys” where trying to break in to our house an steal it. But they didn't know how special it was.


An when I got sick couple of years ago.


This is the kind of stuff, I was thinking about. My playtime stories. Rituals. Things I would do as a child. I spent a lot of time trying to learn how to use my mom's typewriter. I think I knew how to type before I actually could read very well. It was just important for me to know how to do that. It's what made books. An she would let me do it, as long as I didn't mess up the ribbon.


This is the kinda of stuff artist think about.
Getting back in touch with your “magical thinking”


My kids where all upside down, when I got sick because what I was talking about just didn't seem to make a lot of sense to them. It made perfect sense to me: I was the one stuck in my own head. An I might have been starving an hallucinating, but I was rediscovering myself. I just wasn't communicating so well.


I don't suggest starving yourself to death as a way to creativity.


I've never believed in the starving artist notion. Even though, I was literally at that moment. I only suggest looking back at your childhood as a way to get to the root of why or where you got that notion in your head. I was surrounded by successful art. In books. On Tv. In Movies. Magizines in my childhood. So, I really do have to rethink this “poor” notion.


It might have been watching my family struggle with bringing the crops in.
How important that was to our families financial future.


Farmers are poor part of the year, rich the other.
An they have more equity then most do...


Yet there was this image of poor struggling farmers out there. An in the 70's banks where taking farms away from people that had several farmed the same land several generations. It was a legit worry for my own family. I didn't grow up with this notion we where poor. Just that it required a lot of work. I grew up with stories of when my grandmother was poor, struggling to over come that. An how the whole family had. I grew up with my father, going on strike an marching on Washington over the way farmers where being done. Him warning other's in his community to get out, or invest in something else before you loose it all.


An that's what he did. He sold all the equipment, the cows an even my dog an moved us up north. He was well worth over a million dollars. We were not poor. It was just invested. He took that money an bought rentals to support the farm land. He didn't farm it anymore. He rented it out but held on to it by doing something else with the money.


So, I'm not sure what got stuck in my subconscious that you couldn't make a living at art. Or where it came from. It might be I just got taught you couldn't make a living at something you love. Because my dad actually loved farming. He didn't really enjoy fully being a landlord. Not like he had farming. So that might have been why I choose to go into a different field other then the one I loved.


It might not actually have anything to do with art.
Or if you can or can't make a living at it.


An this is why you have to go back into your programmed subconscious an see what's going on there. What lessons you learned watching your parents grow up. We always had enough. We might have not been living like the Rockfellers but there was food on the table an clothes on our backs. So, you have to look at what you learned about work or money from your childhood. An when I look back, my mom had a habit of telling us there wasn't enough money for this or that.


But looking back, there was plenty of money for what we needed.


So it's a nasty habit mentally I got from someone that didn't mean to instill it I don't think. She always had a fear there wouldn't be enough. Not that there was or wasn't I think an passed that on to me. That thought. It's part of budgeting to last a year on a farmers salary. It's just the nature of the beast. Same as getting through to the next weeks check. It was just a habit of hers to tell us kids. There is or isn't money for this or that. Or we only have this much to spend. That probably made me a great manager. I didn't over shoot my budget as one. But it might have made me always think we where poor when we weren't. So, it's how you choose to look at something.


An you have to examine it or it's going to effect your whole life.


Money's a funny subject for me. I've had money, I've not had money. An I don't tend to look at wealth the same as most of the people I know. Successful or not. Money to me, I guess because I watched my parents under so much pressure from it: Seemed like a burden. Not a joy. An when you don't have enough of it, it most certainly can be. My hang ups regarding money might just all go back to the time my grandfather passed away.


Before that, people worked an did what they where suppose to create money. They didn't worry over it. They just did it. So my four year old self might have been running my whole money show my entire life, prepare for the worst that could happen. That's kind of what you do, budgeting. Prepare for the worst. Hope for the best is kinda deal. Go without somethings, while you have to get them later when you can afford to.


I'm not bad with money.
I never have been.


I can make 30K go a lot farther then most. I just tend to view wealth not just as something material. Happiness, satisfaction, resources factor in. What's the point of being “successful” if your whole family is miserable in the process weighs heavily for me. Not that I don't understand the road to success. I'm surrounded by successful people, in one form or another. But like the “Artist's Way” brings up, you have to define what success means to you as an artist.


It wasn't starving.


So, when did this notion I might be one if I choose a art career take root?
Where did it for you?


This is one of the reasons I got back and rethink my childhood. Not only is it a source of getting back in touch with your creative self, an your “magical thinking” You can pull up a bad weed that got planted there in your subconscious at some point. It can block your road to success. I want to pull up by it's roots. It's a bad seed.


I'm just not seeing in my childhood where that got planted.


Other then my father selling the farm, an taking away from it you couldn't make money doing something you love. You might have to find something else you like doing to make a income. That just might be it for me, an has nothing to do with can I or can I not be successful artist. It might have been why I became so interested in business management. I actually love running businesses. PNL's turn me on. Out performing ever gas station in the Rockford area, use to give me chills. Good ones.


When the gas guy would call, an say hey Dana, want to get into a price war today?


I'd be oh, hell yea!


I enjoyed it. Competition. It's fun to me. So, it might not be a fear of being an artist. Or not making enough money at it. It just might be, this is the right time in my life to presue it. When it doesn't matter if I make money at it or not. That's a nice bonus. But it's not the main goal. Just a side product of it. It might have been because I witnessed great aunts & my grandmother not get into art until they where older an had time to. When raising their children an obligations where already meet. At any rate. I got over whatever fear of it was holding me back, when I took the photography management job.


An that fear of instability, seems to be there regardless of what career I'm in.
An it's just something you have to scwash like a bug. An get past it.


I think that fear for me comes from some place else that has nothing to do with money or art.


I don't know a successful person that hasn't had to face that fear, an over come it.
Regardless of the career path they choose to be in.
You have to face whatever is holding you back.


So, I've pretty much set myself up, now where I can do art regardless. Without worry.
An the only thing that seems to get in the way of it is, a few peoples approval.


I don't actually need to do art.


So, what's holding you back?

Creativity. What's it mean to you? Me? Just about everything. I personally think I'm a rather boring person because of it: Yet not. It all kinda starts in the head. An I spent a whole year thinking about it and Art. An what really truly makes one a great artist. Spending almost a decade in portrait photography, I had reached burn out, an I've took a little time off from it.



I was working for Mom365, photographing newborns: Crisp clean photography. Which, don't get me wrong, I love an think everyone should have those of their newborns but having a studio background there was a wish I could take them all home with me an do more creative posing. It was encouraged in a couple of studios I've worked for, as long as it didn't take long. An other companies, it wasn't. So my dissatisfaction grew working for Lifetouch or other companies. While I got to travel, I didn't have much time to explore: to take other outstanding photography I'd like. Which makes me think, I should probably get into wedding photography: but there are some hassles with it I'm not sure I want to take on.


So I'm setting up my own studio.


I miss having a creative setting to work out of. Opening my own studio, I can take longer with clients. I can do things, companies won't: like taking the time for digital art. With major companies its about the money more then it is the art form. They find something simple that works, an drain the hell out of it. These simple portraits are important, don't get me wrong. Everyone needs them but they don't WOW! Like I was taught to do. I'm a junkie when it comes to that, always have been since I was a little kid drawing things other kids couldn't. I get off on people's reactions to my creativity. The result of someone's eyes opening wide, a big smile crossing their face an seeing the joy in them usually is my pay off. More so then money.


It's priceless to me.


Being able to bring someone to tears over a piece of my work, deeply satisfying. So, moving someone with my art is my goal. It's my motivation. I got really good with it in a studio setting. Well in other settings as well, but that WoWzer effect I look to create just wasn't possible in these pop up photography settings. At least not to me, an I was burning out because of it. When you are taking pictures of newborns an can't get the new mother to eww an aww over what your doing, you know somethings missing. An to me, it was the creativity of a studio setting. You can just do a lot more in a studio then you can at the bottom of a hospital bed. An that's what people want & get inspired by.


So, I've been investing in my studio so I can take those creative portraits.


I need it like water: creativity.


Creativity takes more of a investment then just simple snap shots anyone can do. It takes time & money. Not something I saw most companies I worked for willing to invest much in. An that's why so many studios are closing nationwide as well. They just don't seem willing to go the extra length it takes to keep that spark in a persons eyes open wide. I am, so that's where I am going with my photography. I just have to do something more creative. Not just simple head shots, no matter how good I am at those. My being needs to hear the “Oh, WoW!” when I do something. It's the appreciation of my work that drives me. I can get pretty creative provoking that response as well.


So, what is creativity?


What makes one creative? Like I said, I sat an thought a lot about this after I left Lifetouch. Creativity to me in photography is making something or someone stand out. It's a how, a technique just as much as it is using head. It's using your hands as well as your mind.


I don't just do photography: Although that's how I've made my living.


I've done traditional art since I was young: drawing, painting etc. When I got older: programming an digital art. I spent a year just creating a piece of fractal art a day. Just to WoW! Internet crowds an entertain others: That's what a junkie I am for the response to creativity. Doing family photography feed that need as well. I've had this need to be creative and have people's responses to it since I was young. An the former usually drives me to get more creative as I go. I'm a attention whore for it. I don't want a lot of attention personally, just for my skills an my creativity. It drives me to get better at what ever art form I'm working in. So the studio, is going to have simple photography to complex digital art involved.


I crave it: Creativity. Need it.


It's a part of my being: but what is creativity? I'd say the ability to inspire or elicit a emotional response in ones self and in others. Technique or gear is just the tools you are using to do so. The official definition of it is: The use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. In the time I took off after leaving Lifetouch, my thoughts where on what made one great. Was it their creativity alone? Or was it something more.


Drawing a picture of a mouse, isn't exactly “great”


Yet, Disney made it great. It was the first of it's kind. He came up with something new. Mixing pictures with film. Then mastered techniques doing this as time went on. But that's not exactly what made Disney films great. It's what got him notices by others at first, but what made Disney great was the ability to elicit a response. Same with all the “Grates”.


So creativity is a little more then just mastering techniques. Or coming up with a original idea: Which by the way is hard to do in this day and age. It's all been “done” before. Yet, that's what artist strive for a lot of time: an original idea. To be the first at something. Again, it's what got Pixar noticed. They where some of the first to take what Disney was doing an transfer it to computers. It's not what made them “Great” though. Their ability to take a new technique, master it and elicit a emotional response was.


DaVinci was King of original thoughts an ability to use art form to put them down on paper but what's his most famous painting? The Mona Lisa, because it still to this day get's a response from it's viewers. Even the one's who are not into art it manages to stimulate a reaction to. His Last Supper, no where near a original idea, done by many artist in his day as well. Why is it better then the others done? Not just because he had mastered an artistic form, but because it is capturing anothers imagination. The greats grabs a persons eye, then holds it's attention. It's mind long enough to get a response.


So I beg to differ just mastering technique is creativity.


No matter how original or good art your skills are, it won't be great art if it can't do this. In my spare time, I've been doing a popular form of art lately: paint pouring. It does but doesn't take a lot of skill. From my point of view, having a lot of art techniques under my belt. It's easy. To another it's difficult. What I notice is it doesn't get much of response except from other artist playing in it themselves. It gets responses, but probably not enough to make it “Great” even though the paint interacting with its self is a very spontaneously creative. I enjoy, watching it form. I'm an artist after all. It inspires me but after it dries, I'm like “ehhh, it's okay” but when I saw it on a piece of clothing: I was like: “WoW!”. It didn't wow me or really anyone else on the canvas. It's “okay”. In the right decorating situation, it will stand out in a room but it would need that to make it “Great”.What's interesting about the whole art technique are the videos of it being done, not the pieces themselves. Which is what is making it popular. People are getting just as WoW'd as the artist watching it form. That is what is making it stand out, what is making it “great”.


The response.


An it's not the painting themselves, but the watching of the process.


It's also what sells photography as well. People enjoy parting in the process of creating portraits of themselves. It caputers there attention while you have them in the studio. It's why some artist on the internet are more popular then others. Some are better at grabbing the attention of viewers, then others even though one maybe more skilled at the technique: It doesn't mean they are the most creative.


So, after a year of thinking on the subject of what is creativity:


What I've come up with is, it's more then just coming up with something new or being good at it.


To be creative also means to capture the viewers attention span. It's why one artist can sell, while another no matter how good they are or their art can't. It's not a matter of just being the most artistic at something. Its not just a matter of being imaginative in oneself. All the greats where, are an so are plenty of artist, no matter what form of art they choose to do. Even a hobbyist has imagination.


We all do.


But what sets the “greats” apart from other artist an other people is one thing: the ability to engage another imaginative realm. To get them involved mentally. Grab their attention an do something with it that creates a emotional response in another: Whether it's laughter or tears, or just plain out Awe.


It's part of the creativity process.


It's the last step in it.


It's not just one's own ideas, but the ideas you spark in anothers mind that makes one highly creative. That's what makes one film better then another. Why Alice In Wonderland is still one of the most popular children's books, or what makes a mediocre cartoonist sell more work then a highly trained one.


Part of the creative process is engaging another imagination.


An those that do it well, are the most creative. They've mastered the creative process.

1. Use their imagination
   
2. Create the work
   
3. Engage others with their work
   
4. Get a response.
   

So many artist are depressed because that last part is hard to do. Especially in this day an age where people are overloaded with looking at pictures, artwork and quotes. The former two are just as much a part of the creative process as the first two, or at least I have found as a common ingredient that went into making something a great work of art.


Just something to think about:
Creatively. Yours,
Dana Haynes