Creativity

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