I read in a book years ago, at the beginning of my creative journey, “The question is not, ‘Why do some people make art?’  The question is, ‘Why not?'” To me this expressed the primitive need we all posess to create, to make our mark, to publicly declare, “We are here!” For me, creativity all begins by getting in the correct frame of mind. I call it the right brain and it’s voice is “The Artist Within”. Your left brain voice is physiologically responsible for the past and the future. In practical terms, it reminds you that if you stick your hand in the fire it will burn and that if you do not have enough wood stored for the winter you will die. It is the “benefit of hindsight” and “thinking ahead”. It is ALSO the inner critic (reminding you of past mistakes) and STRESS (worrying about something that maybe, possibly, might happen in the future)!!! As your left brain is task-oriented, logical, and verbal it is most consistently the voice at our conscience, scrolling through our mental to-do list, staying on the right side of the road, texting, twittering, e-mailing…. While our left brain voice is SO valuable, if it is the ONLY voice to which we are connecting, we are missing out on infinite optimism, hope, creativity, intuition, and centeredness unique to our right brain thinking. Your right brain is completely PRESENT. It could care less about your past or what might, possibly happen in the future. Lose your job? Your left brain says, “Loser!” and your right brain/Artist Within says, “Great opportunity! Let’s create some change!”
I have had the privilege to spend time recently talking with John Cimino and Sarah Caldicott-Miller (which has led to this blog)! What we ALL seem to be sensing is that the time is NOW! The opportunity to launch our perspective on creativity into the national/global consciousness is NOW! There is not a person on the planet who is not aware of the need for CHANGE! But what is going to be different this time? We have to CHANGE THE WAY WE THINK!Â
I am so honored to be among this group of contributors who have been building the foundation, block by block, for what is about to be heralded as the Creative Age (or, as Dan Pink says, The Conceptual Age). I celebrate the opportunity we have to collaborate at this unique point in history.Â
WOw! It is late and I could keep going & going & going. I look forward to hearing from you. And I would not be “me” if I did not ask, humbly, yet with conviction, for you to buy my book and spread the word. Creatively yours, Whitney/The Artist Within, A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit
