Posts Tagged ‘Flow’

Aesthetic Arrest

Wednesday, January 9th, 2019
I love this term—‘Aesthetic Arrest’. It best describes the feeling we have when in the presence of a work of art, or any object of beauty, that has that ‘wow’ quality, that stops us in our tracks. We feel somehow altered by the encounter, taken outside of ourselves, elevated somehow. Robert Rye best expresses it […]

Wu Wei: The Power of Spontaneity

Tuesday, December 4th, 2018
I’ve often written here about the concept of ‘Flow’ as it relates to creative process and our overall sense of well-being; that there is a higher intelligence at work regarding a formula for creativity that we can trust as an organizing principle not only in the creative process, but more importantly in our day to day […]

Aspects of Visual Discernment

Wednesday, June 27th, 2018
Everyone is a photographer now. Yet despite the ever increasing number of photographs being taken, we seem to be suffering from what I like to call a poverty of visual discernment. The reasons are varied, beginning with the preoccupation of sharing images on social media, which generally short circuits the process of true seeing, let […]

Empty Your Cup

Thursday, May 10th, 2018
When we’re full of ourselves, art cannot flow through us, neither can our richest experience of life. Often when I’m teaching a photography workshop, there is an initial discomfort among participants around ’emptying their cup’. Everyone has brought expectations, preconceived ways of seeing, established ideas about photography, themselves, and often a serious agenda for the […]

The ‘Good Eye’

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2017
Like many who have built a career around being a photographer, I’ve often been told I have a ‘good eye’. It’s more or less a necessary job skill. A question that has come up throughout my career  is whether or not having a ‘good eye’ is something that can be learned, or is it some […]

The Fresh Eyes of Exile

Friday, February 10th, 2017
I’ve written of the need to have ‘Fresh Eyes’ in the pursuit of any creative endeavor here in the past. I came across this essay by Costica Bradatan which beautifully validates, and expands on this idea. It speaks to the upside of exile—typically a term carrying a negative connotation—banishment from all we hold dear, from […]

Ideas are the Easy Part

Sunday, September 25th, 2016
I wake up every morning saying to myself  ‘I should write a blog post today‘. The closest I get most days is simply jotting down more ideas for posts. This is the thing—for many of us ideas are the easy part. They come unbidden; most often not the result of concentrated effort, spontaneously rather, usually […]

Tip#5: How to have Lots of Ideas

Tuesday, April 26th, 2016
The last ‘Tips’ post spoke to the importance of having lots of ideas whenever we’re trying to solve a problem or move our lives forward in some unprecedented way, as our first ideas are most likely perpetuating old ways of thinking. There are numerous tactics floating around out there. Some are more specific than others, […]

Tip# 4: Power Your Creative Thinking with a Walk

Sunday, February 21st, 2016
“If you can’t think, walk. If you’re thinking too much, walk. If you are thinking bad thoughts, keep walking.”  —Pierre Helaine, founder of Arche shoes. One of the biggest impediments to creative productivity is the mental block, or rut—sometimes brief, sometimes prolonged.  A great and easily-accessible-to-all way to jump-start your thinking and shift your mindset […]

Routine Creativity

Wednesday, October 1st, 2014
One of the most important aspects of Creative productivity is striking a balance between disciplined daily routine and remaining open to new experiences and perspectives—flexible and adaptable—so that we can keep our eyes fresh and energy high. Too much routine can be mind numbing, uninspiring and vortex (tunnel vision) inducing; too little routine reduces the […]