#creative brains

One of the amazing things about our creative brains is that they’re associative whether we intend for them to be or not... and whether we’re aware of it or not.

Associative.

Meaning, the words or ideas that penetrate our awareness... set off a ripple of related words or ideas like a pebble or rock tossed into a pond.

It’s a process that fully happens behind the scenes. And the way we know that’s what’s going on is that research shows how for example, once we hear a word, related words become more accessible to our conscious minds.

Rocks.

Ponds.

Ripples.

At my home edit suite, I’ve set things up in such a way that there’s a pretty thorough mosaic of imagery, ideas, and words.

And, of course, plenty of books.

It’s like having a gas pump next to my car, like, all the time.

Under the category heading “Break, In Case Of Fire”, I’ve got a Play Box.

It’s there as part of my visual mozaic, of course. But it’s also packed with a multitude of things to detour (or derail, if necessary) my mind.

There’s even a tiny remote control racing car in there if I’m seriously in need of controlled creative distraction.

Okay.

So the way I think of the times when I’m floundering or just plain stuck... is that the studio in which I’m painting ran out of paint. Or the garden I’m planting ran out of flowers. Or the shop in which I’m working ran out of tools or parts or both.

You see, what I need in that moment is either something more... or something else. It’s like I’ve created a bubble of ideas and strategies to define the project or sequence on which I’m working. And somehow, for some reason, these ideas and strategies are insufficient. And if not insufficient... then somehow maddeningly opaque.

So I need a different lens, another map, something else in my thinking about what it is I’m trying to do and how I’m trying to do it. And because I’m kind of locked into a way of thinking and doing on this particular project or sequence in this particular moment... it takes a bit of undoing to extract myself from what’s essentially become a creative fingertrap or mental straitjacket.

Rails, if you will. That I need to jump.

And the imagery around me, the ideas, the words... are random tools that help facilitate that jump. They’re me throwing a rock into the pond in hopes of facilitating a breakout.  of the strategy that’s pinned me down. Some of that facilitation is subtle.

Setting loose in my brain a new current of thought.

Hopefully, a raging river.

By the way, the imagery, the ideas, the words?

Yeah. They can also be palate cleansers, too. I don’t really care. Just so long as I’m able to get the engine fired up and rollin’ again.

Scott Barry Kaufman: Creative brains

"Cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman unravels some of creativity’s mysterious origins with the help of brain scanning equipment. 'Depending on what you are creating — the stimulus, the content — and what stage of the creative process you are in, different brain areas are recruited to help solve the task.'"