The tension of an effective creative …

Some people are wonderfully gifted “creatives” and are able to communicate their creativity with others in an effective way. Others lose themselves in their own emotional experience with their creativity, and “crash and burn” in the attempt of sharing with others.

The tension of an effective creative is that place of fully experiencing their creativity, then finding an effective way of communicating that to others.

That point of tension has led to great things for some creatives, and disappointment and discouragement for others. That’s because successfully navigating this tension usually is not easy. Kind of like the story about the “creative prisoner” told by Ed Vasicek:

An old farmer wrote to his son in prison: “This year I wont be able to plant potatoes because I can’t dig the field. I know if you were here you would help me.”

The son wrote back: “Dad, don’t even think of digging the field because that’s where I buried the money I stole.”

Police read the letter and the very next day the whole field was dug by police looking for the money, but nothing was found.

The next day the son wrote again: “Now plant your potatoes dad; it’s the best I can do from here.”

That’s not quite the creative tension I meant. It’s more like a discussion I recently had with Dr. Phil Tyler, tenured violin professor and orchestra director at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. While discussing interpreting music, Phil told me a story about the great Spanish cellist, Pablo Casals:

“[Casals] Critiqued younger musicians who were so immersed in the emotions they are feeling within the music. He advised them to be more aloof, referencing the emotions they felt the music portrayed, then using their understanding of expressive vocabulary and technique to communicate those emotions to the audience.”

The mistake creatives often make is fully immersing themselves in their creative experience, then simply dumping that onto others. However, that doesn’t mean their audience can receive and perceive their creative work in the same way. Casals was wise to encourage creatives to feel the emotion of their work, but use that as a reference in engaging effective vocabulary and technique to be able to relay their experience effectively to their audience.

With this insight, I asked Phil, “So, this is basically dealing with the question of who are you doing this for, correct?”

Yes.

The answer could be you’re doing your creative work for your own enjoyment; or a combination of your enjoyment and to share with others for their enjoyment or benefit; or even both of those AND the glory of God. If you’re going to get past just yourself, you’ll have to learn to edit how you communicate your immersive experience so that others can share in it.

Scotty