Developing creativity with less thinking, more being
Our creativity can benefit from cutting down on unessential rational thinking. The following video includes comments by actors Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jenna Gavigan, and sculptor Louise Nevelson.
Actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach talks about the importance of striving to do more than just thinking when you’re acting, because then you’re not doing. He notes the job is to show up and really be there.
Gap commercial: Ebon Moss-Bachrach was Born To Be Curious
Related article: On Awareness and Creative Expression – an interview with film acting teacher Jennifer Lehman. “A creative experience is a very full experience, multidimensional. But if you’re making a mental choice about something, then your experience becomes limited to only that.”
Actor and singer Jenna Gavigan comments about one summer spent in an acting class: “All those musical theater kids that think they’re gonna be the next Kristin Chenoweth. They’d sit there and they’d prep their songs endlessly with so much thought.
“I just knew what my song was about and I came in and sang it, and the teacher went, ‘That’s what you all should be doing, right there.’ And I didn’t outline the song or this and that. You just have to stop thinking sometimes.”
From post: Creative experience characteristics – Jenna Gavigan on not thinking too much
Video clip from broadwayworld.com
Sculptor Louise Nevelson said when she taught art, she had her students “clean their minds, to take that mind and polish it daily, to throw out what they don’t need and not to clutter it.
“Don’t remember every telephone number, don’t remember every address, don’t remember every name.
“Keep it open and keep it empty, so that when you see something, you see it totally.”
From my post Creative thinking without thinking
Related post: Jack Canfield on how thinking can sabotage us
Another post: Gifted Adults – Why You Should Stop Thinking
