You Have A Creative Brain
The Artist as a Mental Energy Being
Each of the various ways you express your creativity has a mental component.
You have to decide what surface you will paint on, what size it needs to be, what medium you’ll use, etc. This is mostly the analytical stuff that your left-brain works out based on the imaginative promptings of the right-brain. Apply this idea to whatever type of creation you do.
Your brain is an amazing, creative instrument
Your brain is more, much more, than a mere physical organ.
Your brain / mind is a receiver:
• Visual information
• Audio information
• Taste information
• Smell information
• Touch/sensory information
• Bodily awareness information
• Emotional information
• Spiritual/cosmic information
Your brain / mind is a conduit:
• Information superhighway from sensory input to cognitive analysis and recognition, with output to other channels and processes.
• Those with Synesthesia abilities have conduits that create cross-sensory stimulation from one receiver to another.
Your brain / mind is a storage device:
• Memories throughout life with a variety of associations, both conscious and unconscious, that affect the current experience.
• Memories outside of time or explainable existence.
• Knowledge gained through systematic cultivation — you learned stuff voluntarily.
• Knowledge gained by accident (although I don’t believe in accidents) — college of hard knocks kinds of stuff.
Your brain / mind is a super-processor:
• Utilizing all the receivers, conduits and storage facilities in unison and with amazing speed and proficiency.
You brain / mind is your motivator
• Then there’s the mental / physical aspect of creativity in the motor parts of your brain: the Cerebellum and Brain Stem. These control your movements (energy) and enable you to physically create.
Your whole brain can be multi-functional
Creativity doesn’t happen in just the right hemisphere of your brain. Creativity is an integration of right and left hemispheres, and all the lobes, working harmoniously together. Your brain also has compartments of information within the lobes that need to have good conduits / communication with the other compartments for maximum flow-ability. (I learned this when a friend, and then my mom, had mini-strokes and lost just pieces of their mental abilities. I’m not a doctor, but I am a good observer.)
Science tells us that the right-brain is fluid, flexible, intuitive, imaginative;
while the left-brain is analytical, linear, calculating, practical.
However, true creativity happens when the left-analytical side appreciates the right-imaginative side, and can thus devise a left-linear approach/plan of action to make the right-brain-ideas become tangible reality.
I don’t have citations for where I read this, yet, there are studies that have found that some people have the reverse right/left capacity, or may be so balanced as to have certain capacities in both sides of the brain at the same time. A rather interesting possibility, don’t you think?
Your brain uses intuition. Intuition NEEDS knowledge
I’ve met artists who are afraid of “thinking” about what they wish to create. Their perception is that thinking interferes with intuition and must be avoided. This is a complete misconception that emerged in the mid 20th century; as if only the right-hemisphere of the brain is worthy of artistic attention.
Fortunately, current trends in artistic training are moving back to understanding that intuition is founded in scholarship. The word itself speaks to learning: in-tuition — you pay tuition to learn (just like going to college). In-other-words, “pay” via practice with the 4-Stages of Learning until you reach ultimate flow and Mastery; you cultivate and become the intuition, not the other way round.
I was born with a natural talent to see things artistically, but it took lots of study and practice to develop skills and then allow my cultivated “intuition” to take over when painting. I make decisions before I start a painting to free my mind to flow freely with the intuitive, creative process.
A concussion disconnects half a mind
One of my painting students experienced moments of great sadness when she remembered how competent she was as an artist before a terrible auto accident and concussion almost killed her.
She told me a little about the therapy she received to regain her ability to function independently. As she had been a painter before, part of her therapy was to paint a self-portrait. The amazing thing is that she only painted half her face and head. The side of her head that received the concussion she left blank — she couldn’t even see it.
Over time she regained a lot of her ability, but her sadness was knowing she simply couldn’t paint at the level she once knew. Fortunately she didn’t let that stop her from painting, and creating some very nice works.
Medical professionals don’t generally offer good news prognosis, due to insurance and liability considerations. Yet, this student and friend, my mom, and other people I’ve known, have regained lost mental abilities because of the mind’s miraculous drive to build new synapses, new conduits and connections, to restore the “super-processor.” Please don’t believe anyone who tells you once it’s gone it’s gone, that’s not necessarily so.
The brain as part of your Physical Energy Being
The health of your body affects the health of your brain and Mental Energy System.
See the article: You Are A Creative Animal
Tip: To be able to think, be creative, get in the mood, mode and flow-state, requires good nutrition. Mental exercise burns calories, too.
A color meditation for your Mental Energy
The colors of blue and indigo are the chakras that power your brain and mind. A useful meditation is seeing these colors, in your mind’s eye, growing and glowing brighter and brighter in intensity of color within the part of your body they emanate and spread out from.
• Sky Blue, Robin’s-egg Blue — the neck and throat. The throat chakra is the chakra of communication. The power of this chakra is omni directional: it receives information inward and sends information outward.
• Indigo, Dark Midnight Blue — the center of your brain, pineal gland, third-eye, and center of your forehead. The function of this chakra is to bring both hemispheres of your brain working in harmony. It can be made more powerful through meditation and other mindfulness techniques.
These energy balls of light can be quite large, and extend outside your body. So don’t feel that you have to limit the size of them.
If you have a hard time visualizing color, think about and remember colored lights you have seen, such as Christmas bulbs, prism, or other colored light. You could also bring up a solid color on your computer or smart device and simply meditate on that. Allow your creativity to come up with a good way to visualize colors and see those bright colors inside your body. There are also colored lens glasses that would help you see colored light.
If you can only “see” muddy colors that’s a good indication you really need to do this meditation, and may need to see a doctor to find out if there is something going on in that area of your body. This meditation can help to heal those areas, too.
Your Mental Energy System is constantly processing information, which means a healthy throat/neck and head area helps you have a healthy brain.
Nurture your Mental Energy system so it can help you be more creative
To do this find ways to stimulate and energize your brain.
Good writers need to be good readers, and study the craft of writing.
Good painters need to be good observers, and study the craft of painting.
Be inspired to create your own work by appreciating and studying the works of other creatives in your field.
If you feel your work is stale, study work from a different field of creativity to energize your ideas.
Remember your brain is:
• a receiver
• a conduit
• a storage device
• a super-processor
• a motivator
Honor and appreciate your brain and mental capabilities, because it really is amazing.
P.S.
This is Part 4 of my series on Energy Creates Art which Creates Energy
Artists use all four energy systems to create their art, whether they realize it or not. But when they ARE aware of these energy systems they are better able to control or direct their energies in ways that help them create.
In addition, artists who are aware of the four energy systems their art projects are better able to make decisions in the content of their art.
I’m writing about all these energy systems and what creatives can do to develop mindfulness and positive action for their own energy.
Part 1: Dead People Don’t Create, Introduction to the concept
Part 2: You Are A Creative Animal, The artist as a Physical Energy System
Part 3: next week
