Habit and Creativity

Thinking about the old dilemma of "what to paint," that is, the difficulty some have finding a subject and starting to work. For me, as I wrote in a post not too long ago, the habit of daily painting or drawing has provided continuity and functions as a way to study all sorts of things, old and new. My feeling is that the habit itself plus study make my daily routine work, for me. But perhaps only the habit of making something regularly is the real trick. I did some research on habit and creativity, not expecting to find very much, but found quite a lot.

Hoff, "Risk Factors," oil on panel, 20x16

Surprisingly, creativity is actually a pretty new concept in human cultures. The idea of humans being creative only arrived during the Renaissance; before that a person who painted pictures or sculpted wasn't said to create something new. Instead, these craftsmen were viewed as imitating nature rather than making something new. Others thought that a drawing or painting was about discovering something of the natural world by recording it. Regardless, humans couldn't make something new; only deities were able to create. The Renaissance gave us the concept that humans are curious and creative beings, not simply discovering nature but creating something new via those discoveries. Leonardo da Vinci is (of course) the paradigm of that era.

There is considerably more to creativity than investigating the world and recording it, though. Another aspect in our culture is idea of imagination. The ability to build stories or images or characters (among other constructs) based on the mind's imaginings has become more and more important in the last century and a half. Think of  how imaginary stories, novels, photos, films, computer gaming, CGI, and virtual reality have emerged in that period. Further, philosophers and psychosocial investigators have been joined by neuroscientists in exploring just what creativity really is. Nearly countless investigations of behavior, memory, intelligence, brain activity and more in relation to creativity are continuing.

Hoff, "Shellac Jug," casein on panel, 9x12

Creativity isn't really definable in a concrete way, though, so far as I can see. Consider the endless discussion regarding "what is art," and see the same situation with "creativity." Hard to define, but we know it when we see it. Creative people have good imaginations but some painters and illustrators do indeed simply record what they see without imagining anything. So do some writers and filmmakers. Creatives are generally bright too but many are average in terms of measured intelligence. Creatives have good memories but again many reproduce what they see or hear without reliance on memory. There is more, but the point is how little we know about what creativity really is. There are no doubt other levels of complexity.

It was habit as a spur to creativity that got me thinking on these things in the first place. The question is whether habit (some would say "ritual") actually matters. For me, a morning ritual (habit) works well.

Search the Internet and you'll find abundant affirmations of habits of creative people--sites that claim  by adopting certain specific habits--four of them, or seven, or dozens, or whatever, or adopting only the habits of the most creative people--you can boost your own creative juices. Maybe so.