Thinking and working creatively requires taking:A Journey to Find the Artist Within
Giving your creativity free reign can test what you think are your limits. My first serious filmmaking journey into the rainforest was such a time. I had never traveled to a remote part of the world before, yet Neal Williams and I and a film crew and were off to meet a zoologist, we had never met before, 200 miles into the rainforests of Peru to make our first nature film. We loaded a month worth of necessities, toilet paper, bug repellant, sleeping bags, and a few candy bars hidden among the film canisters. We then crushed everything into a 4-seater airplane. We took off over the 23,000-ft Andes Mts. The equator gave way to a vast of sea of trees cut only by ribbons of water, .. I started to have my first serious second thoughts about this trip. After 45 minutes the pilot finally pointed through a small hole in the low clouds to a dime sized light green dot close to the horizon. He said that was our landing strip. My established view of the world instantly exploded ….I felt suddenly about the size of a grain of sand. As we turned on a wing tip and dove through the clouds, tried not to imagine myself ending up as a strange tropical tree ornament. I bravely peeked out the window and what was once a solid mass of shapes turned into trees of a hundred different shades of green. Bright colorful birds soared over the forest that towered 200 ft above the ground. After a bumpy, but safe landing, we unloaded the plane. Then the plane took off without us. Just then our zoologist came lunging out of the foliage and promptly tripped over a root at our feet, he hollered get the cameras quick and follow me. It seems he had been tracking a rare bird for weeks in that general area, and it had chosen that particular moment to show itself for the first time. As we dashed into the forest with all the gear we could carry, I have to admit ……my mind was not on that rare little bird. My mind was on that nice air-conditioned metal one that had just flew off back to Cusco! My life for the next month was in the hands of this very strange person who had just fallen at my feet. Boy, I was pushed way beyond what I thought my limits were and I used every skill I thought I had forgotten. I learned that tripping over a tree root did not mean incompetence. It soon became an unavoidable everyday experience. On that trip I discovered an important insight. The skillful, honest use of communication & dialogue is like a magical key. It un-locks the door to unexpected success & deep personal satisfaction. Judgments based on incorrect information can cause life threatening disasters and conflicts. Our relationships with other people, and how well one communicates, can really help get you through unfamiliar territory. We coped with being cut-off from every convenience and everything familiar. Our Ultralight aircraft was almost carried off in a flood, a fish ate a critical engine part, monkeys stole our food, and ants, snakes and bats invaded our tents. Body language became very important because when we worked with indigenous people, our smallest action determined if they would understand our needs. Before my travels to the rainforest, I was immersed in a very different jungle: ‘The Business World’. SuperFlow’s products are sophisticated computerized equipment, sold mostly to design engineers in large companies and competitive racing teams whose obsession with ½ of HP is played out every Sunday afternoon on TNN & ESPN. The first engineering tradeshow I attended in Detroit required that I work in our booth assisting our sales staff with our equipment & products. I think I was one of only 10 females among 2500 engineers. All the other women were in long gowns handing out free hat coupons. Needless to say, in a business suit, I was an oddity, everyone was afraid to talk to me. I realized quickly I was going to have to tap into my creativity to find a solution. So, I looked across the isle and spotted a company who made a device called a camshaft balancer. Having had two older brothers, who insisted I work on my own car, and having assembled SuperFlow’s first Dynamometers, I knew a little about camshafts, and how they functioned, so I started to walk over to their booth. I can still remember those panicked faces…. ‘What does ‘she’ want with us?' I smiled and asked them how the show was going for them; I asked them to tell me about their product. Why their balancer was better then the other guy’s in the next row over. We had a very informative conversation, and I told them some of SuperFlow’s customers were racers and I would mention that them should stop by their booth to look at their balancer. The following show day word had spread that I was not going to look under their fingernails or ask them something that made them uncomfortable. So, I believe that I was asked to speak here today because it seems my activities traverse a lot of ground between the World of Business and the World of Creative Art. Working & Thinking creatively is going to be the most essential skill in traversing the ever-shifting ground beyond the year 2000. I believe the ability to traverse such a broad field will require young people to develop two essential skills: · The ability to tap into their Creativity in any situation · And the ability to engage in critical or comparative thinking. Carl Sagan* called it, Creativity & the Scientific Method. He described it as: "being filled simultaneously with wonder and a reasonable amount of skepticism”". This ability is what sets humans apart from other living things. I read an interesting article in Industry Week Magazine *, a national business publication. The article described an interesting time line. Imagine one person’s life span being just 65 years. Now imagine that it would take up to 780 generations to span the last 50,000 years of human existence. Of those 780 generations, 600 generations of humans would have spent that time in caves, the forests or the savannas. The last 68 generations have had a spoken Language, and the use of drawn images. The last 6 generations have read the written word. The last 4 generations have had the ability to measure time precisely. The last 2 generations have had the advantages of electricity and some advances in medicine. Almost everything else we can think of is new: Sophisticated transportation that circles the globe, the internal combustion engine, exploration of oceans and space, lasers, nuclear fusion, digital and electronic technologies, satellites, cyberspace, tele-communications, molecular biology, plastics and advancements in metallurgy, restructure of DNA, nuclear medicine, cloning of living cells. The list is overwhelming and continues to expand. And all of this has happened in the individual life span of the 780th person. Our lifetime. And as hard as THAT is to imagine, sadly, the next generation will usher out the last generation of people still un-contacted by the civilized world: Nomadic people in the rainforest who are not sure what an airplane is. (My painting, ‘Tribes’ shows the vast range that is co-existing on the planet at this moment in history: the prehistoric Hoatzin, the forest native, and the Punk-rocker. .….the painting takes on a little different meaning after hearing that time line illustrated.) Art, when viewed in the context to the world, sometimes creates it own kind of strength. Art can make some points clearer than any other method. We should not discount that ability. Nonstop change is whizzing past us. It’s clear that the next, or the NET, generation will have to be Innovators, Visionaries, Entrepreneurs, & Risk Takers and will need all the well-developed …… broad-based skills they can muster. In 50 years, 6 Billion people will become 12 Billion people.* Creative & Critical Thinkers who can see through “the glitter”, and who have the ability to identify the “substance”, will be crucial. We must start building that foundation for Creative Thinking in early childhood, nurture it in elementary school, hone and temper it with communication skills and projects in middle schools. And we need to support and encourage the active use of those skills every day in every High School, by providing youth with productive and interesting tools to express themselves. We don’t want kids who are always are waiting for a ‘cursor prompt’. I found it telling that the action to cope with the tragedy in the recent school shootings was to involve the students in talking and creating artwork to help them deal with this tragedy, yet the arts continue to seep out of the school agendas. Creative Thinking is not just used to create pretty landscapes or provide good therapy when the world comes crashing down. It helps build and create the very character and fiber of our future. Training our students to have this ability could be our Legacy to them. We desperately need the creative arts more than ever. To me, and to many of your young students, numbers are just interesting shapes as much as they are numeric representations. Humans are centered though their senses. When my math teacher gave me wire to string with 10 beads and then asked me to group them together ..sure I created a great sculpture ! But I also started to understand mathematics after that. I got through math because my teacher helped me make a visual and physical connection to the subject. I never get close to an A, but I can understand a Profit & Loss statement & I can plan the meanest, leanest budget you have ever seen. I was fortunate to have people like you and others in my life who gave me opportunities to affirm my creative abilities. At San Francisco State, when I needed 3 more credits to graduate, the only course that fit into my schedule was human medical parasitology. So I signed up for it. It was a class of 300 students and was held in a large circular amphitheater. After several weeks, I knew I was failing, but the class was so interesting and I had so many questions about the subject. One day as the class ended the instructor called me down to see him after class. Boy, I knew what was coming. I skulked to the bottom of the room. I told him I knew that I was failing all the tests; but that I didn’t have a clue about some of the questions. Turned out this was a Pre-Med course. Once I had run out of excuses, he turned to me and said that he always looked forward to reading the answers to my essay questions. They were well thought out and had interesting twists to each question, though I seriously lacked medical facts He went on to say that if I took the class Pass or Fail, and could assure him I was not destined for Medicine, he wanted me to stay in the class. When I asked him why, he indicated that I always asked meaningful & thought-provoking questions in class and the questions kept all those sleepy medical students alert. We rely on specialized skills to communicate important information every day at work. Sometimes terms sound like a new language, yet too many times we fail to communicate because we cannot express ourselves. I happened to take a walk with a brilliant tropical botanist who was explaining the value of his recent work…”. "Respiration and evaporative mechanisms are used by this family of legumes which causes the consumption of specific amounts of nutrients in soils", etc …Wouldn’t you just love to read that thesis? Both sides of my brain worked on that one for a while. Then I realized what he was studying: Different trees in different areas sweat different amounts; depending on the soil they grow in. I thought he needed a good creative writing class. Ron De Long, Arts & Education Director of Binney & Smith, stated he believes we also send mixed messages about ART. He said we may have pre-conditioned businesses, legislators, parents and even some teachers that art is “just play”, when in fact it is very hard work and serious business! I agree there are a lot of misconceptions out there about the value of ART, and especially art education. We must be in tune with the words we use and how we use them. The words can affect the outcome. If I would have walked across that isle at that tradeshow and told those guys what a beautiful color we had painted our equipment. ……. Do you think they would have asked me any other questions other than……….. Hey lady got any hat coupons? I have spoken to business executives and many were astonished to discover art is not part of the curriculum for every child. Many of the businesses represented here today believe that a foundation in the Creative Arts creates valuable employees. An Employee needs to be: · A person who follows-through & has problem-solving skills. · A person who can be relied on to finish something · A person who can persevere when time & money are tight. · Someone who can visualize a process from beginning to end. · A person who can implement a unique idea. · A person who is confident & has the ability to prioritize. · Someone who has the ability to research materials for a specific application. · Someone who can communicate, supervise & motivate others into working together. · Someone who can exercise diplomacy, has empathy for others, and demands a sense of fairness. Sounds like a tall order to fill; well, it is identical tom the requirements for being an artist. During my childhood, drawing with my brother gave me a place where my emotions could rest from the confusing problems that gripped my parents. It is often too quietly discussed, but I think the Creative arts for some children are the only forums were students can work out or express troublesome emotions & thoughts. It’s the one mechanism that helps them resolve questions about difficult emotions, which are often very unclear. Art class is one of the non-threatening, non-competitive, non-violent outlets for youth. Believe me when I say, "You all are doing what really counts here"” You use the tools of knowledge, dedication, vision, patience, listening, flexibility, perseverance, effort, and understanding to make a difference in kids’ lives. Simultaneously, you forge the benefit of creative arts and educational excellence every day in your schools. You deserve a round of applause. And don’t fall into that trap by thinking creativity is all talent It… depends on three equal things: Desire, Execution & Follow-Through. There’s an artist in each one of us. But the creative side of the brain withers when judgments & opinions demand conformity, and when we are ruthlessly compared to each other. This crushes and intimidates any budding confidence and self esteem in far too many children. Creativity is a living-breathing thing and even geniuses have to struggle with the responsibility of keeping it alive. I was fortunate to be mentored in business by my partner, Neal Williams. He is a brilliant mechanical engineer, an entrepreneur, and one of the finest individuals I know and he balances creativity with knowledge and an uncanny ability to understand human foibles & motivations. We discuss the 10/90 rule. This is not a strange tax form you forgot to submit today. It’s a dynamic rule that governs success and just one person rarely accomplishes it, though often only one person is credited. While 100% is what’s required to accomplish anything, it’s often that last difficult 10% which ignites success. The 90% is the necessary fuel to get us there. It’s at 90% that many people will stop trying…. it is what we have been conditioned to settle for. With many things, even less than 90% is just fine. But it’s at that critical, 90% moment when great teachers, artists, scientists, explorers, and engineers have trained themselves to pay very close attention. They are in tune with where they are on that journey up that mountain. For them, it is when the left side of the brain is screaming at the right, " OK, so I can’t figure out why it doesn’t work - I followed the correct procedure. What have you been doing all this time? Well, you had better think of something fast or I’m out of here"” For me, this is the point when I have a strong desire to tear up the painting I have been working on for weeks. Neal asks me how’d the painting go today? If I say: …. ‘I hate it''! He says ‘good ‘ then it’s almost done! With practice and encouragement children to can be tuned into this unpredictable moment. We can teach them to know what this moment feels like. They can confidently tap into their creativity and make that final push to 100%. Supporting Art Education Teaching, and the Mentoring of young people by talented artists and creative thinkers, can be the catalyst for keeping up with a changing chaotic world. Colorado Springs mayor, Mary Lou Makepeace, is a firm believer in mentoring. Each of us is on a different journey, but remember, we are all traveling together. The path is filled with distractions; false friends, self-motivated agendas, illusions, and at times we find ourselves in a desperate search for truth and someone to trust. But these are the times when we must re-dedicate ourselves and help build that important 90 %. And yes, if that someone’s wonder and reasonable skepticism isn’t broad sided by neglect, there will be someone ready with that last 10%. As we recognize outstanding businesses and individuals who have pushed that special 10% factor over the top, lets us also reflect on the 90% -YOU -who helped them get there. As Senator Robert F. Kennedy said: "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself: but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this magnificent generation"” End Credits and Copyrights: Written by Mary Helsaple for the 19th Arts & Business Consortium Awards Luncheon 1998. * Sal Marino: Contributing Editor, Straight talk, The Challenge of Change , IW January 1998 * Carl Sagan: The Demon Haunted World, Science a Candle in the Dark Recommended Reading:· Edward Tenner: Why Things Bite Back, Technology & the Revenge of Unintended Consequences. · Bruce Holly: Donuts to Destiny, Essays on the psychology of Creativity. Art Calendar Publishing (410) 651-9150 · Words from the Land, Encounters with Natural History Writing – Peregrine Smith Books · Naturalist, Edward O. Wilson – Island Press ·
Dreams of the
Earth, Thomas Berry
– Sierra Club Books |
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