A creative person has to be strong
Creativity is, above all, making something. An action aimed at creating a physical object, a sound or a combination of sounds, movement of objects, a scent, a text…
It is important that the wish to act and the knowledge of how to act are not action in themselves, since they do not create anything new in the materials. They do not change them in any way: form, colour, smell, sound; they do not change combinations.
A creative person differs from a non-creative one not by ideas and not by mastery, but by actually performing the act of creation, that is, of making, regardless of how complex or original the idea is and the level of mastery.
A creative person is a person who loves to create. A person who wants action. A person for whom, for some reason, it is not enough just to look at, listen to or read what others have made. It is a person looking for chances to create themselves. And to create not just anything, but something that reflects their thoughts, feelings, views, conclusions, sensations…
To cope with such a task, you need:
1. Will – readiness for the act of creating
2. Thinking – formulating your own thoughts
3. Psychological resilience
These skills are not among the easiest, but they are vital. How can a painter create who cannot stand at the easel for hours, day after day, an actor who cannot perform hours-long plays, or a musician – concerts? A sculptor who cannot carve form out of stone with heavy hammers? What is a photographer or cinematographer to do who is not ready to run around with cameras and lights?
And that is only the creative work itself. How many actions are needed beforehand: training, studying, rehearsing, organising, carrying, looking for materials and locations… How many actions afterwards: packing up the tools, washing the brushes…
There is no place in creativity for a person who wants to avoid action and avoid difficulties. They will be completely incapable there.
A creative person constantly and gladly keeps themselves ready for action, so as not to be caught off guard when an idea, inspiration, feeling, thought or state comes to them that they will want to turn into a work.
A person without readiness to act cannot live in the world of creativity. They can only be an amateur tourist who dropped by to see how strong-willed people – people of action – live here. Regardless of how brilliant their ideas are.
The same is true the other way round – a person who is always ready to act but has no thoughts or ideas cannot create anything meaningful. In such cases people say: “If only your energy were put to good use” – that is, to the point.
For works to have content, the author has to be a thinking, searching person who can formulate their thoughts and feelings into a coherent statement. Formulating is hard work that requires concentration on the subject and focus. Formulating a coherent text, a musical composition, a visual composition, a script…
And when a thinking person takes the path of formulating and searching, they very quickly get tired of superficial subjects and inevitably move on to important and ambiguous ones: who am I, what is a human being, people and nature, nature without people, people and the city, society and loneliness, life and death, what is good and what is bad, morality and temptations, fathers and children, love, God and the Universe, what time is and what memory is...
If you look at great art, it is devoted precisely to these eternal and important subjects, the timeless dilemmas and values of human beings. In many ways it is the subject that defines the level of the author.
A person weak in spirit will not dare to approach such subjects. They can only show their passing interests: photograph flowers, houses and people they like, sing and play sequences of sounds they like, put words into interesting combinations. But behind these interesting combinations there will be nothing important or valuable, even for the author. But if the author has done the work of thinking and formulated for themselves why a flower, a house or a person matters to them, then a value will stand behind that object and scene. And the viewer is more likely to understand and feel this value, because how the author conveys the object, the word or the action on stage depends on how the author understands the value…
We should not forget such an important part of creativity as publishing the work and showing it to the public. At this moment many authors become the most vulnerable and defenceless people, because they expose both their judgements and their mastery to the judgement of all viewers, listeners and readers, wanted and unwanted... Keeping emotional calm at this moment is yet another place where the author’s strength shows. Especially if the audience’s judgement does not match the author’s expectations, or there is no judgement at all. And whatever happens, the author must not lose the motivation and will to create the next work.
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These are only the main skills a creative person needs in order to create. There are many more skills that can give them more pleasure in the process and make them more productive. And that is in addition to mastering the specific art they work in.
Fortunately, steadiness, will, focus and psychological calm are qualities that can be acquired. And one of the ways to acquire them is to try being creative.
Creativity tempers the will, strengthens the spirit, trains thought and hardens the psyche.
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Dmitry Bulkin
Photographer and teacher of creative photography.
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