Letter from Western Australia - Context is Key by Zaaron Crosby

This article and others from around the world can be found on Eric Maisel's new creativity portal at;http://ericmaisel.com/category/worldwide-perspectives/ 

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“ For me con­text is the key — from that comes the under­stand­ing of everything”
Ken­neth Noland Amer­i­can abstract painter

I was 23 when I left Lon­don. Until that time I had lived in South East Lon­don some­what entrenched in the day-to-day life of a low income, sin­gle par­ent, fam­ily. From my very ear­li­est days I remem­ber hav­ing the most intense desire to com­mu­ni­cate my thoughts and sens­ing that my words were in some way inad­e­quate. I cre­ated with medi­ums I found or was for­tu­nate enough to be given and as I grew I often “bor­rowed” paints and spray cans from sheds around my area and made can­vases from the doors of old wardrobes. I spent hours on the rooftops sketch­ing neigh­bour­ing churches with pen and paper; a back­pack full of provisions.
So it wasn’t sur­pris­ing (in hind­sight) that whilst work­ing in an office job on an unevent­ful day, dur­ing an aver­age week, among the grey­ness of cen­tral Lon­don that I applied for a VISA to travel around Aus­tralia for a year. My cousin had ven­tured “down under” sev­eral years prior and the pull of the unknown cou­pled with an intense unset­tled feel­ing at home drove me to book my ticket. At the time I didn’t know why I wanted to leave and I didn’t under­stand why I wanted to jour­ney alone but I did know that some­thing wasn’t quite right.

So this was how I found my-self 6 weeks later float­ing in the mid­dle of the Indian Ocean miles from shore, snorkel and flip­pers (feel­ing some­what unco­or­di­nated hav­ing never swum in an ocean before) being cir­cled by a 25 ft Shark in the clear waters of the West Aus­tralian coast­line. Luck­ily for me this shark was a plank­ton feed­ing Whale Shark, the largest fish in the world, which only seemed inter­ested in bask­ing for food and avoid­ing con­tact with any stray Eng­lish­man who may be float­ing in the area.



I had arrived in Coral bay, a small town in the North West of West­ern Aus­tralia a few days prior and after a num­ber of weeks in a hos­tel made from old ship­ping con­tain­ers I ended up aban­don­ing my trav­els around the coast in favour of “check­ing out” with no plan in mind. I spent most of my time swim­ming in the clear waters of the Indian Ocean among the stun­ning coral reefs just a few hun­dred metres off the coast and meet­ing amaz­ing peo­ple, artists included, who just came and went as they pleased. No sched­ules, plans or objectives.

It’s hard to explain in words but at the time Coral Bay was one of the most untouched, pic­turesque places I had ever seen, only matched by its remote­ness. When I say remote, I prob­a­bly need to put some con­text around just how large and remote West­ern Aus­tralia actu­ally is. West­ern Aus­tralia is huge and in the most part baron. Many a tourist has been caught unaware by their car break­ing down in the mid­dle of the bush with lim­ited sup­plies and no way to notify peo­ple of their predica­ment, a predica­ment that can become fatal if not taken seri­ously. As a com­par­i­son West­ern Aus­tralia is around 3 times the size of Texas and makes up 1/3 of Australia’s total land mass.

It’s dif­fi­cult to imag­ine two more con­trast­ing expe­ri­ences than that of the hus­tle of Cen­tral Lon­don and the remote untouched beauty of West­ern Aus­tralia. I look back at my diary entries for the time in Coral bay and they include phrases like “see­ing for the first time” and “notic­ing the beauty of the world”. I returned from my retreat in the North­ern shores a new per­son, I became more of the artist I was to become and devel­oped the courage to cre­ate and explore the world around me. My expe­ri­ence allowed me to see and expe­ri­ence more of what life was show­ing me.

The power of my Whale Shark expe­ri­ence was based on the con­trast between the grey­ness of my expe­ri­ence in Lon­don to the tech­ni­colour of Coral Bay. If I’d stayed in Lon­don, obliv­i­ous to the rest of the world, maybe I wouldn’t have described Lon­don as grey at all. In a way Coral bay gave Lon­don its grey.



For me, as a painter I see the light and shade not only in my work but also in my expe­ri­ences, as one gives the other con­text and I have found the greater the con­trasts in my life the larger the insight, whether it be falling in love, trav­el­ling the world or chang­ing careers; they all pro­vide a new per­spec­tive and a unique oppor­tu­nity to see the world anew.

Zaaron Crosby is a Visual Artist inter­ested in all aspects of cre­ative expres­sion, includ­ing paint­ing, pho­tog­ra­phy, sculp­ture and mixed medium. He has spent the past 15 years Career Coach­ing within the recruit­ment indus­try and is the owner and direc­tor of the online art gallery, Art­less Impact, www.artlessimpact.com.au, which pro­vides a medium for eth­i­cally minded peo­ple to pur­chase sus­tain­able, eco­log­i­cally sound, fair trade artworks.

Trained as a Cre­ativ­ity Coach, Zaaron runs the Cre­ativ­ity Coach­ing prac­tice “think.feel.dream”, www.thinkfeeldream.com.au and is pas­sion­ate about work­ing with cre­ative indi­vid­u­als and the cre­ative process. His main work as a cre­ativ­ity coach is based around Artists with day jobs and peo­ple who work in a career out­side their cre­ative pas­sions but still wish to pur­sue a pro­duc­tive cre­ative life.

zaaron@thinkfeeldream.com.au
www.thinkfeeldream.com.au
http://creativitycoaching-thinkfeeldream.blogspot.com/
www.artlessimpact.com.au

This guys is amazing!

TEN TIPS FOR CREATING WHEN YOU HAVE A DAY JOB - Zaaron Crosby

OVERVIEW

Whether you’re a professional Artist trying to pay the bills or a person working

in a career outside your creative passions, day jobs are part and parcel of most

people’s life experience but they needn’t exist at the expense of a productive,

meaningful life as a creative individual.

Creative work gives us insight and enriches our lives but it comes at a price.

Creating can throw up all sorts of insecurities and anxieties which can lead to

blocks and procrastination hindering our creative flow. Now add a 12-hour

working day, which feels as though it’s robbing you of your sanity and what

little spare time you have.

Creating under these conditions with zero energy is near impossible. So what positive actions can we take to redress this balance, become more productive, create more meaningful work more regularly and maybe even start enjoying our days a little more?

Below are 10 ideas which you can commit to right now.

TIP ONE:

ESTABLISH CREATIVE RITUALS WHICH LEAD TO CREATIVE

HABITS

Establishing an automatic but decisive pattern of behaviour at the beginning of

your creative efforts is a great way to avoid the possibility of turning back or

giving up. By making the start of creating automatic you replace doubt and fear

with comfort and routine.

Get in the habit of creating. Some of the most successful creative individuals

are the most productive. They simply create more often than most. Commit to

“Create every day” and start developing your creative mussels. After a while

you will establish creating as a habit ingrained into your DNA.

TIP TWO:

BRING WORK CONCEPTS TO YOUR CREATIVE LIFE

Our day jobs can teach us some valuable lessons about turning up and getting

the job done. In our day jobs we are remunerated and set tasksand targets to

achieve, we perform these tasks dutifully and in the majority of cases get the

work done. How often can we say that about our art? When was the last time

you spent every day painting, writing, rehearsing or otherwise engaged in your

passions? Turn up daily and get your creative work done.

TIP THREE: GET UP EARLY

Starting your day an hour or two earlier is a fantastic way to get your creating

done before your day jobs starts. It’s amazing how good you will feel knowing

that you have honoured your art and your day can start with a blast of

creativity. You will also take advantage of the creative benefits of dream state

first thing in the morning.

One word of warning; working on your art first thing can sometimes make

your day job seem dull and uninspiring. When you finish creating pat yourself

on the back for a job well done and return to your day ready to experience the

wonders of the world focused on being the best you can be.

TIP FOUR: BE HONEST

If you’re not creating regularly whilst maintaining a day job, then the odds are

you won’t fair much better if you had all the hours of the day available. Life is

always going to be busy. There are always going to be aspects of your life which

seem to invade your creative time, space and energy but your job is to be

honest and look deep into what’s holding you back. Work (and time) is often

just an excuse for a lack of creative endeavour.

TIP FIVE:

UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF YOUR TIME AND HOW YOU USE IT

Your time outside your day job is incredibly valuable. Know where it goes and

decide how you spend it. A useful tip is to break your day down into 100

points. Some of these points are spent sleeping (33), some are spent working

(33) and others are spent creating (?). With 100 points to spend per day

committing 4 points (1 hour) to watching TV means a comprise needs to be

met. What are your priorities? Where are your points being invested?

TIP SIX: LUNCH TIME ADVENTURES

Everyone has at least 30 minutes for lunch, most have an hour. This is a

perfect opportunity to visit an art gallery, research your next novel, contact a

few agents or anything else which would support and/or develop your creative

work.

TIP SEVEN: COMMUTE TIME

Most people spend at least 20 minutes commuting to work (I spend 1:30 daily).

A good use of this time is listening to audio books or organizing your creative

schedules / plans. I currently drive to work and can get through a book a week.

If you take public transport, pen and paper are essential to catch those amazing

ideas which come and go daily.

TIP EIGHT: STOP THE TV MADNESS

We sometimes find ourselves investing so much time on some very average

programs under the guise of unwinding. Try turning off the TV for a week and

invest the points in your art. It’s amazing how much you can get done. If you

use this time to write two pages of a book every day you will have a first draft

completed within 6 months!

TIP NINE: WORK, ART BALANCE

You do not have two opposing lives in conflict; the office worker and the

actor, the accountant and the painter; you have one life and the challenge to

develop a healthy work, art balance. Try and focus on the positive aspects of

your day job and use your creative nature to make your day more interesting

and productive. Like most things in life, you get out what you put in. If you

want your day job to be more meaningful then put more energy into doing it

well, engage in the challenges that arise and improve your own situation

through the creative gifts you possess. Try to avoid those negative thoughts

which do not serve your situations. They will only develop into negative energy

and resentment towards your day job. If all else fails find a new job! Maybe you

could find something which is more in line with your art or supports your

creative direction by providing flexibility around hours.

TIP TEN:

FIND MEANING IN YOUR ART AND PURPOSE IN YOUR DAY

A day job may not provide meaning but it does provide the means. Viewed as

part of the creative process your day job can provide many opportunities to

engage with people and find inspiration through life experience. Friedrich

Nietzsche once said “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how”. The

same could be said for working a day job, your art is your why and your day is

the how.

We generally feel better about ourselves when we’re making a positive

contribution to something beyond ourselves. To feel truly motivated towards

our day jobs, we have to believe what we're doing matters in someone sense.

Purpose is a source of fuel not just for higher performance, but also for

thinking more creatively about how to overcome obstacles and generate new

solutions during our days.

Find meaning in your art and purpose in your day!

ABOUT ZAARON CROSBY

Zaaron Crosby is a Visual Artist interested in all aspects of creative expression,

including painting, photography, sculpture and mixed medium. He has spent

the past 15 years Career Coaching within the recruitment industry and is the

owner and director of the online art gallery, Artless Impact,

www.artlessimpact.com.au, which provides a medium for ethically minded

people to purchase sustainable, ecologically sound, fair trade artworks.

Trained as a Creativity Coach, Zaaron runs the Creativity Coaching practice

“think.feel.dream”, www.thinkfeeldream.com.au and is passionate about

working with creative individuals and the creative process. His main work as a

creativity coach is based around Artists with day jobs and people who work in a

career outside their creative passions but still wish to pursue a productive

creative life.

zaaron@thinkfeeldream.com.au

http://www.thinkfeeldream.com.au/

http://creativitycoaching-thinkfeeldream.blogspot.com/

http://www.artlessimpact.com.au/

New Creativity Web Page - A must for all creative souls!!

I was recently asked to write for a new web page run by Eric Maisel, Leading Creativity Coaching.  For all those interested please have a look at http://ericmaisel.com you can also see some excellent Advice from Creativity Coaches around the world at

http://ericmaisel.com/ten-tips-library/ ..

This site is a must for all those creativity people wishing to explore the world of creativity more deeply.

What you see is not what you get

For all those Visual Artists interested in how we see the world this article is a must..

The grand delusion: What you see is not what you get

16 May 2011 by Graham Lawton

Your senses are your windows on the world, and you probably think they do a fair job at capturing an accurate depiction of reality. Don't kid yourself. Sensory perception - especially vision - is a figment of your imagination. "What you're experiencing is largely the product of what's inside your head," says psychologist Ron Rensink at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. "It's informed by what comes in through your eyes, but it's not directly reflecting it."

Given the basic features of your visual system, it couldn't be any other way. For example, every 5 seconds or so, you blink. Yet unless you're thinking about it, as you probably are right now, you don't notice the blackouts because your brain edits them out.

Blinking is just the tip of the iceberg. Even when your eyes are open they're only taking in a fraction of the visual information that is available.

In the centre of your retina is a dense patch of photoreceptor cells about 1 millimetre across. This is the fovea, the visual system's sweet spot where perception of detail and colour is at its best. "When you move away from the fovea, visual acuity falls away really quickly, and colour vision disappears," says Rensink. About 10 degrees to the side of the fovea, visual acuity is only about 20 per cent of the maximum.

What that means is you can only capture a tiny percentage of the visual field in full colour and detail at any one time. Hold your hand at arm's length and look at your thumbnail. That is roughly the area covered by the fovea. Most of the rest is captured in fuzzy monochrome.

And yet vision doesn't actually feel like this: it feels like a movie. That, in part, is because your eyes are constantly flitting over the visual scene, fixing on one spot for a fraction of a second then moving on. These jerky eye movements are called saccades and they happen about 3 times a second and last up to 200 milliseconds. With each fixation your visual system grabs a bite of high-resolution detail which it somehow weaves together to create an illusion of completeness.

That's remarkable given that during saccades themselves, you are effectively blind. Your eyes don't stop transmitting information as they lurch from one fixation to the next, but for about 100 milliseconds your brain is not processing it.

Look in the mirror and deliberately flick your eyes from left to right and back again. You won't see your eyes move - not because the movement is too fast (other people's saccades are visible), but because your brain isn't processing the information.

Given that you perform approximately 150,000 saccades every day, that means your visual system is "offline" for a total of about 4 hours during each waking day even without blinking (Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol 12, p 466). Yet you don't notice anything amiss.

Exactly how your brain weaves such fragmentary information into the smooth technicolour movie that we experience as reality remains a mystery. One leading idea is that it makes a prediction and then uses the foveal "spotlight" to verify it. "We create something internally and then we check, check, check," says Rensink. "Essentially we experience the brain's best guess about what is happening now."

In conjuring up this "now", the visual system has to do something even more remarkable: predict the future. Information striking the fovea cannot be relayed instantaneously to conscious perception: first it has to travel down the optic nerve and be processed by the brain. This takes several hundred milliseconds, by which time the world has moved on. And so the brain makes a prediction about what the world will look like about 200 milliseconds into the future, and that is what you see. Without this future projection you would be unable to catch a ball, dodge moving objects or walk around without crashing into things.

There's another huge hole in the visual system that can render you oblivious to things that should be unmissable. The jerky movements that shift your fovea around the visual scene don't happen at random - they are directed by your brain's attentional system. Sometimes you consciously decide what to attend to, such as when you read. At other times your attention is grabbed by a movement in your peripheral vision or an unexpected noise.

The problem with attention is that it is a limited resource. For reasons that remain unknown, most people are unable to keep track of more than four or five moving objects at once. That can lead your visual system to be oblivious to things that are staring you in the face.

The most famous demonstration of this "inattention blindness" is the invisible gorilla, a video-based experiment created by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Viewers are asked to pay close attention to a specific aspect of a basketball game, and around half completely fail to see a person in a gorilla suit walk slowly across the screen, beat their chest and walk off again.

Creativity chemical favours the smart

THERE may be more to creativity than simply letting the ideas flow- brain measurements of a "creativity chemical" are revealing a complex interplay between ingenuity and intelligence. While high levels of the chemical in a certain part of the brain seem to increase creativity in really smart people, the reverse is true in those of average intellect.

N-acetyl-aspartate is found in neurons and seems to be associated with neural health and metabolism. Rex Jung at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and his colleagues already knew that high levels of NAA in the left parieto-occipital lobe, which coordinates sensory and visual information, were associated with intelligence.

To investigate whether NAA also plays a role in creativity, Jung's team measured NAA levels in various regions of the brain in 56 men and women aged 18 to 39. They also tested the volunteers' general intelligence and, more specifically, their capacity for divergent thinking, a factor in creativity that includes coming up with novel ideas, such as new uses for everyday objects.

Overall, volunteers' creativity scores correlated with levels of NAA in a brain region called the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG), which regulates the activity of the frontal cortex - implicated in higher mental functions. But while low levels of NAA in the ACG correlated with high creativity in people of average intelligence, in people with IQs of above 120, the reverse was true (The Journal of Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0588-09.2009).

Jung speculates that if there is less NAA to regulate frontal cortex activity in "average" brains, they are freer to roam and find new ideas. In highly intelligent people, however, tighter control over the frontal cortex seems to enhance creativity. Perhaps this is because they are more likely to come up with new ideas anyway, and the tighter control allows them to "fine-tune" that ability.

"People say you have to let your mind wonder freely to be creative," says Jung. "For people of average intelligence, perhaps it's true that you need to utilise more areas of your [frontal cortex] for something truly novel and creative to emerge, but in more intelligent folks, there's something different going on."

Paul Howard-Jones of the University of Bristol, UK, agrees that different cognitive processes may underlie creativity in people with different IQs. "This backs up behavioural evidence for a threshold in IQ, beyond which the relationship with creativity changes," he says.

However, both Howard-Jones and Kenneth Heilman at the University of Florida caution that, since we don't fully understand how NAA affects neurons, Jung's conclusions remain speculative.

Heilman adds that it would be interesting to test whether NAA also correlates with a facet of creativity known as convergent thinking - the ability to bring lots of individual factors together into a single idea.

Jung also believes his findings could shed new light on what made the brains of creative geniuses like Einstein tick. "I don't think his IQ was ever tested, but it was likely around 120 - high, but not stratospheric," he says. "I would have loved to see what his ACG looked like, as IQ alone did not get him there, in my opinion, but rather intelligence plus creativity."

May 2009 by Linda Geddes

Meaning Making - Part 1 - Aligning thoughts with intentions

"What you think determines how you feel. It is up to you to get a grip on your mind so that you do not make yourself miserable.

A thought you have is not some sort of truth. It is just a thought. It may have arisen for no good reason whatsoever. A cloud passes in front of the sun and you think, “Life is meaningless.” What sort of thought is that? Why should you feel obliged to countenance it? Why even give it the time of day? It is a terrible mistake to take thoughts at their face value, as if they arrive from on high. They just come from you, with all of your warts and agendas.  

If a thought serves you, you keep it. If it doesn’t serve you, you reject it. If you think, “I’m spending the next two hours making meaning,” you keep it. If you follow that thought with, “But maybe I’m on the wrong track and maybe I’ve made a mess of my life,” you reject it instantly, without muss or fuss. You say, “Wow, that follow-up thought was a whopper! The heck with it.” - Eric Maisel