A young artist recently asked me, “How do I manage this creative spirit within me?” The more I thought the more I wondered if manage is the wrong word. I experience creative energy as if it was a tiger that prowls the neighborhood at three in the morning. When it silently appears out of the shadows at unexpected moments, my job is not to manage it because no one can manage a wild animal.
Rule One: Notice the Tiger
My first job is to notice it. For example, this past month I have worked on a series of five paintings based upon Luke 4. I have learned that my best insights come at 3am when I get up to go to the bathroom. So I keep a journal close at hand and quickly jot down what I see so that I can remember it in the light of day. Those 3am sightings have lead to breakthroughs in my art. It has also left me a bit bleary-eyed but that is a small price to pay. For others, the creative insight might come while at a stop light, while watching a movie or reading a book. By paying attention to the creative spark, the tiger, for some unexplained reason, tends to show up more often.
Rule Two: Feed the Tiger
Those creative parts of us, like a tiger, are hungry and wander to places where they might find food. My creative self makes itself known more frequently when I make space for an intellectual diet of reading, visiting art galleries, listening to pod-casts or watching U-tube videos of other creative people. There is never a one to one correlation between providing food and calculating the tiger’s appearance. Tigers are too unpredictable for that. But I have noticed that if I don’t make space to feed creativity, the river of new ideas starts to dry up.
Rule Three: Wander in the Jungle
When it comes to my two artistic pursuits, painting and writing, rarely do I start with a fully formed outline of what I want to do. If I am painting, I usually begin with a few concept sketches in my notebook. Then I might stretch the canvas, paint a background and try one of the concepts. Often while I am painting, a new insight will emerge and I will either paint over or start a new canvas. Eventually a more complete idea will begin to emerge. The writing process is similar. I might start with one phrase, slowly add words, and then develop a more complete outline as I write, edit, and rewrite. I often feel like I am aimlessly wandering in the jungle in the early stages of a composition. Insight usually comes but not before I have gotten lost a few times and endured the cacophony of fear-inducing voices telling me I am a poor excuse for an artist.
Rule Four: Sleep with One Eye Open
On rare occasions tigers, who are wild, powerful animals, have been known to eat people. Therefore it pays to be cautious in their presence. Creative energy is also powerful. Like all energy, it is imperialistic and given the right circumstances it can take over the life of its host. I have experienced times when the creative ideas started to flow and suddenly I found myself unable to turn them off. My mind would race and I found it difficult to eat or sleep. I am not bipolar but after a couple of these episodes, I have a greater appreciation for the manic experience of that condition. The biographies of artists such as Van Gogh or Michelangelo testify that such experiences are common for creative types. I have found that exercise, music, and prayer all help to sooth the beast when it is agitated. Eventually it will calm down. If the manic creative episode persists, it can wreck the health and marriage of a person. So seek the help of a doctor or counselor who can help determine if there are underlining physiological factors at work.
Tigers are beautiful creatures with the capacity to reveal to us a transcendent world where lion and lamb lie down together. We can’t manage them but we can learn to live in harmony with them.