Think Narrow, Dive Deep

Henri Matisse "Blue Nude"

Too often, creativity is equated with the wide open prairies of freedom where we’ve been conditioned to believe that unlimited roaming is what calls forth our creative impulses.

It reminds me of liberal parenting, that knee jerk reaction to authoritarian parenting where children were seen and not heard, and you spared the rod only to…

spoil the child. Liberal parenting, the new darling of the older parent generation, holds that limits are literal, and not reflective of a natural boundary that keeps us safe.

I mean, think about it for a moment: without the boundary of our skin, our organs would spill out of our bodies. Without the boundary of rivers, towns are flooded and destroyed. Without the boundary of “no,”  yes becomes tyrannical instead of gracious. 

In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that unlimited freedom is a fiction of the frightened, those who feel that restrictions are handcuffs, a jail sentence of sorts. What I imagine is that the very idea of a restriction goads some artists into breaking free, allowing creativity and inspiration to spill out.

While others find that the tighter the reins, the higher their creativity prances.

I remember a museum in Amsterdam showcasing objects made by prisoners in concentration camps who literally had nothing. The stunning beauty of a small handmade, hand painted hair comb, among dozens and dozens of other objects of art, stopped me in my tracks. Here were limits unimagined by most of us turning out flames of creative hope.

“In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed.”
— Henri Matisse

What limits do you dare to put on yourself today. On your art?

How will you embrace the creativity paradox: within boundaries, creative acts know no bounds.