Michele Cassou

"If you do not listen to your intuition, it will stop talking to you.  Your intuition is like a sensitive friend.  If you question it, censor it, judge it, it gets hurt and becomes silent."

— Michele Cassou

French Artist, Teacher

You have to train yourself to listen to your intuition because your rational mind is very strong and often discards your intuition immediately.  In fact, it sometimes happens so fast that what you think is your intuition is actually your second on third thought.  The rational mind can move very quickly to override intuition.  Train yourself to grab hold of your intuition and not let go.  Learn to trust your feelings and first thoughts.  

And in the beginning you will often misunderstand your intuition.  Be patient.  It is okay to make mistakes.  The problem is not that your intuition is wrong, but that your interpretation is not accurate.  Sometimes it will take years to perfect listening to your intuition.  Trust your heart.  

Albert Einstein

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.  Imagination is more important than knowledge.  Knowledge is limited.  Imagination encircles the world."

— Albert Einstein

German Theoretical Physicist

1879 - 1955

Unfortunately, most schools are focused on increasing the knowledge of their students, not their imagination.  And while knowledge is important, imagination is even more important.  There is a limit to how much knowledge we can gain and retain.  The span and accuracy of knowledge is constantly changing and expanding.  What is considered truth today is considered foolish tomorrow.  Once people believed the earth was flat.  We would be much better off if our schools also encouraged imagination.

And the same can be said about creative leaders.  Many artists, writers, actors and musicians study to increase their knowledge of their art.  And this knowledge is good but limited.  We need to be encouraging our imaginations.  We should be exploring the worlds of our imaginations.  What are you doing to increase your imagination?

Henning Mankell

"To grow up is to wonder about things; to be grown up is to slowly forget the things you wondered about as a child."

Henning Mankell

Swedish Novelist

1948 - 

I watch the three-year-old child that my wife and I are raising and I am amazed at the creative powers of her mind to imagine worlds that I cannot see.  To invent stories and stories within stories.  What happens to us as we grow up and take on the cloaks of the adult world?  Where does our inventiveness go?  What worlds of the imagination have we forgotten?

What do you do to keep your mind young?  Do you play with children?  Do you enter their worlds?  Or does the path you walk become narrower with each passing day?  Do you still think as a child or have you given up childish things?  Are you young at heart?  Or are the arteries of your imagination clogged?

I recently finished Mankell's excellent novel, The Man From Beijing.  Here is a video of Henning Mankell discussing the novel at Strand Bookstore.

Ernest Hemingway

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."

— Ernest Hemingway

American Novelist

1899 - 1961

This is an amazing statement from a writer whom many would call a master.  I think what Hemingway is saying is that we should never stop learning about our craft.  Even the best of the best can learn something new — can improve their craft.  The task of becoming good never ends.  We are all apprentices — beginners.  We must come to the task of creating each work of art as a beginner would.

Those who believe there is nothing left to learn have stopped growing and will soon be spiritually dead and doomed to a life of repetition.  Life is in the learning.  Life is in the growing.  So don't despair if you don't know everything because you never will.  Don't despair if you haven't perfected your craft.  The joy is in the learning.  The joy is in the discovery of ways to improve your craft.

Paula Rego

"To find one's way anywhere one has to find one's door, just like Alice, you see.  You take too much of one thing and you get too big, then you take too much of another and you get too small.  You've got to find your own doorway into things."

— Paula Rego

Portuguese Artist

1935 -

The doors we open and the doors we close hold the keys to our success.  What doors have you failed to open that would catapult you miles down the road?  What doors if you learned to shut them and throw away the key would prevent others from zapping your energy?




The door is an amazing invention.  It keeps out those people we don't want in our lives yet allows us to choose who can enter and keep us company.  The door serves a similar function for creative leaders.  We can keep out those elements of our lives that we don't want to appear in our art and we can invite in what we want to appear in our art.

The Family
(1988)

To paraphrase the poet, Robert Frost, doors make good families.  Doors give us privacy and keep prying eyes from seeing what we don't want them to see.  Some doors are simple and others are complex.  Some doors have intricate designs and others are plain.  Doors help us to manage and control our lives.  Doors help us to hide things we don't want people to see and to reveal things we want people to see.




Can you identify the doors in your life?  Do these doors help you be more creative or do they restrict your creativity?  Do you need to replace some of the doors in your life?  Do you need to add doors to your life?
















Here is a video with more of Paula Rego's paintings.

A. S. Neill

"Take from others what you want, but never be a disciple of anyone."

— Alexander Sutherland Neill

Scottish Educator, Writer

1883 - 1973

Life is about learning and everyone we encounter, whether in the virtual world or the physical world, has something to teach us, but no one is the master of all knowledge and wisdom.  No one deserves our devotion or discipleship.  We need to each independently investigate truth for ourselves.  We need to come to our own conclusions.  If we choose to blindly follow one person, we have failed ourselves.  We have let ourselves down.

From time to time in my life, I have wished I knew someone who had all the answers and I could sit at his feet and soak in his wisdom.  But I have never encountered that person and I have had to depend on my own thoughts and wisdom.  I have had to learn to investigate what truth is for myself.  And sometimes I make mistakes and sometimes I get it right.

People often feel they need heroes and gurus.  They keep looking for THE answer.  We put people on a pedestal and when we discovered their actions don't match their words, we tear them down.  We punish them for leading us a stray.  What we fail to realize is that there are no perfect people — no wise men sitting on a hill, only fools trying to get by.

As artists and writers, we must be careful not to worship other artists and writers, not to put them on pedestals.  We need to independently investigate what they have to teach and then make our own choices.  Truth is a slippery slope.  What we believe to be true today we may discover tomorrow was an illusion.

For your listening pleasure, here is one of my favorite Beatles song:  Fool on the Hill.

Marcel Proust

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

 

— Marcel Proust

French Novelist

1871 - 1922

For some people the environment is crucial to their happiness.  They let where they live affect their emotional life.  And there is some truth to the fact.  Cloudy days can bring people down.  Long winters give some people cabin fever.  Others need the mountains or the ocean or the prairie.  How does your environment affect you as an artist?  Does it inspire your creativity?  Does it make you hopeful?  Does it make you happy?

For other people like Proust and myself, the environment is less important?  I can create anywhere.  I can sit in a shopping mall and write poetry.  I can sit in a church and write.  As I write these words I am sitting in a hotel in South Carolina.  And the environment rarely affects my mood or happiness.  I love the mountains, the ocean and the prairie, but I don't need them to be happy.  I live inside my head.  Can you create anywhere?  Or must you be in a certain place?  A certain mood?  A special environment?

Linus Pauling

"Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life."

— Linus Pauling

American Scientist

1901 - 1994

Are you curious about the world around you?  Are you searching for new information and ideas?  Are you asking questions and looking for answers?  Creative leaders seek out new ideas and new ways of seeing the world.  We want answers to our questions.  Part of our thrill in life is learning something new — figuring out something we didn't know.

Creative leaders need a strong sense of curiosity about the world they inhabit.  They are not satisfied with the pat answers of the past.  The challenge is in finding new answers to the age old questions.

Robert Henri

Self-Portrait
(1903)

"Let a student enter the school with this advice:  No matter how good the school is, his education is in his own hands.  All education must be self-education."

— Robert Henri

American Painter

1865 - 1929

I believe that each of us is in charge of our own education.  We choose what we want to learn and what we don't want to learn.  Even in the best of schools, students fail because they don't apply themselves.  And in the worst of schools, students still graduate and go on to accomplish great things.  Yes, a teacher can inspire you and mentor you, but in the end you are responsible for your own education.

And I believe learning is a life-long process.  When a person stops learning, he stops living.  What are you doing to further your education in your chosen field?  What are you exploring outside your field of expertise?  When was the last time your read a new book?  Or talked to a stranger?  Or developed a new habit?

Tam Gan
(1914)

This week while traveling, I met a minister who had lived for fifteen years in Japan.  I learned about his life as a minister and living in Japan.  He shared how he had witnessed the cremation of a dead person.  The Japanese custom is to wash the body and then have it cremated.  The family gathers at the crematory to witness the burning of the body.  Then the family is given a portion of the ashes and bones in a small box and the remainder are buried in the ground.  I learned something new by listening and asking questions.  And who knows, maybe some day the material will appear in a short story. 

Creative leaders need to be constantly learning new things.  What have you learned recently that you can incorporate into your writing or painting or acting?  

Eugene Delacroix

Self-Portrait (1837)

"What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough."

— Eugene Delacroix

French Artist

1798 - 1863

Orphan Girl at the Cemetery

(1923)

Why do you write?  Why do you paint?  What inspires your creative work?  Do you have something new to say to the world?  Are you obsessed with telling the world what you know?  We each create for different reasons — some we are conscious of and others that are hidden even from us.  

I personally believe that there is little in the universe of humanity that has not been thought, said or written by someone somewhere, but fortunately, we have forgotten much of what has been learned by previous generations and each generation has to learn anew.  It is in the relearning of the forgotten that we have the inspiration to create what has not been created — to reshape the myths of the world.

I challenge each creative leader to study history — to understand what happened before you were born.  It is in the knowing of the past that you can begin to reshape the future — to create anew that which is ancient, to find the thread that ties us together.

Liberty Leading the People

(1830) The Louvre

Jack London

"You can't wait for inspiration.  You have to go after it with a club."

— Jack London

American Novelist

1876 - 1916

If you wait for inspiration, you may never find it.  Inspiration sneaks upon you when you are working and catches you by surprise.  Inspiration invades your dreams and you wake up with the answer to your problems.  When you pretend that inspiration is not important, it dominates your soul.  

Consider inspiration as a friend who comes and goes at all hours of the day and night bearing gifts that will delight you.  When you open the gifts offered by inspiration, be not frightened by what you find.  Cherish the madness that inspiration bestows upon you.  Taste the sadness when it leaves you naked and exposed to the elements.  

Kneel before the altar of inspiration and pray that you will survive the dangerous journey.  Catch fireflies and offer then as a sacrifice to the gods of inspiration.  Dance with the goddess of inspiration and steal her beauty.  Offer a prayer of thanksgiving for an opportunity to taste of the joy of the gods.

Douglas Adams

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

— Douglas Adams

1952 - 2001

English novelist

When we are young, we have lots of dreams of what we want to do with our lives.  When I was in junior high, I wanted to be an architect.  My father was a general contractor and build over 300 houses in his lifetime so I am sure that was an influence on my dream.  But in recent years, I realize that I had as a child a desire to draw which no one encouraged.  When I was a sophomore in high school I made a commitment to be a minister.  By the time I was a senior in high school I had lost my faith in religion.  In college I dreamed of being a writer.  My life may not have turned out as I imagined, but I believe it turned out better and I became what I was meant to be.

I have spent more than 35 years writing poetry and short stories.  I have published 14 books and hundreds of poems.  I have spent over 20 years as a motivational speaker (ministry) touching people's hearts and souls.  And late in my life I have turned to painting masks.  I know I ended up where I needed to be and did what I needed to do.

I believe that we are all here on this earth to learn lessons and grow.  Everything that happens to us will teach us valuable lessons.  The choices we make will lead us down the roads we need to travel.  We will arrive where we are meant to be, having learned the lessons we were meant to learn.

When I was 50 I wrote an article, "What do I want to be when I grow up? Or how I found myself!", that appeared in my college alumni magazine.  In the article I describe how became what I was meant to be.

Joseph Conrad

"I don't like work — no man does — but I like what is in work: the chance to find yourself."

— Joseph Conrad

Polish Novelist

1857 - 1924

Unlike Conrad, I do like to work.  I find that if I don't work I become bored and more tired than when I work.  Although, I do from time to time find myself procrastinating, particularly with creative work.  The creative side of me doesn't want to sit down and do the work.  But I strongly agree with the second half of the quote.  Work does give me a chance to explore who I am as an artist and writer.  Work helps me to understand myself better and to appreciate my talents and gifts.  Work also challenges me and pushes me to go farther than I thought possible.

I believe we ought to celebrate work.  All work is honorable if approached with the right attitude.  Housework and housekeeping is very important work.  So is child-rearing.  Raising and educating the next generation is probably the most important work of all.  I am in awe of people who are knowledgeable about the work they do.  When I meet a sales clerk in a store who knows his product, I compliment him.  I love to listen to the sales pitch of great sales people.  Sometimes I buy and sometimes I don't, but I enjoy the ride.  I celebrate people who work their hands — carpenters, farmers, mechanics.  I am not good with my hands because I am too slow.  Some people have the gift for gab.  I have heard some fantastic speakers in my life.  Work for me is both an art and a skill.

The work that creative leaders do should also be celebrated.  Sometimes people don't understand the creative process and so they don't appreciate the working habits of artists and writers.  Painting, sculpting and writing are not 9 to 5 jobs.  You may work for an hour here and an hour there, but your mind is always working both consciously and unconsciously.  In fact, the unconscious work for a creative leader is probably the most important work and the most difficult.  So celebrate and appreciate the work you do.

Stephen Nachmanovitch

"Creative work is play.  It is free speculation using the materials of one's chosen form."

— Stephen Nachmanovitch

American Musician/Writer

1950 -

For many people as they grow-up, they stop playing and having fun and in the process they stop being creative.  Being playful opens up our channels of creativity and we explore new ways of seeing the world.  Play involves having a sense of humor and being able to laugh at ourselves and the world around us.  Can you laugh at yourself and your mistakes?  Play also involves celebration of life and the joys of discovery.  Do you celebrate the beauty of being alive?  Play releases the creativity that is stored inside each of us and we try new things.  Have you tried something new recently or are you stuck in a rut?

Anton Chekhov

"The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them."

— Anton Chekhov

Russian Writer

1860 - 1904

What questions are you asking?  Are you curious about the world around you?  Are you asking questions that challenge your beliefs?  As artists and writers we can get in a rut painting the same image over and over or writing the same story again and again.  What are you doing to keep your art fresh and new?  What new roads are you walking down?  What new mountains are you climbing?  Challenge yourself today to draw something you have never drawn, to write a story you have never written, to sing a song you have never sang.

Kahlil Gibran

"Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge.  So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

— Kahlil Gibran

Lebanese Poet/Artist

1883 - 1931

The Face of  Almustafa (The Prophet)

How well do you know yourself?  Do you know your strengths?  Your weaknesses?  Your blind spots? Most of us only partially know who we are and why we were born.  Life is an ongoing process of self-discovery.  And life is a process of becoming whom we are meant to be.  We can change who we are if we desire and are willing to change.  Other people can not change us, but they can teach us about ourselves.  There are things other people know about us that we do not know?  If we listen to them, we may hear the truth.  Even our enemies can teach us about ourselves.  Sometimes the people who irritate us the most have the most to teach us.  Often when we are irritated by the behavior we see in others, we are really irritated with ourselves because we behave the same way.  The better we know ourselves, the more honest our art will be and the better person we can become.