Fernando Botero

"When you start painting, it is somewhat outside you.  At the conclusion, you seem to move inside the painting."

— Fernando Botero

Columbian Artist

1932 - 

Do you become a part of your art?  Your writing?  When you are finished, do you leave a part of yourself on the canvas or on the page?  Do you leave a part of yourself inside the characters you create?  Those who believe that they are separate from what they create are not being honest with themselves.  You and your art are connected at a very deep level.

Woman Drinking with Cat

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John Quincy Adams

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, you are a leader."

— John Quincy Adams

American President

1767 - 1848

Leadership is about influence.  As a creative leader, do you inspire others through your art, writing, music or storytelling?  For me life is about our relationships — the people we meet, the people we help.  As a creative leader do you mentor other creative people?  We each have a responsibility to pass on what we have learned to those who come after us.  We have a responsibility to teach our skill to others — to help other become better.  

Creative leaders often are not aware of the lives they touch.  As a speaker, I speak to many groups of people and often I don't even get to know the audience.  And unless people follow-up with you by letter or email, you never learn whether you touched their lives.  And in many respects the same is true of writers and artists.  Someone may look at your painting and be inspired to try painting himself.  Someone may read your book  or story or poem and be inspired to be a better person.  We often don't know the lives we touch.  

We also don't know who is watching us, observing us.  How we behave impacts people's lives.  I know of speakers who say one thing on stage and do something else in their private lives.  They don't practice what they preach.  And, believe me, people see this.  As a creative leader, you need to walk your talk.  

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Odani Motohiko

"I used to find that idea of an ever changing, impalpable style appealing, but now I want to concentrate on the things I ought to be doing, the things that only I can do.  The result I hope will be works that like the Buddhist statues of the past will be capable of communicating with people for centuries to come."

Odani Motohiko

Japanese Artist

1972 -

Are you doing the creative work that you ought to be doing — that only you can do?  In today's world it is easy to get sidetracked and caught up in projects that have nothing to do with our true work.  There are many people and things that demand our attention and time.  If you don't know what creative work you are supposed to be doing it is easy to get lost.  Do you have a vision of the work that you should be doing?  Do you stay focused or are you easily distracted?

Will the creative work that you are doing still be communicating to generations to come?  Or will your work be forgotten as soon as you leave this world?  No one can predict which poems, or paintings or sculptures will last for centuries and which are meant for the dustbins of time.  Many artists and writers dream and hope that their creative works will give them immortality.    

To see more of Odani Motohiko's creative work, check out this site:

www.voiceyourtemper.com/obsess-were-obsessed/artgraffiti/430-odani-motohiko-sculptures

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Virginia Satir

"We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us."

— Virginia Satir

American Author

1916 - 1988

One of the challenges we all face is not letting other people's perceptions of us determine who we are and how we behave.  This development of who we believe ourselves to be begins almost from the moment we are born.  Our parents judge us based on our gender.  I have talked to women who say: "My father wanted a boy so he named me ___________."  Other people will tell us that we are big or tall or pretty.  And over the years these observations sink into our subconscious and we begin to believe them to be true.  Much of my childhood I was told that I was big for my age.  Over time that observation by people translated in my brain as "you are fat" even when I wasn't.

What observations have you heard throughout your life that you have come to believe as true?  How did these observations become translated into your brain?  Are these observations true or do you need to discard them?

As artists and writers we experience similar challenges.  People will criticize our creative works and often we come to believe these criticisms to be true.  We may even change our work to please the critics.  If we do, we are allowing their limited vision to define who we are and what we are capable of achieving.  Do not let those with limited imaginations limit you.  Stand up for yourself.  Choose to define yourself and your work by your vision, not that of others.

 

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Rudyard Kipling

"If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten."

— Rudyard Kiplng

English Novelist and Poet

1865 - 1936

Do you love history?  Do you read history?  Or could you care less about history?  Do you incorporate history into your writing and paintings?  I believe creative leaders need to study history?  Artists should study art history and many do.  Writers should study the lives of writers.  English degrees tend to focus on the literature and studying the literature.  Writing degrees tend to focus on the writing.  But few writers study the history of writing, the history of writers, the history of words or the history of publishing.  I have met many wanna-be poets who haven't even read other poets. They would never consider studying the history of poetry.

But understanding literature, art and theater requires more than studying the history of the arts.  We need to study literature, art and theater in the context of the times they were created.  We need to study the social, political and economic histories.  We need to read biographies and memoirs. 

Writers, artists and actors are people of their times.  They creative works contain the same beliefs, hopes and biases that can be found in the rest of their society.  Novels written in other times and places will teach you one perspective of that society.  Their paintings are minature history books.



So I encourage you to read a biography of a favorite writer, actor or artist.  Immerse yourself in the history of another time and place.  What was Paris like during the time of the Impressionists?  What was New York like during the 1950's and the beats?



One of my favorite movies is The Man Who Would Be King, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine, directed by John Huston and based on the novel by Rudyard Kliping.  The movie takes us to another place and time and gives us a glimpse of a world not our own.  Here are some scenes from the movie.

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Ken Patchen

"I don't consider myself to be a painter.  I think of myself as someone who has used the medium of painting in an attempt to extend — give an extra dimension to — the medium of words.  It happens very often my writing with a pen is interrupted with my writing with a brush — but I think of both as writing."

— Kenneth Patchen

American Poet, Novelist

1911 - 1972

We define ourselves with labels.  "I am a painter.  What are you?"  "I am a poet."  We are born into this world without labels and when we die, our obituaries tell the world that we were lawyers, doctors, merchants or candlestick makers.

In my profile I list many of the labels that have defined me over the years:  a carpenter, street sweeper, car hop, corn detasseler, hospital orderly, radio announcer, blogger, book editor, publisher, freelance writer, bus driver, sports writer, bookkeeper, policy and procedures writer, forms designer, marketing vice-president, corporate executive, professional speaker, facilitator, salesman, trainer, poet, storyteller, organizational development consultant, ad writer and communications executive.  And that is the short list.

What labels have you given yourself?  What labels have others given you?  Do these labels define you?  Do the labels tell the world who you are?  Do your labels limit you or expand the boundaries of who you are?  Do the labels allow others to place you in a cubbyhole?  To limit your creativity?

Do you ever judge people by their labels?  "Oh, you are just a bus driver?  A street sweeper?  A garbage collector?...."

Patchen said that he is not a painter.  He is a writer who has given an added dimension to his writing.  He has extended the boundary of the label beyond how most people define it.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

32nd President of the United States

1882 - 1945

Creativity is not limited to writers, artists and musicians.  Anyone can be creative if they open themselves up and listen to the ideas inside.  Who has not had a better idea about something?  There are creative business people who have new ideas about how to do something better.  There are creative doctors who develop better ways to treat patients.  My dentist has developed 12 products that he has sold on the market. Unfortunately, some people bury their creativity deep inside.  They even announce loudly to those around them: "I don't have a creative bone in my body."  We all have the potential to be creative if we allow ourselves the opportunity.

Creativity is one of the most thrilling acts that we as humans can participate in.  If you have ever experienced the excitement of chasing a new idea or exploring a new way of seeing the world you will understand what Roosevelt is saying.  Some people might say that Roosevelt was not creative.  He did not produce any great works of art.  His creativity lay in his ability to change the way he and others saw the world.  The ideas that rose to the surface during his Presidency dramatically changed life in the United States and around the world.  People today are still trying to understand the impact of changes Roosevelt created in our society and our politics.  Roosevelt was a creative leader.

I have come to believe that one of the blessings in disguise in my life was the rejection of religion at young age.  It released a tidal wave of creativity within me.  It freed me to question any idea.  Otherwise, I think, today I would find myself in a straitjacket of rules and regulations.  As a child I was obsessed with the Bible.  I would have an anxiety attack if anything was placed on top of the Bible.  I had to remove it immediately.  If I had continued down that path, it would have led to some form of insanity.

What are you doing to cultivate creativity in your life?  Give yourself the freedom to look at the world in new ways.  See the world in ways that others don't.  Don't accept things as they are.  Question why?  Creativity is not about technique.  It is about seeing the world in new ways.  

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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.

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