Breakthroughs don’t come from simply staring at an object and thinking harder about it.
A sculptor doesn’t stare at a ball of clay and then magically turn it into something remarkable. No. She collects and combines images throughout her day that, pieced together nicely, can be communicated effectively through clay.
It is the images she collects and combines that make the masterpiece, not the clay itself, and the images in her arsenal come from the variety of her experiences.
We have naturally lazy brains. Some might spin the word “efficient” around, but I believe they’re lazy. Our brains take shortcuts, our peripheral vision isn’t what we are really seeing, it’s what our brain is guessing we would see.
Gregory Berns wrote in his fantastic book Iconoclast, “Experience modifies the connections between neurons such that they become more efficient at processing information.”
That is, the more experience we have the better the processing. Moreover, the more new experiences we have, the more likely we acquire a path of uncharted processing, which leads to creative remarkability.
Therefore the path of an artist is quite simply laid out… have more new experiences and you’re bound to create better art.
Stay Positive & New Is Always Better
