Tag Archives: creativity

Create, and change the world

I’m a firm believer that one of the easiest ways we change the world is by simply employing the creativity we were born with. You’re not creative, you say? Pshaw! I’m not buying it for a second! Think outside of the box of “painter, writer, musician”, etc. These are the artistic pursuits that we easily think of as creative, but creative is not just talent in any certain area. It is a way of being, an approach to life that can add color and vitality to anything and everything we touch. Creativity brings life alive.

Look inside yourself. There is at least one thing at which you are naturally adept, and there are likely many. You didn’t really have to learn it; you were just immediately good when you tried it. The best part is, it makes your heart happy when you do that thing.

The joy that you feel when you honor yourself vibrates outward and brings great joy to others. It also inspires them to do the same. I do believe that is a big part of life’s purpose, to express those special talents and abilities that we each carry inside of us. Create, build, and play!

You’ll be making the make the world a brighter place while you’re at it. 🙂

“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” (Rumi)

Inspirational Creativity Quotes:

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut,

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Creativity takes courage. ” ~ Henri Matisse

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” ~ Osho

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Van Gogh Tried to Show Us

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I was very fortunate to visit an immersive exhibit of Vincent van Gogh’s art in 2022. Being already a big fan, and so therefore knowing something of Vincent’s history and work, mostly I was curious about how anyone could compress the infinite experience of “Van Gogh” into limited time and space. For Vincent van Gogh is not just bigger than life because he became famous, and he did not become famous simply at the whim of some influential art dealer who could persuade his clients to open their wallets.

In actual fact, Vincent despaired that anyone would see or appreciate what he was trying to say to the world, and he died poor and believing that no one ever would. What was he trying to say to you and I? For my part, I see a message that life is big, precious, beautiful, and yes, sometimes tragic, but when we see the challenges and despair of others, we develop compassion, we become a more integral part of humanity.

Part of the exhibit was a 1/2-hour movie display of his works in an immense room, as his paintings undulated and merged in and out, coming to life as they projected onto all four walls, the color and life also spilling down and outward onto the floor and the viewers. The objective was clearly to bring the viewers inside the art, so that they could perhaps more easily feel it and become part of it. I wondered as I watched the delighted viewers, no doubt some of them experiencing Vincent’s work for the first time, what they were feeling? If I could come up with one word that would encapsulate the experience, what might that be?

The word CREATIVITY came to mind. Creativity is the very essence of who we are as humans, and we may not be able to quite put it into words, but we FEEL it. Deep down we know it as a certain truth. We ARE creative, part of a mysterious creative force, and endowed with our own creative power through our minds and hearts to manifest a better (but not yet imagined) world. There is great joy in feeling the power of that, and it showed on the faces of the viewers.

Here’s the other part of that thought. Is it possible that Vincent van Gogh’s immersive exhibits are so hugely popular right now because we know at a deep level, but not yet fully admitting it to ourselves, that there is a force at work of late that is trying to destroy our creative power? Van Gogh’s work is not just simply an antidote in troubled times, but rather it is a view of what is possible, our POTENTIAL.

I would say that is true, but it is for you to decide. I see the juxtaposition of the world they want for us, the ones who make the rules and use coercion and force to “create it”. They project a cold future of transhumanism, where we will have completely lost the warmth, love, connectedness, and most importantly the full creative potential of who we are. They are trying to convince us that we are defective, when nothing could be farther from the truth.

So my final question to you is this: What kind of world do you want to see in your future, and for the future of all children who will inherit this planet? For my part, I’m on the side of Vincent van Gogh.

Sunflower Metaphysics

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To continue yesterday’s post about Van Gogh Lighting the Darkness: It gives me great pleasure to grow things, although it’s been a few years since I’ve maintained large gardens. There is something so satisfying about dropping tiny packet seeds of life into the ground, then nurturing them to their full-blown potential. Sunflowers were among my favorite annuals, and a few of them always graced my back garden among the perennials.

Sunflowers are magnificent in full bloom, but as an artist I am also attracted to their waning fall beauty. I have drawn and painted them many times, as did Vincent Van Gogh. The other day I was searching online for a few Van Gogh images, and there are several large museums worldwide that have given open access to some in their collections. One of them is The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. (Also affectionately known as simply “The Met”.)

They have a few nice Van Gogh pieces, including one of some withered sunflowers lying on a table (Sunflowers, 1887). I have among my own art images several of withered sunflowers at the end of the season.

So here’s a question for you: Is one of the images below a “Van Gogh à la Susan Hart”, and the other “Susan Hart à la Van Gogh”? You may snicker at the suggestion of Van Gogh imitating me, however, that amusement would be based on several faulty assumptions: a) that time is linear, and since he lived before me, how could he “know about me”, and b), that he is famous and I am not, so again, even if time could move backwards linearly, how could he “know about me”?

In actual fact, fame is rather irrelevant to this thought exercise. My message is really about our perception of time, and our conscious awareness of everything. So…

Since time is not really linear (we just measure our lives that way) – all time actually exists at once, and our consciousness can connect to all ideas and knowledge in the ether throughout all time – it is not entirely impossible that he also “knows about me”. We are both huge lovers of sunflowers, so it’s possible (for example) that we have a connection of consciousness simply in a shared passion for giant yellow flora.

It’s a metaphysical puzzle for your Sunday, one that may hopefully make you question why we live in a world that is so intent on keeping our conscious awareness, and therefore our experience of life, so small…

“Sunflowers”, Vincent Van Gogh

A clip from “Waning Beauty”, Susan Hart

Lighting the Darkness

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Out of the profound sadness that haunted much of Vincent Van Gogh’s life emerged one of the most famous paintings of the world, “The Starry Night” (1889).

Vincent was one of those souls who lived a life that in the fullness of time proved to be famously inspiring to others. While he was alive, his most fervent wish for his art was that it would help people “to see”. During his own personal journey of darkness he created works that would help to light the world.

Not everyone will paint a world-famous picture or write a widely read novel that inspires others. However, each one of us CAN be a light in the world.

Please, endeavor today to do one small random act of kindness for another human being. Be the light, and watch it ripple outward.

Inspirational Quotes:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.” ~ Madeleine L’Engle

“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” ~ St. Francis Of Assisi

“Learn to light a candle in the darkest moments of someone’s life. Be the light that helps others see; it is what gives life its deepest significance.” ~ Roy T. Bennett

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~ Plato

Susan L Hart / Author