i cultivate confusion
I like this quote just now as I frenzy myself up in a writing maelstrom:
You have to systematically create confusion; it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life. – Salvador Dali
Further to my anxiety post last week, I think confusion in the creativity process is really gut churning. It throws me. And I doubt myself.
But I agree with The Big Moustached Man…confusion is the stage before clarity. It’s necessary for clarity and creative breakthrough. Being creative entails sitting smack-bang in the confusion, letting it swirl, asking questions, not expecting the answers to evolve linearly. Then sitting even longer in it, not fixed on an outcome, oblivious to what others might expect…only seeking the true depiction or expression. There is no right answer. Ever.
More than that, we create because we’re confused.
Psychology Today observed this: “Creative people habitually suspend hard-fast notions of reality …and identity. Constant questioning feeds their flexible approaches to creative problems. They keep open to possibilities and let those possibilities incubate.”
How to cultivate confusion? I think it’s just a matter of letting it wash over you, gratefully. And not wanting a “right” answer.
I find reading about whimsical artists, or reading florid prose when I sit down to write helps. Stephen Fry is a massively confused doubter. I read him sometimes and am reminded of what confusion can create. You?
that quote from psychology today is me, in a nutshell.
(no, this is me, in a nutshell! )
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Ah, Salvador Dali. I loved his show in Melbourne year before last . My favourite thing he ever did was, right in the peak of his surrealist phase, abruptly changed his subject material and painted only mainstream religious work. Everyone hated him for it, saying he had abandoned the surrealist movement, but the ultimate confusion in what he had done was to me, a new form of surrealism, no?
Anyway.
That pretty much sums up how I create confusion. I like to follow Dali. Do something completely new you have never done before. Paint your dreams and immortalize them, instead of trying to make sense of them. Dont try to make sense of anything, just let it happen. Do things that scare you, and let others inspire you.
xxx
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The experts on chaos believe, that beneath chaos there is order. I subscribe that belief. Chaos appears to be the starting point that brings wonderful ideas, growth and opportunities. Chaos should never be feared, but desired.
Tony
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How wonderfully inspiring & stimulating chaos is to an artist?
The possibilities are exciting if not unnerving. Complacency has never
inspired great works of art. The desire to explore unchartered emotional
territory leads to the key to creativity.
Thanks for your wonderful blog!
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by sarah wilson and Valeria Gosse, Michal . Michal said: This is so funny – yet true in so many ways… RT @_sarahwilson_: I deal with anxiety by allowing myself to be confused http://bit.ly/enxUpB [...]
Sarah are you okay up there? Your tweets, and blogging this week seems quite off kilter…depressed maybe? (I can’t think of a word). But you don’t seem happy.
i hope you’re okay xx
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Hi Sarah,
Thanks for this post – it has helped to see confusion is ok today.
Kristy
x
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I really find that to be true…my most interesting ideas come to me when I just dive in and let it all come at me…flowing from one to the other…at rapid speed thinking of all the ideas and options…words, concepts, sentences, poetry, music it’s all just there ready to be tossed about and absorbed…
Love, Jules
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I love what you write Sarah!
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[...] little while ago, I came across Sarah Wilson’s thoughts about the artist’s intentional state of confusion: the moments of chaos an artist will allow, in order to maximise expression. There is a resonance [...]