Organization Is Where the Money Is. Huh? (Just Rewards?)

Okay. Maybe the expression "Organization yields benefits?" Maybe that is more user-friendly, and is beneficial as a mantra than the "money" alternative? Remember in history there were artists, writers, creatives that either lived in impoverished situations, ... that died in poverty. Usually through no fault of their own. The idea of a famous artist had a sketch of the plan, a model as "Get famous first. Then take up painting." A lot fall in this category historically. So ... what now?

Let us just focus on the added rewards for organizing. Consider the step of making art. Many small steps; buying supplies, paint, canvas, finding a space to work and more tasks crop up. The step "above" the task of actually sitting down and writing, the actual act of painting, actually making music (composing, performing, recording), saying the creative part, the "making" in the process are one thing. Then the step "above," not necessarily the better step, just situated differently in the process (Different is not "wrong.") can result to follow what can be a paradigm shift. It The organizing, like marketing, preparing shows, events and workshops are what are considered part of "executive thinking skills." They are "meta-skills" beyond the "studio time" work.

We are talking about planning, a wide perspective, what can be quite creative in the procedure.

It can make the product/service a reality, being generous, giving to society in our niche, giving back to a demographic, to people in general. It stems to relying on the thinking skills; positives of the work, the growing stages, the generating of creativity, the "audible status" to getting to a listener. What are the downfalls? What are the gut feelings, the intuition? It is from the creative brain, to the "doing" part of it. Produce, produce, produce. Now what?

Much dialogue can stem around "thinking up" something creative, and a view can also fall into the scheme of things, the scene being "getting something down." Getting it down means making it manifested, come into form, a beingness. It is carnal while thinking about it may well be considered as "cerebral pleasure." When you find yourself w/ a stack or some such of a couple hundred canvases over some years, it is then time to use your executive thinking skills. "I have none," you say maybe. Jump on the learning curve. Delegate, find someone who complements your capabilities, skills, and talents. Fill the void w/ what you need to do to procede. Brainstorm. Play out the options, healthy options. Often making art is a solo project, time alone steeping, working on our draftmanship, filling the "well" w/ images, ideas, cleaning up, clearing up the studio. Daydreaming mostly never has a buyer, a patron. You have got to make it, say fabricate it, construct it, bring it into a physical world, a reality. No, not one person can read your mind. To communicate one needs a medium, a conducive environment to express the statement one wants to make. My music composition tutor from Yale said, point blank at the beginning of our relationship; "Here is how we are going to do it. Think it up. Write it down. Then play it." One of the three stages involves the unseen craft of thinking. And the last two are manifested; either in ink or sound, what is audibly. What has a voice.

It is an advocating of the artist.

Vocalising, bringing "voice' to our thoughts" bring a construct into a physical existence. Okay. Back to executive thinking skills. Where do we see this? In the classroom, a teacher practices his/her skills, talents, and abilities. The student is recving an opportunity to learn from the teacher. The teacher does some things the student does not understand. Then the student becomes a teacher and sees the paradigm shift. Now the once-a-student teacher sees through it all, a teacher's view. On and on the spiraling staircase brings a new level w/ the common, familiar issues. Big now on solutions, the problems are now more manageable. We are discovering more perspectives, a mindfulness, an expose, an awareness. It starts to make sense.

One last thought. In my readings I have found interesting ideas, read the brain research, rediscovered learning theory, have seen the avant-garde learning programs; programs for optimising learning, understand creativity on and on w/ related subjects. The emotional wellness of the artist, the creative, painter, sculptor, writer, musician, the wellness has a corelation w/ the ability to use his/her executive thinking skills. The extreme? Think of the person who has some tendencies of, some symptoms of Asperger's, an autism. What is "missing?" Yes, where are the executive thinking skills? I like to be on the side of hope here. Hang on. Pain ends. Hope that the person can deliver gains, an effective improvement w/ his/her executive thinking skills. For some however small a change, a learning experience of whatever size in this area (meta-thinking skills) can make/yield large results, making progress, change for the better, whatever past is left behind. Leave myths that are counter to success and progress. Within, liberate the worker. W/out; Huh? Increasing the productivity is the resultant. Quality/quantity hopefully hand-in-hand, like sister religions make for a better world. Laterally coexisting, cohabitating healthily bringing in, creating, giving birth to solutions that add to the world to be a better place to live. Seeing things that need changed? Your purpose on earth? Make the changes happen. Starting w/ yourself! (Need to work on your art. Work on your life. Get things in order, taking gentle, doable steps.

Thanks and happy creative moments to you,

Todd E. McCormick