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This is a college level tranfer course, the second in a series where we will examine the poetics of life lived on the ground...as in rough and tumble, as in America at war with herself. This is a world art alone makes sense of, an artist's work is a gift freely shared like air...sympathetic systems aligned, the the fictive or imaginary worlds of possiblity simply an inhale or exhale away. This class is an opportunity to close your eyes and believe.
23 comments:
Dexter English
8/27
Creative Writing
Creativity is one of the world’s most prized possessions, in my eyes; after all we live in an age ruled by order, measured by how wealthy one is. The gorgeous thing about creativity is the poorest man can be the most affluent man in his own right. There is no one to say, judge, or restrict ones mind from escaping the strain of everyday living. How you express yourself is like a personal bar code engraved in the most vital organ, the heat. Sure there are items similar to yours on the shelf, but how you perceive it, appreciate it, makes it your own. For example, I am a die heart sports fan; I notice the smallest things to the most glorified aspects of every sport. To you, you may see an over paid athlete sweating and overexerting himself for reasons foreign to you; myself, I see poetry in motion.
Poetry; one of the many forms of expression that over the years I’ve grown to adore and strived to learn more about. As a kid I would put on a DMX or Jay Z track and try to freestyle along with the beat, I was horrible to say the least. As I grew so did my interest in lyrics, styles and delivery, and found myself throwing away artist who I thought, at the time, had insightful things to say, however once I got passed the beat and into lyrics I found that these rappers were horrible. My play list became smaller as my appreciation for poetry and spoken word bloomed into what once was an interest to now a hobby, challenging myself to not only be different but creative, appealing to women, men and also providing a humorous glance on topics relevant to me. Baldwin goes on to write in his essay: “ Perhaps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone. That all men are, when the chips are down, alone, is a banality – a banality because it is very frequently stated, but very rarely, on the evidence, believed.” Referring to this passage, I couldn’t agree with Baldwin more; seeking out that time to be alone is indispensable, when you can drain out the outside world and its many distractions to focus on yourself, your craft, to not have your thoughts salted by outside influences, and if nothing else, unwind. Through this growing process I’ve learned that my best work has been after a long day and I simply want to relax and not be bothered. Though I’ve never mustard up enough confidence to perform one of my pieces hopefully in the days to come I will.
My Perspective of my Creative Process
My creative process begins with a lot of critical thinking and brainstorming. I like to think about things that all relate to the topic. Writing is really not my thing because I do not really like to write and it is not fun for me. For me to understand a book or to write one is like telling me to go kill myself, which I cannot do. After brainstorming, I will start to put pieces together and link other pieces to what I really want to write about.
Connecting and making things up out of my mind is very difficult so I tend to get everything on paper before I go on. Many artists might have a lot of ideas on what to write or do but it is difficult for me to create something because I have a horrible creative process. Creating something is out of my mind is very difficult. The next step in my process would be after linking the things together would be creating it.
Creating things would be the most fun because I would have time to express my feelings and my creativeness. It might be difficult sometimes but I get through it because I have time to think and time to process the things in my mind. People have trouble doing this because it is very hard to make this or anything perfect.
In the end it would not be perfect because nobody is perfect, not even James Baldwin because everyone will have incorrect things and everyone has their own opinion so there is no right or wrong in the world of writing. There could be incorrect grammar and everything else but there is no right or wrong in opinions.
Ilene Lee
English 1B
Tuesday-Thursday
In the eyes of James Baldwin, an artist must be imaginative and take the ugliness of truth in society and turn it into a liberating beauty that sets things straight. As an artist, I write to share my thoughts and emotions of issues that are important to me, such as women’s rights, global hunger, and the lost youth in America. My creative process stems from the core ideas and morals that I have been raised to believe. I rely on my instincts and personal experiences to guide myself through words that mean something- words that express my truth.
When I write, I isolate my thoughts into a deep corner and question the themes and ideas that exist around a particular subject. I apply my mentality into a state of “aloneness of birth or death” (1) and think about a topic at its core state without any outside influences from others. It is imperative for me, as a writer, to keep my thoughts as raw as possible, to ensure that my words create a powerful and original voice. Baldwin explains that an artist “is his own test tube, his own laboratory, working… to supersede his responsibility to reveal all that he can possibly discover concerning the human bring” (2), similarly, I write to fulfill my own discovery and to illustrate what I have learned in my research. I am not fighting to sound the smartest or most eloquent, but simply fighting to share my voice; to show that my words have meaning and depth to our lives. I strive to release the truth I perceive to be reality in the experiences of my life.
When it comes to my audience, I have no better guests than I, myself. My thoughts are mainly for my own insight and knowledge- to reflect on my perspectives in life and gain a better understanding. I have no one to make proud, no one to impress and instead of fighting for another person’s approval- I am writing for my own personal sake. Baldwin explains that all human have their own belief of what is true. An artist simply breaks down their own ideas and shares it with the world, whether or not a person chooses to believe that artist depends on their own free will. My motivation is to seek a truth that I can find fit for our society. With all the changes and taboo situations that occur daily, I am still trying to improve my ever-expanding knowledge of this world and becoming closer to understanding the purpose of myself.
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. "The Creative Process". Creative America. 1962
Erica Williams
English 1B TTh 9-10:50
Assignment: Creative Process
After reading James Baldwin’s creative process, there was one particular piece that stood out that parallels the crippled portion of my own creative process. In paragraph six he states,” It goes without saying, I believe, that if we understood ourselves better, we would damage ourselves less. But the barrier between oneself and one’s knowledge of oneself is high indeed. There are so many things one would rather not know.” (1)
For some time I have suppressed my creative abilities, almost debilitating my capability to express my thoughts; bringing a borderline feeling of insanity to the forefront of my life. As stated in the latter, Baldwin states there is a “barrier” between myself and knowledge of my own self. I couldn’t seem to breakthrough this wall that was keeping me from getting to know my true self, I attributed this to fear.
I finally found myself at a cross road. At the end of my days I was tired and weak, so overwhelmed by my inability to find an avenue for release. I spent many days and nights trying to figure out how to resolve my problem. Where could I go? Who could I turn to that would not judge my thoughts and feelings? It soon dawned on me that I could use writing as a tool to release these thoughts that I was bottling up inside. My composition notebook became the “who” and “what” I was looking for. It became my psychologist (metaphorically speaking). This notebook didn’t talk back or judge me, and whatever thoughts came to mind, I could tell it everything, my frustrations with life, even my deepest darkest secrets.
My process usually spawns from a long day of school activities with my daughter, diaper changes, the cooking, the cleaning and even some of the disagreements that my spouse
and I may have during course of the day. I look forward to my therapy session with my notebook.
It has come to my attention that my creative ability is a lot more productive if my day has had a lot more challenges than normal, and sometimes even those days when everything has gone perfectly fine, I can still sit down and write about the less stressful things. I can focus my attention on getting to know myself better. Baldwin’s account of “knowing oneself’, is a long journey, but maybe one day I will reach that goal and I can then move on to the next chapter in life.
Citations:
Felicia Pride, essay from James Baldwin(Creative America 1962),” The Creative Process”,671
Amy Quiton
My Creative Process
Eng 1B
August 27, 2009
My creative process begins the minute I wake up in the morning. I choose the soundtrack of my day to get myself motivated. Whether it is some music to get me pumped up in the morning or some easy listening to transition me into my day, music is the first creative button I push that is conveniently located next to the snooze button. From there my day seems to travel with some meaning to use my creativeness and others to just methodically move through the motions of my day. Either way I still have a nice record playing to continually have me moving to a beat. Throughout the day I speak with family, friends, and coworkers to catch up on life, share a joke, or just plain gossip. This is something I have always found myself doing, talking, relentlessly. Being social is another big part of my creative process. The phenomenon is mentioned in The Creative Process essay written by James Baldwin, when he goes on to say “We become social creatures because we cannot live any other way.” I would have this system or no method at all. My friends inspire me to be creative. I am generally involved with being artistic from suggestions from my people. I am constantly finding a new movie, new music, or a new book that snowballs into another idea from another friend. Music and being socially active are my outlets into my creative process. I thoroughly enjoy tunes and people and love that they keep my imagination going, and that they gladly get me on my feet at the start of everyday.
Jamie Canfield
Eng.1b 8/25/09
The Creative Process:
James Baldwin's essay The Creative Process expresses his thoughts and feelings about the struggles and the realizations that artist must come to. He speaks about the state of being alone. A state that most poeple fear and try to ignore. I mean who wants to be completely alone? That just sounds sad and lonely but, some of the best music and most beautiful artwork comes from deep sadness. The creative process for everyone varies weather your an artist or not. I feel like its more of a fight to be an individual and when people outcast you for being different thats where a feeling of being alone comes from. Or from a great loss like death.
This state of being alone is not an unknown feeling to me. Not that I'm an artist of any sort. I can not draw or song. I'm not a poet or an actor but yet I still have a creative process as does eeryone else. I'm not completley uninspired. I like to dance which is an art form although i do it just for fun and I can play and read music although I haven't done it for awhile. I have picked up something though from my dad who was a musician. That state of being alone does pull something from you as I found out when my dad passed away. Would I call it art ? Probably not but, it did help. I started writting. About everything that was going on. It is my way to get thigs off of my chest. When I felt nobody would understand or think I was crazy I would write it down. What else could I do really. When you feel that alone what do you do. My dad played his music. Thats when he was the happiest. Music was the raod he chose. "For an artist,the journey is the most clearly revealed in the personlities of the people the journey produced." (James Baldwine The Creative Process) That journey is our life and what we discover as we go.
thats what my dad did and that is what I'm doing now. Thats my creative porocess.
Amanda Rodriguez
In james Baldwin Essay, The Creative Process, he tells the reader what it is like to be an artist.He tells us that an artist is misunderstood and because of that a common emotion amoung all of them is loneliness." Perharps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone." As a poet I would have to agree with Mr. Baldwin, to some extinct, because with the feeling of loneliness comes out beautiful art.
I began writing poems when I was about 13 years old. I found that they were my outlet to my depression and all the times I felt suicidal. I could write whatever I wanted anf however I wanted. I had long poems that would be about 3 pages with just three word on the line. When I was in this state of my life most of my writing were dark, sad, and lonesome. But I felt so free when I would write because I knew that no one could judge my own private thoughts. My poems didn't change pattern until I had a crush on someone or until I feel in love. Mostof this pieces would be bright and full of life. But even then when I do show my writings to familt memebers or to friends I understand now that ultimately I have the final say if whether or not I like what I wrote. And that is the beauty of art. It can never be judged.
Munkhjin Munkhbaatar
Professor Wanda Sabir
08/27/09
Creative Writing
My creative writing begins with a lot of thinking. Mostly I think about my life because my life and all my experiences always help me to find an idea. Life is like starring in a movie. Life is a huge play and it is full of adventures. Some of the adventures might be funny and interesting but there will be adventures that will make us feel like we lost and there is nothing we can do and which will make us give up in life. Giving up is the worst option we choose, we should never give up because there will be one day we might regret for giving up. There is saying "Every dog has his day" which I believe. Because there is always tomorrow which we do not know what will happen and there will always be a day you will be happy if you are not happy with your life today. To live a good life we need to try hard and experience new things everyday.
When we try to experience something there will be fear that will keep us away from doing and experiencing new things. In my life I have applied one concept several times in trying situations. ‘Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.” This has helped me on numerous occasions to overcome my fears. As James Baldwin wrote “Yet the forces are there: we cannot will them away. All we can do is learn to live with them.” There is a Mongolian saying "If you are afraid do not do it and if you are doing it do not be afraid." For me, balancing everything and overcoming our fear is the key to success. We need to balance everything in our life such as partying, working and studying etc.
As a creator of our life we are the ones who decide whether our life will be successful or not. We are the one who decide whether we create something new or not. Creating something new is fun and interesting. No one is perfect everyone learns by creating and discovering something new in their life. I don’t think myself as creative as James Baldwin. I don’t why but I am really bad at creating because when in class students work as group to make a project I have never been creative, I couldn’t think of something creative.
Work Cited
Baldwin, James. “The Creative Process.” Creative America 1962
Response to "The Creative Process"
There are so many ways in this world to be creative. I think that everyone is creative in their own way, whether they recognize it or not.
I take joy in creating many different forms of art. Photography, drawing, and cosmetic art are my ways to express my creativity. When creating these works of art I first find something to inspire me. Maybe it is the way I feel when after I see something beautiful, or the way I feel after an event in my life. Many different things can inspire me, but its the way I capture those feelings that make it so creative.
I dont worry too greatly about what others feel about my art, first and foremost I must feel satisfied with my piece of work. If I am not satisfied, I would not consider my piece to be a success.
One should find themself before they attempt to create a piece of art to inspire others. It is a great thing for someone to look at a piece of art and decifer what inspired the artist and the way the artist captured their true personality.
As James Baldwin said in his essay, "The Creative Process", people "lie to oneself about all one's interior, uncharted chaos, so have we, as a nation, modified and supressed and lied about all the darker forces in our history." People lie to themselves to please others, instead of truly expressing who they are. People should not be afraid to be judged when people are viewing their work. You cant please everyone, so why not reward yourself with the honor of pleasing yourself.
Professor Sabir and classmates!!
Here is the link for James Baldwin's "Creative Process."
http://zanagzigian.com/stories/creativeprocess.pdf
Excited to be in this class!
-Maya Lama
Saudia Said
Professor Wanda Sabir
8/27/09- T-TH
When I was asked to discuss my creative process, I wondered if I had something to write about that was creative. Creative people are artsy, talented, and use their imagination something I did little of. I really had to think what I enjoy doing and if it was worthy of sharing it to the world. Something that I can give back to society and expect no reward in return. Creativity is freeing yourself from society and its standards. My passion is designing evening gowns. I spend hours drawing, going to fabric stores and creating my masterpiece. Making a dress and adding details to it are an extension of my personality. A dress can make a women feel powerful, sophisticated and confident. I feel that evening gowns express my feelings and give others a chance to see who I am. In “The Creative Process”, James Baldwin explains how one should not be afraid of showing their true self. He says, “In order to become social, there are a great many other things which we must not become, and we are frightened, all of us, of those forces within us which perpetually menace our precarious security. Yet, the forces are there, we cannot will them always. All we can do is learn to live with them.” (The Creative Process 671). An artist should not have boundaries because it limits them of creativity. The process of making a dress is intimate for me and I feel myself becoming social as Baldwin explains.
Work Cited
Baldwin, James. "The Creative Process." (1962): 668-73. Print
Dexter,
Your creative response was a fresh perspective and really showed a sense of progression from when you were little. I thought it was interesting that you broadened your knowledge on other artists and learned your own truth on what was real. You should definitely perform your poetry and share what you have discovered with others.
Ilene L
As a person I’ve always viewed myself to be creative but I’ve never thought about my creative process. When it comes to my creative I think of my fear of being lonely. When I am alone it really bothersme because who wants to be alone. My creative process for my fear f being lonely is staying near many people and knowing that they will always be there. Being lonely is a fear that blocks my creative process. My creative process is something that involves a lot of my creative, for example, my creative involves knowing ones self. When I say knowing ones self I am saying I need to know myself from the inside out. James Baldwinquotes “ the aloneness of which I speak is mich more like the aloneness of birth or death”. Yes we were born alond and we are going to probably die alone but while we are living somebody will lead to a person’s creative. With my creative, I get my ideas, reactions of my audience and many more things. My creative process also deals with my society. My society will have a huge impact in my creative process because my society will help my creative more better due to the critizism I will be receiving. James Baldwin talks about the forces that we receive from society and he said we should not will it away but learn to live with it and that is a good point because society can either make or break your creative process. When it comes to tradition I would have to say my tradition will make my creative process because these are the things that I have become accostume to when it comes to my process. These traditions are done on a daily basis in oreder to improve my creative like asking for ideas, trying new things that I do not really try but it never really changes. My creative process is here to make me more mature for my age and gives me a new outlook on life itself and just things in general. I have this creative process because this is how I express as a person and it makes it easy for many to understand me as a person outside of what many think of me.
Sushil Pathak
English 1B
It is said that every human beings are born with some creativity within themselves. They might never be able to discover it for various reasons like lack of certain enviroment or lack of proper grooming to bring that talent out, nevertheless humans are believed to be gifted with creativity, that when given an opportunity, could be brought out in public and amaze the spectators.
I love playing games, reading books, comedy, hang around with friends etc. But being the games with infinite moves and infinite strategies, I always find myself being most creative while playing Chess. Chess is an amazing game and it needs a lot of thinking and imagination. I feel so good and overwhelmed within myself when I play chess. And I believe that playing chess is one of the most creative processes that humans can ever do. Sixtyfour square boxes and 32 beautiful pieces on the board moving here and there, its not only a game, its a War between players on the board. The whole purpose of the game is to capture the opponent's king using pieces to attack that includes 8 pawns, two bishops, two knights, two rooks, a king and a queen. It needs a lot of thinking and one should often be able to think a few moves ahead of the game to attack the opponent. I started playing chess as a kid and still spend hours playing and trying to improve my skills. It refreshes my mind and I feel like I got some mental boost after each games regardless of winning or losing because every game teaches me something new and creative. One of the reasons it is such a creative and amazing game because one can never master chess. Not even the Grandmasters and World Chess Champions are perfect. It is because there are infinit number of moves and we can always find some errors made even in the games of world chess champions. This is what makes this game so interesting. It is the game that teaches us to be objective. Famous Russian politician Vladimir Lenin once said, "Chess is the gymnastics of mind." Its not only a game; its an art still awaiting to be fully discovered. So my creative process is playing this beautiful but infinitely complex game that one can play in infinitely numerous and varied ways.
Itzel Diaz
English 1B
Baldwin’s essay “Express Yourself”, talks about a hip-hop female artist creative process; Baldwin talks about how people can find a way to express themselves through out music, and explains how its creative process developed. relating Baldwin’s essay to my own personal life I realized everybody has their own creative process, not everybody writes rhymes or raps; there are different creative processes for every single activity. My creative process is express in my cloth; every accessory, every color, the combination of the right jeans with the right shirt and jacket all together become a different outfit than expresses with fabric my personality. Everyday a new creative process comes to live, a process in which everything in my closet becomes a tool in the making of a new outfit. From the dark colors to the bright ones, and the small shirts to the long shirts that look like small dresses, every peace of cloth expresses a feeling and when I put them all together these feeling express my own. I could be feeling depressed, exited or silly; what ever it is, I always find the way to express it through out my cloth. The process of choosing my everyday outfit does not take lots of steps or planning, but it does required some thinking; my outfits have to express my mood along with my personality , and on top of that they have to work with the weather. Most of the time I ask myself, how do I feel like today? I go through my closet, find something that from my point of view expresses the way I feel, I accessorized it and I am ready to go.
Barbara Boasso
English 1B T, Th
When I think about the creative process in general, I have to say that the word process bothers me. I definitely enjoy the part of creating. My thoughts are like fluid water on the seas moving, pushing, waiving, raining and bearing life. Now, to transform those forces into a method requires madness. Right in that state of mind, I agree to the words of James Baldwin : “The states of birth, suffering, love, and death, are extreme, universal, and inescapable (p.669).” All of these things work simultaneously while I brainstorm, but what a headache to control these powers into a structured idea. In other words, my creativity lacks of discipline. It is very hard to keep focused. In "The Creative Process" Baldwin talks about the object of being an artist is to enlighten. Also he remarks in many ways how the artist will struggle with many variants of the human life at keeping together the responsibility of putting the truth out there. I can certainly relate to the nature of the artist.
The farther someone swims into my lake of ideas, the deeper she/he sinks into my words. But how can I avoid getting someone lost into a vast ocean of wordiness? I believe I constantly live in a creative mode, as for example, when I go to sleep, I dream. Then I psychoanalyze the messages from the symbols of my subconscious. I guess I don’t need Sigmund Freud when I know myself better than anyone, As Bias as this sound, it is true. This is my life journey, so it is up to me to discover who I am. Furthermore, living itself is a creative process and dreams are part of it. The good, the bad and the ugly about us are not a diluted creation of our imagination, but it is easy to believe so. James Baldwin makes me so aware of it when he talks about balancing your inner self with your ego in order to comply with the social human need of communication; therefore this has to happen even within yourself (p.671).
My inventions are all over the place, from the way I dress, dance, write and think to the way I walk, cook and feel. For this reason, I want to take some film classes to learn how to summarize my words with visuals. Sometimes it takes me time to come up with something good which I will consider original or sarcastic. In other instances, I don’t even have to think, I am just doing, making, painting, dancing, it is like I am out of this world. By this moment, you had probably noticed that my ego is as good as my brainstorming this is when my bulb lights up). Then to produce my conceptions is like watching the Ying and the Yang having sex. Finally after so much chaos due to my analytical mind, there comes the expected orgasm in where I feel free. I love to express myself! For me to say this is to feel so alive regardless of my personal realization that truth and freedom seems to escape from absolute value. In "The Creative Process", I think that James Baldwin would agree that LOVE sets you FREE, FOR REAL!
Jessica Farnlacher
Creative Process Response
Baldwin's essay spoke about how society has influenced humans to think a certain way that restricts them from thinking "out of the box," and doesn't allow them to be really creative. Baldwin believes that to be an artist, you must be able to put aside the programmed way of thinking that society has snidely shoved down all our throats, and instead, express reality and truth whether it is socially accepted or not. the creative process, in a way can be like a flower trying to grow out of cement. Here the society has a mind set set in stone and an artist's goal is to break through that cement to show something of truth and beauty in different perspectives. They want to inspire and let people know that there are way more things to the world out from societal living.
When I'm writing, I try and think of anything related to what I'm writing about, whether it is an example directly related to what I'm speaking about, or something that may be vague and cause people to think a little about what I'm saying in my writing. I like to express myself through metaphors sometimes for fun. My creative process is a mixed way of writing that consists of humor and good tone so that people stay interested. My responses may be weak, but ask me to write something I'm interested in and I'll give you fireworks.
Ilene Lee, I really like your response and how you explained your creative process of writing. You gave a very sensual and detailed explanation of how you actually break down the way you're going to write, and I think I'll try and use some of your techniques...maybe I won't stress myself out so much when there's a writing assignment. =]
I write in a world of inspiration. Life has a way of throwing it at us and I catch it like bumping sounds coming from a vehicle bearing rims and numerous gentlemen. At times, I wait for it to drive down my street and at others I listen close to reality as to find it wherever it may be. After that, the words simply come, like rain drops from huddled dark clouds. At the point all I have to do is catch them with my pen and place them safely on the page.
I write when I am alone, even though there may be many people around.
In the essay entitled "The Creative Process," James Baldwin speaks to who the artist is and what he does. He explains that what distinguishes artists is that they "cultivate the state of aloneness." This state of aloneness isn't a state of silence, in solitude, but a state of mind wherein the artist is most free to discover the mystery of the human being. He says, "The artist is present to correct the
delusions to which we fall prey in our attempts to avoid this knowledge." From this view point he expresses how artists are marginalized and discouraged from publicizing what they found. In that the artist is his own experiment, Baldwin says that the artist is distiguised from every other person in society. He says that they are honored once they are gone because while they may not be celebrated they are more necessary than we'd like to admit in their lifetimes. He brings it all to a point by making a comparison of the artist and the society to two lovers. He says that the artist reveals society to herself and frees all therein witht that revelation. This brings to mind our current president and how he is a work of our painted by American votes to show her herself and liberate her from that which has bound her.
James Baldwin was correct when he said that by aloneness he wasn't referring to "a rustic musing beside some silver lake." The statement, "the aloneness of love" is very appropriate because love does not exist without the presence of someone else. The mind isn't blank, nor is the heart. In fact, they are full of thoughts, so much so as to flood out all other inhabitants like career, interests, goals,etc. Love is indeed a state of aloneness. These states of aloneness are the artist's home wherefrom he launches out to unveil their mystery. This is an endeavor indeed. It takes effort on behalf of the artist that many people don't like to exert.
When Baldwin says that the "entire purpose of society is to create a bulwark against the inner and the outer chaos" was a nice way to some up the truth that much of society presents walls not to creativity as much as self-discovery and the hashing out of ills within and without. The idea of normalcy makes an attempt to gather all pieces of a person and tie them so close together as to disquise somethings and make some characteristics look stronger and more proud than they are. This team of beasts that lurk in the darkness, unseen, conforming everyone and alienating many are believed to be on the world's side when, im many cases, they aren't. Baldwin expressed the limitedness of life in society and the goal and resposibility of the artist to broaden life at all times.
Speaking of the artists point of view, Baldwin states, "he must always know that visible reality hides a deeper one, and that
all our action and achievement rest on things unseen." In order for the artist to water neglected seeds, he must understand and believe that there are possibilities lying beneath the soil of "life as we know it."
Melissa Carpenter
English 1B
My Creative Process
In James Baldwin's essay "The Creative Process", he explains the struggles of an artist in today's society and how they must embrace the horrible truth of the worlds opinions. As I think of my own creative process I wonder what creativity means to me. To be creative I feel that it is whatever inspires people. For myself inspiration usually comes from music. I can listen to music for hours just because it takes me to another world. Music gets me away from reality and all the thoughts and feelings I have on a daily basis. After I've enjoyed my music for a while I begin to write. It can either be writing for a homework assignment, or just for my own pleasure to express my emotions. Usually writing is a challenge for me, especially starting off the piece, but after I've listened to music and calmed down it comes much easier. James Baldwin states that: "It goes without saying, I believe, that if we understood ourselves better, we would damage ourselves less. But the barrier between oneself and one’s knowledge of oneself is high indeed. There are so many things one would rather not know.” (1) I believe that James Baldwin had a very good point. If people too the time to explore their minds and understand themselves they would probably make better judgements. This is also why I listen to music and write. It helps me clear my mind and look at issues in a different perspective. Though I may never make the best decisions in every situation I am taking time to grow and learn more about the world as I go. Using my creative process helps me to do this and I hope that it will continue to in the future.
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. "The Creative Process". Creative America. 1962
Derek,
I like that you honestly spoke of how you perceive writing and how it is difficult for you. One thing I would suggest is to take your time when writing and to not be so hard on yourself. Everyone struggles at something so don't feel badly when you think of your creative process. Just work on it and you will improve!
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