The Creative Process

 

Ah — the creative process — a simple phrase, with unlimited connotations. The common thread is that all creativity begins in the mind. The imagination drives creativity. Thought manifests into reality.

 

I recently saw a terrific film called, "The Cave of Forgotten Dreams." It is a documentary describing a series of ancient paintings in a cave in France. The cave had been buried by a rock slide for thirty thousand years. An entrance was discovered approximately ten years ago.

 

Using 3-D vision cameras, an archeologist guides the viewer through a massive underground chamber. In the deepest recesses, a mind-boggling array of ancient bison, wooly mammoths, huge horses, and formidable cave bears are depicted. The images spring to life, providing a powerful glimpse at a 30,000 year old secret. Here are the graphic examples of man's earliest symbolic thought. Here are the first attempts to share the recollection of the mind, and to re-experience the thrill of encountering such spectacular creatures.

 

The creative spark produces a firestorm of possibilities. We ask ourselves, did the cave artist paint simply to amuse himself (or herself), or were there other implications? Most of these drawings were located in areas which were inaccessible, suggesting they were reserved for certain occasions. The thought comes to mind that this was the "smoking room" where hunters retired to share hunting adventures. But the images seem more generic and generalized, as if the artist was primarily interested in capturing the meaning of these experiences for himself — to translate the image from his or her mind to the contours of a cave, to express that thought in tangible terms, is the first shared design, or the first culture. Long before music or the written word, these images demonstrate the earliest sparks of creativity.

 

We can't help wondering what was in the artist's mind as he worked. The images are not child-like scribbles, but carefully proportioned images with shadowing effects and remarkable details. We can probably conclude that the images were carefully constructed, not merely to amuse the artist, and pass the time, but to also share the visual experience.

 

To share what sparks one's imagination, in a meaningful way, not only helps the creators understand the drive behind their creation; that spark also inspires others to express themselves as well.

 

In his most vivid imagination, the ancient cave artist could never have imagined his work would be the site of an international visitors center, with a replica of the cave providing tourists a reproduction of the paintings. Access to the original cave is restricted to scientists and scholars. The message is clear, a creative effort has a destiny of its own, that no one can predict.

 

So paint your painting, sing your song, write your book. Thirty thousand years from now, who knows?

 

"My gift is I get to see how beautiful your soul is and what I do is I help people detract all the negativity that happened in their life so they can see what I see and then they have a clean slate to make a choice different than their parents. Sometimes we just replicate patterns.

 

Once you have the awareness the patterns stop and now you have a choice to do it that way or your own way.

 

My goal is to help people stand in their own power and do it the way they want to do it."