Eureka
What guides the painter’s hand? Where do our new ideas come from? How is inspiration born?
The unfathomable mysteries of creativity are like an inaccessible wall for a mountaineer.
And then one day, meeting a guide opens the way for us to get around the obstacle. And so we can continue on our way on the other side of the mountain.
I have been interested in artistic creation for several years. It is even one of the major themes of this blog you are currently reading.
So I was ready to receive Rick Rubin’s book,
The creative act : A way of being
>> Version Française de cet article ici
As a successful music producer in the USA for four decades, Rick Rubin is a global celebrity who has worked with some of the biggest artists in the show business.
In this book, he has compiled a wealth of advice on creating art.
More broadly, these pages offer wisdom for everyday life.
https://www.ombres-blanches.fr/product/1787673/rubin-rick-creativite-un-art-de-vivre
General in nature and accessible to a wide audience, this book explains fundamental concepts such as the different phases of the creative process applicable to all art forms: exploration, creation, editing, etc.
More broadly, the message is that anyone can create art.
Being an artist is a state of mind, rather than a profession.
This book is therefore particularly suited to novices and other curious amateurs like me.
Those who have just dipped their toe in the water, without yet daring to take the plunge into the deep sea of creation.
From the very first pages, the author puts us at ease.
He simply shares a set of reflections drawn from his long experience. In no way are these definitive or universal lessons. The aim is to choose the recipes that appeal to us, test them and adopt them if they suit us. And ignore the rest.
This is a good starting point for teaching: giving each student the autonomy to create their own individualised learning path.
Then it is up to each person to take ownership of this series of lessons according to their own sensibilities.
At this stage, anything is possible.
For example, when I read the Financial Times‘ review of the book, I found it completely off the mark. It was a utilitarian view that missed the point.
Rick Rubin advises us to be wary of any external criticism of a work, explaining that it will more often than not describe the person who wrote it rather than the work itself.
He therefore recommends that artists develop a critical eye for their own work.
As I am full of contradictions, I am going to go against this precept and immediately set about criticising this book!
Twenty times over
The first lesson in being creative is patience.
Any artistic creation only takes on meaning and substance over time.
This might seem like a truism, an obvious and banal truth.
Except that the relationship to time is constantly addressed throughout the book. All temporal dimensions are explored. Thus, the explanation takes on its full meaning through these different facets.
I was surprised to learn that this book had been very difficult for the author to write.
In total, it took eight years to write!
In fact, this is one of the points he mentions: a work of art should never give the impression that it was difficult to produce.
All the struggles the creator had to endure must be hidden from the viewer.
Organic development
The metaphor of the gardener seemed very relevant to me in illustrating the development of creative ideas.
Planting the seeds, watering them, knowing how to forget about them for a while and then observing the results of the blooms.
First encourage maximum plant production before thinking about pruning.
Translated into project manager language, this means that the primary objective is to bring out the maximum potential of each idea, in the purest and most sincere way possible.
It can be useful to develop several different project prototypes in parallel, as it is impossible to predict in advance which seed will ultimately be the most fruitful.
Put yourself in the optimal conditions to express what is most personal to you. This means unleashing the full force of the torrent of creativity within you.
We must remove the obstacles that stand in our way, such as feelings of shame, fear of shocking others, self-censorship, etc., so that the flow can circulate freely.
A state of mind
Author Rick Rubin is sometimes described as enlightened or a guru by certain sarcastic commentators.
As always, dear reader, I would recommend that you form your own opinion.
Having made it this far, after reading all these paragraphs, you deserve a little reward!
So here’s an animated image.
It’s like at school, where deserving pupils need to be encouraged.
It’s not just that I found a wide range of coherent advice on creating beauty in this book.
I also discovered connections with other important aspects of my life today.
In the book, Rick Rubin emphasises this point: there is a time for everything.
There are also vibrations that evolve throughout a lifetime.
A project that is exciting at 30 years old will probably not be as appealing at 35.
(I’d better hurry then, the date is approaching!)
Things have value and meaning at a given moment. But as everything is in flux, you have to know how to bring your projects to fruition within a limited time frame.
That’s why you shouldn’t leave your projects on the back burner for too long.
Mindfulness
This is one of my current areas of interest.
Taking the time to appreciate every bite of our meals.
Being attentive to the sounds of the world, even the most distant ones.
Recognising a friend’s perfume.
Admiring the fleeting glow of the setting sun at golden hour.
…
All these abilities of our senses seem to have atrophied in our modern societies.
Trapped in a mad dash, we no longer take the time for anything, and our ultimate specialised function has become the art of scrolling on a screen.
Curled up in my bed on Christmas afternoon, I can finally settle down and appreciate Guru Rick’s advice for what it’s worth.
Living the life of an artist is a way of inhabiting the world, a way of perceiving, a practice of attention.
RR
So let’s put out our feelers and connect intensely with the world around us.
Alter ego
Our Homo Sapiens personalities are contradictory, and understanding this is quite a challenge…
It started with my philosophy classes in my final year of secondary school.
Studying Freud, the Id, the Ego and the Superego, I had a vague feeling that this was going to be complicated!
Now that I’m an adult, it’s been confirmed: the ego is a battlefield.
In the sporting world, a coach will tell his protégé that his greatest opponent is himself.
So, there are many ways to study the question of the multiple ego.
Some theories seem more enlightening and useful to me in learning to tame my multiple personalities.
I loved Rick Rubin’s prism theory, which I subscribe to 100%.
Defining one’s authentic self is not easy, if not impossible. We inhabit many different versions of the same self that changes.
(…)
Depending on the people we are with, the place we are in and the degree of security we feel, we are constantly changing. We alternate between different facets of our being.
Part of us may aspire to be more daring and subversive and struggle with the more consensual self that wants to avoid conflict.
(…)
A single ray of light entering a prism breaks down into a spectrum of colours.
The self is also a prism.
Neutral events enter us and are scattered into a spectrum of feelings, thoughts and sensations.
RR
Business as usual
Another connection with my daily life seems obvious to me: The artistic approach is ideal for inspiring the business world.
In nearly 25 years, I have accumulated a wide range of professional experience. I have worked in very small organisations as well as multinationals, in France and abroad.
I have mainly worked in the industrial world in various sectors, always through the prism of digital transformation.
In short, I have learned that any company that is unable to transform itself will disappear sooner or later, swept away by global competition.
Here is a textbook case for those interested in the issue:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2012/01/18/how-kodak-failed/
One of the big questions of our time is:
How can we make businesses more efficient by leveraging data?
It’s all about producing and exploiting data. That famous data that everyone is now chasing after.
Looking back, I can say that some of the advice given for creativity applies perfectly to businesses undergoing change.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Teamwork
A good manager knows how to harness the full potential of their team.
To do this, he must guide them without restricting them.
It’s quite subtle, actually.
Rick Rubin gives the example of a demo that serves as a working basis during a recording session with a group of musicians.
For him, the best approach is to provide the artists with the notes only, without letting them listen to the demo.
This allows them to fully express their creativity and find the rhythm that suits them best.
In other words, the information provided should be limited to the essentials in order to preserve the individual creative capacity of employees and avoid influencing their judgement.
In business, we would say: don’t pre-empt the debate.
But it’s actually the same issue.
How much room do we leave to the teams in decision-making?
Conversely, I often see two reasons for failure in collective performance in business: teams are either over-managed or under-managed.
In other words, two opposing extremes are common:
a) the objective and the method are too narrow, too restrictive, too rigid,
or, conversely…
b) the objective and the method are too vague, too abstract, too disconnected from the overall vision.
The common thread between these two errors is a lack of trust in teams and an inability to empower them.
They are then reduced to mere executors, severely limited in their ability to create value.
Reliable judgement
Developing a critical eye for our work is another fundamental step towards progress, valid in both the fine arts and the business world.
This ability to take a step back and make reliable judgements is absolutely essential for navigating the ocean of uncertainty that is our daily bread.
It is common in business for conformism and fear of displeasing the hierarchy to stifle critical thinking and accurate analysis of problems.
Rick Rubin theorises that artists must be careful not to blindly follow the prevailing opinion.
There are many other pieces of advice in this book that are valid in the business world:
- The ability to sidestep persistent difficulties and return to them later when the situation has changed (learning to react in order to break a deadlock)
- Silencing the voices that undermine us
- When receiving feedback, it can be useful to repeat it back to ensure you have understood correctly. This avoids misunderstandings.
- The experimental approach
- …
Antithesis
When applying a theory, it is also important to recognise its limitations.
Some of the lessons taught by Uncle Rick are NOT valid in the industrial world.
Here are some counterexamples:
- Thinking in terms of abundance
- There is no competition because everyone is unique
- You have to work through the night when inspiration strikes
So you have to exercise your critical thinking skills to know where the analogy between artistic creation and industrial transformation ends.
Punchlines
Your path is like no other.
It belongs only to you.
There is no single path that leads to great art.
This does not mean, however, that you should ignore the wisdom of others.
Welcome this wisdom with discernment, try it out and see if it suits you, retain what is useful and forget the rest.Living in discovery is always preferable to living in conjecture.
If there is one thing to defend, it is creative autonomy, not only against censors, but also against those voices in your head that have internalised what is considered acceptable.
The world is only as free as it allows its artists to be.
The synergy of a group is as important, if not more so, than the talent of the individuals who comprise it.
The best results are achieved when we demonstrate impartiality and detachment from our strategies.
By working to improve yourself, you are fulfilling your ultimate mission on this earth.
RR
That’s it, I can’t take it anymore, too much caviar and I’m on the verge of indigestion.
Excesses are common during the festive season, but still, too much is too much.
I understand.
Guru Rick must have been tired of staying silent behind his consoles all these years.
He took the microphone and spat out all the punchlines he had accumulated over years of artistic excellence.
In the mid-1980s, the first highlight of Uncle Rick’s career was mixing rap and heavy metal in an iconic track:
The memory of this hit, which was the soundtrack to my teenage years, is indelible.
It is associated with a very specific period in my life, when I played basketball all the time.
Music has the power to immediately evoke memories, sometimes distant ones.
At a time when artistic professions are under serious threat, we must forcefully reiterate this other obvious fact: we need artists, their works, and their unique way of seeing the world.
The ability to demand a lot from oneself and to navigate the unknown.
These are the lessons of the artistic process, so useful in these uncertain times.
