THE ELEMENTS OF CREATIVE AND EXPRESSIVE ARTISTRY identifies the nine root elements common to all artistic disciplines. Whether you are a writer, visual artist, or a performer, learning these root elements will help you unlock your full artistic potential and create art that is more expressive, dramatic, and engaging. Hundreds of relevant art examples, citations, and quotations from prominent art professionals, philosophers, and scientists inform the pages of THE ELEMENTS OF CREATIVE AND EXPRESSIVE ARTISTRY. Authors, painters, sculptors, dancers, and artists from nearly every creative field provide knowledge and insight into many different forms of art, including visual arts, literary arts, dramatic arts, musical arts, dance arts, and various hybrid art forms. For advanced artists and art professionals looking to bring depth and nuance to their work, THE ELEMENTS OF CREATIVE AND EXPRESSIVE ARTISTRY presents thirty-six new elements that branch from the nine root elements and offer additional avenues of exploration for a lifetime of artistic development. For the art critic, it also presents a fundamental basis on which to evaluate artistic work of any domain. Even the non-artist who possesses a general love for art will develop a deeper appreciation of art by understanding the nine root elements.

THE ELEMENTS OF CREATIVE AND EXPRESSIVE ARTISTRY

A Philosophy for Creating Everything ArtisticBy BRIAN K. HEMPHILL

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Brian K. Hemphill
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-595-48301-3

Contents

Acknowledgments..................................................................ixAbout the Author.................................................................xiIntroduction.....................................................................1Chapter 1 The Creative Impulse...................................................6Chapter 2 Form...................................................................15Chapter 3 Form Expression........................................................28Chapter 4 Form Structure.........................................................45Chapter 5 Form Function..........................................................61Chapter 6 Form Content...........................................................82Chapter 7 Form Context...........................................................95Chapter 8 Composition............................................................121Chapter 9 Perspective............................................................135Chapter 10 Medium................................................................149Chapter 11 Compositional Space...................................................156Chapter 12 Arrangement...........................................................162Chapter 13 Balance (Proportion)..................................................178Chapter 14 Focus.................................................................194Chapter 15 Movement..............................................................204Chapter 16 Technique.............................................................215Chapter 17 Technical Knowledge...................................................230Chapter 18 Skill Dexterity.......................................................245Chapter 19 Concentration.........................................................253Chapter 20 Perception............................................................265Chapter 21 Sensation.............................................................276Chapter 22 Sensory Memory........................................................287Chapter 23 Emotionality..........................................................294Chapter 24 Emotional Attitude....................................................304Chapter 25 Emotional Memory......................................................316Chapter 26 Emotional Depth.......................................................324Chapter 27 Emotional Range.......................................................337Chapter 28 Conscious Imagination.................................................346Chapter 29 Experience............................................................354Chapter 30 Conception............................................................366Chapter 31 Relative Truth........................................................378Chapter 32 Artistic Choice.......................................................390Chapter 33 Subconscious Imagination..............................................398Chapter 34 Symbolism.............................................................408Chapter 35 Epiphany..............................................................421Chapter 36 Spirituality..........................................................431Chapter 37 The Call..............................................................440Chapter 38 Vision................................................................447Chapter 39 Passion...............................................................459Chapter 40 Inspiration...........................................................468Chapter 41 Artistic Faith........................................................480Chapter 42 Ecstasy...............................................................488Chapter 43 Spontaneity (Flow)....................................................497Chapter 44 Improvisation.........................................................507Chapter 45 Self-Discovery........................................................519Chapter 46 Simplicity............................................................527Afterword........................................................................535Glossary.........................................................................539References.......................................................................545Index............................................................................563

Chapter One

The Creative Impulse

Quotation

I don't make plans. All my life, one artistic impulse has simply led to another.

—Chris Van Allsburg, American author and illustrator

From the living fountain of instinct flows everything that is creative; hence the unconscious is not merely conditioned by history, but is the very source of the creative impulse.

—Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist

The teacher, like the artist and the philosopher, can perform his work adequately only if he feels himself to be an individual directed by an inner creative impulse, not dominated and fettered by an outside authority.

—Bertrand Russell, British logician and philosopher

The action of the body is nothing but the act of the will objectified.

—Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher

Introduction

For artistic human beings, the urge to create is strong. For the artist, the creative impulse may be particularly acute. In fact, the powerful drive of the creative impulse may cause an artist to forgo food, sleep, safety, companionship, and other comforts in order to stake out an isolated patch of space and time in which to create. This chapter will explore this dynamic force of the artistic creator.

Definition

Creative Impulse: 1) the artistic intention to express the self through form and performance; 2) the urge to express personality and imagination to create an aesthetic effect; 3) the objectification of the will through artistic action.

The Artistic Impulse to Create

In the formative stages of artistic development, the artist expresses the creative impulse or drive to create through some specific medium, for example, through colorful paints or crayons, expressive movement and gesture, or musical rhythm. The medium may be associated with a particular artistic domain, as paints and crayons represent the visual art domain, or as the written word represents the literary arts. Sometimes the medium may represent multiple domains, for example, expressive movement and gesture can represent both the dance arts and the dramatic arts. Other times, the young artist may be drawn to presenting the self not so much in a medium but as a compositional format. In fact, this was the case with young Martha Graham. She knew her calling was some type of stage performing art. Graham, perhaps even as young as age four or five, knew the theatrical forms of performance stimulated her creative impulse, but could not decide in which of the associated artistic domains to make her mark. Fortunately, her creative impulse ultimately led her to the dance arts.

Once the artist gains some grounding in a specific artistic domain, for example, visual art, dance, or music, the artist, who has now attained greater sophistication, becomes...