This reminds me of that beautiful Novalis quote from his book Henry von Ofterdingen: "...in every poem chaos must shimmer through the regular veil of orderliness.” I sometimes see it (mis?)translated around the web as "In a work of art, chaos must shimmer through the veil of order," but I think the sentiment is much the same. The tension of CHAOS/ORDER is such a deep part of the creative process. With my witch hat on, I'll add that there's plenty more to say about how this tension is a crucial part of spiritual development in general! Learning how to dwell in the liminal space of mystery/in-betweenness where the real magic happens, then alchemizing the opposites and creating something new out of them.
Just read “The best thing ever written about “work-life balance” loved it!!! “I’m a mother of 4 now adult children, 3 are artists. All of their lives we made art together. I’m beginning to realize that the stolen minutes of art making ( my own private non mother) actually are enough and of value. The view that I’m only a real artist if I have my separate studio( not the outside porch, kitchen table ,corner of the couch or the freezer by the sink in the barn) I still am an artist. Very Cool! Thanks
I had to think about this quite a bit. I couldn’t articulate my sense of tension, but this might be it; ambition vs ability. My ambition takes two forms, volume of work and variety of work. I want to make more work than I do, and I have so many ideas sprouting off in different directions that I often start pieces that I can't (or don't) bring to completion. And this leads to my ability issue…I’m often trying to do things that are beyond my skill level. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing.
I've been thinking about the tension between comedy and tragedy. You know what I mean if you have ever heard yourself say, "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry."
I’m late to the discussion, but I’ve enjoyed everyone’s comments. And thank you for the essay— so much to go back and explore. I love the way you take ideas from many sources and connect the dots.
A tension in my beginning art work is wanting to be quick and loose with my drawings and yet finding myself slowing down, trying to get it “right.” I enjoy making marks and having fun, but I don’t like the way it ends up looking. Trying to find a balance AND realizing that time and practice are factors— the more I practice what’s fun, the better the outcome can be.
Time and practice *are* a factor, unfortunately. But that desire to make something you like the look of will keep you going forward. I had a teacher in art school who I loved so much. He once said to me (and I'm paraphrasing because it was 40 years ago) that it was like a jazz musician playing free jazz... you can't expect to be able to play free jazz until to really know your stuff first. Wish I could remember his wording, but alas...
Oh boy…in for a re-read,with pen and paper, of comments and the meat contained within!! Thanks AK for letting your readers expand on such a topic. Will mentally chew while biking today and look forward to an evening read of all.
These tensions are everywhere in daily life for me. One in particular is the explore/exploit. My husband and I have two folders in our OpenTable app. One folder is full of the restaurants we want to explore and if we like it, the place moves to our exploit folder. We have these two folders for each city we like to visit and live in. I didn’t think of it as a tension but now I see it. Thanks also for sharing the paradoxical traits in creative people. I see them in myself
I find myself wanting to define the terms in each pair of paradoxical forces to understand exactly what you mean, and yet I don't want to know because, maybe, they work together better when unexamined. This in itself is a paradox. What can I do?
There’s at least one pair of elephants creating tension in most artistic work: Time and money. When available in great quantities, they don’t matter quite so much. But when they are absent, paradoxically, brilliant work sometimes occurs. (and then, probably more often, it does not). Anyway – big time tension creators: Time and money.
It’s also what John Keats was talking about with “negative capability” and what F. Scott Fitzgerald meant by “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
I'm creatively expanded! I'd already begun to integrate "The Coincidence of Opposites" from my months long caring daily reading of The Matter with Things . . . and you sharing Keats "negative capability" coining the term, such that it has its own Wikipedia page . . . I am committed to reading/studying more caringly when I can find The Tension of Time and The Balanced Tension of Attention to our Wikipedia team mates who've created the page.
I'm also happy for you sharing: psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s list of the 10 “paradoxical traits” of creative people: from his book CREATVITY! I hadn't remembered that from my reading (probably 20 years ago) What I'd gotten from that book was the simple answer most of those "creative champions" gave to the question (something like this): You are so successful and likely don't need or have-to work . . . why do you go to work every day?" The answers were almost all some variation of "I'd go to work every day, even if they didn't pay me. And the reason is . . . [drumroll] . . . the sense of discovery . . . what am I going to discover today!"
Book Recommendation: "The Executive's Compass" by James O'Toole of the Aspen Institute (1995 revised edition). Still in print. I read this in the late 90s and still refer to it. Short (176p) but powerful. Key points:
=Simplicity on the other side of complexity (concept attributed to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes). It's about doing the hard work of slogging through contradictions and paradoxes to get to the core, to a solution. Uses Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as a classic example. (Lincoln did not throw that speech together as myth would have it.)
= Consider a compass with Liberty, Equality, Community, and Efficiency at the four main compass points. "The tensions among these four ideas create what historian James MacGregor Burns calls 'the deadlock of democracy.'"
= "Americans tend to disagree about most matters of public concern. In fact, that's putting it mildly."
= "[The compass] helps us to understand the nature of the good society, but it tells us little about the nature of the good person."
- Appendix A outlines "Personal Uses" and "Corporate Applications" of the compass.
From Booklist: "The 'executive's compass' is a tool O'Toole developed over his years at Aspen to provide a grounding for value-based decision making. Divided into four quadrants (liberty, equality, efficiency, and community), it maps the conflicting pull of values all decision makers must face."
My thought: This book brings a larger context to the creative tensions you talk about. The push/pull among the four compass points either add or take away energy from the ability to be creative in one's own life.
This sentence, "It's about doing the hard work of slogging through contradictions and paradoxes to get to the core, to a solution.". It seems to sum up everything I do and think about.
I just realized I’m slogging through something, posting photos of me on a SUP with my dog at the same time two or three triggers hit in one day deflating all my confidence and joy. “Keep Going, keep going”
That is always rough. I've been there a few times.
I wonder if slogging and seeking are the same thing. I always feel like I am seeking something that is not whatever this is in my life.
I also wonder if just accepting what is going on is a good solution rather than constantly seeking. It often feels like a good choice, but then I start seeking again.
Always tried to live a creative life—not just in art but in living. Right now am a bit in crisis mode. Our landlord is selling our place and we may have to move or not. Depending on who buys it—investor or owner—we’ll stay or go depending. The landlord offered us two months rent if we left so he could do cosmetic changes and get top dollar. He’s convinced no investor would buy it because we pay below market rent (rents gave gone berserk here) and so we’ll have to move anyway. But! No one knows this for sure! Let’s wait and see! We love this place! He can’t officially evict us! Let’s stay present in the moment and live with the Schrödinger's cat paradox! Now having said that if anyone in Victoria BC has a lovely one bedroom to rent….
Oh my gosh…the list of traits…reading it felt like being seen…and gaining understanding of myself and having words to put to it. Two books come to mind…though not as it relates to creativity per say but they came to mind as I read this. The first your book club read 4000 weeks, and Lessons From the Dying by Rodney Smith…neither probably not so much about tension as paradox…fullness from finitude. Great newsletter as always!!
I just finished a reread of Burkeman. This time I took notes. It's too easy for me to read and months later say I really liked that book; what did the author say? Am looking at my day-to-day life plus time a bit differently.
I love the idea of exploring tensions and paradoxes for a book.
Fwiw - I've been curating snippets re: to the idea of "two conflicting truths" here: https://sublime.app/collection/both-are-true-07c9
This reminds me of that beautiful Novalis quote from his book Henry von Ofterdingen: "...in every poem chaos must shimmer through the regular veil of orderliness.” I sometimes see it (mis?)translated around the web as "In a work of art, chaos must shimmer through the veil of order," but I think the sentiment is much the same. The tension of CHAOS/ORDER is such a deep part of the creative process. With my witch hat on, I'll add that there's plenty more to say about how this tension is a crucial part of spiritual development in general! Learning how to dwell in the liminal space of mystery/in-betweenness where the real magic happens, then alchemizing the opposites and creating something new out of them.
A few others tensions that come to mind:
knowledge/wisdom
private/public
unknown/known
silence/spoken
quiet/loud
Just read “The best thing ever written about “work-life balance” loved it!!! “I’m a mother of 4 now adult children, 3 are artists. All of their lives we made art together. I’m beginning to realize that the stolen minutes of art making ( my own private non mother) actually are enough and of value. The view that I’m only a real artist if I have my separate studio( not the outside porch, kitchen table ,corner of the couch or the freezer by the sink in the barn) I still am an artist. Very Cool! Thanks
I had to think about this quite a bit. I couldn’t articulate my sense of tension, but this might be it; ambition vs ability. My ambition takes two forms, volume of work and variety of work. I want to make more work than I do, and I have so many ideas sprouting off in different directions that I often start pieces that I can't (or don't) bring to completion. And this leads to my ability issue…I’m often trying to do things that are beyond my skill level. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing.
I've been thinking about the tension between comedy and tragedy. You know what I mean if you have ever heard yourself say, "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry."
NANCYHARRISMCLELLAND, Welcome to the GrrEighties
oh man that's a HUGE one https://austinkleon.com/2020/11/19/the-comedy-of-survival/
I’m late to the discussion, but I’ve enjoyed everyone’s comments. And thank you for the essay— so much to go back and explore. I love the way you take ideas from many sources and connect the dots.
A tension in my beginning art work is wanting to be quick and loose with my drawings and yet finding myself slowing down, trying to get it “right.” I enjoy making marks and having fun, but I don’t like the way it ends up looking. Trying to find a balance AND realizing that time and practice are factors— the more I practice what’s fun, the better the outcome can be.
Time and practice *are* a factor, unfortunately. But that desire to make something you like the look of will keep you going forward. I had a teacher in art school who I loved so much. He once said to me (and I'm paraphrasing because it was 40 years ago) that it was like a jazz musician playing free jazz... you can't expect to be able to play free jazz until to really know your stuff first. Wish I could remember his wording, but alas...
Oh boy…in for a re-read,with pen and paper, of comments and the meat contained within!! Thanks AK for letting your readers expand on such a topic. Will mentally chew while biking today and look forward to an evening read of all.
These tensions are everywhere in daily life for me. One in particular is the explore/exploit. My husband and I have two folders in our OpenTable app. One folder is full of the restaurants we want to explore and if we like it, the place moves to our exploit folder. We have these two folders for each city we like to visit and live in. I didn’t think of it as a tension but now I see it. Thanks also for sharing the paradoxical traits in creative people. I see them in myself
I find myself wanting to define the terms in each pair of paradoxical forces to understand exactly what you mean, and yet I don't want to know because, maybe, they work together better when unexamined. This in itself is a paradox. What can I do?
There’s at least one pair of elephants creating tension in most artistic work: Time and money. When available in great quantities, they don’t matter quite so much. But when they are absent, paradoxically, brilliant work sometimes occurs. (and then, probably more often, it does not). Anyway – big time tension creators: Time and money.
WOW! Thanks for this!
It’s also what John Keats was talking about with “negative capability” and what F. Scott Fitzgerald meant by “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
I'm creatively expanded! I'd already begun to integrate "The Coincidence of Opposites" from my months long caring daily reading of The Matter with Things . . . and you sharing Keats "negative capability" coining the term, such that it has its own Wikipedia page . . . I am committed to reading/studying more caringly when I can find The Tension of Time and The Balanced Tension of Attention to our Wikipedia team mates who've created the page.
I'm also happy for you sharing: psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s list of the 10 “paradoxical traits” of creative people: from his book CREATVITY! I hadn't remembered that from my reading (probably 20 years ago) What I'd gotten from that book was the simple answer most of those "creative champions" gave to the question (something like this): You are so successful and likely don't need or have-to work . . . why do you go to work every day?" The answers were almost all some variation of "I'd go to work every day, even if they didn't pay me. And the reason is . . . [drumroll] . . . the sense of discovery . . . what am I going to discover today!"
Book Recommendation: "The Executive's Compass" by James O'Toole of the Aspen Institute (1995 revised edition). Still in print. I read this in the late 90s and still refer to it. Short (176p) but powerful. Key points:
=Simplicity on the other side of complexity (concept attributed to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes). It's about doing the hard work of slogging through contradictions and paradoxes to get to the core, to a solution. Uses Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as a classic example. (Lincoln did not throw that speech together as myth would have it.)
= Consider a compass with Liberty, Equality, Community, and Efficiency at the four main compass points. "The tensions among these four ideas create what historian James MacGregor Burns calls 'the deadlock of democracy.'"
= "Americans tend to disagree about most matters of public concern. In fact, that's putting it mildly."
= "[The compass] helps us to understand the nature of the good society, but it tells us little about the nature of the good person."
- Appendix A outlines "Personal Uses" and "Corporate Applications" of the compass.
From Booklist: "The 'executive's compass' is a tool O'Toole developed over his years at Aspen to provide a grounding for value-based decision making. Divided into four quadrants (liberty, equality, efficiency, and community), it maps the conflicting pull of values all decision makers must face."
My thought: This book brings a larger context to the creative tensions you talk about. The push/pull among the four compass points either add or take away energy from the ability to be creative in one's own life.
This sentence, "It's about doing the hard work of slogging through contradictions and paradoxes to get to the core, to a solution.". It seems to sum up everything I do and think about.
I just realized I’m slogging through something, posting photos of me on a SUP with my dog at the same time two or three triggers hit in one day deflating all my confidence and joy. “Keep Going, keep going”
That is always rough. I've been there a few times.
I wonder if slogging and seeking are the same thing. I always feel like I am seeking something that is not whatever this is in my life.
I also wonder if just accepting what is going on is a good solution rather than constantly seeking. It often feels like a good choice, but then I start seeking again.
Sound familiar?
Be here now. I bet there is more peace in the now.
Thanks for this!
Books: Art & Fear, Bayless @ Orland; The Art Spirit, Robert Henri; writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
Always tried to live a creative life—not just in art but in living. Right now am a bit in crisis mode. Our landlord is selling our place and we may have to move or not. Depending on who buys it—investor or owner—we’ll stay or go depending. The landlord offered us two months rent if we left so he could do cosmetic changes and get top dollar. He’s convinced no investor would buy it because we pay below market rent (rents gave gone berserk here) and so we’ll have to move anyway. But! No one knows this for sure! Let’s wait and see! We love this place! He can’t officially evict us! Let’s stay present in the moment and live with the Schrödinger's cat paradox! Now having said that if anyone in Victoria BC has a lovely one bedroom to rent….
Ugh, landlords. Sorry! I will cross my fingers for you :)
All good vibes appreciated!
I'm sending some. Being from Victoria, I understand.
Oh my gosh…the list of traits…reading it felt like being seen…and gaining understanding of myself and having words to put to it. Two books come to mind…though not as it relates to creativity per say but they came to mind as I read this. The first your book club read 4000 weeks, and Lessons From the Dying by Rodney Smith…neither probably not so much about tension as paradox…fullness from finitude. Great newsletter as always!!
I just finished a reread of Burkeman. This time I took notes. It's too easy for me to read and months later say I really liked that book; what did the author say? Am looking at my day-to-day life plus time a bit differently.
will check out the Rodney smith book, thanks!