Creativity is an act of defiance.
Interpretation
Creativity challenges the norms and pushes boundaries.
Twyla Tharp's quote suggests that creativity is not just a form of expression, but a rebellion against convention and the status quo. It emphasizes that to create is to assert one's individuality and resist conformity, highlighting the power of creative thought in shaping new ideas and perspectives.
In practice
During a keynote speech about innovation in technology, this quote can inspire attendees to think outside the box.
Do I watch dancers as people? Yes, absolutely. Do I watch really good dancers for specifically who they are? Absolutely, because how they move best and how they look best is going to be most familiar to them, and not necessarily to me.
I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.
No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.
I grew up in a drive-in theater, from the time I was 8, working in a snack bar watching four features every week. It was silent theater in the sense that this was a drive-in, which meant that I often saw the films going with no sound. But I learned to tell stories through action.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft.
What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today when human contacts go so fast. Fashion is instant language.
The desire to survive and the fear of death are artistic sentiments
One very important aspect of art is that it makes people aware of what they know and donβt know they know... Once the breakthrough is made, there is a permanent expansion of awareness. But there is always a reaction of rage, of outrage, at the first breakthrough... So the artist, then, expands awareness. And once the breakthrough is made, this becomes part of the general awareness.
We usually evaluate creative process in terms of how much feeling or thinking was behind the work or how well the work was done. Isn't there any other way of appreciating the process? What if the standard of excellence was how fully present the artist was during the process?
I am just beginning to understand what it is to paint. A painter should have two lives, one in which to learn, and one in which to practice his art.
Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable.
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