Rule #6

Rule #6 – Creativity needs the company of creativity

Creative Sympathetic Resonance

Have you ever wondered why it is that when you go to an artist’s workshop and spend a day or several days with a group of artists that you find that your abilities seem to skyrocket? Suddenly you find that you are full of ideas and inspiration virtually everything you try comes out golden and even when you make mistakes you instantly seem to know what went wrong and how to fix it. When the workshop is done and you are back in your own space the same brilliance that you had at the workshop seems to leak away with each passing day until you are back to starring around the room looking for something to jump out at you and move you to create.
Conversely have you ever wondered why even though you have the perfect space set up in your home or a studio away from home you find yourself tidying up and organizing the room instead of creating your art? The phone rings and the slightest thing will send you in the opposite direction. You suddenly remember the laundry needs done or you need something at the store for dinner.

The reason for this is simple: Creative Sympathetic Resonance.

What is Creative Sympathetic Resonance? It is simply the science of similar vibrations, or sympathetic vibrations. It is not new age mumbo jumbo but science pure and simple. When objects of a similar or sympathetic vibration are near each other they start to vibrate in strength and harmony together. Piano tuners have taken advantage of this science for centuries. A tuning fork is struck and the cord which is attached the key vibrates all the others stay still. The piano tuner will then adjust the cords until the correct string vibrates at the correct key. It is the same thing with everything in the universe, everything vibrates.
Quantum physics now with the help of the electron microscope can see down to the level of the very molecules that we are made up of and what they found was that at that level everything is vibrating. Each object that they examined vibrated at a different frequency.
So before I put you to sleep with all that science stuff what does that have to do with an artist anyway? Simply put artists vibrate at a similar frequency when they are in a place where they are exercising their right brain or in other words being creative and when we are together that vibration becomes stronger. The stronger the vibration the more freely the creative energy flows through you and around you. The more freely the energy flows the better your art.
It is for this reason that when you are painting with other artists whether outdoors or in your studio you feel more in tune with that part of you that is driven to create. The longer you are in the vibration the stronger the energy comes to and through you the stronger the energy the better your art.
So don’t create your art alone! Don’t believe the crap your ego is telling you that you need solitude to do your best work or working with other artists is distracting because it is just that, crap! Your ego is not always your friend remember Rules #2, 3 and 4!
If you want your skills to soar then call up your painting buddies, put a pot of tea on, get as many creative souls as you can squeeze in your space and start making art!

Excerpt from: The Rules for Painting & Life
By
Sandra Taylor/Hedges