A Painter’s View of Self-Development and Creativity

Leonardo, Vol. 13, pp. 143-145. Pergamon Press 1980. Printed in Great Britain A PAINTER'S VIEW OF SELF-DEVELOPMENT AND CREATIVITY * Michael Krausz ** I. I am a painter and a philosopher and I am interested in the question: What is the relation between my selfdevelopment and my artistic development? (Examples of my paintings are shown in Figs. 1to 3 and Fig. 4, see color plate.) I shall set out a personal program or a schematic map to help locate my 'self in it. Though Karl Popper's schematic map is rather different from mine, he makes clear his view that such maps are 'part of our ordinary consciousness of self. Popper says: 'This model or map, I suggest, with our own position marked on it, is part ofour ordinary consciousness of self. lt normally exists in the form of vague dispositions or programmes; but we can focus our attention upon it whenever we wish, whereupon it may become more elaborate and precise. This map or model is one of a great number of conjectural theories about the world which we hold and which we almost constantly call to our aid, as we go along and as we develop, specify, and realize, the programme and the timetable of the actions in which we are engaged' [1]. II. lt has been pointed out many times that while one is making a visual artwork one encounters unpredictable emergent features. Sometimes emergent features are welcome, sometimes not. Fig. 1. 'Passage through Time', Acrylic paint on canvas, 1.83 x 2.44m, 1978. (Photo: D. H. Kan, Washington, D.C.) *This text is based on an abridgement of a paper entitled "Creating and Becoming" presented to the Eastern Division of the Society for Philosophy of Creativity, Meetings of the American Philosophical Association, Washington, D.C. on 28 December 1978. **Painter and teacher of philosophy, Dept of Philosophy, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, U.S.A. 143 Fig. 2. Untitled, gouache on paper, 89 x 64cm, 1979. (Photo: D. H. Kan, Washington, D.C.) Kandinsky is said to have been converted to nonfigurative painting when, upon accidentally leaving a figurative picture upside down in his studio, he saw it only in terms of an arrangement of lines, shapes and colors, that is, its formal aesthetic properties. Picasso tells a story that illustrates emergent but unwelcome features in connection with a cubist painting being made by Braque, containing a package oftobacco, a pipe and a deck ofcards. He upset Braque by telling him he saw a squirrel in the picture. Braque after a time saw it too and spent several days getting rid of it [2]. Just as a single work may give rise to emergent features, so too may a series of related works, and these may become apparent to an artist only when the series is viewed as a whole. These features may challenge, and to some measure control, not only the development of an artist's autonomous work but also aspects of the artist's 144 Michael Krausz Fig. 3. Untitled, gouache on paper, 89 x 64cm, 1979. (Photo: D. H. Kan, Washington, D.C.) self-development in related domains of life. If there is an awareness and willingness on the part of an artist to recognize emergent features and to identify with them, one may conceive of one's own becoming partly in terms ofthe becoming ofone's artworks. I regard the making of artworks as part of this larger process of becoming, one that is continuous and open-ended. Usually there is an interplay between artists and their work. But sometimes artists and their work become suffused to the degree that artists become extentions of their work. Such a state of 'at-oneness' or a 'state ofgrace' is described in Refs. 3 to 5. It is this periodic 'at-oneness' and subsequent detachment of artists from their work, together with the emerging features in their artworks, that can provide direction for their work and their lives. In this way, pursuing artistic activity may enlarge one's selfdevelopment in a broader sense. Being 'at-one' with one's work is not just a metaphorical expression to say that one is...