I wrote earlier today (I think I did, anyway) that I could say that artists play with ideas. But I don’t want my students to compare themselves to this definition of artist (as I feel I’ve probably compared myself to others’ definitions over the years). Instead, I could say something like: creativity is, or “being creative is playing with rules”—with expectations, with assumptions. It’s being willing to question things others take/see as fixed, or others take these ideas for granted and don’t see them at all.
Brainstorm some ideas we take for granted, or as givens, of a high school—that we are all trained to move at the bells. What if you’d stay there in your seat— you’d get in trouble, sure. That’s a rule that could be questioned—even if we can’t or shouldn’t change it, we can question it in our art, in our artistic thinking (which is why art isn’t so far from philosophy!).
[From journal of Thurs., 3 Jan. 2019, at Katie’s Cup, 7th Street, Rockford, Journal 293, page 33]
MonkeyMoonMachine 