Deepen Your Curiosity: Gaze

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein

Walking with his gaze on the ragged grass in front of him, a five-year old so immersed in his looking he’s in slow motion. The boy lowers himself like each movement is a slide from an old view master, finally turning over a broken ceramic bowl sticking out of the ground. The smell of fresh dirt fills the air. Maybe it’s a water bowl for a dog? he asks. A tiny umbrella that turned to stone?

Artists, too, are drawn to certain experiences. We may not be digging in the dirt anymore, but when curiosity is piqued, our attention arises from a deeper sense of aliveness. We have to keep looking.

John Dewey described how emotion and deep curiosity are important tools for artists. In his essay, “The Live Creature,” Dewey said to understand the esthetic “…one must begin in the raw; in the events and scenes that hold the attentive eye and ear of man— the fire-engine rushing by; the machines excavating enormous holes in the earth; the human-fly climbing the steeple-side; the men perched high in air on girders, throwing and catching red-hot bolts. The sources of art in human experience will be learned by him who sees how the tense grace of the ball-player infects the onlooking crowd … .”

Visual artists often talk about deepening their curiosity by gazing. When something is studied—compositions or objects—the calculus of the images seems to grow more complex as you look. You’re almost tricked. You may look at the object, then look again and keep looking until something moves in your chest, a connection between object and feeling emerges.  A moment of emotion passes and a developing association comes to you: “Maybe it’s a water bowl for a dog?”

When we practice taking in things longer and longer, pictures, shapes and stories follow. Material for art comes from everywhere. The only thing we have to be is  “passionately curious” and follow our eyes. – Becky Breed

Exercise for Living Creatively:

• Read the “Fisher’s Club” by Sharon Chmielarz.
• Go to a public place, a park, walk in a busy neighborhood, or wander on a trail. Carry a writing journal with you.
• Let your eyes scan the environment until they settle on something that attracts and interests you. What draws your attention? What are you curious about? Select an image or object or let it select you.
• Gaze intently allowing communication between the two of you. What associations or feelings emerge for you?
• Don’t try for something profound or complicated. Let what may come, come. Something will emerge because our brains are rarely still.
• Continue to gaze until you feel a strong sense of something you want to say or create. Perhaps your first impression will be a single word or image.
• Write for several minutes without lifting your pen.
• Then, take your journal home. Using your notes, what are you going to create?