The Brain Trust

Hey, my first post on this site! And I think it fitting that this bit of blurbing should be about creativity. It's why we are all here, it's what we do, how we think, it's what drives us to be better than we were yesterday, to come up with the new idea and not the same-old-same-old, it's how we find things funny or how we make things funny, it powers a lot of the decisions we make, it's in everything we touch, taste or buy. As I looked back on my meandering trail to where I am now, I realized that the one common denominator in everything I have ever done is creativity or critical thinking. Airbrushing t-shirts and surfboards, drawing, painting, advertising, graphic design, teaching and fine art... it all required some variation of the creative skill set. Each branch just had different parameters.When I was teaching at Valencia College and on the advisory board, the question came up about how to fill a 2 hour slot and I said "Critical thinking! You teach kids how to "do" problems but not to think for themselves". The only thing that comes close to teaching these skills in schools are art and music and we all know where that's going. It was a great class, fun and rewarding. And now, I am lucky to say that I'm surrounded by really creative people. At the studio (McRae Art Studios) here in Winter Park, there are 20 artists. We work, we struggle, we toil with whether we are good or doing good work or are being creative enough but in our downtime we sit and we brainstorm. Not really intentionally but it goes that way in a hurry. I could write a lengthy piece about the stages of creativity and I will later, but the second stage is play time and not judging an idea, because a crazy idea can lead to a really good sane idea with a few tweaks. And we sit around and throw stuff out that evolves into... some really friggin good ideas. We have a couple that I know would make some money, but we lack implementation skills. We are after all, creative people, great at coming up with stuff, not so good at getting it done. I would happily share with you some of these golden nuggets, these ideas are both funny and kinda Jenius (with a capitol J), but I don't want to give away the cash cow. If only I knew someone who could get the job done.... man. Anyway, our little brain trust keeps churning out useless brilliance and it's a joy to see an idea evolve, to watch the human brain sift through all of the factors and parameters and come up with something workable. It's a lot like when I was in advertising, just without the smarminess and clients. There are two great killers of creativity; fear, which I've mentioned a bunch, and doubt, it's sad-sack stepchild. We've been talking a lot about doubt here at the Brain Trust and guess what? We all have it. If you have it too, get used to it. "The more I know the more I know I don't know", someone jenious once said. Oh, in case you are wondering who the guy is in the illustration, it's a local dead guy named Fred Stone who started a theater here, it's an old gouache piece I did for the theater and I thought it fit the idea. Always liked it.