EMOTION GENERATES CREATIVITY BY JAKE ZICKERMAN
For me, creativity is found through elevated emotions. Happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and love, to name some, are the basis of my most fantastic ideas. They are the ones that have the truest connection to myself and others.
Without these feelings, my creativity dwindles. A common mistake in creative thinking is waiting for inspiration; though I believe that the ebbs and flows of life will provide sporadic jolts in one's imagination, one must be their own catalyst to find true creative success. When I hope to generate creative thoughts, I try to put myself in places that will make me feel things.
Two of my favorite albums were created by artists who sourced their creativity through taking personal action to capitalize on their feelings. I view music as a true form of emotional expression and creativity, which is why I feel the following stories pertain to this blog post.
Kanye West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' was written/recorded at a low point in Kanye West's life. He had recently lost his mother to surgical complications and broken up with a long-term girlfriend. He was obviously coping with incredible grief and sadness, and to cope with this he decided to create music. He booked a studio in Honolulu 24/7 for the entirety of the album's creation and slept there nightly. The result was one of his most emotionally raw albums to date, one that has had a profound influence on myself.
Justin Vernon, who goes by stage name of Bon Iver, before writing '22, A Million' had been dealing with serious anxiety and depression. He has stated that to cope with his emotions he had initially tried travel, but inevitably used the creation of '22, A Million' as a personal healing process. He enabled himself to confront his feelings by diving directly into them within his songs. The result is one of the most incredible genre-bending albums I have ever heard, with influences from folk and electronic music.
Both of these musical artists fantastically demonstrate how they were able to incite emotional and creative expression through action. I draw my creativity from my emotions and passions; finding things that have an emotional influence on me and committing to working on them serves as a catalyst for my creative thinking and innovation.
The future is clouded often, and our emotional state is only known in the present. Take advantage of what you are feeling NOW to create.
Bowler, Paul. “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: Untangling Kanye West's Complex Masterpiece.” UDiscoverMusic, UDiscoverMusic, 22 Nov. 2020, www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/kanye-west-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy/.
Pitchfork. “Bon Iver Reveals the Secrets of New Album 22, A Million at Eau Claire Press Conference.” Pitchfork, Condé Nast, 3 Sept. 2016, pitchfork.com/news/67963-bon-iver-reveals-the-secrets-of-new-album-22-a-million-at-eau-claire-press-conference/.
