Letting Go

     I've had some interesting times this summer although it has gone by way too fast.  I had a chance to work with some young dancers in a set design class, some preschoolers doing various kinds of art, and some adults working with mosaic and of course those few piano students who keep taking lessons during the summer.  It was an interesting mix and I learned a lot.  The dancers were probably the most surprising.  They came up with a lot of ideas and worked hard to complete their miniature sets.  The preschoolers were fun and either into what they were doing or into something else.  The adults were a little nervous but excited about making some new things. I loved them all.
     So what did I learn?  After all I was the teacher.  I always learn a lot.  I learned that creativity may take your students in different directions than you had planned for them if you are willing to let them go.  I set my plans but they had to remain flexible.  It is always that way when you are creating.  The work almost has a mind of it's own.  You think you know what you are going to do but as it starts happening things take their own course.  I wonder if sometimes that is why creative people fall under so much suspicion.  It seems a little magical.  When a writer talks about his characters as if they were writing the story, people don't get it.  Because these come from the creative's mind.  But to the writer it does seem as if the characters want things to happen a certain way. 
     When I work on walls, it is almost as if the wall tells me how to work on it.  Sounds weird but that is how flow works for me.  The wall has a definite feel and the paint slides across the surface differently than it did on the sample.  When it is working well the project happens with ease.  But if you can't get into that flow then progress is slow and hard.  Sometimes, (usually) the project reaches a point where it seems to have failed.  When I first experienced this it would often make me frustrated or even bring me to tears (and still does).  I have a patient family who often can tell when I am at this place and know that it is just a process.   Of course at times they don't understand and get frustrated with my frustration.  I have learned to recognize this place and know that if I just keep pushing through that answers will present themselves and the work will come to fruition.
    Oftentimes beginners will not push through.  They don't like where there work is going and they give up. It is hard to learn that even failure can make you successful.  We don't like to fail.  I don't like to fail, but failure can send you down a more successful road.   I think that is why Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge.  Knowledge gives you skill and a plan, but imagination opens up new possibilities beyond where knowledge can take you.  Knowledge can sometimes hold you back.  You see in your work possibly the lack of someone else's skill but you miss your own creative spark.  Knowledge makes us compare our work to others' but imagination will give sound to our own voice.  Knowledge says 'it won't work that way' but imagination says 'try and you may discover a new path.'