What is Creativity Anyway?

Posted on July 21, 2011 by joana galarza johnson

I started this blog using Creativity as explained by Creativity scholar Mihalyi Csikszentmihaly as my working definition.  Csikszentmihalyi says, Creativity is any act, idea, or product that changes an existing domain, or that transforms an existing domain into a new one. And, The definition of a creative person is:  someone whose thoughts or actions change a [...]

Filed under: creativity, Defining Creativity, General Theory of Creativity, Idea Sharing, Ideas | Tagged: , , | 8 Comments »

You Need a Manifesto

Posted on September 6, 2010 by joana galarza johnson

Stanford’s Design Institute fits its reason for existing, its manifesto, on an ordinary napkin. Could you? Think about your reason for existing. To Design Your Manifesto On a Napkin: Grab a stack of napkins. Find a Sharpie Marker. Ask the following questions: What keeps you awake at night and wakes you up in the morning? [...]

Filed under: Art Concepts, Creativity by Projects, Design Thinking, Ideas, Truth | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Defining Creativity, Part 7: Creativity as Experimentation in the Enlightenment

Posted on August 4, 2010 by joana galarza johnson

Every day, for a week,  I’m writing about the definitions of Creativity thinkers have offered throughout history and why each one cannot be the final definition. Yesterday I wrote about Cultural Suppression of Creativity. Sitting under an apple tree, Isaac Newton discovered gravity. A falling apple answered for him all questions regarding the mechanics of [...]

Filed under: Creativity: Historical Perspective, Defining Creativity, General Theory of Creativity, Ideas, What is Creativity | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Creativity, is Not Yet Defined

Posted on July 24, 2010 by joana galarza johnson

Creativity is the ability to illustrate what is outside the box from within it.  –The Ride Today I’m spending time looking out windows. Creativity is still a fuzzy idea.  If you are looking, you know it when you see it. But, a clear-cut definition is still at large, still outside the box of science.  A [...]

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Idea-Sharing is Good

Posted on July 17, 2010 by joana galarza johnson

Highly creative people work alone to master a domain. But, not all the time.  Some of the time they hang-out with key people and in key communities. Creators don’t hoard ideas. They know ideas fertilize in the rich soil of human exchange. Less productive creative-types often fear throwing an idea out to the wind.  But, [...]

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Creativity and Mental Illness

Posted on June 11, 2010 by joana galarza johnson

Is mental dysfunction, such as manic-depression or depression (formerly known as melancholy) common among highly Creative people?  It depends.  Writers, painters and sculptors are more likely to suffer from “diseases of the mind” than say, neuroscientists or architects, whom we assume, work for stable companies and receive regular paychecks. Lack of societal recognition may be [...]

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Early Modern Ideals

Posted on May 22, 2010 by joana galarza johnson

In graduate school I embraced Early Modern European History as my hands down favorite area of study.  The clothes were fabulous. Think Veronica Franco, the Venetian poet and courtesan or Queen Elizabeth in her sumptuous get-ups. Food was plentiful and more varied than previous centuries. The printed word grew to disperse some of the most [...]

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  • Creating Brains is a blog about the year I spent test-driving lessons left by thoughtful Creators of the past, current Neuroscience studies, Creativity Theory and insights from contemporary highly Creative people on how to live the Creative Life—from Scientists, Architects, Writers and Humanitarians. Creating Brains hit the net on the first day of Spring, March 2010. Here, I recount my daily adventures in pursuit of a highly Creative Life for myself and my growing young family of five children.
    I’m busy working on a book length project. So from May to September 2011 I”ll post on Fridays only. To read new posts at their freshest subscribe by e-mail (see below).
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  • 12 Quotes I Love:

    1. Take thought of the seed from which you spring. You were not born to live as brutes. --Dante Alighieri

    2. Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. --Mark Twain

    3. I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. --Albert Einstein

    4. The faculty of imagination lifted me when I was sinking. I am thankful to God, who gave me this faculty; and it is for me a part of my religion to defend this gift and to profit by its possession. --Charlotte Bronte

    5. The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. --Albert Einstein

    6. Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. --Mark Twain

    7. Talent in cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. --Stephen King

    8. He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. --Albert Einstein

    9. Art is an attempt to integrate evil. --Simone de Beauvoir

    10. All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming. --Helen Keller

    11. The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings - words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out. --Stephen King

    12. I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed. --Booker T.Washington

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