Mr. Besilly's Blog

I Used To Be A Modern Digital Painter

In 1999 when I first moved to Seattle, I started experimenting with creating computer art. I called myself a modern digital painter back then. The job I came to Seattle for was bogging me down with administrative duties I never planned on.

After I arrived home at night, I would start creating computer art. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. I was armed with an iMac, a printer and all the creative passion of Picasso. The first character I completed was an abstract named William, he reminded me of Shakespeare for some reason. Then came Andre, a pudgy Spanish looking gentleman wearing a fabulous hat.

The Problem With Seeking Approval

I love to write. For me it's become a wild eyed passion these days. But as much as I appreciate having my work read and commented on, that's not the reason I write. Sometimes I pour over my keyboard just to air out the thoughts bouncing around in my head. Other times it's because I experience something or read something that inspires me. By writing it down I've now cleared the way for another few thousand thoughts to take over the empty spaces of my pea-size brain.

The best way to lose autonomy over your work is to gain an appetite for approval. Once you find your voice, the style and patterns that make up who you are as a creative, why would you compromise that by looking for approval? It's a creativity killer and the quickest path to extinction. Let's be honest, we all want a loyal following to some degree or another. Most often it grows when we're not giving it any power over our work. But then once we realize we have people's attention, the temptation is to start trying to please them by writing stuff that will have mass appeal.

Creativity: The Lure of Self-Destruction

Every artist, every creative being at one time or another has to stare down the enormous giant of self-doubt. If you expect to produce a body of work worth the journey, in any discipline of the creative arts, you must learn to survive that overwhelming desire to self-destruct.

Wrestling with that critical voice inside that convinces you that it's better off to just quit, is almost a right of passage for artists. It's much like a dark menacing forest that seems to stretch on for miles, if you can find your way through to the other side, everything will appear much brighter and clearer in the full light of day. The lure of self-destruction is a trap that must be overcome with care. Negotiation is futile.

In those moments of self-doubt when you feel like your work is entirely insignificant, it actually feels like an accomplishment to simply trash it all. That too is a deceptive trap. I just battled the exact feelings again myself recently, even though I thought I was somehow immune to the voice of that old familiar friend.

Create A Bridge And Get Over It

It's not unusual to feel shut down or even a bit frozen. Every creative giant has to battle those same feelings. You're not alone. The good news is that those feelings will pass. Being self-critical by judging your output before it's even had a proper chance to breathe will keep you frozen. Steer clear of that perfection trap, it's a dead end.

Here's the simple truth, creativity is a decision, it's the deliberate act of doing. Creativity is not a whim or a feeling. It does not come upon us but rather it comes from an untraceable place inside of us when we dare to take action.

Creativity is a senseless act, interpreting the known along with the unknown. The focus ought not to be placed on the outcome, it must be placed on the process of creating. Create at will but choose to judge not your own creations. Because each new work reveals a path to the next. Not one discovered without a bridge from the other. I'm confident you can do this.

"The chief enemy of creativity is 'good' sense."  Pablo Picasso

 Photo by Ulrich Mueller

Stop Waiting For It!

The best work you'll ever accomplish will be that which is produced by your passion. It's the work that no one could ever pay you enough to complete, because it's driven from your creative core. Our greatest freedoms come when we're not bound by the expectations of someone else or bound by our work for hire. How many times are you willing to go back to that same place where you let someone else define your value, hoping that this year's raise will finally be a true reflection of your worth? It will never happen, pull your head out.

Best Kisses Makes Love The Priority

"Kissing is a means of getting two people so close together that they can't see anything wrong with eachother" Rene Yasnek

There is not a simpler way of spreading the power of love than viewing photos of people kissing, smooching, kissing their pets, kissing their babies and of course each other. We created the Best Kisses website to promote the power of love by featuring user-generated photos and photo art focused on kissing. It's simple! It's art! It's your life in a kiss. Making Best Kisses a place that focuses on the lives of our contributors creates a true community.
 
My wife Terri and I wanted to develop a fun website that we could partner in together as a labor of love after three kids and twenty three years of marriage. We brainstormed about creating something positive that would brighten our day. When we started viewing the photos submitted it became difficult for us to stop smiling.

Here's your invitation to visit Best Kisses and experience for yourself the great feeling that follows life in a kiss. But here's my disclaimer; I take no responsibility for any subsequent joy that follows your visit.

Consider sending us your best kisses. Cheers!

(Puppy Love by Nancy Harris)   Best Kisses is a safe community friendly website 

If Only

When I read "If Only", knowing it was written by a seventeen year old teenager, I was taken aback. When that teenager is also my daughter, it brought tears to my eyes. She gave me permission to share.

If only love was not a game with losers ever present
If only hate was not a very commonly misused weapon
If only words were not like swords that cut each man so deep
If only dreams were not just merely thoughts we think in sleep
If only war was not a part of any ruler’s plan
If only peace was not ignored in every heart of man
If only light did not just fill the sky for half a day
If only darkness didn’t make us waste our lives away
If only faith was not a quick escape from our own self
If only hope was not relied upon to create wealth
If only I could understand the frenzy of our world
If only I was more than any other average girl

by Rachel Skye Basile

Creativity: The Horse Without The Cart

We are a culture obsessed with taking our place in line and following the rules. That methodology works well at the Department of Motor Vehicles and at Target stores, but it doesn't work when it comes to creative expression. In the creative space radical individuality wins. The best and brightest ideas move to the front of the pack where your place in line matters not. In the creative space, breaking the rules is the golden rule.

Don't worry about putting the cart before the horse, not today. I suggest you ditch the cart all together, it's holding you back. The horse without the cart runs so much faster and it's more fun to ride. I dare you to step out of line today and make a difference. Create your place.

Sample: Out of Line Creative  Photo by: Eric M. Gustafson

The Power of Creative Vision

Never underestimate the power of your creative vision. Creative vision is the ability to envision something in whole or in part that does not yet exist. As a creative person you have been given an inherent ability to look at an empty canvas and envision that space filled to fullness. You see beauty where others see only the ordinary. You can look at a beat up chair at a yard sale and envision it fully rejuvenated to serve an even greater purpose than it was built for.

You possess passion in expressing color, texture, life and energy just by speaking your creative vision. This is a gift that many times will cause people to respond in arrant awe. It flows out of you so naturally because it's a connected part of who you are. It has always been present in your reality.

Creativity, The Hammer of Expression

Creativity is an action, it's not a feeling. I've heard the phrase, I'm not feeling very creative used on more than one occasion. Creativity is defined as the state or quality of being creative. The process by which one utilizes creative ability. Creative ability can be greater in some of us and less in others. The more we unleash creative ability the better we will become at expressing our own originality and imagination. It's vital to use that which we posses.

If creativity was a tool like a hammer, then it would only be of value when given purpose in the hand of the user. Without an action step it would lay dormant. The same can be said of a crayon, a pencil or an idea. I encourage you today regardless of how you are feeling to take action, pick up that hammer of expression and pound away until you are satisfied. You'll be amazed at what you can knock out.

"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." Pablo Picasso

Great Examples Here  See Children's Art  See Doug Minkler Art