“For in truth great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object”. (Leonardo da Vinci)
Being curious and creative, two sides of the same face … and all springs from a question.
And if I should change today? And if we should complete what I started? And if I should create something new?
We must make questions, find questions, or rather reformulate and redefine the initial question…
How do we get to be creative? What should we do to be creative? (To bring water to us as would be said by the desert nomads). Can creativity be learned?
Leonardo da Vinci lived a life which could be defined as an exercise in questioning and in creative resolution of problems at the highest levels.
Creativity is also linked to contemplation, to attention, to focusing…and contemplating means attracting something within one’s horizon.
Let’s consider Leonardo himself and his spirit of observation applied to nature, a nature in constant change, in constant transformation, and we will realize that Leonardo’s creative proposal consists precisely in propounding art as an activity parallel to scientific research.
This means the capability to observe and fix something in one’s mind.
Let’s analyse the “Madonna of the Carnation” (or Munich Madonna) by Leonardo: what can we observe? What should we focus our attention on?
Her hand poised on her bosom, the light falling on her breast vibrates on the fabric gathered around the neckline and is reflected on her face with a quivering effect; the expanded modelling of her countenance is framed by curly hair where the same light gets entangled and plays; the intentionally undefined outline makes her figure seem to be immersed in an atmospheric element, which may appear imponderable yet is not devoid of density and motion.
Let’s fix the image in our minds.
Now let’s write down on a notebook whatever comes to our minds…let’s keep our pens moving and record, like writer James Joyce did in his “Ulysses”, our flow of creative consciousness (at least for ten minutes a day).
We might discover or rediscover, and with pleasure, our recurring themes…and our meaningful colours.
Contemplating is a long-forgotten art (if not practised by mystics, poets and artists) and is magical thinking.
All is written in my book about creativity and personal development.