The Adjacent Possible Blog
Explore The Adjacent Possible, a foundational pillar for creativity on The Artist’s Journey. Insights into intersections of art, psychology and science.Get weekly Art & Creativity Tips on the blog from Nancy Hillis
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Creative Haven Interview: Finding Freedom In Constraint & Embracing Vulnerability
Art mirrors our life and our inner state. Mitchel Dumlao interviews Nancy Hillis MD on finding freedom in constraint, embracing vulnerability, flow of ideas & embracing ugly art.
Success Disasters In Life & Art
A groundbreaking scientific result or a spectacular debut as an artist have an implicit danger. The temptation is to keep doing what you’re doing because it works. Until it doesn’t.
Creativity, Perspective & The Threat Of Translegality
The challenge as an artist is to maintain an attitude of provisionality, of nimbleness to be able to step into the adjacent possible. It’s a creativity tightrope act.
Creativity At The Boundary Of Robustness & Brittleness
Abstraction allows a work of art to be experienced in many different contexts, free of the burden of specificity created by representation. A profound work is relevant to many different observers and is in that way robust.
Tap Into Your Creativity: Nancy Hillis Interviewed By Sandra Felemovicius
Art mirrors our life and our inner state.
Creativity & Bias
Bias is a fundamental feature of life. Since it is inescapable and affects us profoundly, it’s important to be aware of it as much as possible and as a creative, to use it to your advantage.
The Golden Mean & Creativity
Saying math is about numbers and equations is like saying art is about paints and canvas. True but missing the deeper point.
Art & Artifice In Creativity
The next time you set out to create something, try to capture that moment before you apply words and concepts to your creation.
It is very brief, you must be paying attention. It’s like a kind of subliminal advertising, one quick frame in the movie of life. Blink and you’ll miss it.
The Hero’s Journey & Art
The Hero's Journey & Art Our lives are a hero's journey of moving from the known to the unknown and returning back again, transformed. As artists, we continually step into the unknown and evolve our work. We search and find our way, lose and find ourselves in our paintings and explore and experiment on our journey of self expression. I'm reminded of the writings of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) who, in his literary masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, embarked on a perilous journey to find...
Creativity and Einstein’s Riddle
The difference between art and science is that for scientists the constraints of the riddle, the clues, are provided by Nature. Artists are able to create their own constraints, each artwork is a small world unto itself.
Creativity & The Power Of Subtraction
After Beauvais, the world stopped building tall Gothic cathedrals. The idea literally collapsed under its own weight. But the life of a creative isn’t so different—Once a successful painting or piece of music is created, the temptation is to evolve by addition—to repeat what worked before, making minor variations on the original idea by adding distinguishing components, and hoping one’s creations sell before people figure out there’s nothing new.
Abstract Painting Demo: Integrating New Brushstrokes
One of the considerations when going back into a painting is integrating new brushstrokes into the work and working from an exploratory, experimental attitude.
FREE WORKSHOP: The #1 Secret to Creating Authentic Abstract Paintings You Love!
You question your talent, and painting becomes arduous and painful. You feel lost, wanting to express yourself but not knowing how. But when you learn the #1 secret to creating authentic abstract paintings, it all changes. Finally, you're able to paint with joy and create art you love.
