Milton Glaser lamented the reliance on computer graphics because; it deprived designers of the use of uncertainty. Uncertainty or ambiguity are visual fields we create in order to discover the unanticipated ideas. Glaser experienced a pencil on paper as capable of nuanced touches as well as a generator of fuzzy uncertainty. Like Da Vinci he could exploit this uncertainty. He could mine it for ideas. This fuzzy field allowed his brain opportunities for making new connections. It prevented him from working linearly, deductively. It saved him from driving his intentions straight toward a goal but instead, encouraged detours which fostered new ideas, new connections. Creativity really is about the journey (playtime) not the goal, not the product, not the destination.
The pencil or brush or finger on paper can variably adjust drag, push, rotate, tilt, accelerate, press and try many other touches which are only available through our hands. A relaxed and experienced hand lives in a feedback loop with the eyes and brain. The sensation of discovery arrives when the tool-in-hand moves freely, unselfconsciously exploring without slavish attachment to a goal. When the hand can play with a tool without regard to the cost of any factor whether it is materials, morals, or time then, we experience purest creativity. New connections in the brain are made. New ideas surface. This phenomenon helps explain the value of sketching for artists, designers and architects. It explains the attraction of materials like pencil and paper or watercolors and paper. Cezanne and Turner both used watercolor sketches as experimental fields. The feeling of impermanence accompanied by the use of inexpensive materials allows the creator/inventor to risk failure. Play is a feeling of cost-free experimentation. Play allows randomness to reveal new connections. Play is a stimulus and catalyst for creative discovery.
Anna Kenoff, co-creator of Morpholio has written on this subject with the aim of giving notepads and ipads the same versatile freedom of exploration through touch like a pencil on paper. Of course it will be different. But, encouraging fields of play with new visual tools leads to creative discovery.
These past weeks I continued to play with a set of paintings considering the ambiguous visual fields found in glass reflections. In order to foster play and discovery I first painted an image with photo derivation. Later, I covered the paintings with dark color creating chaotic mystery. I looked for the painting that lingered underneath the dark overlay but, discovered new and more ambiguous imagery. The covering layer of dark paint allowed me to muse, to dream. My dreaming occurred as I manipulated the bath of dark color, deleting it or pushing it or thinning it. A new image with greater ambiguity emerged. Example 1 shows how this process worked for me. Example 1 is the first step while example 2 is the second step, after I had bathed the picture in darkness and rediscovered its new form.
Example 1. Phase one.
Example 2. second step, or phase two.
I have two more examples demonstrating the overlay of a confusing and obfuscating bath on paintings. Example 3 is the painting before its bath and, example 4 is the same image after its bath. Examples 5 and 6 present images after multiple dousings but, I am sorry I am unable to find any of their preliminary steps.
Example 3. Step one,
Example 4. Step two of the same image.
Example 5. Looking Down Madison.
Example 6. Looking Up Madison.
Margaret Sapir
Thank you.
Gail Ingis
Isn’t every painting an opportunity to play? But how many dare? Glaser was a genius in creativity, who influenced the world in so many aspects of design. You too have built a new world, one of discovery, for so many, and certainly for me, in your workshops.
Gordon Peterson
Thank you for reminding this perfectionist of the power and importance of “playing” — there is no right or wrong, good or bad!