The Beauty of Creativity - An Education in Esthetics

The Beauty of Creativity - An Education in Esthetics
Whether a dentist designing a new smile or a therapist working with clients on a beauty regime, it takes boldness to be creative. Consider pursuing your creativity with an education in esthetics!

Kieffer knew that real appreciation of beauty requires both head and heart. A cold, merely intellectual acknowledgment of objective comeliness may suffice but it will not keep us alive.

1. Observation
   Observation is the ability to notice details about one's surroundings. It's a key component of creativity because it allows us to gather information that we can use in our work.

It also helps us see beauty in things that might otherwise go unnoticed. Whether it's the nuances of a piece of art or the subtle differences in how two people experience a given moment, our observations offer important clues to understanding the world around us.

I like to start any discussion on artwork or objects with a simple observation exercise. This thinking routine asks students to observe the artwork in categories, such as Colours, Shapes, and Lines. This encourages descriptive language and slows down the knee-jerk reaction to jump straight to interpretation. It can be used on any artwork, but it works especially well with abstract or conceptual pieces that may be more challenging for audiences to engage with.

1. Imagination
   Imagination is the ability to create mental pictures that don’t exist. It’s what allows you to fantasize or dream about things that are not possible in reality – like a job interview, a new project or a better lifestyle.

Using imagination can be a great way to deal with difficult emotions, such as anxiety or frustration. It can help you visualize yourself overcoming these challenges and improve your mood.

Imagination is an essential part of creativity and helps us come up with new ideas and concepts. Without it, we would have no inventions or new ways of thinking about the world around us. It also pushes discovery and understanding. This is why it’s important to teach children how to use their imagination, even as adults.

1. Invention
   Invention is the process of conceiving something new. It requires an open mind that sees possibilities and connections in disparate areas. Many inventors disregard the boundaries of distinctly separate disciplines. For example, artist Janet Echelman grew up painting and later found her voice in the art form of giant, undulating sculptures made from fishnets.

A great idea is only as good as its ability to meet real-life needs. An invention that fails to do so will likely be overtaken by a competing innovation.

I asked Kieffer if beauty was central to her work as an inventor and she replied, “Absolutely.” Yet her ideas about beauty often went unnoticed by the scientific community because scientists consider talk of beauty beneath their profession. She knew that beauty is a crucial component of creativity, but she had to work to convince others about it.

1. Perception
   Perception is the organization, identification and interpretation of information to understand an environment. It’s essential to creativity as it allows us to reshape our experience of the world and is critical to the emergence of novel ideas.

Artist Janet Echelman makes enormous, undulating sculptures out of knotted fishing nets. She says that she found her voice when her paints went missing during a trip and she had to think creatively about how she could work in a different medium.

Perception is central to creativity, but it also involves broader, less focused forms of perception like attentional drifts. For example, when listening to music, drifts can orient our perception towards new territories or reshape concrete possibilities for action (e.g., moving towards the musician to better hear a performance technique you just noticed them using). This kind of exploratory perceptual engagement is crucial to creative cognition.

1. Analysis
   It is easy for business analysts to focus only on data-driven analysis and logical thinking, leaving creativity for the proverbial “right brained” Don Draper daydreaming in his car, offhandly producing great advertising campaigns. In reality, though, noteworthy creative work almost always stems from research and observation.

Many of us are drawn to people who seem to be uniquely bright — those with the ability to think differently and experience things in novel ways. Often, these individuals are able to communicate these ideas in a way that inspires others to adopt their perspectives.

These people have a unique gift for beauty. Their vision of the world can be transformative, inspiring others to find their own sense of beauty. That is a beautiful thing. It can also be a powerful tool for businesses seeking to attract and retain consumers.