The Power of Ideas and Aesthetic Needs

When the right idea shows up in a room, it's clear to everyone that it has plugged into the problem in a surprising and perfect way. This is because the right idea meets the problem where we happen to think it is, not where it actually is. The same principle applies to creativity, whether it's with kids or making art. As an artist herself, Toby Clayman understood this importance of finding the right idea. In her book "The Artist's Handbook," she taught other artists how to protect their copyright and get paid for their work.

Toby Clayman's Learning Annex class at Fort Mason in the early 1990s was a great resource for artists looking to understand the business side of their craft. The class included art assignments, as well as sessions on copyright law and licensing agreements. One assignment that stands out was to take a piece and make six identical copies, finishing each one slightly differently. This exercise allowed students to experiment with different textures and techniques, exploring how they could bring unique qualities to an otherwise uniform piece.

For this author, the assignment sparked a creative response. They began playing around with alginate, creating casts of their ear and making six different ears in various materials, from wood to marble to plant matter. Each ear was finished in a distinct texture, allowing them to explore the possibilities of each material. When they wove these ears into a kind of spider web, they felt that the pieces wanted to be unified into a frame.

However, their girlfriend pointed out that this didn't align with the assignment instructions. The task had been to complete six things in different ways, not to create a single, cohesive piece from multiple disparate elements. The author's response was that they didn't care about following the rules; they were more interested in fulfilling the aesthetic need of these pieces. This creative impulse led them to present their work, which sparked a debate with Toby Clayman herself.

The conversation with Toby Clayman was significant, as it showcased the power of artistic intuition. When confronted with her own assignment, she acknowledged that the author's response made sense, if not entirely in line with traditional notions of what constitutes "following the rules." The exchange demonstrated that, when working creatively, it's essential to listen to and trust your inner voice.

The struggle between following a predetermined path versus embracing artistic intuition is one that many creatives face. It's a debate that has played out throughout history, from the Romantic movement to modern-day art schools. While some argue that rules and structure provide a foundation for innovation, others believe that true creativity emerges when artists are free to pursue their own visions.

The author's experience serves as a reminder that artistic expression is subjective, if not personal. What one person sees as a creative failure might be another person's masterpiece. The value of artistic intuition lies in its ability to connect us with our inner selves and the world around us. It's this connection that allows artists to tap into their unique perspective and create work that resonates with others.

In many ways, the author's response to Toby Clayman's assignment reflects a deeper understanding of art and creativity. By listening to their own aesthetic needs, rather than simply following a predetermined path, they were able to create something truly remarkable. This approach is not limited to visual art; it applies to any creative pursuit, from writing to music.

The importance of embracing artistic intuition cannot be overstated. It's this willingness to trust our instincts and listen to our inner voice that allows us to tap into the power of creativity. When we do, we open ourselves up to new experiences, new ideas, and new ways of seeing the world.

Toby Clayman's work serves as a testament to the value of this approach. As an artist who taught others how to navigate the business side of their craft, she understood that true creative fulfillment lies in connecting with our own unique vision. Her book, "The Artist's Handbook," remains a valuable resource for artists seeking to understand the business and technical aspects of their craft.

In contrast, the author's experience shows us that sometimes, it's okay to take risks and challenge traditional notions of what constitutes "good art." By embracing their own aesthetic needs and trusting their instincts, they were able to create something truly remarkable. This approach is not limited to visual art; it applies to any creative pursuit.

Supporting the Arts

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The tested team is passionate about providing a space for creatives to share their work, ask questions, and engage with others who are pushing the boundaries of innovation. As a member, you'll not only support this mission but also become part of a community that values artistic expression and creativity.

Follow the links below to learn more about membership tiers and benefits. By joining tested, you'll be supporting the kind of platform that allows artists to share their work, ask questions, and engage with others who are passionate about exploring the intersection of technology and creativity.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: envicky bly hello vicky wants to know when you did mega food fight watching you with tori belichi was  was nerd vanna for this mythbuster fan was working with him again just as much fun as it appeared  um who else did you consider to fight uh we reached out to ed helms  ed is a uh a a a pal uh and a maker and uh he was he he couldn't make the schedule work uh i think  that was i think he was one of the earliest texts i sent we were in way in pre-production  um but then when someone brought up tori's name in the room that that was that was a done deal  like it had to be dory that was yeah as soon as we thought about tori it was time to call him as soon  as he said yes we didn't think about anybody else um yeah it was just as much fun to work with tori  as it looked um but even more than that even more than that it was satisfying anddelightful in ways that might not even be really clear like tori shows up on set  and like i've had two whole two whole families with tori the the industrialized magic  family and the mythbusters family we go back a long time you know back to the late 90s and  within the mythbusters family you know well actually within both families within the within  the within the george lucas industrial light and magic family there are very few people that went  through what we went through together in that and that that binds us in in a lovely way and by the  same token with mythbusters you know that there are things that there are things we went through  with the crew and the network and then there are things we went through just as the hosts as the  five people at the center of this maelstrom and there are ways in which our experience  is one that only the others could understand and that that yields an intimacy of experience thatis very rewarding from a friendship standpoint  when i see my old mythbuster colleagues but especially the hosts  we share something uh that we feel really grateful for that i feel really grateful for for the time  we got to spend doing that and uh you know tori steps on the set and he brings with him  a set of institutional knowledge about how to be a host and be a guest on someone's show that is  very close to mind so honestly we needed to use very few pronouns tori understands the  stakes and the scope of that kind of battle for that kind of television better than most humans  alive and that means oh it's just it's just going to be so much fun he doesn't mind getting dirty  doesn't mind getting messy he knows how to raise the stakes that was delightful yep um  we had extra plans uh for subsequent seasons of savage builds of of course uh bringing in  other mythbuster hosts as well um mr heineman is not among those not that i wouldn't ask him  because i would but i pretty much guarantee you i think he would say no across the board  forever now which is fine it's totally his prerogative um mark blair wants to know he  says i love savage builds and i won't uncross my fingers until covet is over and we have season two  well you might be crossing them for a while forging excalibur was possibly my favorite episode  do you mean my excalibur sword forged from a meteorite yes i guess you do um let's see  having a sword forged from a meteor seems to me would be the coolest thing ever  out of all your collections can you say what your number one favorite piece is  or they all like you chill your children and you love them equallyum they are like your childrenbut not because you love them equallybecause that's not true you you don't you you love each person in your life individually for  what they bring to your life it's not really a comparison  and it's definitely not a zero-sum game so when we say do you love all your children  equally you're kind of referring to family as if it's a zero-sum game i.e if one person  gets this amount of love the other person gets a commensurate lower amount of love and  that's not true that's not how this whole that's not how this thing works  um but they are like your children the things that you make but in more ways than you think umthis is i didn't this metaphor did not occur to me until i until i just started to think about it but  they are like your children in that they are their own thing and you can't impose your will upon them  which sounds funny to say because i often talk about the workbench as the place i go to enjoy the  illusion that i have some measure of control right like here at the bench my mind gets really quiet  and that becomes something i need on a regular basis for my mental health  and my mind gets quiet because it's a set of discrete problems and i can attack and approach  and manage each one as it comes so that is a level of control i have over what happens on the bench  but when it comes to the objects themselves that control is still just as much of an illusion as  it is in our daily lives because well we start out making a sword i made drawings about what i  thought this sword would be but then as we go we can't follow the drawings slavishly because we  may come to some different conclusions as we go every object brings with it its own  my dad used the phrase morality when he talked about it at one point to me  and it's a big word to use but i do kind of agree that objects of power objects that move usbring with them not only their own narrative but also their own sort of moral compass  and i i i i'll that's something to talk about on a bigger scale a little bit later but  what i want to point out is that i make drawings of things and i make plans and then  often the object itself wants to go in slightly different directions and i've got to follow it  because it's an artistic process a creative process and i follow the process not the planand in that they're very much like children because anyone who's raised children knows  that there is no control it's triage for decades um but you can't turn a kid out  to be the way you want them to be you have to help them be what they're going to be  it's a process of discovery for you and the same exists for the objects we make  um the final look of my samaritan is very different than i imagined it would be  and i'm not even sure this is the final look there may be some more treatments on this um  and one of the things i do at a major stage where i think i've finished something is i  carried around for a few days like samaritan's been sort of moving around my house desk to  uh television you know it moves around with me so i can kind of keep on looking at it and that's  part of me trying to understand it and by the same token i do the same thing with my sons when i when  i talk to them my boys they want to think two are now almost 22. um and when i talk to them  my goal as a as a parent as a as a confidant is to meet them where they are not impose my will  upon where i think they should be but sounds really lofty um and i fail a lot at that but  that's the goal the goal is to meet the thing where it exists so your question  are they like your children is true but not for the reasons i think you thought you were asking  even more so um i've shown some old pieces like the keys to hell  that's a sculpture i made in the in the mid 90s and  that piece has changed over the years not because i have altered it but my relationship  to it has changed i now look at it and i can't believe i had the aesthetic wherewithal to make  something that beautiful almost 25 years ago i i consider myself far uh improved in my aesthetic  execution now as opposed to back then and yet i look at that piece and i'm like man  how did i know how to do that that that piece blows my mind and in that way it's still very  much like a kid like like a child i've raised because it changes over time and so does my  relationship to it and i think that all any creator of anything has that you know there's  you have an experience of the thing just after you've finished it and then after you've utilized  it and then later on and that relationship may actually change hold on just a seconduh will you go check the front door that's amazon  saying hey why isn't anyone answering the other door um yeahthis actually spins all the way back to this thing that jamie and i used to love to talk about which  is the ethos of the right idea um and one of the things i hate most in the world is  arguing over what execution we should choose for something and the person i'm arguing with  just wants their idea to be the one that gets chosen they don't actually care about  the quality of the idea they just want to be the one that came up with the solution  now that's a situation i deal with less these days in my life but back in the day it was something  that happened a lot and jamie and i took it as a point of pride that you know we might argue our  position for days but when the right idea shows up in the room it's really clear to everybody  and that's because the right idea plugs into the problem in a way that's surprising and  perfect right so the idea has met the problem where the problem is not where we happen to think  it being and that's the same thing with kids and that's the same thing with the stuff that you make  i'll tell one more story about this many years ago there was a wonderful book called the artist's  handbook by toby clayman and she was an artist who taught other artists how to protect their  copyright how to make sure they got paid for their work and she did a learning annex class down at  fort mason in the early 90s and my then girlfriend patty and i went and we took that class and it was  great it was full of art assignments but also assignments about looking at your copyright and  figuring out how to you know do different kinds of licenses and get paid and one of  the art assignments we got was take a piece and make six of them identically but finish them all  slightly differently i love this so i had been playing around with some alginate and i made a  casting of my ear and i made six different ears and then i finished them all in different textures  one i may look like wood one like marble one like plant matter one like brick etc  and then i was looking at these six ears they were all really neat and i thought  they were cool and i ended up weaving them into a kind of a spider web i don't remember  how it looked it doesn't sound like it looked that great now that i'm saying that out loud  but that was clearly what i felt that the pieces wanted they wanted to be unified into a frame  and so i did and when my girlfriend looked at it she was like that's not the assignment  i'm like what do you mean she's like well the assignment was to finish six things in  six different ways i was like i've done that she's like yeah but you joined them all into  one piece that's not six different pieces that's one piece and i was like oh well  i mean that's aesthetically what these things i made wanted me to do with them  the assignment the assignment can go to hell i i don't care about the assignment i'm just  going to fulfill what i see as the aesthetic need of these things that i've made and she was like  that's crazy talk and i'm like really cause the way you're talking sounds like crazy talk to me  we had this huge fight about it um and i i would like to point out that when we showed  the assignment and i showed my piece there was a pause after i was done with my presentation and  toby claim and said it's not really the assignment is it and i explained my position and she said  fair enough so i remember winning that argument almost 30 years agoum yeah you got to follow the thing where it's going to take you you can't impose  your will upon everything you can't impose your will upon merely anything um all right  let's see here what else do we got thank you guys so much for watching that entire video  if you would like to support tested even further well i'm here to tell you that you  could become a member if you follow the links below you'll see there are several tiers of  membership depending on how much you'd like to pay and how much access you would like to me  and the tested team and membership comes as always with some excellent benefits including  questions that i'll answer in live streams the questions have been so amazing and exclusive  videos and exclusive content follow the links below and we will see you next time\n"