Percolating New Ideas: Creative Minds At Work In Newtown

By Nancy K. Crevier

In a culture that celebrates creativity, finding the creative spark that distinguishes extraordinary from ordinary can be the quest of a lifetime. For some, that search plays out right here in Newtown.

In The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community And Everyday Life, author Richard Florida, professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon University, explains that “Creativity is multidimensional and comes in many mutually reinforcing forms… In today’s economy creativity is pervasive and ongoing: we constantly revise and enhance every product, process and activity imaginable, and fit them together in new ways.” Millions of Americans, he puts forth, are shifting to live and work in a more creative manner that benefits the economy. Their role models are the traditionally “creative” — artists, writers, and craftspeople who choose to follow creativity as a means of making a living.

Mr Florida goes on to note, “Creativity also requires a social and economic environment that can nurture its many forms.” It is the shared commitment to the creative spirit, asserts the author, that underpins what he refers to as the “new creative ethos that powers our age.” Included in Mr Florida’s definition of the Creative Class are scientists and engineers, architects and designers, educators, artists, musicians, professionals, and more. Their creativity drives new ideas.

“Creativity comes from people,” he writes. “And while people can be hired and fired, their creative capacity cannot be bought and sold, or turned on and off at will.”

One does not have to look far to realize that Newtown is one of those environments that nurtures creativity.

There is a section of shelving in the C.H. Booth Library devoted solely to Newtown authors, and every month or two, a new art show featuring local photographers, painters, or sculptors decorates the walls of the meeting room there, or fills display cases found on all three floors of the building.

Edmond Town Hall is a work of art in itself, both without and within. The murals of David Merrill tell the story of our village, a painted timeline in fine detail flowing from the first floor upward along staircases at either side of the theater. Engraved granite benches, a gift of the Tercentennial Committee, are the collaboration of artists and designers to create not just outdoor seating, but a space that offers peaceful respite.

The new municipal building at Fairfield Halls invites the works of area artists to enliven blank walls, as do many restaurants around town. Craft shows abound with the creations of Newtown and Sandy Hook quilters, painters, jewelers, woodworkers, and other craftspeople.

Gardens overflow with flowers and shrubbery placed precisely to please the discerning gardener’s eye, and are shaped and recreated every spring. Landscape architects are asked to envision spaces of beauty where none exist, and outdoor space designers innovate to turn unusable spaces into places that no one wants to leave.

Auto mechanics tinker with mysterious under-the-hood problems until a resolution is achieved, and builders and remodelers confront issues that require creative solutions with every new project. Programmers thwart hackers and write software that presupposes what the user will think and do with it.

Writers at keyboards face blank screens begging for words, and an artist walks past a junk heap and sees treasures to be made. Musicians build songs from scraps of sound.

But how do these varied and talented creative minds do it? If creativity cannot be “turned on and off at will,” where does creativity dwell in the artists that people our town? A small sampling of Newtown’s original thinkers agreed to describe how they jumpstart their own creative impulses.

Paula Brinkman Hughes is the creator of inspirational art dolls made from a variety of found and natural elements that represent “spirit.”

“Lately, my process for tapping into the creative muse involves waking up at night after everyone else has fallen asleep,” said Ms Brinkman Hughes. “I get an hour or two of completely uninterrupted time to work, think, and plan,” she said, with only the cat to observe her. “I love the solitude.”

Creative thinking can strike at anytime, said Ms Brinkman Hughes, even during the business of everyday parenting duties. “Sometimes it occurs while I am driving, sometimes while gardening, sometimes while walking. It has happened while watching TV,” she said.

The key element to creative thinking, she said, is patience. “I try my best to keep my mind focused around a certain topic, and then visualize solutions to be implemented later,” Ms Brinkman Hughes said.

The physical presence of the doll she is creating can trigger her creativity, as well. “Right now, I am trying to figure out a fanciful hairdo for a doll. The doll has migrated from my studio to my kitchen counter, and before she’s done, she will probably spend some time next to my couch, on my daughter’s art table, and who knows where else,” she said.

Her particular art requires textiles, and Ms Brinkman Hughes is inspired by fabrics and textures. “When I have my art supplies close at hand, it’s almost impossible not to create,” she said.

Going To The Source

Songwriter and performer Francine Wheeler of the Dream Jam Band goes to the source when seeking new song ideas, she said. “I wish I could say that I light candles or say a prayer, but it’s the children who give me the ideas a lot of the time, and their imaginations that bring the music,” said the Sandy Hook resident. “Most melodies come to me after playing around and singing with [children], and some come from complete improvisation,” she said.

“The other day I was singing with my 4-year-old, just fooling around: ‘Hop, hop, hop, hop like a bunny.’ I put some obvious movement to it, and I like the feel of it. Maybe there’s a song in there…” Ms Wheeler said, as an example.

On occasion, she will dream a melody, or listen to a particular song and use it as a template. The definite styles and format of other songwriters can serve as inspiration, Ms Wheeler said.

‘A Slow, Inelegant Process’

“Basically, I make a point of writing every day, for an hour or so,” said poet and teacher Charles Rafferty. “If I’m commuting, I’ll write on the train. I just scribble around, waiting to write something that’s of interest to me,” he said. If his luck holds, he might have a draft of a poem by the time he reaches his destination. “Then I print it out and hone it every day for a couple of weeks. My goal is to make the poem better in increments. At that point, I either publish it, or put it in a drawer,” Mr Rafferty said of his creative process. “I should probably always do the latter,” admitted the poet.

It is that element of “doing nothing” that is crucial to the writing process, said Mr Rafferty. “When I come back to a piece I haven’t paid attention to in months, I often see that it is deeply flawed. Sometimes I just chuck it, but usually I see the mistake and how to fix it. It is,” said Mr Rafferty, “a slow and inelegant process.”

Cutting Through Distractions

Multimedia artist Joanne Keane does many little things to stir up creative ideas, she said. “It’s so important to communicate through art,” said Ms Keane, “and the trick is to go ‘inside’ myself and figure out what I want the new canvas to say.” Cutting through the clutter of distractions is vital to creating, she said. “Ideas can come from all over the place, anytime,” she said. A change of environment or meditation in any form generates creativity for her. “I use stream of consciousness journaling, for instance. I let the ‘chatter’ in my head have its way for a while. It’s a process that is unedited, so once I get it out, it brings me to nice, clean, clear ideas. I can then feel free to create without concerns of what others will think,” Ms Keane said.

Setting the mood through movement and exercise can promote creativity for Ms Keane. “I try to put on music that has no words, or words in a language I don’t know, or drumming music. I also practice journey dance, which is a yogalike movement, or even just shake my hands, or jump, or use the Hula Hoop that I have in my studio. I always try to use one of my tools, mix it up a little, to get going,” she said. “I like movements that cross the right brain and left brain strengths, the movements that create balance.”

Discipline is also essential to come up with new ideas. “I like to remember the happy place of why it’s important to be creating, because sometimes art can feel very self-indulgent to me. So I set a goal to stay focused on the ‘why’ of the creation, and even remind myself with Post-It notes and such,” she said. “I think the biggest thing is to always remember to be teachable and be open to new ideas,” said Ms Keane.

Work, Discipline, And ‘Small Leaps’

“Long ago I heard creativity explained as small reactive leaps of the imagination,” said painter Virginia Zic. “In my own work, I believe that to be true. These small creative leaps are a result of a previous action. For example, the placement a certain color shape in one area determines and affects the area next to it. This in turn develops my next action and so on. The process continues until I am satisfied with the end result,” she said.

Hard work and discipline are the elements of creativity for Ms Zic. “Working persistently in the studio each day does produce a desired outcome. Constantly evaluating your art and planning your next step become part of the creative process. That is not to say that inspiration does not come from the things we see around us in the natural world — the emotional response to color, shape, and pattern. Translating these visual emotions to a work of art,” stressed Ms Zic, “requires persistence and a love for making art.”

For this painter, art is the result of years of study, observation, and hard work day after day, she said. “The end result may appear simple, yet art is a result of the combined experiences, observation, and the visual stimulations of a lifetime, that allows the viewer to respond in an individual way,” Ms Zic said.

Starting With ‘Mulch’

Churning out cartoons since the mid-1950s for sophisticated publications like Collier’s and The New Yorker, where he also served as editor from 1973 to 1997, Lee Lorenz continues to develop ideas at the rate of 12 to 15 cartoons per week. “I’m one of the few cartoonists of my generation who still sells to The New Yorker,” said Mr Lorenz, who also sells to AARP several times a year.

There are nearly as many approaches to coming up with cartoons as there are cartoonists, Mr Lorenz suspects, including the process of retired cartoonist Henry Martin. “He would take a blank sheet of 8½ by 11 paper, and look at it until he got an idea. He’d draw it, then take another blank sheet and start over again. That impressed me,” Mr Lorenz said.

His own creative process is at the opposite end of that spectrum, he said. “I always have a piece of paper and a pencil handy. If something comes up on the news, for instance, that sparks an idea, I make a little note. That’s my ‘mulch pile.’ I draw from that for my roughs. Then I’ll sit down and rework all of my roughs at the same time,” Mr Lorenz said.

If all else fails, said the cartoonist, “I look at my bills, and that gets the creative juices flowing!”

Percolating Ideas

Like Mr Lorenz, games designer Curt Covert of Smirk & Dagger Games finds a blank page to be daunting. “I percolate the ideas in my head, often while doing other things,” said the inventor of card games Hex-Hex and Dead Hand, Run For Your Life Candyman board game, and the more mainstream Crayola 3D Sidewalk Chalk Activity Kits. “In the background of doing other daily tasks, I swap out different elements, imagine new combinations, and form raw inspirations to be built upon,” he said. Once he has the nugget of an idea, Mr Covert said, he then commits it to paper and tackles the task of “making it real.”

Creativity and invention are not borne out of thin air or a vacuum, he stressed. “Most often, it comes from taking a few interesting stimuli, mentally shaking them around, and finding new ways that those things fit together to form an original concept,” Mr Covert said.

He tends to give himself an assignment when originating new ideas, examines the ways the problem has been solved in the past, and looks for gaps in those solutions. “Inherent in that solution,” he said, “will be some unique perspective, an untapped opportunity or a vision for the future.”

Unlike art that can succeed solely in its ability to soothe the soul of the artist, when creating products for sale, it is important that the ideas resonate with people and excite them, Mr Covert said. “It has to fill a need for them, either a purely functional need, or an emotional one. So, an idea has to be built with that in mind.”

As for what constitutes a “best idea,” said the inventor, “well, it really depends on what one’s goal is. I’ve had many great ideas that won’t see the light of day, and some other ideas I had less heart for, go on to be very successful.” He added, “Sometimes, a successful idea is not necessarily a best idea, and vice versa.”

These are just a few of the people Newtown, who choose to delve into the deepest parts of themselves and share what they discover there with others. By and large, their creativity is more an inner drive than a choice, and where their muses will take them is sometimes a path they cannot perceive.

Creativity, Richard Florida suggests, is a tool that can support a productive society, and those who create are a subset of the population that should not be ignored. “We must carefully consider the ends to which we direct our creativity,” he writes. “It is a precious asset not to be squandered trivially, and a powerful force to be harnessed and directed with careful consideration of all its possible consequences… What,” he asks, “do we really want?” That is a question, he says, that the Creative Class cannot ignore, “unaware of its considerable power or even its own existence.”

Dedication to an idea and an awareness of the gifts an individual possesses, Newtown’s Creative Class appears to agree, can trigger inspiration on a grand scale. Just look around town.