Article on the origins of creativity

The god of the LEGOTM people,

I once conducted an experiment; I put lots of LEGOTM men, separated into their component parts, legs, bodies and heads into a bag and shook it. Nothing happened, so I shook it some more and added some squeezing, some jiggling some massaging, and some spinning it round and round. When I looked into the bag, most of the LEGOTM men remained in pieces, but there were some noticeable mutations. A head had become lodged on one of the pairs of legs, a body had joined with some legs, but utilising only one of the little lego connectors.

I repeated the process, for twenty minutes ( ok I carried it around ), the result, more mutations, and a head on a body along with a few other abnormalities. After many repetitions, and a few days of regular bag manipulation and a washing machine, I discovered that I did indeed have a connected head, body and legs, in the correct order. Admittedly, the head and legs were the wrong way round, and not entirely connected as firmly as they should be, but never the less, through random external forces, I had successfully re-created a LEGOTM man from his component parts.

It was random movement which rebuilt this LEGOTM man, not me. I am not the god of the LEGOTM people. Just as normal, natural, scientifically verifiable environmental considerations such as temperature, movement, and lightening are a far more likely candidate for the beginnings of life on earth than some supernatural being of literary fiction, so my kinetic manipulation of the bag was not evidence of a divine influence in the re-created man, but rather a real, albeit artificial environment produced by the normal and most definitely not mystical realm of natural physical laws.

I find the creative process involved in producing art is like a head full of LEGOTM people bits, the more you shake it, and the more bits LEGOTM people you add, the more creative I am and the better my paintings become.

The art of evolution,

The idea behind this exhibition is twofold, firstly, I want to establish that creativity is a natural phenomenon, available to all in a greater or lesser extent, and secondly, that my own development as an artist and that of my work adheres without contrivance or effort to the evolutionary laws of natural selection.

“creativity (is) a genetically encoded product of the evolution of the brain, favoured by natural selection, but influenced by the environment of each individual”
Karl H Pfenninge & Valerie R Schubik. The origin of creativity

An artwork is the end result of human creative process, a point of interest in a continuing process of creative evolution. Although the human mammal as we know it today, Homo Sapiens arrived on the scene some 200,000 years ago, the first clear evidence of creativity was not apparent until around 50,000 years ago, and the first cave paintings up to 35,000 years ago, the advantage of creativity in an evolutionary sense, was that of innovation, of new ways of solving problems, as a means of spreading information and as a means of storytelling and social control which evolved into what we now know as religion.

I won’t go into the development of creativity in great detail, but one only has to look at any book on art history and follow the timeline from cave paintings to Caravaggio, from statues of Dionysius to Damien Hurst, to see that there is a clear and logical progression in the development of art with lesser methods and styles becoming extinct and the most useful and popular surviving to the next generation.

This linearity shows that creativity evolved within our species and that the development of creativity in an individual, from building blocks and splodges of colour, to advanced creation and personal artistic development mirrors the development of creativity in mankind as a whole.

Why did creativity develop? Mammoths, it probably came from some problem which arose in our ancient ancestors probably involving hairy horny pachyderms. That is a big mammoth, how do we carry it home now we have killed it. We could all grab a bit and drag it, but then if the sabre toothed tiger came, we would have to run away, or we could cut it up into bits we could all carry and run from the tiger and probably kill it as well for desert. Ogg then probably came up with the sharp stone knife chopping up on cutting himself on a sharp stone.

It was a simple natural solution to a large and not to mention hairy problem.

The clan who thought of this would most likely have an advantage over other mammoth dragging clans and would, again following the natural desire to retain supremacy, need to pass the skill on to maintain its usefulness. We do not know what form of language our ancestors had, but they had the organs and bone structure necessary for the required noises. We also know that they passed on their hunting knowledge on the walls of their caves. In primitive evolution, creativity served an important survival function and flourished.

Why do we, modern man, and I am talking 10000 years of modern man, invest so much effort in creativity when the threat of mammoths and sabre toothed tigers are no longer present. Simply put, the threat of other homo sapiens is however very much present.

Art, the possession of artworks can be seen as a display ritual. A single bird will put itself in mortal danger to warn the rest of the flock of approaching kestrels, thereby showing itself to be strong and brave, or a song thrush singing at the expense of eating to attract a mate. The bower bird builds an elaborate display area, and the male peacock forfeits the ability to fly sensibly in lieu of his fantastic tail feathers.

Human beings constantly show their power by displaying their possessions. The possession of many artworks is unproductive in terms of feeding and clothing the starving and naked populous, but is very effective in giving the impression of power so great that it can afford to adorn its plumage with marvellous and impressive decorations.

Art from early cave paintings has evolved into a status symbol, owning an original artwork signifies that one has established a safe, secure and comfortable environment, free from the threat of famine, or pestilence, although certain organisations have used the threat of pestilence in order to acquire the wealth and art of these comfortable individuals in return for supernatural protection from such things as the plague, or a certain number of years of time in purgatory (if one believes such things)

What is certain is that art is a natural phenomenon, and not the result of some supernatural creator playing pimp my species. Creativity is a part of everyone to a greater or lesser extent, dormant in most, prominent in many and dominant in a few. Whether this takes the form of engineering, writing, music, ballet, dance or fine art, the important thing to remember is that your creativity is as much a part of you, the homo sapiens as your heart is.

“a god given talent”
Someone once told me that I had a “god given talent” ,which I was wasting by not painting pictures of “king william of orange on his horse, the virgin Mary and the likes”, I didn’t mind the king billy, or the woman with the best excuse in the world for infidelity who didn’t die because she flew off heaven one day ( man is she going to feel the odd one out, given that it exists of course). What I objected to was the notion that creativity and talent is in some way god given. This notion is, in light of sound evolutionary evidence, quite frankly absurd.

Talent is not something to be given out in measures, awarded for piety, or generously bestowed upon us by some god of the LEGOTM men, but is a natural gift, the result of many inherited and environmental influences.

Artworks do not just appear; they are not brought suddenly into being by the flying spaghetti monster, nor are they created from one of his meatballs. Artworks do not grow out of the ground, on trees, or appear slowly over time on walls of churches like mould in a poorly ventilated room.

On a personal note, I readily admit, that to my own standards, I can paint, and draw, and sketch in the same way that someone can play football, or write, or drive a car. I would not go so far, or be so immodest as to say I have talent, that is for other people to decide.

“Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight. An alternative conception of creativeness is that it is simply the act of making something new.”
Wikipedia


In order to proceed, we have to take a step back in time, to the genesis of my art.

In the beginning was Scotch Broth,
For those who don’t know, a broth is a rather hearty soup traditional to my homeland of Scotland. Now imagine a large bowl of broth, much like the primordial soup of the first life on this planet, but instead of amino acids, the bowl contains random thoughts, ideas, impressions, experiences, inspirations, views, opinions and opportunities.

This preparatory[1] phase of creativity, is all in the mind. In our genetics, our DNA, may be a gene passed down from our ancestors, which gives us an increased level of imagination, or fantasy. We also have the ability to read, and read many books which encourage imagination and fantasy. And it is these two points which lay the groundwork for a creative persona, because without the ability to fantasise to imagine, the broth of creativity will be thin and tasteless, consigned to the sink, extinct before anything can come of it.

The literary example is a good one and supported by much evidence. If one looks at renaissance art, the three main subjects of paintings are nature (landscapes, animals and portraits), biblical scenes, or classical (greek, roman etc) themes in accordance to the literature available at the time. With the invention, here in Germany, of the printing press, came the widespread availability of published literature and this is belatedly reflected in the art world with an exponential increase in the range of subjects and subject matter.

The reason for the delay was that the main patrons of the arts, those individuals or organisations who could afford to employ artists stuck to the three safe, non-confrontational and certainly non-challenging subjects and themes in the same way that people buy ready made, mass produced paintings from the local DIY store, or IKEA. The reason that only this art exists now, is that only the artists who could provide it found patronage.

Da Vinci, hid many of his attempts at creative expression, anatomical studies and such to prevent being labelled a heretic. How wonderful it would have been to have full sized accomplished versions of his sketches on canvas rather than his conformist and allegedly subtly subversive religious paintings.

We may inherit excellent hand eye coordination from our ancestors, or we can learn it. I am useless at catching a ball as there is this moment where the ball is not in contact with my hand that I just cannot judge quickly enough to react. However if the ball is on a string, attached to my hand and I have some idea of its trajectory, I have no problems. I couldn’t hit a target with a bow and arrow, but let me touch a canvas with a brush and it becomes part of me, second nature.

Then came the thought
Stirring the broth, certain notions, come together, certain ideas are formed which work with each other for a while, become coherent and then dissolve, other ideas stick together, growing, forming the basis for an idea, an inkling of what would make a great picture.

Although still in my head, these ideas incubate in the womb of my head, they stick around, nurturing. My wife tells me that she always knows when I have a painting inside me by my actions and mannerisms. I don’t see it myself, but she is invariably correct. Quite what the outward signs are, I am not aware, but equally, I am certain that no supernatural influence is placing ready formed pictures in my head as each component part of the picture clearly comes from a particular element in my personal broth of creativity, an element which has evolved to an extent that it is a living idea, ready to make the first Devonian myriapod steps onto the land of realisation.


And into the idea was breathed the breath of life

Eating the broth. Sketchbooks are a wonderful invention, and I use them as an extension of my own mind, jotting down ideas and inspirations, notes on colours and textures, contrasts and emotions. In JK Rowlings Harry Potter series, professor Dumbledore uses a Penseive to store his silvery thoughts for later recollection. My sketchbooks are not just somewhat like that, but exactly like that. Some of the sketches in them are nothing more than a couple of squiggles and notes, but they act as a trigger to my internal memory, and this spark, this jogging of my memory is the moment where the evolution of an artwork gains sentience, it gains a meaning and personality of its own, however primitive.

This is a very vague understanding of the finished article, but an intimation nonetheless of what could be. Just as the lobe finned fish is our distant relative, so this sketch is a distant relative of a finished painting on the wall of a gallery.
Now the sketch could develop into a finished painting, or the idea could prove a weak one.
I once, in the middle of the night came up with the idea of painting with chocolate, not the actual painting, or the paint, but chocolate instead of a paintbrush. Naturally this idea melted into extinction of its own accord.

Or it could develop into a strong and powerful image, or beautifully atmospheric scene, at this stage in creativity, it is still half idea, half real but in a few cases, I have a gut feeling that a resolution is on its way.

Illuminating the Manuscript
Enjoying the broth. This is the stage at which most people would recognise a painting in progress, a stage in which the human influence is most apparent and one in which the idea, the preparatory, incubatory and intimatory stages are lost behind pure visual stimulus. The human mammal, applying an idea inspired by thousands of years of genetic inheritance, artistic development and a lifetime of experience onto a wall, a canvas, or piece of paper brings the creative idea from preconscious processing into consciousness and reality.

At this stage, the artwork in progress is alive, developing and evolving rapidly, held loosely by the initial idea, it may mutate, deviate or transform into something else, or another idea entirely, but it exists, it has form and being

Think of the painting in terms of evolution once again, we originate from the apes and are one of many varieties. Our earliest common ancestor represents the blank canvas, and the variety of species represents all possible outcomes of the final painting and the steps along the way. It could be that the idea for the finished work was that it should look like a chimpanzee, but it varied slightly and became a bonobo or dramatically and become an orang-utan or, it could die out, become extinct as an idea which didn’t work and have all its paint scraped off, destined never to be finished.

Another influence on the painting at this stage is that of technique. By a process of learning, trial and error the technique for a painting is applied to the work in progress. How one uses a brush, palette knife, pastel or pencil may vary depending on the desired effect. This technique may be know to the artist, for example, adding a dot of highlight to an eye to give it a glassy appearance, or scraping through the canvas to the lower layers of paint with a palette knife. These may be learned by accident through experiment from first principles, or learned through books, video or from other artists. I never know before I start a painting what style will be appropriate to it and personally find artists who stick rigidly to a particular style or technique throughout their catalogue of works without any apparent development or experimentation to be uninspired. The late Bob Ross, pontiff of method painting, illustrates how once his method had evolved, he was able to pass it on to a generation of “ars vulgaris” craft and hobby painters.

True artistic creativity encourages the influence of techniques and materials in the production of an artwork. When the pursuit of a fixed result dictates these, creativity ceases and only repetitive mimicry remains

This highlights, or illuminates the notion that constant mutation and experimentation is conducive to the evolution of creativity whilst blind acceptance of method causes stagnation and extinction.

The point of no return
Digesting the broth. As evolving animals diverge into separate species, there exists a point where they are no longer able to interbreed, despite similarities in appearance or habit. Our DNA is more than 98% identical to that of chimpanzees, share the same reproductive organs, and yet are genetically incompatible when it comes to interbreeding. Our inbuilt and inherited morals may also play a part in the natural qualm of revulsion which this idea holds, once again, morals are inherited, not awarded through the following of dogma.

By scraping off paint to obliterate one path, it becomes extinct, allowing the less developed idea to gain the survival of the fittest position.

Once however, the work in progress reaches a point as the idea progresses and works as an artwork, there becomes a point of no return where the ideas cohere with technique and material, the idea is elaborated upon and gains its final vitality and is verified as the final artwork by its being hung on a wall.

The painting is finished, and further work on it wouldn’t bring the idea any further. If the end result is successful, and to my liking, I will go on to paint similar, exploring another avenue of the ideas evolutionary possibilities, experiment with size, with materials and textures. If, at the end, I am content that the idea can go no further for the time being, then it is only a matter of time before I am trying out a new recipe of Scotch broth.

In every case however, the experience of creating the artwork, the mistakes, and successes go back into my mind, or into a sketchbook for later use and lie dormant until the next creative Cambrian explosion.

Java the hut, a word of warning.
There is a danger here of overworking a painting, often a single large brushstroke can add more movement and impact to a painting than a thousand small ones. It is knowing when to stop that can make, or break a finished artwork. A caffeine and music fuelled burst of creativity without taking a step back and considering the work can result in “hutting” the painting.

My wife coined the phrase Hutted, again bringing up the infamous Bob Ross, who tends to ruin what would be a perfectly acceptable landscape with a big brown wooden hut with twee chimney and a light on in the window.

The Art of Evolution
In this exhibition, you will find artworks at many stages of evolution. Some are sketches direct from my sketchbooks, and some are finished oil paintings. The ideas, remain firmly in my head, and I am quite happy to share them with you in the course of conversation. You will see a wide variety of themes, subjects, styles, techniques in my favourite mediums of Pastel, charcoal and Oil, I don’t use acrylic as I find it dries too quickly and absorbs light like a brick through butter.

You will also see a couple of series which follow the finished painting from sketchbook to pastel, to painting, back to pastel, to bigger painting and so on. It is your chance to see the evolution of a painting from its origins to its place on the wall at the exhibition.

All the works here today, are not the end of my creativity, as I am still painting, I am still evolving, still learning and gathering experiences and influences for my work. I could not, and would not ever be an artist know only for his horse paintings, or for his bluebell paintings, for his landscape pastels, or for his large abstract paintings. I would not like to be thought of as someone who always painted like van gogh, or made pastels like Degas, or sketches like Picasso. Although occasionally I may doff my hat to the style, I think of myself as neither impressionist or expressionist, abstractionist or realist, modernist or classicist.

As an artist, it is almost expected that I wear my heart, and my beliefs on my sleeve and I happily do just that, I sometimes wear my beliefs on the lapel of my jacket too, but I will leave that to you to find out. What you think about my work is important as we all evolve different visual tastes. You may love them, which I hope, or you may hate them, which is also ok, although I would prefer the former, you may think that the modicum of creative talent I have is completely wasted, or you may like my work so much that you would like to purchase it. In every case, I am very proud of my creations, and hope you enjoy them too.

I am Derek Beggs, homo sapien, human mammal, husband, father, atheist and an artist very much in evolution.

Thank you.
[1] based on the work of Graham Wallas on the origins of creativity.