The Power to Create: An Artist’s Basic Attribute

Great ideas, imagination and creativity; are these found more in artists than other people? Read on and the answer is surprising, see it for yourself!

According to Henri Delacroix, a genius is a person who has the power of building something unique, something yet uncreated by any other person on the earth. And if that geniuses have some sort of super powers, an overgrowth of his natural functions, then what is it exactly?

Delacroix also expresses his opinion that artists don't necessarily have more imagination than ordinary people. In fact, many artists may have less creativity than plenty of ordinary people and they may be less sensitive and passionate than non-artists.

They also say an artist of genius is endowed with high mental capacities, technical abilities without which any artistic creation may prove to be impossible; and also, illuminations. Artists must have revelations.

True artists are also said to be impressionable to a higher extent. This impressionability of theirs has two sides: living experiences and thought, imagined experiences. And, the good use of these elements depends on the artist's power of expression.

What most characterizes the artist is his power of pouring his expression into certain molds; which is strongly related to certain social inhibitions. As Delacroix says, artist has no inhibitions, usually possess a child-like openness and sincerity; and actually returns in a way to the innocence of childhood.

The artist is not afraid to expose himself, intends to produce a certain effect, an impression on his audience/readers/viewers. He/she has to move people in a way or another. And not only the actors/actresses do that, but also the writers, the painters, the sculptures, and most kind of artists or those who express do that.

Muller-Freinfels says that the artist's power of pouring expressions into molds is unequally distributed among artists. Some can express themselves better, are specialized in choosing the right forms, the proper "molds"; and some have a better content to express, and finally some have both of these in equal quantities.

The artists of expression, i.e. those who focus more on the content of their creation, are characterized by force, extremism, diversity, intensity, and character; those who focus more on their ways/forms of expression are characterized by the harmony, unity, beauty of their artistic works.

Art is always creative. It could not be found, neither in reality nor in the imagination. An already created piece of art needs to be isolated from the whole and displayed to be enjoyed.

The artist builds up an idea starting from a thing, object. That thing/object is part of reality. Then the artist moves from idea to thing/object through his work, which again is a piece of reality.

As Delacroix beautifully puts it, a model refuses to share his secret to the painter. And no matter how much a portrait resembles its model, we can recognize both the model and the painter in it.

The French symbolist poet Charles Baudelaire once said that a portrait can be a short-story or a novel. In any of these cases, the power to create is clearly manifested. Any piece of art is both imaginative creation and hard work.

An artist can only create and invent while being already engaged in the process of working on a certain artistic project. In this respect, it can be said that the artist is the very first admirer/viewer/spectator of his own work.

Great ideas are not enough. What Rodin said about sculptors can in fact be extrapolated to all types of artists: they need to make a huge effort of thinking in order to create fine quality art.