My creativity depends largely on my sense of professional responsibility; in other words, I am most creative when I have a lot of work to do. And by work, I do not mean creative work, but the kind that pays the bills and puts food on the table. The stress of completing those tasks satisfactorily provides the fuel my creativity feeds on.
I have just spent two weeks in the south of France, surrounded by the talent of great painters: Miró, Matisse, Picasso, and Cocteau. I carried a notebook and a couple of good pens, and all I managed to produce was rubbish. Whenever I tried to draw, my hand felt heavy and forced, and what emerged was the inevitable result of that heaviness.
Yet at other times, I have been in work meetings where I managed to sketch successful figures that express the sense of simplicity and precision I am always seeking, not only in my drawings but also in my writing. Sometimes, in the middle of a hectic morning at the office, when I have very little time to devote to creative matters, I find myself stopping whatever I am doing to draw or write something that generally has value—at least in my own eyes.
What is interesting is that it is not time wasted: after those bursts of creativity, I return to work more focused on the task at hand. If there was something I was struggling to solve, the solution then seemed to appear magically before me.
I am writing these notes on the flight back to the United States using Notes, which is how I write most of my drafts these days. I recently read that Steven Spielberg wrote his latest film using the same app. I have not seen it yet, but on the flight we watched another movie with a poor plot and a great title: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.
As I write these lines, the flight attendants are serving meals and endlessly repeating the two available options: Chicken or pasta? For some reason that should no longer surprise me, I feel the urge to write a short story with that title.
I still do not know what it will be about. I suppose I will have to wait for the stress of work to guide me when I return to the office tomorrow. It always does.
Image: Ernesto G.
