Want to create more meaningful art? Become a more interested person.

by Guy Tal

Photographer Jay Maisel offered what I believe to be one of the best bits of advice for

any artist. He said, “If you want to take more interesting photos, become a more interesting

person.” Taking the liberty of generalizing Maisel’s statement beyond just the

medium of photography, I think it remains just as true in this broader form: If you want

to make more interesting art, become a more interesting person.

Keen readers may perhaps wonder whether I mistyped the title of this essay. I did

not. People don’t become interesting in a vacuum. To become a more interesting person,

you must first become a more interested person: a curious person, an adventurous

person, a thinker, a learner, a seeker, an experimenter, an inventor, a skeptic, an investigator,

a rebel. You must be willing to examine your values and convictions, to consider

them against other ideas and evidence, and to adapt, refine, or even change your views,

your work, and your life if your examinations reveal errors in your thinking or better,

more authentic ways of experiencing the world and making meaning of it.

Creative Courage

To become a more interested person is, to borrow a term from Rollo May, to

evolve creative courage. In his words: “Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs,

creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns…”

Painter and educator Robert Henri expressed a similar sentiment in his book

The Art Spirit. He wrote:

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may

be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature.

He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens,

and he opens ways for a better understanding. Where those who are not

artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows there are still more

pages possible.

The world would stagnate without him, and the world would be beautiful

with him; for he is interesting to himself and he is interesting to others.

What interests you?

What interests you besides the technical or social aspects of your art? How much

do you know about your subjects? The history of your medium? The musings of great

artists and thinkers that came before you? Current thinking about art by subject matter

experts? The science behind artistic expression? Correlations and differences between

your medium of choice and other art media? Whatever it is, whether related directly to

your work or not, dedicate time to study it in depth—to read about it, to think about it,

to mine it for meaning as deeply as you can, and to consider its implications. But don’t

stop there. Once you have learned enough about one subject, switch to another.

Mystery

Beyond just becoming familiar with known aspects of art and of your medium,

also strive to introduce mystery into your life and work. Define the boundaries of your

unknown and contemplate ways to investigate beyond them, to express your questions

and doubts in your art, to contemplate what the answers might be and how you

can make inroads toward exploring and discovering them. Ask yourself big questions

about art and life, even questions you may not expect to find answers for. “The job of

the artist,” remarked Francis Bacon, “is always to deepen the mystery.” Painter Georges

Braque agreed, saying, “If there is no mystery, then there is no poetry, the quality I

value above all else in art.” Photographer Wynn Bullock explained the personal value of

mystery:

Searching is everything—going beyond what you know. And the test

of the search is really in the things themselves, the things you seek to

understand. What is important is not what you think about them, but

how they enlarge you.

Schopenhauer, in his essay “The Wisdom of Life,” explained why the most important

factor in shaping your experiences—whether they are good or bad, shallow or

deep, meaningful or mundane—is your own personality. Similar circumstances may

lead different people to different interpretations, depending on their attitudes: whether

they are willing to open themselves up to powerful emotions; whether they are jaded or

cynical; whether they immerse themselves in their experiences and contemplate their

deeper meanings, or become distracted by other activities or concerns.

According to Schopenhauer, what a person is—the sum of a person’s temperament,

health, ethics, intellect, sensitivity, knowledge—is by far the most important

factor in determining the quality of a person’s experiences, rather than such factors as

wealth or possessions, or the opinions of other people. Personality—what you are—is

also the one thread that runs through and binds all your experiences, and therefore

has the greatest effect on your sense of meaning and happiness in life. Explaining the

importance of taking deep interest in things to elevate your life, Schopenhauer wrote:

The world in which a man lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which

he looks at it, and so it proves different to different men; to one it is

barren, dull, and superficial; to another rich, interesting, and full of

meaning. On hearing of the interesting events which have happened in

the course of a man’s experience, many people will wish that similar

things had happened in their lives too, completely forgetting that they

should be envious rather of the mental aptitude which lent those events

the significance they possess when he describes them.

Open your eyes. Train yourself to become mindful of every nuance of your experience

as it happens—your perceptions, your emotions, your senses—and seek the

deepest pleasure and meaning in it that you can find. Resist being distracted. Don’t

casually dismiss any aspects of your experience that may seem on their face unimportant

or unexciting. Research and study anything you come across that may be

relevant to your work or your experiences that you feel you should understand better.

Consider that you get to decide for yourself whether anything is important, exciting, or

interesting. Learn as much as you can, about whatever interests you, and always stay

open to discovering—or developing—new interests.

Find out what the great thinkers—people with deeper knowledge, insight, or sensitivity

than you, whether they are philosophers or scientists or artists or anyone who

has discovered deeper meaning in anything—have, or had, to say. Assimilate from them

whatever fits with your own personality and enriches your life.

Wonder about everything, no matter how ordinary or obvious it may seem. Find

out how flowers grow, the meanings of words like “art” and “creativity,” what scientists

have learned about the nature of consciousness, what quantum mechanics is all about,

why other people may have opinions and beliefs that are different from yours, or anything

else that enters your mind that you wish you understood better or that just makes

you go, “huh.”

Become a more interested person and you will become a more interesting person.

If you are interested in reading more about creating meaningful art, this essay is from Guy Tal’s book Be Extraordinary: Philosophical Advice for Photographic and Other Artists