Art and Self-Creation : The Roots of Creativity and Innovation

Art and Self-Creation: The Roots of Creativity and Innovation proposes using the metaphor of the Complex Adaptive System to think about the human, embedded into environments that trigger change in that human. The nature of that change, however, is determined by the internal organization of the human; interconnected, interdependent, adaptable nodes that include Nothingness (as described by Sartre), Other People (as the condition where awareness begins), The World, Emotional Management, The Self, and Creative Visualization. As the human faces internal or environmental triggers for change, he or she experiences ambiguity, existential anxiety and emotional turmoil. In order to reorient him or herself in the new situation two sensemaking questions must be answered: What is happening here? And Who will I be in this situation? Artistic self-expression provides the ideal practice to lift the fog of emotional turmoil and to simultaneously create and discover identity constructive answers for those questions.