A Creative(s) Life
Hello! It's Michael Rich. Monica has handed me the keys to The Smart Creative this week to add my voice to the conversation here.
I’m usually focused on my classes, fostering the creativity of a younger generation of artists (molding young minds!) or I’m in my own studio, trying to keep the creative juices flowing. I’m excited to bring the conversations that Monica and I have into writing, share what’s happening in my own classes or perhaps those conversations that are going on in my own head.
I’m about to wrap up the semester on what will be my 25th year teaching art in college. This semester, like every other is full of challenges and rewards. Those rewards, the beautiful moments when a student produces something so amazing and unexpected are worth whatever the challenges of teaching are. The classroom is a crucible - a boiling pot of making and exploring. I’m the guy keeping the fire going. It’s constant prodding of the coals to motivate my students to do their best, to ask the difficult questions of themselves, to continue to explore beyond their known territory of making. It’s exhausting. I teach a variety of classes in painting and drawing at all levels, but I almost always teach the Freshmen in either Foundations of Drawing, Painting or sometimes both. It’s the work I enjoy most. The goal is to help students acquire some basic level of skill and familiarity with the medium so that they can then begin to find a way to express themselves. The conversations will then shift from color or composition to authenticity, expression, the stories they have to tell the world. It’s an exciting thing for me to watch. It’s a magical moment when the student learns to drive the car and set out on their own journey.
What they don’t tell you in art school is that this magical moment needs to happen again and again and again in an artist’s life. We explore, struggle, make false starts, and wrestle with ideas and materials until something clicks. We have to create that crucible of making, and oh, by the way, there’s no one to keep the fire going but ourselves. So it is that year after year, the task of the artist is to keep that fire of creativity lit while we continue to explore, to strive, and to grow in our expression. What we’re really talking about with creativity is not how to come up with good ideas but rather how to sustain a creative life. One does not become creative and then simply graduate to making art at a high level. It’s a process of constant reinvention and reinvigoration of our own creative processes.
I think that’s why I like teaching Freshmen so much. They come into my class wide-eyed, a little nervous, full of self-doubt but curious. They have an inkling that there is something inside them that is ready to come out if only they could find the right tools. By the end of the semester, hopefully, they have discovered that they had the tools all along, that they have something to say, and possess a creativity that they should believe in.
I arrived at the Rhode Island School of Design as a Freshmen many years ago and had just this experience. Not having had any Art classes since I was young, I suddenly found myself in a large room that had a deep patina of charcoal dust, drawing naked people. I was hooked. A planned career in architecture took a backseat as I found myself wanting to draw all the time. There in that room was an amazing and kind teacher, Tom Mills.
I learned much later that it was Tom’s first year teaching. He was as wide-eyed as we all were. He was patient, funny, and dedicated as an artist himself. An old-school painter, I remember he would show us drawings of trees from a spot in the woods he was visiting over and over. He has since been drawing the catacombs of Rome for the last 30 years. Once, he took us to the RISD Museum, where we were allowed access to the drawings in storage to view close up. It was there that I first discovered a small drawing of a horse by Edgar Degas. It’s fair to say that this little drawing, no bigger than a sketchbook page, changed my life. I wanted to draw like Degas. The fire was lit.
Tom says, “Everything changes when we draw: channels open up between our eyes and our breathing, heart rate, and neurological paths. Borders dissolve between touch, smell, and sound. The ideas absorbed when we draw are infinitely better than when we don’t draw. And like making maps, what we draw, we remember; what we don’t draw, we forget.”
And so it is, 30 years later, I’m still drawing a few trees myself, still lighting fires.
Naturally, I am a super fan of Michael’s art and overall creative philosophy! You can find more of Michael’s work on his website, Michael-Rich.com.
You can also follow him on Instagram @michaelbrich
We are showing our art at the Clio Art Fair in New York City May 18-22. Right around the corner! We have been given some guest tickets to the show; if you would like to attend, please contact us for free entry tickets! We would love to meet you. I think there is even a BRUNCH on Saturday and Sunday. Sounds fun to me!
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Loved this and the picture of the two of you!