The Groove 157 - 3 Actions To Help You Succeed Creatively
3 ACTIONS TO HELP YOU SUCCEED CREATIVELY
When it comes to generating and executing excellent ideas that can bring both personal satisfaction and financial reward, there’s no real magic wand you can wave to give you results other than your own deeds.
What I do know is that any idea that isn’t followed by action is never going to prosper.
As I was researching the life of Claire Falkenstein, born in Coos Bay, Oregon in 1908, I got exhilarated by the energy of someone who knew how to balance her thinking time with going after what she wanted.
Primarily working in the field of woven metal sculpture, where her greatest contributions are, Falkenstein consistently engaged in three very distinct behaviors that permeated her practice and allowed her to succeed.
Look Within
Claire Falkenstein in the 1950s.
When you think about original and creative work there’s always a combination of what has already been done and influences us from the outside, with the wisdom and clarity of mind that comes from looking within. I think the latter is usually neglected. People are very much focused on what others are doing rather than developing their own original ideas. All of us are more than capable of looking inside.
Falkenstein said many times in her lifetime that one of the most important lessons she learned in college from one of her teachers was to look within. “That stuck with me all my life, and rather than gathering from forces outside, I was usually looking within to build a kind of vocabulary for myself. I must tell you, at my age now, 86, I'm still doing it.”
Looking within to generate unique ideas is a valuable skill that can foster creativity and innovation. For example: spend time in silence and meditation or get into an honest self-reflection thinking about your passions, interests, values, and experiences. This can often trigger ideas that will deeply resonate with you.
Develop Your Own Vocabulary
Claire Falkenstein, Structure and Flow, 1971. Copper tubing and Venetian glass. Long Beach Museum of Art
We all need guiding principles and values to follow and implement in our businesses or careers so that we are known for a specific thing (or several things). The more we understand those things and make them our own, the better we can express them in our work.
Falkenstein did not want to repeat what other artists were doing. When she moved to Paris in 1950, she met the French art critic, collector and curator, Michel Tapié, who encouraged Falkenstein to think intellectually and artistically at the same time.
With this in mind, she developed her vocabulary, which consisted of poetic names for the elements of her work: the never-ending screen, the sign and the ensemble, topological structure, lattice structure, and then a combination of two or three of these things.
“Well, topological structure is when the surface becomes the interior. It's the constant motion. But with the lattice, you can have visibility all the time. It isn't a solid…. But with the lattice, the wonderful thing is, not only do you have the motion (the moving of the interior to the exterior; the exterior to the interior), but you also have the vision.”
What Falkenstein was doing isn’t any different from what Nike did when they called a visible air cushioning on their shoes the “Air Max” - developing an entire line around that - or when Rolex uses the term “Oyster Case” to describe its waterproof watch cases as a key feature of their luxury timepieces.
What new and interesting terms can you use in your business that can become a consistent part of your work?
Only You Can Make Things Happen
One of the 83-ft windows of Saint Basil’s Church in Los Angeles completed by Claire Falkenstein in 1969.
Nobody can do anything alone, that’s the truth. But the engine that propels you forward is yourself and your actions. I have heard a lot of “if only I had an agent, or a good gallery, or a VC investor, or a connected mentor” and to that I answer: “Have you tried enough? Have you been both excellent and daring? Have you taken calculated risks? Did you send that email and follow up?”
Falkenstein was her own masterclass on making things happen.
In 1950, she moved to Paris and connected with a new group of artists, galleries and patrons. At some point a museum in San Francisco asked her if she could lead a group in a cultural tour of Paris and Venice. While in Venice, she met Peggy Guggenheim, who was living in her palazzo and had already formed her foundation and museum.
While Falkenstein was guiding the tour, Guggenheim herself showed up and warned the group that the iron insets in the wooden gates were falling out and could injure people. The famous patron and collector knew Falkenstein was an artist who worked with metal and casually said, half-joking: “Would you like to do new gates for me?" And what to anyone would have sounded like a remote possibility, to Falkenstein seemed almost like a contract.
As soon as Falkenstein was back in Paris she started calling Guggenheim, telling her she was ready to make the gates. The latter was hesitant and really didn’t want to go through with it. But Falkenstein was insistent. She had a show in Venice right after, and then went to visit Guggenheim again and proposed to make a life-size mock-up. She brought two different ones to the palazzo and propped them against a wall. After much push-and-pull and several other hurdles, Guggenheim agreed, and Falkenstein made the gates that still guard the entrance of the Guggenheim Foundation in Venice.
Claire Falkenstein, The New Gates of Paradise, 1961. Iron and colored glass. Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice.
In 1963, back in the States after a period living in New York, Falkenstein decided it was time to move to LA. She had been invited by a gallery to do a show and they accommodated her in a cottage in the owner’s garden. The show wasn’t the success that they had promised her, but on the last day of the exhibit, the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), showed up and immediately told her that for more than a year he had been looking for an artist to do a commission and that now it was clear to him: she was that artist.
The commission required a large space to work and Falkenstein didn’t have any. But that wasn’t a deterrent despite all the risk and uncertainty involved. She not only signed a contract with LACMA but also the museum directed her to a bank, the California Federal Savings and Loan, who also was looking to commission a large and unique sculpture from a reputable artist.
Falkenstein went straight to the dealership, bought a car for $150 and started looking around LA. She found a broker who directed her to a piece of land in Venice Beach. Although Falkenstein didn’t have enough money to buy the land, she used both commission contracts as collateral. There she built a house-studio, and in the late 1960s won the commission to do the doors, gates, and stained-glass windows for St. Basil Catholic Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, which is considered her masterpiece.
Claire Falkenstein made more than 4,000 works in her lifetime and besides her sculptures she also made prints, furniture, fountains, architectural elements, screens, wallpaper, costume designs, props, and short films as well as an important body of jewelry. She always operated by looking within, created an entire narrative and order in her practice by using her own creative vocabulary and did whatever it took to make things happen.
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HOW CREATIVITY RULES THE WORLD
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TEDX TALK
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I share three lessons I have learned from artists that always work for anyone in their careers. Watch it here.