The Groove 181 - How to awaken Your Creative Voice
HOW TO AWAKEN YOUR CREATIVE VOICE
If you have ever despaired about not finding your creative voice, struggled with the limiting belief that everything has already been done, or not had enough confidence to put your crazy ideas out there, rest assured that there is indeed greatness and originality within you.
Much like Eugène Delacroix wrote in his diaries: “The source of genius is imagination alone, the refinement of the senses that sees what others do not see, or sees them differently.” You don’t need fancy degrees or formal education to unleash your creative potential. Creativity, at its core, is a deeply personal and intuitive process that transcends the confines of academic pedigree or institutional validation.
Born into extreme poverty in the sun-scorched fields of rural Emele, Alabama on the cusp of the Great Depression in 1928, Thornton Dial showed us that his genius didn’t come from his formal education or academic accolades (he was and remained illiterate until the end of his life), but from his unwavering commitment to his craft and his relentless pursuit of self-expression. Here are three bastions of his exceptional practice that you can borrow as your own:
Trust in the Boundless Potential of Your Spirit
Thornton Dial at his studio outside of Bessemer, Alabama, in 2006. Photo by Jerry Siegel.
Spirit and creativity are boundless and infinite. But decades spent refining our logical mind with formal education, media and data can breed a deep distrust in our innate faculties and the instincts we are born with. We don’t need any of these external things to thrive.
Thornton Dial's remarkable journey from illiteracy to the walls of the most important galleries and museums in the United States serves as a powerful testament to the boundless potential of the human spirit. Dial has been described by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as “one of the most revered contemporary self-taught artists.” William Arnett, the curator, and art collector who discovered him said: “I can’t think of any important artist who has started with less or accomplished more.”
Thornton Dial, All The Cats In Town, 1993. Rope carpet, oil and enamel on canvas on wood.
Dial’s formative years were steeped in the shadow of Jim Crow segregation and the seismic shifts of the civil rights movement, imprinting upon him a profound awareness of the injustices that pervaded his surroundings. Not being able to have a consistent education, he left school at age 12, with barely the formation of someone who had completed 2nd grade. Changes in his family life forced him to move to Bessemer, an industrial town near Birmingham, where he took a job as a metalworker at the Pullman railway company.
Working with his hands, mind, and heart opened the floodgates of creativity for Dial, who used all sorts of junk such as cans, bottles, plastic, and wood scraps, to make things from furniture to small sculptures.
Never having set foot in a museum, much less able to read a book, by the time he was in his early 50s in 1981, the Pullman factory shut down, and Thornton Dial’s artistic career had begun.
Dedication Breeds Creativity
Thornton Dial, Don't Matter How Raggly The Flag, It Still Got To Tie Us Together, 2003. Mattress coils, chicken wire, clothing, can lids, found metal, plastic twine, wire, Splash Zone compound, enamel, and spray paint on canvas on wood.
The myth of “I’ll chill until the muse hits” is precisely that, a fallacy. Discipline is the cornerstone of creativity, providing the structure and focus necessary to channel inspiration into tangible outcomes. In any creative endeavor, whether it be writing, painting, or launching a business, discipline serves as the guiding force that transforms raw ideas into meaningful expressions of artistry. It requires dedication, perseverance, and a willingness to push past obstacles and distractions in pursuit of a greater vision.
While Dial had lost his job, he still had his creativity, the best part of him. But he also had his dedication. Every day, he woke up at 7:00 am and went to his backyard, which was his de facto studio, to make art. Drawings, sculptures, assemblages, collages, and layered paintings piled up.
When Arnett, who had been focused on finding exceptional vernacular southern black artists, encountered Dial in 1987, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Day in and day out, the artist had worked to create an impressive body of work whose depth and sophistication of ideas, ranging the complex web of racial oppression to finding unity in America, coupled with a unique execution using found materials, lit an immediate fire in Arnett.
In a stroke of genius, Arnett orchestrated tours of museum curators through Dial's studio, inviting them to witness firsthand the mesmerizing beauty and visceral power of Dial's creations. Through these immersive experiences, Arnett sought to shatter the barriers that had relegated self-taught artists like Dial to the confines of the "outsider art" category—a condescending label that threatened to diminish the significance of their contributions.
Thornton Dial, Strange Fruit: Alabama Grapes, 2003. Aluminum cans, paint cans and lids, fencing, carpet, tin, enamel, and spray paint on canvas on wood.
Arnett gave Dial a monthly stipend for materials in exchange for a right of first refusal over his work. In November 1993, Thornton Dial's seminal museum show, “Image of the Tiger,” burst into the scene, concurrently gracing the halls of two prestigious New York institutions: the Museum of American Folk Art and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. With bold ambitions to dismantle the entrenched dichotomy between “outside and inside” art, these exhibitions promised to usher in a new era of artistic inclusivity and exploration.
Achieving excellence in one's work requires unwavering dedication and a steadfast commitment to the process of creation. By producing a significant volume of work and engaging in meticulous editing, you can sift through your myriad ideas and iterations to refine and select the very best. Discipline instills habits of consistency and diligence, enabling anyone to hone their craft, refine their skills, and overcome the inevitable challenges that arise along the way.
Without discipline, creativity risks being relegated to mere whimsy or idle daydreaming, lacking the backbone of commitment and follow-through needed to bring ideas to fruition.
Mix the Pure and the Complex
Tree of Life (in the image of old things), 1994, in front of Stars of Everything, 2004, both by Thornton Dial at the “Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers: Black Artists from the American South” an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2023. Photo by Guy Bell / Alamy Stock Photo.
Creative endeavors often embody a delicate balance between the pure and the complex. If you want to materialize your best ideas, you must navigate the interplay of simplicity and intricacy in your work. At the heart of every creative pursuit lies a kernel of purity; an essence of raw emotion, liberated from the trappings of artifice or pretense.
“I try to make things that I have seen. You want to make things you've seen in the world. And not everyone can make the same thing…I know things that you don't know,” Dial said of his art, which was characterized by a nuanced and multilayered symbolism, drawing upon a diverse range of themes and subjects. His art addressed complex social and political issues, including race, class, and the human condition, often imbuing them with allegorical significance and deeper meaning. For example, the tiger, which appears many times in his work, serves as a potent and multifaceted metaphor for power, resilience, and the struggle for survival; it’s a symbol of resistance against oppression and injustice, evoking themes of strength and defiance in the face of adversity.
Dial's artistic process was highly intuitive and improvisational, with elements of spontaneity and unpredictability evident in his work. He approached his art with a sense of experimentation and freedom, allowing each piece to evolve organically over time.
When asked why he made art, Dial answered “I make it for people to love”. This purity is the foundation upon which complexity is layered, as you must weave together a fabric of ideas, emotions, and experiences to create something truly unique and multifaceted. Amidst the most intricate compositions, traces of simplicity persist, serving as guiding beacons that anchor the work in authenticity and resonance. It is in this dynamic interplay between the pure and the complex that the true magic of creativity unfolds, giving rise to creations that are at once profound and accessible, timeless and deeply resonant.
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