| Are you a creative person having difficulties in cultivating you artistic vision, because of the burdens and responsibilities of everyday life? Check out these questions/prompts: 1) Is your job/career getting in the way of your creative work? 2) Are you interested in leveling up your art practice? 3) Are you living two lives (your creative life, and your “job” persona), with the “real you” caught in between? 4) Do you know the obstacle/s to your creative career, but don’t have a clear strategy to manage these issues? 5) Do you have any intentions of getting deeper with your current art practice? 6) Are you having difficulties launching or maintaining a serious art practice? 7) Do you have the capacity to skillfully manage your “creative ecosystem” in the service of your artistic goals? 8) Do you have an “operating system” that leverages your unique strengths profile to manage and sustain your creative life? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then the following program might be of help to you… Introduction. The Metacreative Blueprint is a step-by-step strategy of cultivating your personal work and expressing your artistic vision in the context of your unique creative ecosystem. It will give you concrete and practical tools to help you define and clarify the unique creative “source” that guides your work. Without this capacity, most people lose their vision, not because they lack passion or talent, but because they don’t have the maps, navigational skills, and tools to cut through the noise and burdens of everyday life. The course teaches you the craft of creativity itself (hence the term “metacreativity”), which empowers not only your creative projects, but also all the other areas of your life so that your entire creative process is integrated with and sustained by your life as a whole. There is no other training available at present whose aim is the synthesis of art and life. Successful artists have always fashioned their own approaches to reach this state, often at great personal cost. This is the first time that the science of strengths, systems thinking, and creativity research have come together to create a practical method that you can use to follow and embody your creative vision with courage and conviction. Contents. There are four core modules in the program: The Preliminaries: Strengths Coaching (one-on-one) delivered prior to Module 1. Understanding your unique strength profile, based on validated and science-based assessments, gives you the power to leverage your signature strengths in designing a customized creative “system” that fits your current lifestyle. Instead of a trial-and-error process that can take years or even decades of finding your own creative voice, a strengths-based “Life Operating System” will accelerate the process of becoming a serious artist with the capacity and focus to create breakthrough work. Module 1. Building Self-awareness, Finding Your True Work, and Generating Creative Momentum. By linking your signature strengths to your Creative Flywheel, you will be able to create a systematic process of mining your unconscious as a source of creative ideas, and transforming them into powerful work. We will build a dependable working platform and repeatable process that will enable you to harvest (and transform) these creative sources with increasing mastery. The end result: the capacity, focus, and stamina to create deep and sustained work aligned with your creative vision. Module 2. Managing the Connections Between Your Creative Process and System Constraints. The failure to become a “serious artist” is primarily caused by the inability to manage one’s creative system “as a system” – – not by a lack of ideas, passion, or talent. The “meta-skill” at becoming a productive artist is the ability to manage one’s creative ecosystem as a coordinated and disciplined strategy. By learning this process, you will be able optimize “signal clarity” (i.e. the work inside you waiting to be expressed), manage the stress and distractions created by livelihood concerns, social relationships, and mindset issues affecting your capacity to do sustainable deep studio work. Creative ecosystem management is a necessary survival skill that many struggling artists never become proficient at. Over time their creative energies dissipate, and their artistic identity withers away. Tragically, this inevitably leads to what Thoreau describes as “a life of quiet desperation.” In this module, you will learn practical ways of managing your system’s noise and currents so your actual art practice becomes sustainable and focused. The meta-practice and skills of cultivating your own “creative garden” – – as a fragile ecosystem with its own checks and balances – – become a source of energy and inspiration in all the areas of your life, the main benefit being the realization of your creative calling. Module 3. Building A Customized Infrastructure For Sustainable Creativity. This Module goes to the heart of your creative practice, by teaching you methods of transitioning to your studio work (from your “regular” life outside your art) by minimizing energy drains due to role-switching, as well as preserving the integrity of your creative bandwidth during your day job. “Bandwidth management” is a common failure point encountered by all artists in different stages of development. Most people have mind-numbing (or stressful) jobs/careers that rob them of time and/or energy to do their personal work. Having the skills and tools for identifying and fortifying the weakest links in your creative ecosystem – – the main sources of noise/stress – – is the primary goal of this Module. In this section you will learn to connect your signature strengths (aka your “wiring diagram”) with a proprietary metacreative tool called the “8 Element Method.” These two dynamic energy management systems, in tandem, will build your ability to generate and cultivate physical and creative stamina to do deep work in your chosen art medium. These energy systems/processes provide you with easy-to-apply practical action steps on a daily basis. This will enhance effectiveness and efficiency in other areas of your life, such as your relationships, self-care practices, and of course, your livelihood. This is possible because strengths-based creativity solutions result in more effective deployment of all your tools, processes, and self-coping skills. When combined methodically as a personal strategy, they lead to more effective use of energies to master the challenges and stresses of our daily life. Since the Metacreativity Blueprint is a systemic practice and an acquired mindset, the skill and techniques you will learn in this program will have far-reaching benefits not only for your creative self, but your professional, and emotional life as well. Module 4. The Strategy of Creative Momentum (Building Power and Resilience). This Module will train, polish, and generate mastery of Outer Studio techniques (e.g., transition skills, energy generation/conservation) as well as building Inner Studio best-practices (following and clarifying your creative “signal,” codifying/streamlining your production process, scoping/clarifying the Minimum Viable Structures for optimizing your creative efforts, managing your creative Signal-to-Noise ratio, etc.). This part of the program emphasizes actual practice and implementation of your Creative Vision Project. This will consolidate your learnings and apply the processes learned in the previous models to start a dynamic and sustainable practice as a serious artist. Becoming a disciplined artist demands a capacity to create art in the middle of stress, noise, and the inevitable fractures/disappointments that are an integral part of the creative experience. When you learn to master and apply the metacreative principles and tools taught in this program, you maximize your chances at expressing your full creative potential. More importantly, you will be able to express and share your unique vision through the body of work you create as a serious artist. There is no other existing formal learning experience (whether it’s an MFA program or an undergraduate art program) that focuses on metacreativity as a foundational practice for pursuing serious creative work. Just to be clear, I have nothing against formal schooling. I am the product of that system myself. However, over time, your survival as a serious artist depends less on your craft skills as much as the ability to manage the entirety of your creative ecosystem in the support of your creative vision. Your capacity for a stable and dynamic art practice is based on your ability to build a foundation and system that can sustain art making over time. This includes cultivating the emotional and mental energies to be on top of your game, as well as the infrastructure, resources and support to keep making art in the midst of life’s changes and challenges. This is the only program in existence whose overarching mission is building the metacreative foundations and mindset for pursuing serious art, both as a meaning-making practice and deeply joyful way of life. If you are curious about the origins of this project, as well as learn more about my background, experience, and qualifications as it pertains to this program, please click here. If you have any questions about this program, you can reach me at: metacreativeblueprint@gmail.com. |