How An Artist Thinks

There is something wonderful about watching an artist think.

You can watch their whole brain at work from a few yards away. The other day, at a rehearsal, I watched the choreographer move his limbs in small short bursts as he tried to feel the moves in his body, before he decided on what to work with the actors. It reminded me of other artists, like the writer mouthing words under their breath and making all sorts of funny faces. Or a clothing designer staring into space and picturing all the combinations of textiles and colors they could make into a pattern.

Each and every thought it’s own reflection of the mind. The ways in which we see the world brought to light by the tiny quirks in our bodies.

I have discovered and rediscovered this little detail many times in my life. Over and over, I felt the wonder in noticing this aspect of our brains hiding in plain sight. As a child, drawing pictures, I would try to see the image in my head. Teenage me would sound out rhymes and alliteration, as I jotted down the next word in my poem. In college I relaxed my vision as I gazed at the stage, and pondered the tableaux I could shape from a group of actors and a few set pieces. I knew instinctively that our minds had all sorts of ways of thinking. I saw it in all my artist friends over the years; I saw it in my father’s engineering brain; my little brother’s coding process; it was everywhere.
At some point I learned about aphantasia. With aphantasia, the brain has no mind’s eye to turn too. A person with aphantasia merely senses the idea within themselves. This too is true of people who have no inner dialog. While my mind may be constantly chattering away in the background there are plenty of people who sit in silence and just “know” the words they’re thinking. No need to hear it in their heads. And speaking of hearing it in your head, musicians are a varied bunch of thinkers as well. Some singing quietly under their breath, some staring to the ceiling and bouncing their head, others moving their whole body to feel the song. Either way, there are a multitude of ways to think through creative work.

All of this got me thinking about creative blocks. Lots of artists will, at some point, struggle to create. They will hit a wall of some kind and just won’t be able to get past it. I thought back to other times I had been stuck and what finally helped me break out of it. The main thing I noticed was that it always started with a change in perspective. Sometimes it was a change of scenery. Sometimes it was spending a few days working in a different medium. Most recently, it was through a book I was reading. The book provided a viewpoint on my emotional state that I had not considered. It made me rethink how I think. I could finally take a step back and actually notice my own process. I could see what was working and what wasn’t. I could allow myself the freedom of choosing the way I thought about my art.

All this to say, if you are ever feeling trapped in your work, maybe it’s time to try thinking like someone else.