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crass, but in our society that is how art is valued, how creativity is judged. When an individual desires a beautiful creation, they'll trade for what they value, which is usually money. That doesn't make money bad. It is just a way to delineate respect for talent.

Visitors to my studio would frequently say they wished they could practice their own "art" for a living. What they really meant was they wanted do something they loved. Doing something for which one has a passion, enhances creativity.

On occasion a "wannabe" artist would ask me to teach them how to carve. I assigned them specific projects to do, usually simple sculptures. Some would complain that being told what to carve or paint was stifling their creativity. It still angers me to think about it because being told what to carve or paint did not stifle their creativity. Their indignant response at being told what they should carve didn't inhibit their creativity, their response was simply an unwelcomed manifestation of juvenile rebellion.

Complaining students knew nothing about how to use the full range of the tools at their disposal. An assignment of a subject has nothing to do with the project or assignment but everything to do with learning to use tools to their maximum potential. Only after one fully learns how to use the tools of any given art, can one create at the highest level. If you do not know what it means to double load a paint brush, and you call yourself a painter, you are restricted by your own ignorance.

Any great artist, be it on canvas or the gridiron, is a totally focused, dedicated sponge. He or she works to absorb every concept a teacher or coach has to offer. A wet rock absorbs nothing and doesn't grow a whit while a wet sponge absorbs everything and doubles its size and metaphorically its knowledge.

One of my favorite artists of all time was San Francisco 49ers receiver Jerry Rice. Rice had an exercise I believe he did nearly every day during the off season (when he was home) called running 7-mile hill. It was a hill that gradually ascends over a distance of seven miles and he ran up it every day from the bottom to the top. Rice was the consummate sponge. With his incredible work-ethic he applied the manipulation of motion with every step he took on practice field. He absorbed all the best coaches and teachers could offer and then applied that to his art of running routes and catching passes better than anyone in the National Football league, in my opinion. Besides receiving the value of his work and talent expressed in money, he's been rewarded the league's highest honor by being named to the NFL Hall of Fame as one of the best of the best.

So, once again I'm back staring at the monster before me. It is four stories of scaffolding high. I have designed to carve a large tree out of the twenty-five foot stump, with a bear climbing on the trunk. Standing to the tree's side my design calls for a snag (a tree whose top has broken off but is still standing as a lone stump) with an eagle sitting atop it. At the base I'll sculpt a deer standing among small trees and rocks to establish a mountain setting.

My years of sculpting have taught me that creativity is to do something you love with heart, mind and soul. Let others measure your offering for themselves. You are the ultimate judge of your own creativity. If it comes from your heart and you feel an inner satisfaction with your manipulation of mind, motion or materials, regardless of what others say for good or ill, you have experienced the joy of creativity.

Learn more about this author, Rand E Oertle.
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