The Groove Issue 90 - The Importance of Self-Actualization In Creativity
THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION IN CREATIVITY
Creative businesses, products, and art are often unconventional and come from people who are willing to express themselves regardless of what others think or what the environment dictates.
According to Abraham Maslow, the American psychologist who created the hierarchy of human needs, if you are a true creative, you will be looking for ways in which you can fulfill your creative potential by being honest with yourself, understanding who you are and pursuing what you want to do and not what other people say you should do. This is known as self-actualization.
Maslow insisted that creativity and self-actualization go hand-in-hand because the former is the authentic expression of your greatest potential. I must add that it is also a form of courage, since creative work won’t initially fit in or follow societal expectations, mainstream conventions or what others insist on boxing you in.
Alma Thomas’s Courage and Self-Actualization
Alma Thomas in her Washington DC studio in the early 1960s.
After Alma Thomas graduated with a degree in arts from Howard University in 1924, she went on to pursue her passion of teaching in public schools to junior high students in Washington DC. She loved what she did so much that she remained an arts teacher until she retired in 1960. She was 68 years old.
This is when her second act began. She gathered the courage to honor who she was and access the self-actualization that creative humans long for.
While most Black artists at the time were painting political statements and figurative compositions, Thomas said in a 1979 interview with Washington Post journalist Ellen Munro that in 1964 after suffering an arthritis attack, she “decided to paint something different from anything I’d ever done. Different from anything I’d ever seen. I thought to myself, that must be accomplished.”
And she embarked upon a courageous second act that lasted for almost two decades, in which she flirted with expressionism, geometric compositions, and color fields, eventually developing the uniqueness of her mosaic and pointillism-guided paintings that became increasingly more and more abstract.
Thomas’s determination and her decision not to be like anyone else is part of what researchers call “the intentionality” in creativity: the appreciation and pursuit of originality regardless of what everyone else is doing. The key element here is wanting to accomplish a goal, acknowledging that it’s possible to be original and doing the work it takes to get there.
Many people erroneously conclude that great ideas and their execution are random occurrences, or lucky breaks.
But like Thomas declared for herself, you must value creativity, make it a priority, see it as attainable and work towards achieving it if you want to produce great and original work.
Excuses Be Damned
Alma Thomas, Blue Abstraction, 1961, Oil on canvas.
How many times have I heard that “I am not creative because I am too old”?
Even studies have shown that as people age, they put less effort into originality because they rely more on habits and routines rather than on self-expression.
But Alma Thomas showed us that this doesn’t have to be.
Not only did she not accept labels that imposed what type of art she should be making but she categorically rejected “Black and feminist” as boundaries within which she should have kept her practice.
As the consummate self-actualized person, Thomas saw herself beyond her race or age and considered herself to be an “American painter”, elaborating in the simplest and clearest of terms that wars, political fights and racial tensions stemmed from ignorance, adding that: “Culture is sensitivity to beauty. And a cultured person is the highest stage of the human being. If everybody were cultured we would have no wars or disturbance. There would be peace in the world."
Have Clarity In Your Objectives
Alma Thomas, Apollo 12 "Splash Down", 1970, Acrylic and graphite on canvas.
When you think about how clear Thomas was in her objectives, you have to consider that she was also looking to transcend time, to make history.
There’s something wildly bold and courageous when someone says that: “Creative art is for all time and is therefore independent of time. It is of all ages, of every land, and if by this we mean the creative spirit in man which produces a picture or a statue is common to the whole civilized world, independent of age, race and nationality; the statement may stand unchallenged."
During her career, Thomas wasn’t satisfied doing what everyone was doing, and when she began painting abstractions fascinated by the light, colors, and nature outside her window, she explored different modalities until she got to a phase that was uncompromisingly hers.
In that Washington Post interview, she said: "I've never bothered painting the ugly things in life. People struggling, having difficulty. You meet that when you go out, and then you have to come back and see the same thing hanging on the wall. No. I wanted something beautiful that you could sit down and look at.”
She succeeded beyond expectations and in 1972, at the age of 81, Thomas became the first African-American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
If you aim for self-actualization, courage will always be necessary because so many times, as you become part of a system, a society, or a culture, doing things differently will trigger misunderstandings or may put you outside of what’s “normal” or “expected”.
When you think about leaving your mark, think about producing work that is meaningful and that expands and stretches who you are in many different directions. After that, all you need is the courage to put it out in the world
I am super thrilled to announce that my book won the International Book Award in the Business/Entrepreneurship category!
My publisher HarperCollins, has extended the promotion of giving you $5 off if you buy the hardcover on Amazon until this coming Friday June 10.
All you have to do is add the code 5OFFCREATIVE at checkout.
Absolutely nowhere you’ll be able to get the hardcover for only $14!
EVENT INVITE
Also, I’m super stoked to invite you to an online event hosted by Stanford d.School where I’ll be discussing my book with Jeremy Utley on June 16th at 1:00 pm EDT/ 10:00 PDT.
Registration is free here.
Have you already watched my TEDx Talk: “NFTs, Graffiti and Sedition: How Artists Invent The Future”?
I share three lessons I have learned from artists that always work for anyone in their careers. Watch it here.