“Creativity is a discontinuous, non-algorithmic quantum jump from one pattern of thinking into a completely new one.

“It is a quantum leap – from one pattern to another without progressing through incremental steps in between. All great creative advances in the world’s of art, music, architecture, or science represent new leaps of imagination that could not have been predicted on the basis of the prevailing patterns.

“Once the creative leap is made, be it Einstein’s theory of relativity, Picasso’s cubism, or music by the Beatles, the world is forever changed…”

- Amit Goswami, author of “Quantum Creativity”

Of course, conceptual descriptions can only go so far in describing a process that is innately non-conceptual… perhaps even instinctual. Whether or not I happen to feel creative, none of us is ever far from the elemental creativity that created the universe, because each of us is a unique expression of this. Although this is perfectly obvious, this awareness can also be perfectly elusive sometimes. So whether or not we happen to feel creative at a given moment, the important thing for all creatives is to keep our creative tools close and to practice frequently, so that when the creative energies start to build, we’re able to grab our favorite tools and be carried off by them – beyond ourselves and our preconceived ideas and intentions – and carried into the the current of the creative force, off into the creative unknown.

Today’s post by Seth Godin neatly ties into this topic of the barrier- and category-leaping nature of creativity, although he shifts the focus from the creative process to the leap required to actually ship our creative products. This part of the equation is very important, and all creatives would benefit by paying attention to it… particularly those who are just getting into the swing of consistently shipping their creativity out into the world. I suggest checking out his post. He talks about leaping beyond the need for support to ship our world-changing art.

[One of my favorite lines from his recent awesome book (which I highly recommend), "Linchpin," is something to the effect of, "Don't just be an idea person. Be an idea-shipping person."]

Back to the quantum creative force. I openly confess to being madly in love with and passionately devoted to this. And so here’s an attempt to give visual expression to this force, which I feel created and sustains the universe, of which we are intimate and essential parts:

If you’d like to continue to explore the subject of creativity with me, check out “Creative Powerhouse.” Who’s a creative powerhouse? You are. [More about this after the jump.]

Sometimes the best results come when we’re not focused on getting any results at all, when we’re just playing around. This just happened for me when I was playing with my dog, Bodhi, and my iPhone. Here’s what happened:

This shot hasn’t been Photoshopped or manipulated in any way. It’s a result of the scan-rate of the iPhone’s camera combined with Bodhi’s perfectly-timed movement, which created this wormhole effect.

Play keeps us fresh and opens up a universe of unexpected surprises (some of which might just take your breath away).

We all knew this as kids. Some of us never stopped playing. And I’m writing to encourage everyone to keep up the good work… I mean the good play.

Our job as artists is to explore the unknown, to get out of the predictable comfort zone of what we know we can do, to get intimate with the mystery, to relate personally with it in somehow, and to find ways to share what we’ve discovered. So let’s all get loose and playful and forget about making mistakes or messing things up. There are countless reasons to be tight and afraid and stressed-out and excessively perfectionistic, but the net result of all of them is the constriction of our elemental creativity. So here’s a reminder (to myself, as well as to you) to loosen up, to get into the groove of things done for the love of it, and to just play with your creative tools, whatever they might be.

Go ahead. Play with it. Make fun of it. Get out of the zone of the known. Get funky with the unknown. And when you feel ready, share the love with people who support your creative spirit.

This footage and the shallow set bring to mind Picasso’s quip that “Art is a lie that reveals the truth.”

Here’s the final image from the shoot (click on the photo to visit Profoto’s website):

© Annie Liebovitz

[The "Me," below, refers to Duncan, BTW, not to me, Shalom. I wish I could move like this!]

A Capoeira maestro I trained with once called “the art of fighting with a smile” – because it’s great fun… and because if you could move like this, I bet you’d be smiling too.

If you spend much time in the art, design, or photography worlds, you’ve probably already heard about this sexy little app. And if you’ve already played with Kuler, then you surely know what I’m talking about, because it probably sucked you into a world of infinitely customizable color nirvana and left you gasping with gratitude for those brilliant mad scientists at Adobe.

If working with colors in subtle yet powerful ways sounds interesting to you, and if you haven’t heard about Kuler yet, this just might change your life in a very kick@ss way.

To list a few of the supercool things about Kuler, it enables you to:

- view thousands of color palettes that are submitted and voted upon by members of the Kuler online community,
- view the more than 180,000 color palettes that are currently in the Kuler database, sorting them either by rank or by keywords,
- upload images and easily create custom color palettes,
- and best of all, you can easily import the color palettes into Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to supercharge your own creativity!

This video, from AdobeTV, provides a more detailed (6:34 long) description of the highlights of Kuler:

If you want to get even deeper into the world of Kuler, check out the stand-alone Kuler Air app called the Kuler Desktop (clicking this link will cause the app to automatically download to your default download location).

Now go get freaky with it!

Click the logo and go ffffind something that moves you (and if you’re really inspired, email me about it because I’m always looking to be inspired – particularly in unexpected ways, at unexpected times).

Here’s a similar website that you may not have heard of: enjoysthin.gs. [I hadn't heard of it until supercool Twitterer Joshua hipped me to it.] I suggest looking deeper than first squint at this website. When I first landed on this site, it didn’t immediately impress. But when I dug just a little bit, I uncovered a torrent of inspiring images. Another cool thing about this site is that unlike Ffffound, it’s simple to become an editor, so the UGC mojo can easily flow…

My friend Inti recently hipped me to another blog dripping with creative inspiration called “Inspire Me Now,” which feature tons of images that live up to the demand of the title. [The image of the guy pulling the asphalt over Mother Nature is by Erik Johnassen, BTW.]

It truly blows me away how much creativity is going on all around the world. There truly never has been a more exciting time to be a photographer, illustrator, or visual artist, IMHO.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of international best-seller, “Eat, Pray, Love,” muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses… and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius.

This got me right in the heart. [It starts off slowly. Give it time. Promise it's worth it!]