x dismiss this message
Did you know you can edit this page?
-
Sign Into Shelfari
-
Choose something to edit
-
Save your contributions
see page history
Description edit
This book is about the inner sources of spontaneous creation. It is about where art in the widest sense comes from. It is about why we create and what we learn when we do. It is about the flow of unhindered creative energy: the joy of making art in all its varied forms. Free Play is... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
Quotes edit
-
“Finding the heart's voice - that is the adventure at the core of this book. That is what every artist is dedicated to: the lifelong quest - not a vision quest, for vision is all around us - but our quest to learn to speak with our own voice.”
-
“A person who is not afraid to die, knows how to live. A person who is not afraid to fail, succeeds. And a person who is not afraid to sound terrible may sound great.”
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
-
To do anything artistically you have to acquire technique, but you create through your technique and not with it.
Highlighted by 46 Kindle customers -
Surrender means cultivating a comfortable attitude toward not-knowing, being nurtured by the mystery of moments that are dependably surprising, ever fresh.
Highlighted by 38 Kindle customers -
Faithfulness to the moment and to the present circumstance entails continuous surrender.
Highlighted by 37 Kindle customers -
How does one learn improvisation? The only answer is to ask another question: What is stopping us? Spontaneous creation comes from our deepest being and is immaculately and originally ourselves. What we have to express is already with us, is us, so the work of creativity is not a matter of making the material come, but of unblocking the obstacles to its natural flow.
Highlighted by 35 Kindle customers -
These interreflecting themes, the prerequisites of creation, are playfulness, love, concentration, practice, skill, using the power of limits, using the power of mistakes, risk, surrender, patience, courage, and trust.
Highlighted by 31 Kindle customers -
The work of the improviser is, therefore, to stretch out those momentary flashes, extend them until they merge into the activity of daily life.
Highlighted by 30 Kindle customers -
Hakuin wrote, “If you forget yourself, you become the universe.”9 That mysterious factor of surrender, the creative surprise that releases us and opens us up, spontaneously allows something to arise. If we are transparent, with nothing to hide, the gap between language and Being disappears. Then the Muse can speak.
Highlighted by 25 Kindle customers -
And to do art only for the high feeling of completion and connectedness in the moment of inspiration would be like making love only for the moment of orgasm.
Highlighted by 25 Kindle customers -
Brahms once remarked that the mark of an artist is how much he throws away.
Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers -
In the myth of the flute player, when he plays for approval, plays for prestige, plays to meet the expectations of his teacher or to avoid shame, there is always something lacking. But when he has nothing to gain and nothing to lose, then he can really play.
Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
First Sentence edit
When we think improvisation, we tend to think first of improvised music or theater or dance; but beyond their own delights, such art forms are doors into an experience that constitutes the whole of everyday life.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Stephen Nachmanovitch (Author)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 153.35
Subjects edit
- Books › Professional & Technical › Professional Science › Behavioral Sciences › Cognitive Psychology
- Books › Professional & Technical › Professional Science › Behavioral Sciences › Cognitive Science
- Books › Religion & Spirituality › Spirituality › Inspirational
- Books › Science › Behavioral Sciences › Cognitive Psychology
- Books › Entertainment › Movies › Direction & Production
- Books › Health, Mind & Body › Self-Help › Creativity
- Books › Religion & Spirituality › New Age
Popular Tags
See all 50 tags
We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.
