Distance

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Above Amethyst Lake,Tonquin Valley Robert Genn

Jonah Lehrer has written a fascinating book called,Imagine: How Creativity Works. Within it he analyzes the science of creativity. Although for some readers the book may disturb the romantic vision of the artist, we’ve found that it offers concrete tips for constructively enhancing our creative thought processes.

One of the things that Lehrer believes has an important value in creative thinking is distance. This has always been somewhat intuitive to us as artists and to many of our artist friends. Distance can mean anything as simple as being an outsider to a new subject - seeing it with the fresh eyes of someone who hasn’t been immersed in it. However, distance can also mean the actual geographic distance from traveling to new locations and having one’s eyes opened to new experiences and cultures.

According to an experiment that Lehrer cites, just introducing the subject of a foreign country into a problem-solvin…