The Widening Stream: The Seven Stages Of Creativity

by David Ulrich

Overview

Many people long to fulfill their creative potential yet don't know how. Using the stream as a metaphor, author David Ulrich takes readers through the full range of creative activity and shows that creativity is accessible to everyone who wishes to nourish and develop their artistic spirit. In Part One, he explores the seven stages of the creative process, from Discovery and Encounter through Responsibility and Release. In Part Two, he discusses the three guiding principles of creativity. Each chapter in Part One includes questions, exercises, and suggestions to help readers achieve each step in the process. The book also includes anecdotes and quotations from many artists, writers, and scientists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451663075
Publisher:	Atria Books/Beyond Words
Publication date:	10/04/2011
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

David Ulrich has taught and investigated the creative process for over thirty years. As a photographer and writer, his work has been published in numerous books and journals including Aperture, Parabola, MANOA, and Sierra Club publications. Ulrich’s photographs have been exhibited internationally in over seventy-five one-person and group exhibitions in museums, galleries, and universities, including The Art Institute of Boston and The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi.

Editorial Reviews

Drawing on his many years' experience as a writer, Pressfield (The Legend of Bagger Vance) presents his first nonfiction work, which aims to inspire other writers, artists, musicians, or anyone else attempting to channel his or her creative energies. The focus is on combating resistance and living the destiny that Pressfield believes is gifted to each person by an all-powerful deity. While certainly of great value to frustrated writers struggling with writer's block, Pressfield's highly personal philosophy, soundly rooted in his own significant life challenges, has merit for anyone frustrated in fulfilling his or her life purpose. Successful photographer Ulrich (photography chair, Art Inst. of Boston; coeditor, The Visualization Manual) explores the creative impulse and presents an approach to developing creativity that, like Pressfield's, will be relevant to artists and others. He identifies and explains seven distinct stages of the creative process: discovery and encounter, passion and commitment, crisis and creative frustration, retreat and withdrawal, epiphany and insight, discipline and completion, and responsibility and release. He also develops his view of the three principles of the creative impulse, which include creative courage, being in the right place at the right time, and deepening connections with others. Rooted in Eastern philosophy, Ulrich's fully developed treatise nicely updates the solid works of Brewster Ghiselin (The Creative Process), Rollo May (The Courage To Create), and Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way). It also supplements Pressfield's inspirational thoughts on overcoming resistance through introspective questions and practical exercises that further elaborate the creative process. Both books are recommended for public libraries needing additional works on creativity. Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

"Ulrich has written an important and readable book that offers usable insights and answers to the question he poses: 'What is the nature of the creative process?' Both inspirational and practical, the author has many useful things to say to the art student, the professional artist, and all those with an interest in knowing more about the creative process, which Ulrich shows to be 'a metaphor for life itself.'"

Nathan Goldstein

"Ulrich has written an important and readable book that offers usable insights and answers to the question he poses: 'What is the nature of the creative process?' Both inspirational and practical, the author has many useful things to say to the art student, the professional artist, and all those with an interest in knowing more about the creative process, which Ulrich shows to be 'a metaphor for life itself.'"

— Nathan Goldstein

"Ulrich has written an important and readable book that offers usable insights and answers to the question he poses: 'What is the nature of the creative process?' Both inspirational and practical, the author has many useful things to say to the art student, the professional artist, and all those with an interest in knowing more about the creative process, which Ulrich shows to be 'a metaphor for life itself.'"

From the Publisher