Overcoming Mindsets & Getting Rid of Assumptions

Wordnetweb defines ‘mindset’ as mentality: a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations…

a mindset is the action of thinking in a particular frame of mind. though they say open mindedness brings in ideas and stuff. mindsets arent necessarily a negative approach when it comes to being creative, being creative is part art, part science you don’t always want to think up something extravagant or delusional because that's most often unhelpful.

sometimes thinking in a particular mindset is the only way to achieve successfully, but only sometimes. A simple example of this;An accountant can’t think like a hunter, if he needs to save a business from going into liquidation, the same way a hunter can’t think like an accountant if he wants to survive in the Arctic…but then again each situation is different. and i mean that, I'm not just rambling on…there is a particular technique that works every time for me.

If I feel my ideas are weak, instead of just bullshitting

“oh i was inspired by the way he constructs the line of paint to form an illusion in my eye…” (if that even makes sense).

I take a break from working, go out for a meal, watch a movie, take my camera around town, look at fashion, revisit the BMAG, talk to people….that’s one that has to work for everyone….talking to people also triggers ideas, it doesn’t even have to be relevant to your project (it could be about spaceships or hula hoops) ! getting yourself out of your working environment and out of your comfort zone is the way forward !

Getting Rid of Assumptions can be  more difficult, especially if you don’t like getting out of your comfort zone. but in this case keeping an open mind is important, being diplomatic and being adaptable helps.  this time my point doesn’t relate to a project or an artist i have found stumbled upon, this is more from experience. In my previous course at college i was taught to look  very deliberately at the composition, texture, meaning, motivation and method ( or CTMMM for short… say it with me now!)

we were taught how important it was to know the intention of the Artist, but what i wasn’t taught to express  was what i thought of the image or what I thought it meant.

But then I visited Paris. 5 days in early January spent with my partner. The food, the people, the art, the instant buzz is just phenomenal….now you’re probably thinking I came back and my college work was loved by my tutors and I only ever wrote my opinion and thoughts in my coursework….BALLS did it…

it was frustrating…producing photographs was the easy part, I can do that, but I found it almost impossible having to change my concepts and feelings when it came to projects just to please everyone else and get a good grade. BUT this made me realise a lot, and it reassured me. bite the bullet, get by, and keep this new way of thinking, be the opposite to them, be diplomatic, refresh myself with something new with every opportunity i get…
Because of this, I realised that it is important to keep an open mind…and i wouldn’t be where i am if i hadn’t become the way I have.
In a bizarre way, i can sort of relate my point to an Artist from a BBC4 documentary i watched. the Art of America. the Artist James Rosenquist started off  in advertising, Hated every second of it except painting the times square billboards. so after a few years, he began to produce  his own work, voice his views, using the skills he learned from the Ad world and i admire that.