The Creativity ProcessThe following is taken from ARTFORMS by Duane and Sarah Preble, 5th edition. Footnotes and endnotes are omitted for ease of reading. Erich Fromm said: Creativity is an attitude. We all have the potential to be creative, but most of us have not been encouraged to develop our creativity. We can do this by becoming willing to explore new relationships and new ideas. The source of all art, science and technology – indeed, of all human civilizations – is creative imagination or creative thinking. As scientist Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” What do we mean by this capacity that we call creativity? Psychologist Erich Fromm wrote: "In speaking of creativity, let us first consider its two possible meanings: Creativity in the sense of creating something new, something that can be seen or heard by others, such as a painting , a sculpture, a symphony, a poem, a novel, etc., or creativity as an attitude, which is the condition of all creation in the old sense but which can exist even if nothing new is created in the world of things… What is creativity? The best general answer I can give is that creativity is the ability to see (or be aware) and respond. Creativity is as fundamental to experiencing and appreciating a work of art as it is to creating one. Insight is itself a creative act; it requires open receptivity---putting aside habitual ways of thinking. Studies on creativity have described traits of people who have maintained or rediscovered the creative attitude. These include the abilities to: marvel and be curious be open to new experiences see the familiar from an unfamiliar perspective enjoy accidental events create one thing from another by shifting its function generalize from details in order to see broad applications synthesize, integrate and find order in disorder be in contact with unconscious sources, while being intensely conscious know yourself, have the courage to 'be yourself in the face of opposition be willing to take risks be persistent: work for long periods of time ---- perhaps years ---- in pursuit of a goal. The creative process of ten begins when one is inspired by an idea or confronted with a problem. It can start with something as simple as “having fun.” There are as many ways to create as there are creative people, but creative processes generally have certain sequential characteristics in common:1. Preparation – Framing or framing the question(s) may be the most important step; information is collected and open-minded exploration takes place.