Art and Imagination

To imagine, create and to touch the old world a new is what makes the magical journey of the artists. Artists neither belong  to any special community nor are they a unique set of people. To be an artist is the essence of a human being. It is in every one of us to breathe life with the expanse of imagination, embrace it in our thoughts. We are all artists.

While all of us imagine, why is that the imagination of everyone does not lead to creativity? Because if the imagination has to be creative, it has to be accompanied by 'deep understanding'. This is essential for the spark of imagination to be more  than fantasy. Essentially, the creative individual needs depth of perception. This depth is multilayered, with the past and present serving as a continuum as well as a stimulus to further evolution. Even the most radical and path-breaking ideas come from the same deep understanding within which acceptance and rejection play a part. It is not the studied learning but a process of seriously comprehending the elements, their existence and various perceptions of them. This is the understanding which is result of observation and introspection.

Every individual imagines numerous possibilities around living one's life in the normal course. But life is not just about living; it is also about the possibility of creating worlds that do not exist, sounds that have never been heard before or sights that seem improbable. These are real in the mind. In this imagination lies the courage to fight for today, to work and find happiness of the day. Every possibility drives humans to push the boundaries of living . If not for this, there would be no tomorrow to look forward to and no reason for action in our daily existence.

Yet imagination arises from the present through human interaction with the world around. The possibilities generated by imagination are not pulled out of thin air, but born out of what exists, which in turn is the result of the past, when we link the past and present, we see a continuum and within this change exists. In the spark of imagination is born this constant environment of change while imagination is an activity that remains in the world of the mind, creativity is the result of it leading to a tangible creation in the temporal world. Therefore, great imagination need not result in creativity but it is the source of creativity. The spark for imagination is experience and the spirit of creativity is imagination. The art of creation is closely linked to the instinct of imagination. When humans 'imagine', they are experiencing their creations in the mind. These do not translate into creativity unless moved from the mind to the real world. Creativity involves the actual act of creation. This  in a way is the translation of 'that what is imagined' into reality of the present. Great artists are able to make this move.