The Path of Least Resistance for Artists: The Structure and Spirit of the Creative Process

This may be one of the most important principles you can get from this book: to establish structural tension first, and, from that, generate your art as a resolution of that tension.

Another way of describing an artistic vision is that we create a unique universe in which the audience can live.

This point is important for the artist to understand. The audience will fully engage if the universe you create has its own integrity, its own rules that are consistent within itself, independent of how the world really works. It also needs to be worth spending time with.

There are three unique domains we will cover: the mechanics, the orientation, and the spirit of the creative process.

If you are an artist, you do not have resistance you need to overcome. You simply need to understand how to set up your underlying structure in such a way that the path of least resistance leads to creating the work you want to create.

The love artists have is generative, not responsive. Romantic love is responsive. You meet and then you fall in love. The situation first, the love second. But for the artist, the love predates the situation. The filmmaker loves the film before the film is made. The painter loves the painting before paint touches canvas. The choreographer loves the

Much artistic training enables the artist to create a vehicle that is capable of expressing something true, real, vital, essential, and magnificent, not by trying to control the circumstances, but by being clear, focused, and rigorously concentrated on the desired result (very Yang,) while, simultaneously, being open, relaxed, and free of apprehens

Laziness must not be confused with lethargy. Lethargy comes with an inclination to be passive. But real laziness is not in conflict with the work ethic. Instead, laziness poses this question: isn’t there a better way to do this thing? That’s a different question from: how can I get out of doing this thing?

Perhaps it is important to note that laziness is often joined at the hip with high aspiration. You want to achieve something that matters to you, and that, combined with a good dose of laziness, motivates you to rethink your basic fixed premises.