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

Originality means nothing. It is the power of the artistic vision that counts. As time passes, most things original will not be original. Fashions, styles, forms, flairs, and what’s in vogue, all will pass. The fashion will become out of date, the style will change, the flair will fizzle, and we will wonder why anyone was shocked. What will always

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.

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

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.

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.

3 Principles First, energy follows the path of least resistance. Second, the underlying structure will determine that path. Third, we can change the underlying structure, and thereby change the path of least resistance.

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

Some of the most creative people are both ambitious and lazy. “There’s got to be a better way,” often leads to new strategic steps in which radical ideas sometimes cause dramatic changes. Think Google and countless other internet services that challenged tradition. They can support your creative process. Isn’t it more convenient to Google some area

Neither approach can be productive. We need to have both elements, which means to narrow our attention on what we are creating, while, at the very same time, broaden our awareness to allow unimagined insight to surface.