Your Creative Fingerprint
What is your creative fingerprint? Just as we each have unique physical fingerprints, we each have a unique creative fingerprint. Even if you’re not a “creative” or “artist,” your creative fingerprint is on the objects you’ve surrounded yourself with in your home, the outfit you’re wearing, the dishes you prepare, the photos you take, and all the little creative “nothings” you “throw together.”
Like your physical fingerprint, the pattern of your creative fingerprint is unique. The loops, arches, and whorls in your creative fingerprint are shaped by the impulses that drive your creativity, your creative personality traits, and your formative life, artistic, and spiritual experiences.
But there’s a shift that takes place when you choose to make creativity a primary area of focus in your life: you begin consciously assembling your creative identity and developing your creative practice. As the poet Antonio Machado said: “In order to write poetry, you must first invent a poet who will write it.” You must discover or create your artistic voice, articulate the change you seek to make with your creative work, and begin to develop the skills and habits that will produce the work you envision. When you make creativity a primary focus, your creative fingerprint becomes your identity.
In her book The Creative Habit, the choreographer Twyla Tharp writes:
The better you know yourself, the more you will know when you are playing to your strengths and when you are sticking your neck out. Venturing out of your comfort zone may be dangerous, yet you do it anyway because our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.
The design of your creative fingerprint is shaped by four forces: the creative impulses that motivate you, your creative personality, your creative autobiography, and your aesthetic.
The exercises below will help you understand your creative sources, strengths, and biases. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. These exercises are for you and only you, so answer as honestly as you can.
1. The Creative Impulses That Motivate You
As I wrote when I first introduced my thoughts on the creative impulse in Your One Precious Creative Life:
Creative work satisfies an itch. If you ask an artist why they make art, many will answer “Because I have to… I don’t have a choice.” Some will then add something like “I have ideas I need to express,” or “Art is how I make sense of my life.” … It’s impossible to catalog all the impulses that drive creative work—that’s one reason creativity is an infinitely renewable resource.
Below you’ll find a list of motivations I compiled as I researched the creative impulses mentioned by various creatives and artists. As you read through the list, pay attention to the statements you strongly identify with and write them down. This is the first step in understanding the forces that shape your creative fingerprint.
I am motivated by my need to express my ideas
I am motivated by my need to express my emotions
I am motivated by my determination to understand myself
I am motivated by my determination to understand others and/or the world around me
I am motivated by my desire to honor my deity or guiding spirit, or create an object required for religious practice
I am motivated by my need to remember or memorialize
I am motivated by my obsession with my chosen medium and a desire to master the craft of working in the medium
I am motivated by my yearning to make something beautiful
I am motivated by my passion for the process of making art
I am motivated by my passion for the finished object of my work
I am motivated by my determination to drive change
I am motivated by my determination to rebel
I am motivated by my aspiration or need for the potential rewards of making art (fame, money, status)
I am motivated by my desire to avoid doing something else (such as a traditional job)
Which of these impulses resonated most for you? Most of us are driven by a number of creative impulses.
Is there an impulse that isn’t on the list that drives your desire to create? If so, add it to your list.
2. Your Creative Personality Strengths
The psychologist Robert Sternberg studied the lives of successful creative people and found that they tend to have similar personality traits. Read through this list of characteristics and skills. Write down the statements that you strongly agree with. Remember that your answers reflect how you perceive your strengths at this moment in time.
I redefine problems in new ways as I work toward solutions
I take sensible risks
I accept failure as part of the creative process
I question and analyze assumptions
I challenge the status quo
I strive to overcome obstacles
I tolerate ambiguity
I believe in myself
I am able to delay gratification
I love what I do
I seek environments that foster creativity
I defy the crowd
I invest in my intellectual growth
I continuously enhance my domain expertise and skills
Now read through the list again. This time pick out one or two skills you wish you had.
Finished? Invest in your growth! Research ways to build the skills you wish you had. New habits of thought are like muscles: they grow stronger with repeated use.
3. Your Creative Autobiography
In The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp introduced her insightful creative autobiography exercise. Below you’ll find her list of 33 questions that will help you write your creative autobiography. It’s a long list! Write a quick, short response to each of the questions. Trust your gut. If you feel the need, expand on your responses over the next week or so, but don’t stretch the exercise out more than a week. The exercise is designed to spark your memory. It will take time to fully process and understand the impact of your creative autobiography on your work.
What is the first creative moment you remember?
Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it?
What is the best idea you’ve ever had?
What made it great in your mind?
What is the dumbest idea?
What made it stupid?
Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea?
What is your creative ambition?
What are the obstacles to this ambition?
What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition?
How do you begin your day?
What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat?
Describe your first successful creative act.
Describe your second successful creative act.
Compare them.
What are your attitudes toward: money, power, praise, rivals, work, play?
Which artists do you admire most?
Why are they your role models?
What do you and your role models have in common?
Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you?
Who is your muse?
Define muse.
When confronted with superior intelligence or talent, how do you respond?
When faced with stupidity, hostility, intransigence, laziness, or indifference in others, how do you respond?
When faced with the threat of failure, how do you respond?
When you work, do you love the process or the result?
At what moments do you feel your reach exceeds your grasp?
What is your ideal creative activity?
What is your greatest fear?
What is the likelihood of either of the answers to the previous two questions happening?
Which of your answers would you most like to change?
What is your idea of mastery?
What is your greatest dream?
4. Your Aesthetic
The fourth force that shapes your creative fingerprint is your aesthetic: the set of underlying principles that guide your work and help determine when your work on a given project is “good,” meaning that it satisfies your intentions. I’ve written briefly about how the designer Dieter Rams used his “Ten Principles of Good Design” to answer an essential question for himself: “Is my design a good design?” But there is much more to say about this subject… I’ll be writing more about developing your aesthetic soon.
Your Creative Fingerprint and Your Creative Identity
Your creative fingerprint is your unique creative identity. Unlike your physical fingerprint, your creative fingerprint can change over time. Your motivations may change, you may develop new creative strengths, you may be influenced by new experiences, or your aesthetic may change. But the pattern of your creative fingerprint will always be unique.
If and when you choose to make creativity a focus in your life, you’ll be faced with the challenge of discovering or creating your voice. Your creative fingerprint will help you find your creative voice—it’s a roadmap to what motivates you, your strengths, you influences, and your values.
Each of us is hard-wired a certain way. And that hardwiring insinuates itself into our work. That’s not a bad thing. Actually, it’s what the world expects from you. We want our artists to take the mundane materials of our lives, run it through their imaginations, and surprise us.
—Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit
Get your hands dirty and leave your fingerprints on everything you touch!