What is a Creativist?

I found this explanation of what a “Creativist” is and it is the best explanation I have been able to find. I think it sums it up clearly, it defines a spirit that is diminishing in our modern era and I think this diminution is a sign of the decline of mankind in general.

From timothyfalconer.com
A creativist is a human being with a heart-felt need to make things. However this need arises, it drives the creativist to write fiction, paint landscapes, compose symphonies, design computer programs, build sailboats, devise political systems … whatever is imaginable. Creativists use creativity to make things that are altogether new. They hope the fruit of their efforts will have lasting influence, and that their ideas will benefit all people. Creativists want to live on through their work. They’d also like to reap some reward while alive.

Sadly today’s society does not place enough emphasis on ingenuity and evolutionary thought. People are afraid of change. Our social environment rewards what has been successful in the past. Today most creative minds are forced to work within the confines of a consumer culture geared to get the little guy to pay his measly earnings for whatever product attracts attention. The best music, the best writing, the best planning, the best filmmaking, the best graphic design, goes toward the buy and sell of the business world. Art for art’s sake is left to the wealthy, the funded elite, the universities, the dedicated poor, and the many part-time creativists who must keep “real jobs” in order to survive.

Read the rest of the article here.

Know your Presidents Quiz

Take the quiz at the chicagotribune.com here.

15 Must-See Endangered Cultural Treasures

From the smithsonianmag.com article: 

Some of the world’s most precious historic and artistic sites can be visited today—but might be gone tomorrow

Smithsonian spotlights 15 must-see endangered cultural sites, ranging from 20,000-year-old rock carvings in Australia to 20th-century Art Deco buildings along U.S. Route 66. Each testifies to our urge to build and create; each reminds us of how much we stand to lose.

Fenestrelle Fortress, Italy

The Hill of Tara, Ireland

Historic Route 66, U.S.A.

Centennial Baptist Church, U.S.A.

Famagusta Walled City, Cyprus

And more… 

Read the article here.

Caravaggio Used Optical Tool to Trace Models

From the discovery.com article:

Italian Renaissance painter Caravaggio used revolutionary optical instruments to “photograph” his models more than 200 years before the invention of the camera, according to a researcher in Florence.

The 16th-century artist celebrated for his dramatic chiaroscuro (light and shadow) paintings mastered “a whole set of techniques that are the basis of photography,” Roberta Lapucci said.

Caravaggio worked in a “darkroom” and illuminated his models through a hole in the ceiling, said Lapucci, who teaches at the prestigious Studio Art Centers International in the Tuscan capital.

The image was then projected on a canvas using a lens and a mirror, she said.

Caravaggio “fixed” the image, using light-sensitive substances, for around half an hour during which he used white lead mixed with chemicals and minerals that were visible in the dark to paint the image with broad strokes, Lapucci said.

She has hypothesized that Caravaggio used a photoluminescent powder from crushed fireflies, which was used at the time to create special effects in theater productions.

One of the main elements of these mixtures was mercury — to which prolonged exposure can affect the central nervous system causing irritability and other symptoms — which Lapucci said would help explain Caravaggio’s notorious temper.

Reda the article here.