We recall the studies of especially creative people that were made by Frank Barton. Dr. Barton showed cards — cards with many different drawings and paint­ings on them — to creative people and their counter­parts, people who weren’t especially creative, asking them to pick out the cards they liked best. The latter group chose the orderly cards; they liked things to be clear, understandable, uncluttered. But the creative people chose the chaotic cards. The most striking thing about the creative people was this taste for chaos. They preferred the scribbles where there was no form what­ever; they found a challenge in the chaos. They yearned to make form out of it, “to make of the chaos about them an order which is their own,” as Henry Miller puts it. This is the purpose of their existence. This is the fundamental creative aspect of all human beings whether they are especially talented or not.
- Rollo May, My Quest for Beauty

Physics and mathematics focus on formulas that center around equal signs. If it doesn’t equal, it’s not an important truth. It’s not harmony, therefore not worth pondering.

The artist searches for the ultimate meaning, the significance, in chaos. In the words of author Thomas Berry (Heron Dance interview),

“Nothing creative ever happens at the center. The artist revels in the ultimate disequilibrium of things.”

Honor the chaos inside, including the darkness. Create out of it. Dark energy is powerful energy. Our role as artists is to feel, to care, to explore the chaos out of which the really deep things emerge. We search for the things that are searching for us.

What’s deep? Where’s the juice? What’s scary to you? Let us in on the deep, mysterious world within you that contains hidden truths, even if you can’t put those truths into words. Your most meaningful work may emerge.

Wars that unleash unbelievable cruelty and suffering on those considered different are mostly hatched, conjured up, by men with expensive haircuts and nice suits, great table manners and clever words, polite words accompanied by warm handshakes. They too have a chaos inside that they seek to exorcise.

Their art is different though.

. . .

Reach down deep inside your darkest imaginings. What message wants to emerge? What image bearing deep hidden meaning is searching for a way to reveal itself? That message may or may not be meant to share with others, but it may be of profound significance in your life.