A Word on Originality

This post is written by contributing author Anabel Bouza. 

Inventors are the trailblazers that succeed at connecting invisible dots before anyone else. 

Much training goes into sharpening these dot-connecting skills - we go to school for it, or spend a ridiculous amount of time improving upon our innate gift - and yet, aren't these proverbial dots readily available to everyone? Why don't we stumble upon truly brilliant solutions more often during our creative endeavors?

Illustration by Anabel Bouza

When creating something, we ride successive waves of ideas. We follow this or that accident down a path, chasing perfection in fragments. Eventually we encounter a thing of beauty, hungrily recognize it as a success, and clasp our hands around it. 

Could it be that Beauty is, in this case, getting in the way of true creativity? Are visual artists aesthetes first and creative second? 

Emily Levine said that in the finished object, all the possibilities have collapsed into one. By stopping whenever we get that glimpse of beauty, we effectively desist at the threshold of less explored variations. Maybe the hastily adoption of a first good result is a hazard to genuine innovation.

This learned and rarely questioned knee-jerk behavior could be likened to a ship that takes us from one destination to the next, safely and without event: no sea monsters to overcome, but no sight of undiscovered shores, either.

Anabel Bouza insists there's powerful magic in the action of creating something out of a vague vision, a chill of inspiration. She is an illustrator with a passion for nature, paper manipulation, and pointing her camera at things.

Her appreciation for simplicity dates back to a former life in Cuba - her strange homeland - where she refined the ability to see the alternative uses of common objects, and the enchanting side of things. She's often found blogging as Weird Amiga, hard at work in her sunny studio, or staring at things as if looking at them for the first time. Her tiny family is comprised of her husband & a turtle; they're new to the city of Chicago, and they love it. Connect to Anabel via facebook and twitter.