PERIODIC CREATIVITY: PART 1

The Creativity Ions.

What does the chemistry of common table salt have to do with the creative process?

Salt, NaCl, and sodium chloride are ionic bonds bonded together by the passing of the extra electron of chloride (a negative chlorine ion) to the space where there is a missing electron in sodium. These imbalanced electrons are called Ions.
It's pretty amazing to think that these two disparate elements, one unstable and the other poisonous, can come together to make a basic element of life, literally the salt of the earth.

This idea that everything we can see, touch, and feel is made of different combinations of atoms made me think about creativity. Ideas and creativity are just the rearranging of elements to make everything in our world an almost infinite combination of the 118 known elements of the periodic table.
This got me thinking about the creative process's positive and negative aspects. Most accepted models involve some version of identifying a problem, coming up with an idea, making it, testing it, and putting it into the world. These are all positive and necessary steps, but what about the negative aspects of these steps?
I have a new model I call the Creativity IONS, which describes the six steps of the creative process: exploration, inspiration, curation, action, expression, and gratification.

But in the yin and yang of creativity, each of these steps has both a positive and a negative aspect.
For example, inspiration is the product of our imagination and the constant distractions we face.
Action is the result of the interaction between motivation on a good day and the ever-present procrastination on the other.
Expression of an idea is always a balance between the interaction with an audience or customers and the trepidation that comes with putting something into the world.

Each day this week, I will explore each of the six steps.
The first cab off the rank tomorrow is exploration, the compounded result of frustration and observation.

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