Brain's Amazing Right Side

A curiosity about the world around him drives designer David Airey to create ideas that come to life through a wide range of media. David enjoys more creative autonomy because he chose to leave the world of "design by committee." Even now, when clients fail to tap into his experience, David claims that they miss full benefits of his artistic design. Could it be that he finds insights between the world and design because he uses his right brain more in the process?

Similarly Ellen Weber's main thrust as a writer targets brain research as it relates to learning and leadership. But, Ellen sought the wonder of creativity so she began writing a novel. Note how she describes it...

After living in Baffin Island’s High Arctic communities for two years, as researcher and professor with McGill, I wrote a novel to capture both the nuances and the mysteries from life on a frozen tundra. This story earmarks lessons learned and lived among Inuit friends and colleagues. I’d been excited to relate fictitious events about a fascinating Inuit people within real life settings. While all events and characters are my own creation, issues in the book arose from several Baffin Island community concerns I witnessed while there. My book was written for both white and Inuit readers who care about cultural conversations for deeper understanding across differences and in responses to struggles encountered there.

Ellen remarked that the characters in her novel took on lives of their own and almost moved her hands to type the words they wanted rather than her own choices. Did Ellen tap into her right brain more as she let her characters take charge? Seems like Ellen's right brain fought to take charge...

Ideas inspired from your right brain look different than ideas that draw from your left. Here’s why…

Think of your right brain as your playground for insights – that make you, you, and you’ll begin to see its use in art. Here’s the clincher. Your right brain kicks in when you observe and draw from past experiences during the creative process.

Miraculously, the right brain holds a few tricks for your art that tend to remain hidden until you rub the magic jar, so to speak, and that genie appears. Your muse, like the genie, can release gold as seen in this diagram:


Think of your right brain at its best when not interrupted by constant criticisms and editorial coming from the left side. Intuitively, it comes up with color and lines that work. Holistically, it pieces together parts of a complex plot. Concretely, it meshes mood and body language into characters of a novel.

You get the picture, it’s a bit like creativity run wild in a sense. For the novice artist less magic will be available. To the successful artist, the magic comes quicker, and yet taming will soon be required from the left side of the brain before art takes shape.

Stay tuned for the next post to find out how that logical organizer – your left brain operates.