The Creative Act: A Way of Being

In Chapter 19 Rubin defines the act of creating as a participation with past, present, and future artists. Art is also a collaboration with the self, the audience, the medium, and one’s personal experiences. Likewise, an artist’s popularity may wax and wane, and art appreciation is subjective. Rather, if the artist is happy, and if the audience feels stimulated by a work, nothing else matters. According to Rubin, notions of correctness and incorrectness do not exist in art. However, one fact that artists should always remember is that they “are never alone” when making art (91).

Chapter 20 says that all art requires intention. The intention is the purpose of the work, derived from an unconscious attunement to the artist’s selfhood. The art expresses the artist’s connection to a higher order. Rubin compares the artist to an orchestra conductor, directing the manifold symphony of the universe in their own unique way. Artists may not be conscious of this process, but they will inevitably work in harmony with it.

In Chapter 21 Rubin defines artistic principles as guidelines to be learned, manipulated, and expanded. Specifically, he refers to rules as assumptions that artists should continually question.