Create your own Magnum Opus.

The art of synthesizing your own masterpiece

Aug 27, 2023

Hello boys and girls! Hello, Fams!

If you've been listening to my podcast, I believe this style of greeting is not new to you. And if this is your first time hearing it, welcome to the club.

In this week's newsletter, I want to awaken your understanding that each of us is at our core, a creative/artist and a collaborator in expressing the universe's essence, no matter our field of interest.

Gone are the days when being labeled a "creative" or an "artist" required a specific hat. The fact that you can observe the world around you, or hear something, and then make sense of it, qualifies you to be called a creative–or better still, an artist.

One of your greatest gifts as homosapiens is not only the brain but also, the mind. Apart from the fact that the mind is the room of decision-making, it also, acts as a sponge, soaking up the nuances and the visible.

Many falsely think they're not creative. However, until you start attuning your minds to your surroundings, you might never realize your latent power as a creative until it's too late.

I have had the opportunity to take a close look at people and I'm sometimes baffled at how I hadn't noticed either a mark or something that had been on their faces before I became friends with them. And these are the people I see almost all the time!

I remember a perfect scenario, I was coming from school a little bit late in the evening; as I crossed past a cross-section of the road on my campus, I don't know what compelled me to look up, and when I did, it was as if I hadn't passed that place before.

That scenario brings to my mind one of Heraclitus–a Greek philosopher–saying, "No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” As long as you keep engaging your mind, you will always discover new things. Be it from the book you've read before, be it from the route you've been passing to work, or be it the shifting in cloud patterns. Everything keeps changing and you begin to discover something new.

The thing about the way the mind works is, most of the time you see first, but without awareness, you bearly internalize that which you've seen. So, seeing isn't the beginning of the magic, awareness is!

Awareness creates room for internalization to happen. It's just like hearing someone say, everyone needs to do good for the world to be better. At first, it sounds nice to us, but it doesn't sit with us until we've internalized what that really means to us.

Attention/Awareness

Central to the mind's operation is attention; Over time, we've learned to funnel our attention. Let me prove it to you.

When was the last time you heard yourself as you gulped water down your throat? How does it feel?

Without anything catching your attention, there's a huge chance your control of curating and cultivation of ideas would be limited. I'm not saying you should force yourself, rather, be intentional about it.

Besides, I'd like to paraphrase Rick Rubin here. He said in his book, The Creative Act, that awareness is not a state of force, although it requires a level of involvement. And persistence is key.

If you look at those whose work has impacted the world and y(our) reality, you must take into account that there's a part of them that has been sensitive to the areas that they've chosen to influence. They've sharpened their senses to be able to tap ideas around and funnel them into their choice of influence.

A friend once asked where I draw inspiration from –as many have once asked me. I wish I had replied in these exact words, "We're all stealing artist". We are exactly the reflection of everything we've experienced. And our creative expression mirror our experienced. Hence, the desire to replicate experiences propels us to create.

Variety: The key to Create your Magnum Opus

Magnum Opus simply means a masterpiece. However, no one has a measurement for what great art is. What might resonate with you might not be what ticks for the other person.

Art, from my perspective, is centered around what I call, the fascination of the mind; it's akin to savouring different variety of pizzas. The more you taste great pizza, the more you are attuned to know when one is off and vice versa.

Irrespective of what art you're making, constantly train your mind and be on the lookout for Magnum Opus moments. It's funny that Hip hop wasn't a thing back then, but now it has been popularised by those whom it ticks for, knowing that they are part of a collaborative effort–expressing and playing their symphony alongside other orchestras.

The purpose of submerging yourself into Magnum Opus' is not for you to purposely imitate, but for you to calibrate your mind for such greatness and tune your mind to enable your unique Magnum Opus.

Talk to you soon,

Praise-Craig IGHOMI

I have a new podcast episode that you're yet to listen to. You should check the full episode here. I believe you'd find it worthwhile.

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