A Beautiful Brain

Flower market at the Madeleine by Edouard Cortes

Each time I look at the street paintings by Edouard Cortes, I am in awe of the mood he was able to create on canvas. In the above painting, an idea formed in his mind, was molded through hands and paint, and became a beautiful work of art. What is the process, this mechanism by which the brain can construct from an intangible idea a work that is so exquisite we marvel at the genius who created it? What happens in the brain during the creation of such a piece? For years these unfathomable questions have frustrated researchers. Until recently. Scientists have now begun to unravel the secrets of the creative mind.

Charles Limb and Allen Braun studied the activity in the brains of professional jazz pianists while they were improvising music. What they found was astonishing. While these pianists were creating music there was extensive deactivation in the frontal cortex as well as in those areas thought to control emotions. These areas are thought to be important for the conscious monitoring, evaluation, and correction of behavior. They could be involved in assessing whether behaviors conform to social demands and place inhibitory control over inappropriate performance.

What this may mean in simple terms is that artistic creativity is doomed to failure if it is tailored to conform to social demands rather than to the uninhibited feelings of the artist. Self-censorship is not part of the creative process.

A major function of art can be seen as an extension of the function of the brain, namely, to seek knowledge about the world. The brain filters out surrounding distractions of the visual input as it is categorizing an object. Art, as well, attempts to distill on canvas, essential qualities. This acquisition of knowledge through the distillation of essential characteristics is the primordial function of the visual brain. It happens to be the primordial function of all art.

Abstraction is also a critical part of the acquisition of knowledge. This is a process by which the visual brain subordinates the particular to the general so that the information can be applicable to many situations. This may be why we cannot recall the details of an event a long time after the fact. Art also abstracts and externalizes the inner workings of the brain. The works of Edouard Cortes demonstrates this fact in so many beautiful ways.

Clear as mud, right?

Science is just beginning to unravel the mystery of artistic creativity. An almost prophetic Picasso once said, "It would be very interesting to preserve photographically . . . the metamorphosis of a picture. Possibly one might then discover the path followed by the brain in materializing a dream." His statement is close to reality.

More on how we can unleash our creative essence on a future blog.

Just paint it!