Twyla Tharp’s “Creative Autobiography”

Twyla Tharp’s “Creative Autobiography” 

This is a great reflection exercise that puts you in touch with your own creative experiences. 

Please answer the following questions: 

1. What is the first creative moment you remember? 

- I remembered the time I was sitting on a piano and tried to play a kid's song I knew. 

2. Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it? 

- There were my grandparents and my mother that witnessed. 

3. What is the best idea you've ever had? 

- I used to think of creating artificial islands ( although there are already artificial island but I did not know), where airplanes can land on them.

4. What made it great in your mind? 

-  I was very proud of my idea, since I believed it would be much easier and safer for people with heart diseases or mental diseases to travel to countries far from where they live, if airplanes can land on these islands every several hours.  

5. What is the dumbest idea? 

- My dumbest idea is to create a machine that would wake me up, brush my teeth and feed me breakfast so I do not have to to it myself. 

6. What made it stupid? 

- It is a dumb idea because we surely have to wake up and do our morning routines by ourselves, and that we cannot rely on machine or technology to do that. 

7. Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea? 

- Yes. This idea first came when I was tired of waking up early. I then remembered a video I saw on Youtube, which showed a man who had his machine washing his face and feeding him breakfast. I connect these two thoughts together and it led me to this idea.

8. What is your creative ambition? 

- My creative ambition is to become a talented pianist. 

9. What are the obstacles to this ambition? 

- I know that I need to focus on my academic study, instead of playing piano all day long, which is also why it is challenging for me to practice frequently and become skillful in playing piano. 

10. What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition? 

- The most vital step to achieving this ambition is practicing. Every successful pianists spent days and days focusing on their music and practicing piano. Also, patience is another vital element to achieve this ambition. 

11. How do you begin your day? 

- I wake up, do my morning routines, dress up, eat my breakfast and walk to class.

12. What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat? 

- My habit is drinking. I drink very frequently since I usually feel dry. 

13. Describe your first successful creative act. 

- My first successful creative act is playing a piano piece that I love.

14. Describe your second successful creative act. 

- My second successful creative act is drawing my favorite scenery on my sketchbook. 

15. Compare them. 

- Both of my successful act related to my creativity and my patience as well. Playing the piano and drawing requires me to think creatively and practice for a long time to achieve. 

16. What are your attitudes toward: money, power, praise, rivals, work, play? 

- I value money, power and praise. these are the three that I want to achieve as I grow up since I believe they are the key to be successful. I never look down on my rivals or my enemy, instead I view them as someone to compete, to compare, to look at and improve myself. Last but not least, I think that working and playing are my daily routines that I do in my everyday life. 

17. Which artists do you admire most? 

- An artist that i admire the most is IU. She is a Korean singer. 

18. Why are they your role models? 

- She has a great voice and a beautiful face. She never look down on anyone, she is polite, kind, caring and she has a great personality. 

19. What do you and your role models have in common? 

- One thing she and I have in common is our personality. I was taught to never be disrespectful to anyone, even my enemy. I also believe I am a caring and polite person like her. 

20. Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you? 

- One person that inspires me is my mother. 

21. Who is your muse? 

- My muse is also my favorite singer, IU. 

22. Define muse. 

- I believe muse is usually a woman, or someone that artistically inspires me. 

23. When confronted with superior intelligence or talent, how do you respond?

- I prefer superior intelligence, because I believe that intelligence and knowledge could help us to achieve and acknowledge so much more things around us. 

24. When faced with stupidity, hostility, intransigence, laziness, or indifference in others, how do you respond? 

- I usually ignore these traits in others unless they have impacts on me. 

25. When faced with impending success or threat of failure, how do you respond? 

26. When you work, do you love the process or the result? 

- I love the process more than the result I get. 

27. At what moments do you feel your reach exceeds your grasp? 

- When my issues could not be solved because of distance and money. 

28. What is your ideal creative activity? 

- My ideal creative activity is an activity that helps me to deeply understand or focus on myself, who I am, how I am feeling or how creative I am .

29. What is your greatest fear? 

- The dark is my greatest fear. 

30. What is the likelihood of either of the answers to the previous two questions happening? 

- 90%

31. Which of your answers would you most like to change? 

- I would most likely to change my answer to the question "What is your greatest fear?", because the dark is not my only great fear. 

32. What is your idea of mastery?

- Mastery for me is the idea of being skillful or talented at something. 

33. What is your greatest dream? 

- In my greatest dream, I was lying on an everlasting garden below the sun.