Creativity begins and ends with reality

Maybe the saddest mistake about creativity is that it is some kind of lala land with no realtionship to reality.  The image of the creator as a lost child is a disservice to the actual process and meaning of creativity.

For example, legendary creator Leonardo da Vinci was a genius at observation.  When he went out to the country and sat by a burbling stream, he spent his time cataloging the different shapes water made when it flowed around rocks, and used that information to transform his era's understanding of everything from how to build a lumber mill to how blood flows through the human body.  When da Vinci looked, he really saw what he was looking at.  Most of us don't do that--everything we see is filtered through a set of assumptions and habits that blind us to opportunities to discover and create. 

Creative people (those who actually succeed in creating things) are not just dreamers; they are wilfull and persistent.  They see possibilities that are overlooked by other people, and they sacrifice to bring their ideas to life in the real world.  Maybe it's that sacrifice that leads those around them to scorn them as dreamers.  I think that's sad--being willing to sacrifice for a vision is heroic, not foolish.