Unlocking Creativity: How Imagination Leads to Creation

George Bernard Shaw wrote something I come back to often.

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last, you create what you will."

Three steps. And most people get stuck at the first one.

I'm Kirsten Katz — an Australian artist and surface designer based in Sydney. I make modern botanical and abstract wall art, homewares and gifts. And in over a decade of building a creative practice, I've seen this sequence play out again and again — in my own studio and in the work of every artist I admire.

Imagination Before Execution

There's a pressure in creative work to get to the making quickly. To have something to show. To be productive. And I understand that — I feel it too.

But the work that matters, the work that has something to say, almost always starts with a longer imagining than people realise.

Before I painted the Flowers of Oz collection — my first — I spent a long time just sitting with the idea of what Australian botanical art could be. Not botanical illustration — something freer than that. Not abstract — something still grounded in the plant. I let myself imagine the paintings before a single mark was made. The scale. The palette. The energy. The feeling I wanted someone to have when they looked at them.

That imagining shaped everything that came after. The collection exists because the imagination came first.

The same process happens with every new direction. The Protea Magnifica collection started as an imagined feeling — soft, romantic, quietly confident — before it was ever a painting. The Azure collection started with a sustained period of imagining what blue could do in my hands.

Imagination isn't a luxury before the real work. It is the real work.

The Will in the Middle

Shaw's quote has three parts, and the middle one is the one that gets skipped over: you will what you imagine.

Imagination alone isn't enough. There's a moment where you have to commit — where the idea stops being a daydream and becomes a direction. Where you decide you're going to make this thing, even though it doesn't exist yet and you're not sure you can.

That act of will is where a lot of creative people stop. Not because they can't imagine, but because committing feels risky. What if the reality doesn't match what you imagined? What if it's not as good?

It won't match. It never does. And that's not a failure — it's how creation works. The imagination sets the direction. The will gets you moving. The making teaches you things the imagination couldn't have predicted.

This is why showing up to the studio consistently matters so much. The will isn't a feeling — it's a decision you make before you feel ready.

The Making Teaches You

Once you commit and start, the work takes over. The making itself becomes the teacher.

I've started paintings with a clear vision in my head and watched them become something I didn't expect — and often something better. The imagination points you toward the work. The will gets you there. But the creation itself has its own intelligence. It will surprise you if you let it.

This is what I mean when I talk about intuitive painting — following the work rather than forcing it. The imagination and the will get you into the studio and in front of the canvas. But then you have to listen to what the painting is telling you.

Let Yourself Imagine Fully

If you're a creative person who feels stuck, I'd ask: are you imagining boldly enough?

Not just what's realistic to make. What do you actually want to make? What would it look like if it was exactly what you pictured? What colour, what scale, what feeling?

Start there. Imagine it clearly. Then commit to it — even partially, even imperfectly. Start making and let the work teach you the rest.

The imagination is the beginning. But it only becomes creation when you follow it somewhere.

Warmly, Kirsten x