Simply Contemplate

I love this spot-on advice from the late Sister Wendy Beckett, the nun who had an art appreciation show on TV years ago. I'd suggest that this frame of mind is equally important to cultivate during the creation of art as well:

Faced with the [art]work, we must try to dispel all the busy suggestions of the mind and simply contemplate the object in front of us. The mind and its facts come in later, but the first, though prepared, experience should be as undefended, as innocent, and as humble as we can make it.

[via]