The Adjacent Possible

Being an artist is about continually evolving your art. It's about cultivating your fullest self-expression and getting to the elusive deepest work your heart yearns to create.


Learn the science of creativity, the adjacent possible

This is a revolutionary method influenced by groundbreaking research in biology and physics to guide you to embrace the unfolding of your art.

Every brushstroke, every decision in your art, creates a set of possible paths that were not only invisible before, but didn't exist before you made that creative move. This is the adjacent possible.

This book will:guide you to evolve your art
nudge you to create art that excites, scares and wows you
inspire you to move past emulating not only others, but yourself in your art



Becoming a great artist is about the movement of coming closer to who you are and reaching the fullest expression of YOU in your art.

With one foot in the known and one foot in the unknown, you'll become aware of your creative edge where the adjacent possible lives.

At the pivot point between creation and collapse, you'll experience a state of poised instability. This is the art and science of the possible- a world of continuous creation.


The Adjacent Possible is a reflection of the work of my life in art and psychiatry- guiding others to believe in themselves.


The big idea of this small book is that in order to create your deepest art, you must cultivate being surprise-able and nourish discovery rather than merely trusting luck and hoping for the best. There are principles you can embrace to weight the dice.


Evolving your art is one of the ways of cultivating surprise. You are engineering luck.


The Adjacent Possible is my invitation for you to move closer and closer to your deepest self- expression in your art and life.

Nancy Hillis, M.D. is an abstract artist, Stanford trained psychiatrist and best-selling author of The Artist's Journey®: Bold Strokes To Spark Creativity. She helps artists transform their art from the inside out, operating from the conviction that artistic creation has as much to do with psychology as with the medium of expression. She's been featured in Inc. magazine and The New York Observer. She lives in Santa Cruz, California and enjoys conversations on art, science and the generation of novelty in the universe with her partner, theoretical physicist Dr. Bruce Sawhill, as well as listening and watching her daughter, Kimberly, sing Puccini and compose Scandinavian tunes for cello.