It's a conscious decision to do the channeling. Rage, love, passion sex drive, etc. may be employed as a fuel. Emotions are not in themselves creative.
What do you think of the surrealists who see and draw upon the connection between the unconscious and their art? The language of dreams totally pervades their art.
A key phrase here: the language of dreams. Language denotes communication and dreams are an universal human condition. A surrealist like Magritte is bringing that universal dream language into his dialog with his audience, but his constructs are the work of his conscious mind.
As well, if creativity is a necessary component of free will, why can't we turn it on at will, like a light switch
You can, as any human not in a vegetative state can. When you decide what words you use to reply to me, you are creating. That does not mean you can force it into unaccustomed pathways at will. That takes the all too familiar creative struggle. I think "writer's block" occurs when a previously productive pathway plays itself out or the emotional fuel is exhausted. Maybe that's what happened to Rothko. His pathway became repetitive and his solution was to pour ever increasing amounts of rage into the path, with ever diminishing return.