What is creativity and where do you find it?
It is important to create with (or without) the crayons...I’ve been struggling with this very experience over the summer. Creativity seems to seep out of me when I am going through an ordinary day. Free roaming creativity can interfere with my painting and drawing.
Wait just one minute...What is creativity, anyway?
There are many definitions...
To create is to “bring something into existence” or “to produce with imaginative skill” as defined in Merriam -Webster Dictionary. Mihaly Csikszentmihaly defines creativity as "any act, idea or product that changes an existing domain, or that transforms an existing domain into a new one" (p.27). Creativity can be described as" thinking outside the box". You effectively exhibit creativity when you manage to transform a mistake into an opportunity!
So let me ask you , shave you ever created something that never existed before?" Do you imagine things before you make them?
I can just hear your answer now...a child, a party, a dinner, an experience, a cookie, a vacation, an outfit, a hairdo all have the capacity to be be the result of a creative imagination.
I have spent the summer, dear friends, struggling to refocus on building and then digging into my daily images. Weaving in time to nurture my relationships with friends and family, I was able to find numerous opportunities to create and view art and my surroundings.
And so, I sketched and painted, with- and also without, my art supplies! Creating meals with fabulous fresh summer vegetables from the garden, mending clothes that I love, changing plans and having an even better time because I was open to the change, venturing to visit places off the beaten path are just a few of the ways of inviting creativity into your life.
Ways to transform life are unlimited.
When you transform and think outside the box you are utilizing your creative skills.
That is so important.
It is why I keep writing this blog.
A life altering thought...
Oh yes, you can be an artist in whatever material or subject matter that you work with.
I would love to hear about ways that you are creative in your life...
Art as language
Hearing Thomas Beale speak about his work at the Long Island Craft Guild last night reminded me how important it is to honor that small still voice inside of yourself. He saw something in his mind's eye...a shape, and finally didn't ignore it anymore, searching until he found a way to give it voice. His work is now reflecting that initiative. It evokes the concepts of patience, light and transformation.Sometimes I will observe clothes drying on the line and see the complexity and fragility of our lives. I paint the ability to be moved by the wind and still remain whole. I encounter the utilitarian and ordinary only to realize the constant movement of light and shadow as it transmutes this moment and us in time. Suddenly, observing an image clarifies elusive concepts for me.
Has that ever happened to you?