Creativity And Me - Part 2

I'm feeling the need to revisit the idea of creativity and me  These days when I talk about drawing and painting, more times than I'd like I get the comment that somehow it's because I am creative as though it was some magical gift given to me. While it's not the intention, I almost feel a bit dismissed by that type of comment.

For years, I did not see myself as creative in any way. One day, well into adulthood, it occurred to me that solving problems in an inventive, innovative or original way was one way of exercising creativity.  It also was strongly linked with my job. At the time and still today, my work frequently involves looking at the present state, the needed state, the problem, and the available resources. Figuring out the an effective way to solve a problem is creativity in action. This was my first small, crucial step in deciding that I was creative.

My early and continued muse for creativity has been Kristin Nicholas. In this earlier post, one of the things that I talked about was the kits for small projects, such as gloves, mittens, or hats that she created when she was Creative Director at Classic Elite yarns. The kits gave you a pattern to follow, although there usually were several options, and beautiful yarn in yummy colors. The rest of the decisions, as to colors, motifs, and so on, were left to you. This link includes a picture of a postcard that accompanied the mitten pattern. It gives you an idea of the individuality that was encouraged. I'm not sure that I realized at the time how perfect this was. It allowed me to flex my creative muscles within a set limitations.

I also appreciate the limitations that I picked up from Kat Corrigan. First off, she is an incredible teacher with both knowledge and joy that she freely shares in her classes. One limitation of the best limitations that I picked up in class was only using five paint colors on the palette. Everything I've done in acrylic has come from just five colors. Without this, my guess is that I would have burned up countless hours trying to find the the "perfect" colors. Instead, I make my own. Fewer choices has been freeing and it's a good challenge to figure out what I can do with what I have. (Smile). This is a good philosophy for life!

I think the limitations are key. I think there are a number of people who see creativity as making something out of nothing. While that may happen, I think creativity mostly comes into play (literally) in an environment of limitations. You walk up to each limitation, push on it to see if you can move it or flex it and see what happens. Your response is creativity. It can happen at work, in the kitchen, on the easel, anywhere.

On Tuesday the meeting topic for my Toastmaster's group was creativity. That's part of the reason for this post. As part of preparing for the meeting, I found this Forbes article. When Carol Marine talks about doing 500 paintings that's the same as talking about the craft side of figuring out an artistic skill. I also liked this one from the Harvard Business Review. In my mind it address some of the downside of not recognizing or accepting one's creativity.