The
nature of creativity is so fascinating. I,
for example, love to create – just about anything. When I’m in a meeting with a piece of paper,
I doodle. If one of my nieces or nephews
is playing with Playdoh or Legos I happily join in. I like to paint – well, anything, really. I love origami and have made hundreds of
paper airplanes with my son (and students) over the years. I love to cook and bake fancy food for my
friends…Then there are the things I’ve thought over the years I would like to
learn – to weld, for example (so I can make metal sculptures), how to cut and
style hair, woodworking….they all seem interesting and full of
possibility. Oh – and I love to write,
too.
But I’m
not serious about any of it.
Right
now I’m mostly focused on my textile art and writing, because the reality is,
one can only do so much, and I would rather be excellent at a couple of things
than be constantly flitting from one thing to another even though they are all
so tempting. And excellence is
elusive. It takes lots and lots of
practice. I want my art to be as good as
I can make it, and I’m willing to spend a great deal of time and energy to make
it so.
But I’m
not serious about it.
So why
is it, if the theme of my life seems to be that I’m driven to create, that I
don’t consider myself to be a serious creator?
Mostly fear, I suppose. I don't want to be serious about it because I want it to continue to be completely joy-filled and endlessly amusing, the way it is now. I’m scared that if I take it too seriously all this incredible exhuberance and enthusiasm will go away.
Too, I’ve rarely been able to force creativity to hit me with an idea on demand. Instead I just let it happen when it happens, and so
far, it’s been working. I'm a seat-of-the-pants
creator; I never know when inspiration is going to hit. Sometimes I’m struck by a bunch of (seemingly
unrelated) ideas at once, and I have a marathon “creation” session where I wear
all my colored pencils to a nub and use reams and reams of paper and sketch
till my fingers ache. Other times everything
I see seems to have the kernel of an idea in it, and I walk around with a sketchbook
jotting down sketches and talking to myself like a nutter. It always seems to just occur. Except when I try to make it happen. Then, it seems I'm completely pant-less.
But I admit
I’m a little leery of my kind of creating – what if the well runs dry? I
know there are infinite ideas out there, but what if I suddenly lose my ability
to channel them? Is it even possible to
dial up an idea on demand?
Often I’ve
read about or heard writers talking about how they force themselves to write
every day – whether they feel particularly inspired or not. It’s the disciplined, serious part of the equation – they aren’t necessarily going to use
everything they write, some days the river flows, some days it doesn’t. But it forces them to at least open up to the
creative muse on a daily basis and I’m guessing that just the action of sitting
down to the pencil and paper (or whatever tool) can trigger a creative response
often enough to keep them pretty rigorous about it. But can it work with other types of
creativity?
It
would seem so.
Recently
I discovered a really cool Facebook page developed by brilliant creator Anne Sullivan called “Quilt Design a Day.”
Each day there’s a photo with all its colors separated out - a seed of
inspiration. I love it because it
provides regular opportunities to create. Naturally, not all pictures or colors are
going to speak to everyone, and some days you might be too tired or distracted
or busy or crabby, and nothing comes
or you hate what does, but that’s okay, of course. The goal isn’t necessarily to actually design
something you want to or will make necessarily – it’s just to flex (or develop)
your creative muscles. Another really
excellent benefit of this type of forum is that you get to see other people’s creative takes on the
design seed, too, which of course can provide further inspiration – a creative
Lallapalooza – LOVE it! It seems creativity
actually feeds on itself - the more
opportunities it has to express itself, the more it creates!
What
this does for me is help me realize now that one doesn’t have to sit (or wander
around) waiting to be lit up by a bolt of inspiration; ideas can (and do) come in a more routine,
disciplined way, too. Yeah, they most likely will continue to come at strange and sometimes inopportune moments, too, but I don't have to be afraid to be a little more disciplined in my approach to creating - it's okay to be serious about it - it won't go away or suddenly become UN-fun if I work at it, it actually can and will develop even more - hooray!
That’s
what I mean about creativity being so fascinating – not only are its possibilities
endless, it can occur in literally infinite ways! How very wonderful, exciting, lovely and of
course, seriously creative.
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