Wednesday, October 20, 2010

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

create
{"Create" Original Mixed-Media Painting}

Over at Scoutie Girl it's We Scout Wednesday and this week Tara Gentile asks,

"What will you teach the new generation about creativity?"

Ironically enough, as part of the thesis paper I'm working on, I've been exploring the idea that we are all innately creative. Every single one of us possesses an incredible creative capacity. Have you ever made a meal? Decorated a house? Made up a song? Written a sentence? Done an experiment? Spun around the dance floor to your own rhythm? Made a baby? Made someone laugh? Made something else? Congratulations, you have created! You are a creator! You have flexed your creative abilities! I believe that one of the main features of being human is our ability to create. In the past, our species has created fire, tools, methods of communication, social systems, and incredible structures to live, work and worship in, just to name a few. We come from a long legacy of creators. But over the course of life, we often become disconnected from our creative power, disconnected to this element of ourselves that is ultimately our link line to a greater power source. Our creative abilities disappear from our view under the layers of who we think we are.

I believe that our work in this life is to unearth who we really are from those layers. Each experience we encounter becomes yet another stage to perform that very act. Part of the fun of life is in the re-discovery of who we really are: bright, expressive, full, creative beings.

So, I will say to a new generation, to you, and to myself:

Do the work of unearthing the creativity that you possess and that is your birthright. Know you already have all the tools you need to find it and that doing so will make the world a better place. Make art. Make music. Practice. Dance. Move. Take in beauty. Make a meal. Make up a song. Make a positive change in your life. Make an offering to someone. Play. And don't ever give up.

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?




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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Kristen said...

Yes, love this idea that we are all creative. I pretty much grew up being told if you had creative talent, you had talent, and if you didn't, you didn't. Then I found the book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," and in that book she shows some of Van Gogh's
earlier works. I was stunned. He started from not a very advanced place and taught himself how to paint. That changed my mind about "natural talent".

One thing I would like to teach the new generation is to follow your creative dreams. I am going to start by trying to follow my own :)

-Kristen

Eliza Lynn Tobin said...

@anonymous...Pat is that you?

@Kristen I think that is a really common perception that you either "have it" or you don't. I hear all the time when I tell people "I'm an artist" and they say, "I don't have a creative bone in my body" or "I couldn't draw myself out of a box" and it's just not true! Everyone is creative and drawing/painting is a learned/practiced skill...Betty Edwards was a huge believer in that! (I have been using her work as part of my research! Thanks for bringing her up!) So yes, yes, Follow your creative dreams!!!!

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