How to be Creative

Coming Home - Fishing boat return home to Port Stanley full of fish. Acrylic on 3/4" thick wood. Gloss varnish, signed and ready to hang on your wall (sides painted black).

Now that I have your attention...I have a big secret to tell you...you may or may not know this already, but I will share it anyhow.

Did you know that we are all creative by nature?

Yup. Even if you are quite sure you can barely draw a stick man, you are still a creative being. You are human after all.

I used to get all uptight when I heard someone confess that they can't draw or paint. If I had a dollar for every person who has visited my booth at an Art Fair and confessed they can only draw a "stick man"...I'd be twelve dollars richer! And, has anyone told the poor stick man that he is not actually a creation? Who is going to break the news to him/her (usually cannot tell gender of stick men...but then again, we do call them stick 'men')??! - There's a question for you...is there such thing as a 'stick woman'? Sorry...just thinking out loud.

Now, I am fully aware that most people just say that to illustrate a point they are trying to make; that they are not artistically inclined. I just completely disagree.

If you are a human being, born here on planet earth, I am sorry to break it to you, but you are in fact creative and even 'artistic'.

Every time you devise a plan to do something, decide what to wear, write an email to your mom, solve any problem...you are actually being creative. What I am trying to convey to you is that being creative comes with the territory of being a human being and comes with living our daily lives and that creativity comes in many forms. Apparently...the right side of your brain is your creative side and if you use the right side of your brain...you are being creative.(1)

Its not just a painter's abilities to solve the problem of how to show you a flower from their point of view, using paint. It might be your superb ability at figuring out how to staff a restaurant for the upcoming long weekend that required some 'creative thinking' on your part.

Have I made my point? I don't know...I might have even offended your sensibilities. Sorry about that...did not mean to. I guess I am speaking to those who tell me they don't have a creative bone in their body!

Now, there are different levels of creative abilities or of being tuned in to the creative vibes. Some people are better at being creative than others...but I have a suspicion that this is due primarily to their convincing themselves of this and therefore creating their own reality of not being creative.

There are many articles online that deal with this topic that I have come across over the last few years, and I have only scuffed the surface here, in this post. This is my perspective on the subject.

Quote of the Day:

I think, in the end, the Maker's High is the greatest high we can possibly experience.  You're closest to God when you're in this "zone."  After all, if we're created in our creator's image, why shouldn't we get "high" by creating great things?   Clint Watson

Foot notes;

(1) From: Left Brain vs Right Brain
Understanding the Myth and Reality of Left Brain and Right Brain Dominance

By Kendra Cherry, -The Right Brain

According to the left-brain, right-brain dominance theory, the right side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks. Some of the abilities that are popularly associated with the right side of the brain include:

• Recognizing faces
• Expressing emotions
• Music
• Reading emotions
• Color
• Images
• Intuition
• Creativity