Is creativity a bad word?

re: Is creativity a bad word?

Karenjean — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 21:04:08 GMT

Amy I loved this editorial! Creativity is a birthright. We all need to support and encourage each other to find our own way of expressing our vision. We all have one, even if it has been squelched by some misguided person in our past.

re: Is creativity a bad word?

J.W — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:24:07 GMT

What a beautiful post.

In the middle of a 2-years-plus bout of unemployment, I confessed to a friend that I had been trying to stay busy looking for a job and hadn't been allowing myself to spin, knit, or do anything else besides seek work. She scolded me (gently) and said, "you're a creative person and you need that outlet to be happy. You need to give yourself permission to be happy, and to be creative." How I needed that.

After pounds of fiber and miles of knitting, I'm also employed. :)

Pass the crayons, please.

re: Is creativity a bad word?

Michele Dixon — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:07:33 GMT

No truer, nor wiser words spoken, "giving ourselves permission to create for the pleasure of it". I certainly could have used that many years ago. However, I'm there now and very grateful. Thank you for sharing. Michele

re: Is creativity a bad word?

JuliaE — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:28:10 GMT

As Pablo Picasso said, Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

It's really unfortunate how many creative people have had their creativity squashed because whatever they did doesn't "look like [so-and-so's]." That just sends me through the roof every time I hear it. Last week I attended an art workshop presented by Robert Burridge (www.robertburridge.com) and a key theme was that we had "permission" to paint however we wanted to. He even gives out "permission slips," because, as you remember from your school days, a "permission slip" gave you the power to be outside of where you were expected to be.

Grab the power and make YOUR art, everyone!!

re: Is creativity a bad word?

riillaweave — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:06:23 GMT

I read a few days ago that Andrea Bocelli believed his talent a gift to give to others. The feeling one receives in giving of the gift, having them accepted and hopefully having that gift lift the spirit of the receiver... not a luxury at all. It is a sharing that bonds humans into families, tribes, civilizations.

Thank you, Amy, for the gift of your article. It has brightened my day.

Grits and Grunts,

Priscilla

Priscilla Curry Hale

Chief Yarn Pilot for The Sisters Curry

re: Is creativity a bad word?

atomicblue — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:16:32 GMT

Ugh....that reminded me of the high school math teacher that asked in a loud voice "are you retarded?" I forget my answer to him, it was just as loud a response!

Teachers can be weird, though thankfully I had enough very good ones to balance things out. So many folks tell me "I'm not creative" I hear this alot when I sell my yarn at crafts shows. I\My response? I say sure you are! Maybe you're great at getting people together. Possibly you're a fabulous cook! I urge people to not think of themselves one way. To try to think out of the box. It's being in the box that's limiting. Think beyond it....

re: Is creativity a bad word?

busdrivr88@gmail.com — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:38:16 GMT

When I was in third grade in Cody, WY I was asked to draw a picture of a tree so I drew my Grandmother's Catalpa which was very large and spreading with massive roots exposed by a dozen or more children digging and playing under it for many years. The teacher asked me to look out the window at the trees outside and asked me if I saw any trees that looked like mine. Of course, there weren't any. She told me to never draw a tree like that in her class again. She was well-meaning but very hurtful and had never been to my Grandmother's house in Arkansas.

re: Is creativity a bad word?

Ramona Gault — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:07:38 GMT

Amy, this is a really vital point that you make. Teachers and parents taught so many of us that only a few people are creative (and "you aren't one of them!"). It's good that there is a shift happening, in which children now are encouraged to create in their own authentic ways. Thanks for the post. A sky in which only a few stars are allowed to shine wouldn't be much of a sky, would it? So let's all let our light shine like the star-filled night sky!

re: Is creativity a bad word?

Amy@137 — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:40:58 GMT

Hi Amy,

Your experience in school reminded me of an experience my son had in school, although he probably doesn't remember it. He was only 5 years old and was given a picture of a girl to color. He colored her face purple, earning himself a serious reprimand from his teacher to used "real" colors. I told my mother about the incident. From then on any picture she colored (even in her 60's she loved to color) she deliberately colored "wrong". No one was going to tell her grandson how to color.

Amy

re: Is creativity a bad word?

KnittingMandy — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:22:49 GMT

Thank you for this! I had tears in my eyes by the time I finished it, because of one thing you said - "...making things isn't a luxury, it is part of being human." How eloquent and simple a statement for a concept that is so central to our lives!

re: Is creativity a bad word?

Crystalheart — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:17:45 GMT

Dear Amy,

Your post really compelled me to write a response this morning. I too had elementary school teachers who told me "don't hold the brush like you're painting a house" and painted all over my Grade 4 painted trees.

And the Grade 2 teacher who criticised my printing and said "Look how nice Elizabeth Yetman prints." (I'm 45 years old, that was a long time ago and I still remember it!)

It's when we are compared to others we often become intimidated, then discouraged. If only we were taught to appreciate our own worth, and taught to express our own version of a Grade 4 painted tree. If our teachers could have only appreciated our own individuality instead of expecting everyone's trees to look the same, or what our teachers thought a tree should look like as painted by a child in Grade 4 ---

Think of all the heartache and despair we could save ourselves.

Despite my father's insisting art was a waste of time and I was no good at it. (Why, because I couldn't paint a tree like a photograph of one?) I became a commercial artist almost straight out of high school, earning some design awards and occassionally wonderful thank you letters from clients.

Later on when I was teaching 12 mentally ill adults how to weave a dreamcatcher, and all 12 of them made a different web, I had one of those life-altering "aHA!" moments when I realized it was OK if I couldn't paint a tree like a photograph! I could still paint a tree. It was my version of a tree and that was OK.

Nowadays, I hand-dye and handspin yarn to graph a tree into a knitted piece or needlefelt it into a felted landscape, or that particular shade of green may find itself hooked into a tree on a rug design. Or I may decide to weave that shade of green into a shawl.

Making things definitely is a part of being human, its a form of expression, of emotion and its an historical record of who we are and where we have been.

Telling someone they can't create is like telling someone they can't communicate.

Denyse Milliken, Textile Artisan

St. James Textile Museum - tour guide, spinner & weaver

Dorchester, NB Canada

re: Is creativity a bad word?

jan grover — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:01:28 GMT

A lovely evocation of the necessity for beauty and creation in everyone's life. Bad childhood experiences can prompt people to believe they cannot make meaningful beauty, and if they don't manage to rethink such experiences as adults, they can lose out on the joys of creating for the rest of their lives. Thanks for reminding us!

re: Is creativity a bad word?

MidoriW — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:58:00 GMT

Amy,

I loved your newsletter today. I was especially intrigued with the idea of dying with mollusks since I live near the coast and have a plethora of shells etc available to me. Do you know of a source for learning more about dying with ocean related products?

Midori

re: Is creativity a bad word?

Gwen Powell — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:20:22 GMT

Amy, you could not have said this more eloquently. This is what our art is about. I hope others find the same wisdom in their hearts.

Gwen Powell

re: Is creativity a bad word?

dkovn@hotmail.com — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:02:20 GMT

Amy, what a wonderful essay! It's a subtle but important point you're making. I couldn't agree more: "...making things isn't a luxury, it's a part of being human."

Denise Bolger Kovnat

Weavers' Guild of Rochester

Rochester, NY