It started when my brother sent my family a painting that he had done.
I didn’t know he had it in him. I can’t remember him ever showing any artistic interest before, and tend to associate him more with his tattoos than his leaning towards modern art.
I’m very proud of him, as I hope he is of himself.
It made me think about what creativity is, and how you come about it. Is it in the genes? Is it something you can develop and train? Does it matter?
As an accountant by profession, I understand logic, analytical thought and problem solving. It’s a general assumption that someone who is on one side of the coin can’t be the other. There are probably lots of people who think this of themselves.
I’m not one of them. I believe myself to be creative – I use my creativity as a voice to express myself. I can express my feelings and emotions in a way that I probably can’t do directly and verbally. Sometime when I create a piece it just ‘feels right’ – using instinct, which we all have – and I can’t explain it.
There is an innate need in me to create and externalise – to share with others those parts of me that make me human and differentiate us from all other species (genius elephants etc aside :-) ) Is this what was going through the minds of the Neolithic people painting hands and hunts on cave walls?
I believe that no matter who we are, whatever we think of ourselves and our abilities, we all have this human, innate need to create. There is no set formula for creativity – or for expression. My husband believes he is being creative when he builds his Lego models!
Perhaps we can think of creativity as expression – we are expressing ourselves, in whatever form that takes, with whatever ability we have and with whatever tools we have to hand. Expression is a human instinct, and you don’t need to be a genius to create. Rarely is a piece created – in whatever form – that does not have some meaning and small part of the artist embedded in it.
It is also inherently within us to develop, to train and to improve.
So, I’m proud of my brother for expressing himself, for researching his chosen creativity and acting on it.
Having said that, it’s not completely surprising that he has started to do so – I come from a family with a history of being creative and expressive in a variety of ways.
It started, in my living memory, with my maternal grandmother, who painted.
As a child, I remember her sharpening pencils with a knife, an extraordinary thing to do, I thought at the time (as well as keeping her nail polish in the fridge!)
Although she has never (to my knowledge!) painted, my mother, to me, is the fount of creativity – she can make / bake / craft / decorate anything, and will always be my inspiration.
She does so for no other purpose than to learn how to, to please herself, and to make things for us (my nephew loves his new jumper :-) ) Our mother has always encouraged us to be creative, teaching us and praising anything we have attempted, and making us feel like we could do anything we wanted to.
Perhaps this is the secret to creativity – it’s belief in ourselves and our ability, and the freedom and space to create and make mistakes. I hope that this is something that she had from her mother.
I took some photos of the many treasures around that house that she has made for us.
My sister, so far, has been the most professional with her creativity, with her entity Daisy Chain. We commissioned this special piece from her
My sister has so much more patience than I have, and it shows in her work – and what makes her work special. I know that if I tried to make these pieces they wouldn’t look as beautiful.
My siblings have also been instilling this freedom for creativity and expression into their children, and hopefully they will, eventually with their children, and so forth.
My nephew Alex, drew this mammoth recently, following a tutorial by Tony Ross, the illustrator to David Walliams. I can picture Alex drawing this, as enthusiastically as he reads the David Walliams books – or indeed as enthusiastically as he does anything in life!
My twin nephews Joseph and Daniel recently created something each for my husband and I – a portrait of my husband by Joseph, and an ‘inside out’ picture by Daniel, who wanted to bring a taste of their garden inside for us.
Each creation is special and meaningful. Each creation is praised and encouraged.
If you don’t have someone encouraging you, be your own cheerleader. Show yourself your work and praise it like a mother (or aunt!) would. Go you!
So, Graham – and anyone else reading this - keep creating. Keep expressing yourself. You all have something to say worth hearing.
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