I am a very big fan of the idea that we can all be creative - creativity is a means of expression. Perhaps creativity is more important if you don't feel like you can express yourself in any other way.
I heard a story this morning - I'm sorry for not crediting it - I can't remember who said it !:
As a child, if you drew and elephant, and your parents coo'd over it, but said 'I thought it was a monkey' - what message does that send? When you're little, and you receive a number of these messages - even though they're meant innocently - they can form an inner belief that you're not creative enough. There are many inner beliefs and narratives we tell ourselves as to why we may not think we're creative.
Most times, however, what holds us back is the idea that we don't feel that we can create anything equal to what we see in galleries. We can't paint the Mona Lisa or the Sistine Chapel, so why even try?
BECAUSE CREATIVITY IS AN EXPRESSION OF YOU!
All art - in whatever medium - will be unique. It will be an expression of you. More than that, it will be an expression of how you feel at that moment - which may well be different as soon as you've finished!
It isn't the finished piece that matters, but the process.
If you can get over the idea that your creative work has to be perfect, and that you have to be able to produce it immediately - imagine what you could achieve!
To help with this, you could focus on the process rather than the finished piece.
Take time to enjoy each stitch or each brush stroke. Notice the progress you're making. Or, Notice that you're making progress!
I recently undertook one of TextileArtists.org Stitch Club workshops with Sarah Desmarais, who herself is very keen on the wellbeing aspects of being creative. She taught us a version of the Japanese resist dying method of katazome on silk organza. I loved this process. You had to be patient with this method, as there was much waiting around for your piece to dry inbetween stages. I'm never the most patient of people, but somehow, this time, I didn't mind.
I did an initial piece, with some basic shapes. It felt a bit too modern for me, so I tried again. However, I still liked the first piece - including the embellishment of the colours of the rainbow, reflecting perhaps my joyfully hopeful mood on a very wet day!
What I didn't realise at the time was that I'd stitched some of the colours with one side as the 'front' and other colours the wrong way round! Never mind.
Another aspect of enjoying creativity for wellbeing is accepting mistakes.
I tried a more complicated pattern the second time round. I started in the middle with the idea of creating a flower pattern, but then became a bit carried away by adding a butterfly and greenery.
We were encouraged to stitch on the final piece of fabric, deciding what to do, with what colours, etc, being inspired by the fabric and shapes themselves.
As I was stitching around the Christmas period, I started with a metallic thread for the flower. I decided not to stitch everything, so as to let the resist printing itself show through.
Oh, how I hated that thread!! Please don't let me use that thread ever again!!
It kept splitting and just wouldn't be brought under control.
I had fun with the colours of the butterfly, though, in stem stitch.
Given the nature of the fabric - it being see through, despite the colour, you can see the threadwork behind the fabric. I can appreciate that this would offend perfectionists. it bothered me to some degree.
However, I was having too much 'fun' with the stitching to worry about that at the time!
I was focussing more on enjoyment than perfection.
I thought I'd try something different, using a different coloured dye, but the same template - trying to vary the strength of the colour on the flower. However, it didn't work.
At that point, I found that I was losing interest a little, and was keen to move on to the next project.
But that's ok.
Another skill is knowing when to stop.
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