Welcome to the blog – The Creative Thought.
I hope this will be the place where we can explore and share the
creative elements within our lives – either from work or play, all are important.
If I had a pound, dollar or shekel for every time someone said to me – “the
trouble is I am just not creative….” well my piggy bank would be very full
indeed.
In reality we are ALL creative in some way.
Sir Ken Robinson, eminent Professor in Creativity and one of my favourite
academics, is a firm believer in the power of creativity within our lives, from
cradle to grave. In agreement with Sir Ken, I too recognise the importance of this embedded creativity, i.e. not just a “tag-on” once a week fix in an art class.
Creativity can bring great fulfilment if it is firmly centred in our daily
approach to life.
In some instances creative talents are very obvious. The competent artist,
musician, designer or architect can all illustrate how they harness their
creative energy. However, a less tangible force is the passion that many of us expend
on our creative interests. Observe the crowds for just one hour at the large Knitting
and Stitching events in the UK and you realise that it is this immense passion (in
this case for textile subjects) that energizes people. The creative experience can
be as much in the looking and understanding – the inspiration, as in the doing.
Quite often I find that people overlook some of the more intuitive
creative energies that we all have. For example, people are often passionate
about their gardens but do not recognise that this is a form of creative energy
and expression. How we design, decorate and furnish our homes are other ways
that illustrate our skills at creating surroundings that nurture our soul –
our home is our own space. Similarly the revival in home cooking (thanks to the
power of TV programmes!) bombards us with images of beautiful “creatively
presented” plates of food that are more a 3D work of art than a nourishing
meal. Certainly inspiring, if not filling!
Creativity is all around us – we do not have to go to a special place to
find it. We just need to remember to LOOK!
So what do you think?
Are you creative?
How does this demonstrate in your life – your work,
your leisure and for those of you that “create” for a living, hobby or passion
– share some of the process with us.
What makes you tick…… We can’t wait to hear
Happy blogging,
Melinda
Hi Helen and everyone that contributed,
thank you for kicking us off to such an interesting start.
I hope you will write again or if you are still pondering, don’t be shy.
I am particularly pleased that the creative thought has been taken wider than just visual art. Exactly the point I was trying to make. we are all creative in our own way – each of us just needs to find the route and means to express our ideas.
It is through this expression that we can energize and find the spark to deal with the necessary tedium of everyday life,
i feel a song coming on…. musicians amongst you please step forward.
A new blog topic will be launched in January to allow the Christmas cobwebs to clear.
till then keep the ideas coming
x Melinda
Hi Mel,
First and foremost, I must say that your website is absolutely beautiful and your work is simply stunning – a real joy to scroll through the amazing pieces you’ve created. I would put myself into that ‘But I’m just not creative’ category and, compared to the rest of my talented family, that is the truth of it! However, your thoughts have made me think about myself in a slightly different way. My job, for example, is by nature a creative one. Working with books and bringing someone else’s stories to fruition is in itself a creative process. And developing ideas for new publishing projects also involves creative thinking. Yet such is the busy day-to-day of my publishing job that I am more of a ‘processor’ than a ‘developer’. I’m sure that is the case in many office environments where getting things done takes priority over everything else.
Anyway, I’m going to make it my mission to set aside time for more creative thinking, not just in the world of books, but all around me at home, in the garden. And, having picked up an old magazine on ‘how to crochet for left-handers’ in a charity shop, am also about to teach myself a new skill… I’ll let you know how it goes!
So interesting to hear people’s thoughts on creativity. Over the last two years I have started a rediscovery of my creativity that was originally knocked out of me when I failed my ‘O’ level art (how on earth did that happen?!), and it then re-emerged about 15 years later. Then once again it went into abeyance as I brought up a family and had various jobs that I do think were creative in their own way but left no time for practical expression. But once I picked up a paintbrush again 2 years ago, I suddenly found all this energy swirling around in me, and now I’m obsessed with finding ways of expressing it! I’m going to a class on colour which has been absolutely liberating, and spent the autumn fascinated by trees. So now my confidence is growing and I’m using colour and paint in ways I could never have imagined a couple of years ago. It’s just so interesting – that all this energy can be lurking there below, and just needs a way out. I do think that as I get older, I care less about what others think, and that’s liberating also! Onwards and upwards!
I agree that creativity is not just something commonly thought of as creative ie, painting, stitching, etc. Some people use their creativity to dress each day or as you say decorate their homes, plan their garden.
I think it is also important to try to be creative in different ways. So if you normally do something visual try something written. No one else has to see it. It is the doing that is sometimes more important than the end product.
Hi there,
I went to a talk at the Cheltenahm Literature Festival by Will Gompertz, the B.B.C. Arts Editor on his book “Think Like an Artist.” He began the talk by getting a couple of people on the stage who had declared that they were not creative. He began telling a story and gave them a couple of sentences which they had to include in the tale. They continued the story which included a florist and an arrest and it was quite entertaining, thus proving that they were in fact creative. Gompertz said that he thought all schools should be Art Schools because of the way those institutions gave youngsters the time and ability to think around a problem. Won’t go on any longer here but you can borrow the book and see if you agree with him.
Hi Melinda, what you have written about creativity is very interesting. I don’t “create” for a living but I agree that creativity has many forms and is all around us. I might even go as far as saying that I can be creative in some aspects of my life such as cooking or solving a problem. However I would never know where to start if I was to try to create a piece of artwork….I think it takes a certain sort of person (and patience) to start with a blank canvas and be able to create something from nothing that also looks good and can be called a piece of art. Especially when it is abstract art or art that has been inspired by something else and now looks very different but the connection can be seen. It seems to me that some people have an aspect to their personality that gives them the freedom to be artistically creative and some don’t. You obviously do, wonderful work!