Creativity Revisited

Remembering

Last Sunday Dan and I hung my most recent collection of work at the Fireroast Mountain Cafe in Minneapolis, MN, which is about 35 miles north of where my retreat center is located. I loved hanging the show, and not just because of the great coffee that they gave us as we worked! I don’t regularly sell my work at art fairs or galleries – other than the one at Maureen’s – so this yearly show is an opportunity for me to step back and see what I’ve been doing in the past year – what has held my interest – what direction my thoughts are flowing – where I might be heading in the coming year.

As I looked at the show, whose theme is About Faces, I saw that I had stayed true to my January 29, 2008 post where I said that I am willing to accept that I have the right, and the need, to walk along a line that threads its way between varying degrees of opposites. For there on the wall, not too far from each other, were my serene driftwood sculpture, titled Remembering, and my funny little elves, titled A Secret Place, who were hiding in a shoe. And I loved both sculptures. Both portray part of the story that is me – and how I view the world – yet they surely were opposites in terms of style.

While I liked the selection of pieces that I chose for the show, I also missed the pieces that were still in my mind, not yet created.  Seems that I always have more ideas than time or skills or courage – or lack of it – allow me to produce.  As a result I usually have to step back a bit from my work in order to feel “successful” at meeting my goals – of being true to my creative vision.  Which brings me to the subject of creativity.

Recently I have been having conversations with a group of fellow artists about creativity, what it is and how it is expressed, encouraged, nurtured and honored. One of the discussion participants, Jan Frame, stressed how important it was in any conversation to define the words, and that in this discussion we might begin by defining the word creativity. Made sense to me. So I’ve given that some thought and formed a list of questions (I do love questons!).

For me, the primary question is: What is a person really expressing when she says that she yearns to be more creative?

• Does she feel a need to be a more accomplished artist? With more developed skills?
• Does she wish to be more in touch with her own inner voice or vision, to be more authentically real in her work?
• Does she wish for courage to BE (assuming that being creative is our birthright)?
• Does the term “more creative” mask a wish to be more successful, as in more sales or more recognition?
• Has her current artistic expression lost its energy so that she feels a need to rekindle enthusiasm and passion for her work?
• Is innovation and originality her measure of creative excellence? And if so, compared with whom or what or what standard?

I looked the word creativity up on wikipedia and found enough information and links there to keep me reading for the rest of my life. But one special note of interest that I found is that there is no single, authoritative perspective or definition of creativity. And unlike many phenomena in psychology, there is no standardized measurement technique.

Hmm. Should be an interesting year of study. Maybe I’ll take a few of my sculptural creations along as inner guides. I’ll share with you some of what we find, starting, in this post, with the blogs of Dayle Doroshow , Barb Kobe and Tory Hughes, a few of my artist friends who have a special interest in all things creative.  In my next post I’ll also answer some of the above listed questions from my perspective.  I welcome your insights as well.

Here’s to the journey!