MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2023 CREATIVITY

 MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2023 - CREATIVITY II

Last Thursday, I wrote about creativity. I will continue that for two days.

Scenario 1

On a trip to the Southeast when I was about 13, and my sister was about 16, we stopped in Atlanta to see friends.  

The significant experience for my sister and me was that the family's children had painted a large mural in their dining room. That got our creativity going.

We talked our parents into buying tempera paint (water-based for easy cleanup), and we did our mural when we got home.

We had mountains (like the Great Smokey Mountains we drove through). We had streams, bears, deer, roads, cars, trucks, and more. We invited our neighbor friends. And they added little things to our murals - maybe more bears, deer, or buildings. Since it was water-based, we could erase things. And change the display. Since then, as an adult, I wanted to repeat the painting in other houses - but it didn't happen!

Now, in my apartment, I know I can't paint the wall - but I have tagboard that I draw on. (I'm using colored pencils this time).

It is calling to mind my creativity.

*****

Creativity needs to be encouraged (in my opinion). When we tell children when coloring that trees are not purple or that the sky needs to be blue and not green, we tell them that "our" values are more critical than their creativity. As I think of famous painters, their creativity was unbounded. In Starry Night, Van Gogh pictures the sky with swirls; Picasso had people in cubes and other shapes.  

Scenario 2

In seventh grade, we had an art class. Before the fall open house/meet the teacher event, the teacher put all of our artwork on the walls - with two exceptions - mine and another student. I'd like to think she just ran out of room for my picture, but down inside, I took that as a rejection of my artwork. "I'm not good enough to have my picture on the wall." 

*****

Now creativity is more than what I think of as "art." Music and drama are also creative. I remember a short (eight-bar) song I wrote as a teenager. (I keep telling myself I will write a brass fanfare - but if I do that, I need to get started!!!)

I also am an actress of some degree. In my classes, I varied my voice inflection and speed. (It kept my students interested). I remember a professor from my freshman year who was so BORING - a monotone voice. I remember trying to take notes from his lecture, and my pen slid off the page as I fought to stay awake!!

I told my students I was an "acting" dean for a year. (implying I was the dean of the "acting department" <grin>).

One source wrote this:

"Suppressing our creativity greatly limits our potential to problem solve. It prohibits our ability to think outside the box. What's even worse is suppressing our creativity means denying our identity — our unique DNA, which is the very thing that makes us, us."

*****

So, let your creative juices flow - create stories, write fiction, draw, paint, color, sing, act - get out of your box and float away in your mind!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE CAN BE CREATIVE

LOVE CAN TRANSFORM AND CHANGE YOU

LET GOD'S LOVE RULE IN YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, © AUGUST 7, 2023