I had planned for this to be my "C is...." post, but then I made lots of mess and thought that would be more fun to post yesterday. So I figured, no need to waste these ramblings, I'll just pop it up today ;)
Creativity. I never used to think of myself as being a creative person. For some reason, I know not why, I always had a very rigid definition in my head of what creativity was. That it was art (in a painting/drawing kind of way) or graphic design or something like that.
As I can't draw, and I don't do graphic design, I never thought of myself as at all creative. It wasn't until a friend said something about how creative I was that I even thought twice about it. She pointed out that I made cards (at the time my only real crafting) and put all the different elements together to make them look beautiful. I started to reconsider my original preconceptions. She also pointed out that I write, something else I didn't look at as a creative endeavour, despite creating characters, stories, entire worlds...
When I took up knitting, I began thinking more about it again. By "creating" something from raw materials, there has to be an element of creativity, purely from a semantic perspective if nothing else, right? And pattern modifications, yarn choices, embellishment choices (buttons, finishing etc), well they all add up to having made something uniquely your own.
I have very high standards of myself. I posted yesterday about various things I made. The bracelets for example, I put those together, chose the colours, picked out which sizes of beads to put together to make it look the way I wanted. Yet I initially dismissed what I did as not creative, because it's just stringing some beads... But if someone else had made it, I would have been really impressed with how they'd put it together, and certainly would have considered them creative.
So I looked again, decided that I love what I made, the colours work and the shapes and sizes fit together exactly as I wanted them to. I created something, from some raw materials, no pattern, no instructions, just doing what felt right to me. It worked and I made something I love.
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this, it's all a bit stream of consciousness really!
Essentially, I think I should accept that I am creative, in my way, and that's awesome. I should also give myself the credit I give other people ;)
I too had that very rigid definition of creativity from when I was a school. It was the art teachers that defined who was good at "art" when in actual fact they should have been saying who was good at "drawing and painting". I was rubbish in 2D. As soon as I tried something in 3 dimensions I was liberated. I was good in 3D! I think that that 2D and 3D art are very different ways at looking at the world artistically speaking and that 3D art should definitely be taught in schools so more children wouldn't define themselves as being un-artistic or uncreative.
ReplyDeleteYou sound exactly like me! I have never thought of myself as creative, either. I can't paint or draw for toffee. I'm always really surprised when someone calls me 'creative' because - to me - I'm just following a knitting/crochet/cross stitch pattern. I assume that if I can do it, anyone can.
ReplyDeleteI can identify with alot of what you've written here. I'm horrible when it comes to drawing/painting/sculpting and that type of thing. I have always felt less creative than other types of artists because I make things off of patterns alot. However, that's still creating, and I've found that some things that I consider a normal ability like being able to figure out a knitting pattern or sewing something from scratch isn't always normal.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you say, and I have to add that i think you're very creative. I can't draw, or write, or play an instrument, basically do anything that I would class as "creative." I saw knitting as not creative because you were following someone else's pattern and ideas, but now that you point it out, we all add our own little bit of creativity by the choices that we make when we don't follow the pattern exactly! It made me smile to think that.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a family of artists and around many artists and also never considered myself "creative." Like you, as I've matured, my definition of creative has expanded and I'm also able to look at the work I produce from a creative standpoint. Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDeleteI share the same experiences. It's one of the strands of elitism in conventional education. I was never any good at 'art' and for years and years cut myself off from any creative endeavour. What a lot of wasted time. Now I'm trying to catch up. There are hundreds of ways of being creative. Primary school kids know about it. It's hammered out of them later on.
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