The Creative Ride - The Art of Creation, and Inspiring Creativity

I was asked to deliver a speech on creativity, this is the result.

I wondered what I could write about creativity?

Well, I waited, and waited, and never got hit with divine inspiration.  I played some inspiring music, nothing, played some funky steel drum music, nothing. I turned

everything off, stared at my computer screen, and tried to think creatively. Nothing, nada, zero, zilch - Oh wait! How many ways can I way zero? Side tracked procrastination!  I walked away.

I thought about it for a few days, what gets me in a creative groove? What is creativity? How do I get into the creative mood when I'm in a rut? What, how, why? I wasn't sure,

I thought about it some more. Plain old procrastination. Then I just kept getting all these ideas and didn't know exactly where to go, was it too much or too little, the plight of the artist!

My father was an artist, an art history teacher,  and an art critic, and when I was 12, my family went to Europe, touring museums and churches, seeing in real life what my father taught. A wonderful experience. I was given the opportunity to see the works of

some of the most creative people in history and the world, and I think if I were to make that same visit today I would end up staying there for a very long time - hoping creative inspiration would rain down upon me.

Being creative, especially in the arts is truly a gift. It screams at you - paint me, write me, do something unusual with me. You see a leaf and turn it into a pattern on a vase. A phrase catches your ear and you turn it into a love poem.

You see the perfect color of green and it fills your mind all those wonderful things you could paint!  When you're creative, you get the seed of an idea and run rampant with it.

Creativity - Taking the seed that drops into your brain, and turning from something  you see in your mind, into a creation others can see, feel, hear, taste.

The dictionary says creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby something new is created which has some kind of subjective value (such as a joke, a literary work, a painting, a song,  etc). The key word here is subjective; cows make cow pies - that is creating something. A rancher takes those cow pies, puts lacquer on them and sells them as goofy ashtray's, and other objects 'd art, creating something.

A very creative rancher, however I wouldn't pay a dime for that "art". Subjective - as creative people know, is a word we despise.  Not everyone is going to like what we create, and as terrible as that sounds, and as hard as that is to accept, we shouldn't expect to make everyone happy with our creations.

We all hear about right and left brain thinking. Artists - whether painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, etc. are right brainers, the imagination side.

Not everyone is creative, or imaginative. The non-creative person sees color. The creative person sees a rainbow, a palette from which they can begin to create.

I said not everyone is creative, and that really isn't true. I think everyone has a little creativity in them - some use left brain impulses to create, math, logic, scientific creations. Left brainers are creative, just not artistically creative.

I have a very dear friend who is both a right and left brained creationist- she is an artist, a writer, using her right brain for wonderful creations. However she also is a science whiz, has taught that subject and others,  and she speaks several languages - using her left brain for all of that. She incorporates her science and math into her art. She has the ability to utilize both sides of her brain to their utmost abilities. I think she is brilliant!

Imagine you are in a room with no windows and no door. You only have a table and a mirror. How do you get out?

            The person lacking creative imagination, or a left brain thinker would probably say, wait until someone comes along to get you out, or that they wouldn't put themselves in that position to begin with.

            The right brain creative person looks into the mirror to see what they saw, take the saw, cut the table in half. Two halves make a hole, put the hole on the wall and climb out.

We feed our bodies food for nourishment -  we read the Bible to nourish our souls. what do we do to nourish creativity? Feed your mind, stimulate the neuro responders, or whatever it is that does its magic that gets your creative juices flowing.

 What exactly is creativity? That is a tough one. We it all around us, in art, music, books. that is the final product of being creative. Somehow, an idea pops into your head and won't let go. It might even dig up long forgotten seeds of other ideas.

It roots around in your right brain - the imagination side, it maybe takes a tour of your left brain for statistics and facts on how to accomplish your creation, then sidles on back to the right side to complete the composition.

 Inspiring creativity.

Inspire those seeds so they grow. How?  The most important thing to inspire creativity, is you must know yourself.

I am a very tactile person, I love textures, running my hands thru glass beads, playing with fabrics. I love color and surround myself with all kinds of art, the art that you create, helps me create. I love sound, and have many different cd's - inspirational, creational, meditational, and every other kind of tional there is. I know what I need to push myself into the creative groove.

When I'm in the groove, I can physically feel it. My body gets amped, I get jittery, and can't wait to write.

What is it that excites you, surround yourself with it, let the stimuli get your right brain into high gear.

I have been asked, what do you do when you want to write and don't know where to begin. Just write. Don't edit yourself as you go - there is plenty of time for that later. As a poet, I don't pay any attention to writing rules, I do what I want, how I want, and it usually comes out just fine. Now, writing a story there are a few rules to follow. For the most part I don't follow the rules,  I have no idea what a subordinate clause is - and I really don't care. I write.

Just paint, sculpt.  Don't pay attention to what the rules are. If Picasso had  followed traditional rules, he probably wouldn't have become famous. He threw the rules out his crooked window, and did what he wanted, what felt good. He pleased himself.

Don't paint to make someone else happy. Do what pleases you.

How do you get into the creative groove? What do you do?

Visit web sites that interest you, read blogs. Look into a genre you don't normally utilize - if you usually use oils, try water colors.  Immerse yourself in your craft. Surf the web and find new and interesting sites

Surround yourself with other creative people. Talk about your art. The more you talk about it, the more excited you get. Those seeds start growing, and before you know it, you're on track to creating something new.

 Talking about your work holds you accountable. It is easy to dismiss an idea if it is only in your mind. If you share it, someone else will know about it, and ask about your progress.

Writers need to read, a lot. Artists should visit museums, art galleries, a lot. Maybe you'll walk away inspired, I can do better than that! It is important to know what you like.

Know what excites you. Know what kind of music gets your creative juices flowing, those seed growing.

 Is there a perfume you loved as a child? Does that scent remind you of happy times? Does it create visions of something you would like to paint or write about? Surround yourself with it.

It is equally important to know what you don't like.

Know what turns you off,  if you don't need any of that . Do you need quiet? No stimulus?

Know what you need, and know that it may change

Some days I have the stereo cranked up to raise the roof, other days the house is so quiet I can hear the siding expand and contract as the sun moves across the sky. I'm in my groove. I know what I need to be there.

In a rut? Create something, anything. Try a new medium. Get out of your comfort zone.

 I'll pull out an idea starter book and write. It may be terrible, but I write. It may be forced, and I may never be happy with it. I may use one or two words out of hundreds for something later on, or I may toss it all out. I'm still creating, it might be bad, kind of like the cow pie ashtrays, but I'm creating.

As an artist, you know that those seeds may strike at any time. You may get a surge of creativity in the middle of the night.

In public it can arrive on the wings of an overheard conversation, or it can hit you up-side the head with a vision so strong you are overwhelmed. You just have to stop what you're doing, paint, write, create!

Always have pen and paper at hand, pencil and sketch pad. have your camera ready. Grab the seed. You can always tend to it later, you don't want to lose it.

How many times have you had a brilliant idea, not written it down, and were sorry later?

My family and friends accept my quirks of stopping in the middle of a sentence to write something down. I'm a junkie, instead of needing that dope fix, I need to write.  We need to create.

I hope I succeeded in my goal of helping to inspire creativity.

I'll leave you with a seed -

When you are creative there are no mistakes. Just embellishment opportunities!

Grab those opportunities. Stir up your passion, claim the untapped creations awaiting you.