Are you creative? Do you have a creative outlet?
February 15, 2010 | 9:56 amA friend asked me the other day what my creative outlet was, and I realized i don’t really have one. I mean, i love to write, but I don’t even blog that often. I love to cook, but i only cook creatively once in a while (the rest is just auto-pilot-gotta-fill-the-fridge-and-use-the-ingredients-i-just-bought). I love photography but don’t make time for it, even in the fabulous city i live in (it only seems to come out when i go on trips). I don’t paint or draw because i think i suck at it. i give speeches occasionally but struggle with the creative “finding a topic” part which reduces the number of speeches I do actually give.
So last week, this seed was planted and i couldn’t ignore it. First thing i learned was that i was looking at it the wrong way. Apparently (and don’t all laugh at me if you already knew this), artistic expression is not about doing something you’re good at and producing unique fantastic art. Apparently, it’s about enjoying the process, even if, what you end up doing is not that great, or not unique. So, thanks to my dear friend for pointing that out and, like i said, planting the seed.
And since then, of course, i’ve started noticing all things related to creativity, and this blog post light another light bulb for me this morning (thanks to Zen Habits, again… you seriously rock!): not only do you not have to be good at it, not only is the result unimportant and it’s about the journey, but also, to really enjoy a creative outlet, we should stop thinking that we need to receive feedback, we should stop thinking that there will be critics along the way.
The blog post was actually a post about morning creativity, which is funny, because one of my goals this month is to start waking up earlier: i plan on going to bed earlier, focusing my mind before sleeping on my goals for the next day, waking up with time to spare, meditating, listening to silence… and, as this post recommends, use the morning freshness to create. It’s true, how can we be as creative in the evening, after a long day of working and frustrations and stress. I mean, we can, i’m sure, but not 1/2 as well as when we wake up fresh, relaxed and untainted by the day-to-day.
so if you’re interested, i’ll let you know how my search for creativity progresses. Do you have any tips for me? What’s your creative outlet? How did you find it, did you always have it? I’d love to hear from people who struggled to find it.
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Plagiaries.
I know it seems counter intuitive but by reading, or looking at art we admire – using it as a spring board it can take your own vision to a different place. I sometimes will take an article I liked a great deal – pull out the parts I found spoke to me and re-write the article around those sentences with “my voice”. Same thing with art – especially photography. I love to find photos others have taken and look at it and think: “ok how would I do this differently?” doesn’t mean better or worse just a way to help me see with my own eyes. The photo exercise is great when I don’t have much time. I have one of those “photo a day” e-mails from national geographic. I am by no means a photographer – but this little exercise everyday as my pc boots up and warms up – as I sip my tea – makes me use that part of my brain and soul.
Another fun thing is to look up a random word in Wikipedia and think of a creative way to “display” the word for the day. It increases my vocabulary and makes me do some goofy – childlike – craft activity. I do this when I find my day is running away with me. It’s a little time out. My colleagues now know that by three or so – they can come over and see what the word is. The other day it was goofy —- wrote the word pen out of pens on my desk. It made us all laugh. It’s not great art – but it is creative.
Other wise I write. I dance. I act. But no – I haven’t always done these, and no I’m not Anais Ninn, Ginger Rogers or Scarlett Johansson…. But it amuses me, frees my spirit. I would also add … be ready for it to change over and over. For example – I have a sudden desire to explore underwater photography and Flower Arranging – Ikebana to be precise. One creative outlet usually breed another. So it’s not about making time for A creative project – but making time to BE creative.