I've long been fascinated with how creativity works, with the impact of colours on our moods, the therapeutic side of art and music, how an 'aha' moment can appear seemingly out of nowhere, and why some people say they are not creative while others seems to have the most vivid imaginations, .
If we think back to when we were children: we coloured, made up stories, explored, built forts. Somewhere along our journey we moved away from this playful and inventive side. Yet so many of the activities we do today are creative: gardening, how we decorate, taking photos, problem solving. But still people some do not feel they are creative, likely because we are not in the habit of thinking and living creatively.
When we practice being creative and surround ourselves with inspiration, the practice becomes easier and unfurls into even more creativity. It can be re-discovered at any age. I certainly saw this when teaching coloured pencil drawing to women in their 80s and 90s, many of whom had only begun to explore art-making a few years before. I've had the pleasure of watching emerging artists of all ages overcome their fears and begin to display their art, and have worked with and led teams to find new visions in event planning and in staging art shows.
I was fortunate during my working career to have had two highly creative bosses, two men who I learned more from than anyone else I had worked for or with. I was often blown away at the solutions and ideas they would come up with. They taught me to look at issues from different perspectives to find innovative answers.
As a life-long student of creativity, I decided to start this blog as there is much I would like to record about what I have seen and learned, and to share these thoughts with you. I welcome your observations, feedback, questions. So, stay tuned, and I hope to publish a new blog post of my creative musings Sunday evenings, hopefully two or three times each month. Read on for the first entry.
