Creativity?

This is creative..

 

…But is this?

  

…Is this?

I love building snow dudes and their dogs.

What is creativity? How do we define it or who decides what is creative vs. what is not?

Maybe it’s the ability to conjure up an idea. This could be by combining or changing existing doodles or creating something brand spanking new just for the fun of it.

Does it show itself instantaneously as an astonishing and brilliant idea?  Or does it emerge as a simple and practical realisation that no one seems to have thought of yet…

Set a bunch of us in the exact same location and tell us to draw what we see. No two will be identical in every way. In an artistic way I see it as our personal point of view. We all have different backgrounds, different beliefs and have been through different experiences. This results in individuality. Creativity is the process of expressing it.

Everyone is born with free flowing creative ability. Remember how you were as a child! If someone gave you a felt tip and pad, you drew. If someone put some music on, you danced. As a child I felt free to express myself, but growing up it felt as if creativity became an after thought. Having a passion for creating was no longer something to be proud of, teachers wanted you to copy existing art, write essays on what defined expressionism. I never felt like I dabbled in the art that I wrote so much about.

Too much annotation, not enough sketching.

My foundation art teacher did not believe that straight forward pencil studies showed any real skill or creative input. They were the pieces I felt most proud of. He got angry when I wanted them to be first in my portfolio, and insisted paintings made with twigs and ink should be on the first page. Luckily I didn't listen to him, I’m not sure I would have got a place on this course if the tutors saw those paintings. They were utter crud.

Talking of utter crud, I thinks its pretty hard to find a truly creative game now days… Its feels like they are just making them to fit a pattern, to tick as many boxes and to make the most money. Is that creative? Sure the process of drawing and building takes a lot of imagination and creative skill… but are the ideas themselves novel and invigorating?

I guess I’m just going to try and be imaginative and inventive. To work as hard as I can and when it comes down to it, challenge convention.

I seem to have asked more questions than answered in this blog. I found the topic really hard to work with, my brain felt a little… overwhelmed.

Meh.