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Words in the Country

Emily lives in rural Eastern Ontario, and finds words hold a huge place in her creative life.

I grew up surrounded by words, hearing the deep melodious voice of my Dad as he played Badger or Toad reading Wind in the Willows at storytime, hearing stories of knights, romans, Saxons and peoples from prehistory. We read everything, from the back of the cereal box, to encyclopedias, to vintage children’s books. Our childhoods were filled with Enid Blyton, Beatrix Potter, Tolkein, Milne and Ransome. We didn’t just read the books, we lived them- going out into the woods and playing imaginary games in the trees, wheat fields and (much to Mr. Gifford’s dismay) the pig sheds. My parents taught us the story behind the story- who the authors were, where they came from and why they wrote. This immersive experience gave all four of us Adams kids an adoration of literature of a vast and wildly varied type.

Diaries, bits of that novel that exist inside all of us, fantasy stories of wizards and elves- I write it all!

Words also pervaded our ears through music. Dad liked Irish protest music, we listened to a lot of Wolfe Tones, Clancy brothers and others. Mum loved sixties rock and roll, and those peppy, bright songs by Cliff Richard, Buddy Holly and the Beatles wove their way through our idyllic days offering a glimpse into mum and dad’s youth. More words from movies- a rainy weekend tradition was watching old technicolour movies on the television. It didn’t matter what; the Sound of Music, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The Great Escape, the Carry On movies (oh good grief) and so many others filled many damp, dripping afternoons in our 400 year old cottage.

Dad is into history, in case you cannot tell.

Language is the connective tissue that holds us together as humans. No matter if it’s signing, spoken or just a few gestures shared between strangers, words are what allow us to communicate our ideas and emotions, our desires and knowledge of the world. In my current life, working with children, words are everything. I answer the question “why’ about eighteen thousand times a day. Anyone who believes the research that the average four year old asks 40 questions a day, has clearly not met the children I work with. Words are integral to daily research, investigation and fact searching that is required to support learning in young preschoolers. I have been a director at the local theatre for seven years and enjoyed supporting some phenomenal actors in finding the right voice for the script. How I interpret those words, and ask the actor to portray them, influences the audiences enjoyment of the production, and is a high honour to be a part of. I sing. The words become musical, lyrical and soar to the skies.

The funny, endearing and hugely imaginative world of Terry Pratchett is where I actually live….

I talk. Words are my vehicle. I write, lots. I have started journals, diaries, short stories, novels, hundreds of projects exist that I have yet to finish, but all important pieces of my creative self as the ideas spill onto the page or into the processor! I am obsessed with place names, and have always been. Learning about Indigenous place names brings a totally new understanding of the area I live in, and helps me gain a better perspective on their history and culture as well. In the UK growing up we enjoyed the adventure of finding out what names meant, places, people and in Ireland, the discovery of the lyrical Gaelic was another joy. Words have been an integral part of the inner creative, and hopefully you find some inspiration here too.

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Nature in the Country

Emily shares her experiences with nature in it’s more obvious place

It seems mildly oxymoronic to call this post “nature in the country’ doesn’t it? But all too often we forget that the natural world is right outside, even when we live in the country. Growing up in rural South West England, Jess and I had an idyllic storybook childhood. Endless summer days and rainy weekends were spent outdoors climbing gigantic silver beech trees that were older than Canadian Confederation! We took summer vacations to Ireland, and spent three weeks immersed in peat bogs, mountain fed streams, bracken, verdant forests and heather covered moors. As a child I was able to spend hours just sitting in a field, taking apart flowers, watching bugs and feeling the weather and seasons turn around me. This sounds lovely, but has an actual scientific basis. The neural connections fostered by extended time in nature during the first twelve years of life are more numerous, more varied and longer lasting than neural connections formed indoors in a controlled environment. The connections formed when climbing trees? Almost infinite. Those neural connections are what is going to help us as adults to have a creative, problem solving brain that can critically think and evaluate over our life time.

I now live in rural Eastern Ontario. This place is a four season wonderland. Winter here is like nowhere else, snowy and frosted, cold, and crisp. Summers are long, hot and languid. Fall is bright, fresh and breezy. Spring- well, spring is short!

I am not an outdoorsy person. You might feel when reading my posts about the importance of being outdoors for the creative brain, that I am a Patagonia wearing, forest bathing outdoor sportswoman. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t ski or skate, I’m not a runner nor an extensive hiker. I often find myself short on time, between work and other commitments, unable to go for long walks and stay fit. But I love the outdoors. This is my place- where I feel most relaxed, where I can find time to think, observe and watch the world. I am very invested in the importance of being outdoors for the developing brain. But more importantly, I am invested in the importance of being outside for brain maintenance. We don’t get out enough! Richard Louv is the author of several books on the topic of being outside, from a pediatric development perspective, and also from an adult perspective. His book, ‘Last Child in the Woods’ (2005, Algonquin Books) is a phenomenal piece of research into the vital role that being outside on a regular basis has on our brain. If you want to have a healthy 80 year old brain, seriously- get outside! Nature is calming, it provides a place for reflection, and our evolutionary roots call us to be outside.

In order to effect creativity I will spend twenty minutes at the bascule bridge that is a feature of my town. There is a beautiful little spot by the bridge, right next to the water, where traffic is reduced and I can see the trees and bush on the waterway. Or I will go in my back yard, particularly in summer; sitting next to my rock garden, watching the leaves of the Japanese maple change colour in the sun. In winter I will just take a walk, or even sit and watch the river steam in the freezing cold air. I don’t require long hours of outdoor hiking, although I do love that activity. I can find nature in a crack in the sidewalk, watching a ladybug on a blanket or watching a bird on a wire. It doesn’t have to be super immersed. I don’t always whip out my sketchbook and draw or paint. Creativity is improved by the elements of fresh air, a change in your surroundings and the textures and sounds you experience in your place. There is no requirement to produce a piece of art. The creative value of nature is in being present IN it. Occasionally though, mother nature offers up a view that cannot be topped by anything I make. Then I just breathe it in, and enjoy!

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Nature in the city

Jess tells us how she integrates Nature into her creative living in a city:

Living in the heart of a large city, I often have to work at making time to interact and explore nature. I grew up in the countryside, think fields and valleys with forests and streams all around, so as a child it was easy, just walk out the door and you were immediately squishing your fingers in the mud and smelling the fragrance of the garden.

I think every urban area has nature to be found, though, even if it does take a little more looking. And interacting with nature is such an important part of creative life that it’s definitely worth the extra effort.

Luckily, my day job is already pretty connected with nature. I’m a florist and own a flower shop, so I get to touch and smell beautiful blooms pretty much daily, and am often to be found with my fingers in soil planting things, all of which I know help keep my brain making new creative connections.

Outside of work, because I’m mostly surrounded by buildings, getting myself deeply surrounded by nature means going for walks to the city waterfront where I often will sit and watch the water as it ripples in the bay, listening to the ducks and gulls. I’m not lucky enough to have a city allotment, but I’ll often ride my bike to them and spend time peering over the fences taking in the mad mess of vegetables and flowers spilling over the plots, all framed within the grid of the city. I’m also obsessed with finding bits of nature that manage to sprout and even flourish deep within the concrete structures, stopping to snap photos of wildflowers bursting out of a sidewalk crack or a bus shelter taken over by vines. These images and this feeling of juxtaposition of nature and city and the tension of that, all seep into things I create. My daily sketch book is filled with colourful scribbles of neon city-scapes that have oversized birds and trees interspersed or crazy spliced human/animals.

When you think of exploring nature, you probably first think of it on a larger scale- hiking a mountain for example, but when you are in a city, sometimes you need to think on a micro scale! Even in the most urban environment, I guarantee you can find moss and lichen, whether on aged buildings or wooden electricity poles or on trees and rocks in a city parkland. Get down close and really look at these little mini ecosystems. It’s really amazing, the structures and colours of these tiny pieces of nature, and taking time to notice everything about them sets off all kinds of creativity in my brain- the texture, the shapes, the crazy colour combinations, how on earth they can grow where they do.

Also important to the conversation is the concept that exploring and experiencing nature isn’t about seeing something and then drawing it, the effect is deeper and further reaching than that. Immersing myself in the trees or lying on the grass in a city park, sitting by the water, all these things give my brain stimulation of senses that are helping it build new pathways that in turn help me solve problems and come up with new ideas. These are things that happen rather easier when we are kids, because rolling in the grass or climbing a tree is to be expected, as a grownup I have to really focus and practice the habit of touching, smelling, seeing and hearing with no “goal” or direct reason other than to experience.

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Nature

Growing up in the rural West Country of England was like living in a lifestyle magazine or children’s book. Emily and Jess lived in a 600 year old stone cottage that was the former bakery for the farm estate in a thousand year old Saxon era community just outside Bath. As very young children they played under Orange Pippin apple trees, as young girls, they had a treehouse in a crabapple tree and by eight years old, the 200 hundred year old giant beech trees were their hideout. Daily walks along English hedgerows provided biology lessons and botany lessons. Dog roses, honeysuckles, ragged robin and bluebells predominated as the flowers they broke apart to examine reproduction in plants. The neighbouring farm offered Christmas parties in a 500 year old stone barn, pheasant and duck plucking, flowering cherry trees, large and aggressive geese and huge herds of sheep running the lanes each spring and fall. The Adams family regularly visited the local arboretum, learned all the varieties of trees that resided there, and enjoyed long rambles through the soft rolling hills that characterize the area.

Nature is a muse for most creatives, and that comes often from the intimate connection we form with it as children. Our first toys were cups, spoons and dirt. Mud pies, potions and recipes made from every natural element we could locate were among our earliest creations, and forty five years later, Emily can still recall the exact combinations of some of those creations. The smell of the earth, the flower petals, the warmth of the water from the standpipe; all become woven into the fabric of Emily’s earliest creative explorations.

As brooding teens both girls used painting, writing and photography of these bucolic scenes to express their deepest emotions and yearning for mystery. There are a LOT of pictures of flowers and valleys still lying around our homes! Every aspect of our life featured nature; holidays in Ireland wading in cold mountain streams, lying in scented heather, prickly gorse and springy Irish moss. and exploring the deep dark rhododendron tunnels at Lough Key park. Summer trips to Devon, Wales, and the Cotswolds to ramble along grassy trails, through ancient woods and along sandy beaches that once hosted the Vikings and Danes. The broad rocky steps of the Burren, the fossil filled coast of Ireland, rock pools and crab hunting on the South coast of England. We learned rocks, geology, went into old cave systems and discovered ancient stalagmites in Wookey Hole. The ways in which nature was present are too innumerable to itemize. This natural world continues to influence our creativity today in both rural Ontario and urban Toronto.

This month we’re exploring how we can continue interacting with Nature in our adult lives, looking at ways to be immersed in it no matter if you live in an urban or rural setting. Check back in through the month as Jess posts about creating space for nature in her urban city world and Emily tells us all about using nature to nurture creativity in a more rural setting.

Make sure you are signed up to out newsletter, as we’ll be sending out a special email each month with ideas on how to use nature to boost creativity in your daily life.

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March – Words

The presence of words in the life of a creative cannot be overstated. Words is a broad term that Cloud Gazing creatives assumes to mean the language we hear and speak (even sign), the written word in stories, poems and songs, informational language such as non-fiction books and lectures and also the oral histories that many cultures pass on their knowledge with.

We come from a wordy family. Books were ‘the’ gift we always got even if money was tight. We were surrounded by people filled with stories; grandparents who experienced a world war, a father who values history extremely highly and a mother who values early childhood education and the written word as vital in developing a problem solving mind, critical thinking skills and above all- imagination. As children Em and Jess would write poetry and present it to their willing audience of Mum and Dad. Costumes often featured as additions to the ambiance. The dog always kept disappearing though- little brother Tom never was good at ‘stay’. Our parents encouraged our pursuit of stories- those words that had deeper meaning somehow. Emily was driven all over Bath one year to develop a history of the Bath stone quarries for a school project at the age of 10. It meant something more than just a grade as she had ancestors who had worked the stone (which is world famous).

We wrote plays, and our nieces and nephews do the same thing today; even though most of us are not super theatrical, this version of words is part of social development and also that vital creative component ‘the imagination’. Our imaginations were engaged every time we took a trip. Every Sunday for most of the year our parents took us someplace. To the local ‘folly’ for walks in the woods, to nearby castles (ruined or not) where we clambered the ramparts and imagined ourselves in centuries past, and to historic homes, gardens and palaces and museums small and large that shared the histories of trains, trees, farms, miners, Saxons and Romans. Every one of these visits gave us new fodder for the imagination, as the words we heard from our parents and from the guides helped to develop vivid ability to imagine ourselves in those places and times.

Our parents read to us constantly, and Dad in particular would read longer novels complete with voices to us a bedtime. The BFG by Roald Dahl was a favourite, as was the Hobbit and Fantastic Mr. Fox and the Wind in the Willows. We always found it amazing that when a television or movie version came out over the years, the characters sounded exactly as we had imagined, thanks to Dad’s interpretation of them! This deep immersion in the quality of words, how they sound, how a description can bring to life a particular scene, has been a linchpin of Emily’s development as a writer. Her high school English teacher also helped develop her voice, and it was this experience that assisted her in creating the voices and characters for her stage play, produced in 2017. Both Em and Jess find this background in words has helped develop their social media writing ability too. Our podcast was a revelation when Emily discovered that words spoken by Jess are the ultimate in calm, authoritative delivery- putting her in mind of an artsy David Attenborough.

Even the names around us prompt creative thinking. Knowing the stories of the places around you, no matter you live, provides a window into the past, which affects your interpretation of your present. In particular are those Indigenous place names, which are invariably better than any settler given moniker. Growing up in the UK gave us exposure to thousands of weird, delightful and just plain silly place names such as Tiddleywink, old Sodbury and the amazing Lacock- which we never once considered rude until we moved to Canada and my brothers discovered a French accent could be applied to it.

Think about how words have shaped your thoughts. from the languages you speak to the songs you listen to, to the books you loved as a child and read now- all these words have a place in your creative self.

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January -A year of us; exploring the roots and routines of Cloud Gazing Creatives

Every journey requires growth, and Cloud Gazing Creatives has been growing slowly over the last year. Jess and Emily are using the next twelve months to explore their ‘why’, the roots that gave them creativity and what they do now to maintain that creativity. Each month they will explore, from both rural and urban viewpoints, the themes and events that influence them and form the basis of the problem solving and critical thinking creativity that make them who they are.

How do we live a creative life?

Is there a secret to those who live a creative life? Authors such as Austin Kleon, Beci Oripin, Debbie Travis and Lynda Barry have tried to define it (see Jess’ Book Reviews). Artists and creators like Picasso, Tim Burton and Kurt Vonnegurt have tried to explain it and even Albert Einstein was questioned on how he became so brilliant. The answers are often vague, and almost always refer back to childhood and our upbringing within the world. Emily and Jess are going to attempt to explore and define the elements that have supported their creative life, with examples from their childhood and from today. Each month you can get exclusive bonus material if you subscribe to the CGC mailing list. Activities and exercises that bring these elements into your life will help develop your creativity and allow you to see the world differently.

People have asked us for as long as we can remember to explain how we became so creative. Some believe it is natural talent. Others assume intense training has honed our creativity. But we both believe, based on our lived experience, that everyone on the planet has the potential to be as creative as we are when they are offered the opportunity to explore the world in the way we did as children and do now as adults. There is no one secret that makes someone naturally more creative than another, only the path that we take to become creative. When people read about ‘Karen, the former account executive who now makes goat milk soap in her shed’ (good on you though Karen), or ‘Olivier, the former banker who paints watercolours in the Cotswolds’ (yay Olivier); it can become a bit depressing to think we must have prior wealth to be able to follow daily creative practice. This is not so. Creativity has its roots in our childhood, playing with crayons and finger paint and mud. It has it’s future in our connection with what moves us and in the chance to practice what we love everyday for ourselves not others. Join us for a year of ‘us’ and find out what makes us tick!

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Water: creative inspiration, muse and subject

Water is the September Prompt for Cloud Gazing Creatives. Water has been the muse of such great artists as David Hockney and J M W Turner, but water influences art and creativity far more deeply than as just a subject. It has been shown that being in or near water can help boost creativity, inspire creative problem solving and help resolve creative block.

” the nature of water is similar to the nature of creativity: it’s ubiquitous, keeps us alive, comes in many forms, has an infinite variety of expression, and its strength can alter the very landscape.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/adventures-in-divergent-thinking/202007/what-water-has-do-your-creativity

An absolutely fabulous article by The Next Big Idea explores the neuroscience of water and creativity with author and marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols. The interviewer asks Nichols about why water might have a creativity boosting effect in comparison to say standing in a forest or walking in a city. His research shows that water gives us a break. Water is simpler visually, simpler aurally and it holds us physically when we are in it. Being beside or in water is quite simply restful, and provides almost the same benefits as meditation i terms of allowing the brain to focus on other concepts. Nichols calls it “Blue Mind”. In the interview, he goes on to talk about how even a shower can provide the same or similar access to that meditative state, which was famously stated by Woody Allen (see our first bog article) A google search netted twelve articles on the first page alone about creativity being found in the shower.

” For people who are extremely distracted and can’t settle down to think about something that needs their attention, just taking themselves to the edge of water can open up the creative process. Artists and musicians have known this for a long time, as have entrepreneurs and scientists.” Wallace J. Nichol

https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/conversation-blue-mind-the-neuroscience-behind-waters-creativity-boosting-stress-reducing-effect-on-your-brain/18421/

More than just a way to achieve that creative enlightenment, water can and should be interwoven into our creative practice as often as humanly possible. A wonderful article by The Nature of Cities, explores the connection between art and water in the urban environment.

Artists in Conversation with Water in Cities

There are infinite theories about why water holds such depth of meaning and influence in our creative lives, from the meditative effects to the production of dopamine when in the shower or bathing, to the nutritional requirement of the brain to be well hydrated (the brain uses more of our resources every day than almost any other organ) to the ambient noise effect of rain on the creative brain. Regardless of the reason, all of which are well documented and explored, there is just something about being in or near water in any form that has a profound effect on creativity. So go on….get wet!

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Getting over the wall: how to navigate creative block

by Cloudgazer Emily

Well, we’re aren’t going to give away all our secrets just yet, but a few of them are easily accessible, well documented and super sharable. Today we will look at the most often called upon and well researched of them: go outside. Preferably somewhere with green space, but that isn’t totally essential. A view of water, rocks, the sky, or a heathered mountain or tundra will achieve the same effect.

Creatives living in urban areas can get the benefits of the outdoors even in built up areas. Cloud Gazer Jess frequently takes a walk to Sugar Beach in her home of Toronto, Ontario. This industrial area has a great view of the water of Lake Ontario and a sculpted beach area for city dwellers to relax. Another place she often goes is the Brewery District, a brick and cobble complex of historical importance to the city, but hardly rife with green things! But the connection of building material to sky and to the artistic elements that have been placed there give a boost to the creative juices nonetheless. Cloud Gazer Emily lives within walking distance of a World Heritage site, the Rideau Canal in Eastern Ontario. Her most frequent excursion for exercise, fresh air and to free up the mind is to walk down to the basin and walk alongside the water under acacia trees and willows. No matter where you are, you can seek and find a small piece of nature for yourself.

Being outdoors with nature, sky and animal life is a proven block remover. But why? What is going on in our odd little brain boxes that being outside a home or work place is a way to overcome creative stuckness!?

We can look to Indigenous peoples to understand some of what is happening to us in terms of learning and growing in connection with the land. In Canada there is a growing movement to both introduce and integrate land based teachings into the curriculum for students. In her paper “The Land is Healer” researching land based healing practices, Jennifer Redvers says of land based teachings:

“Land-based practices are centered in Indigenous pedagogy and recognize that cultural identity is interwoven with and connected to ‘land.’ Directly cultivating this fundamental relationship, as assessed through a culturally relevant lens, increases positive mental health and wellness outcomes in Indigenous populations.”

https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ijih/article/view/34046#:~:text=Land-based%20practices,in%20Indigenous%20populations.

Not only Indigenous peoples have that connection. Every human has genetic material influenced by the embedded memory of the outdoors and the ways of living we used to share. We have evolved into urban dwellers yes, but we have not changed so much that we cannot yearn for the connection to the world that existed before our creativity turned it into a technological marvel. If being outside improves mental health ( which it does), then it will improve our ability to solve problems. A study by a sports medicine journal in British Columbia found that just 25 minutes in a green space gives your brain enough relaxation to support improved creative function in the brain. 

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/49/4/272?sid=56b97a4c-0e75-46d0-a6ba-41c7f41a089c. Richard Louv, writer of Last Child in the Woods, is a vocal proponent of ‘Vitamin N’, the aspect of nature that fuels our bodies in ways we can’t quite document. His work on being in nature noted that being outdoors improves attention, hence the ability to problem solve more efficiently.

http://richardlouv.com/books/last-child/

We need to give our brains that time to relax, to be away from the screens and the artificial noises and the man made world for it to recharge itself, and it doesn’t have to be for long!

Today, give yourself a break from the world and find a nature space. A fountain in a courtyard, a patch of weeds on a building site, a square of sky and clouds, a windswept moor or rain soaked jungle; it doesn’t matter. Take 10 minutes today. Tomorrow, make it 20 minutes. When you are stuck at that incredibly frustrating wall and can’t find your way over; take two 20 minute outdoor breaks, Then let us know what happened?!  How did you feel? Did you get any further in your project? What were your results? 

For more insights, tips and tricks about getting around creative block, sign up to our email list. We would love to have you join our creative community!

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Bugs mini challenges

As you know, we are challenging ourselves and you to make something creative inspired by BUGS this month.

For all of us, creative thinking can be fickle, so we’re also giving you two mini challenges this month. Sometimes having some limits and boundaries that you need to work within can actually help creativity by taking away some of the options (what to start with, where to begin etc). So if you are already inspired and working on something, that’s awesome! If you need a gentle guiding hand, try doing one of the mini challenges to get those creative thoughts flowing, and see where it leads you!

Bugs mini challenge #1

Write a shape poem

Also called concrete poetry, shape poetry has been created for centuries and is a great way to combine words and form. Basically, as it sounds, you use the words of the poem to create a shape associated with it. To get yourself started, try writing free form anything and everything that comes to mind when you think about a particular bug or bugs. Then start pulling out parts that grab you and form them into lines of your poem. This doesn’t need to be long or too intricate, remember, we’re working on expanding our creative thinking, so don’t stress too much about wining a poetry prize, just write something that speaks to you, even if it’s just a long stream of descriptors and words about bugs, that works. Then, either draw or print out a simple bug shape related to your words and play around with fitting the words into the shape. You can read more about concrete poetry here. Take a photo and share with us on instagram (you can tag us @cloudgazingcreatives or DM) or shoot us an email if you prefer.

A sweet shape poem about a kite, found via pinterest

A great example of a simple but effective shape poem about books (proof that you don’t need to over think it!) found via pinterest.

Bugs mini challenge #2

Create a collage of a bug using found materials

Collect pieces from your home, the recycling bin, a nature walk etc and place them together to make a bug, whether true to life or completely imaginary is up to you. Take a photo and share with us on instagram (you can tag us @cloudgazingcreatives or DM) or shoot us an email if you prefer.

Some found materials collage inspiration:

Intricate collages made by artist Raku Inoue, using tiny pieces of natural found materials found via guardian.com

Bugs made from various pieces of hardware, nuts and bolts

found via pinterest

A more relaxed fun collage using different materials

found via pinterest

Leaf and petal collages

found via pinterest.

Remember, try things, play, enjoy the process, let go of the need for perfection. The more you use your creative thinking the easier it is to access next time, and don’t forget to share with us so we can cheer you on!

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When we were kids: what happens to creativity as we get older?

By Cloud Gazer Emily

Memories of childhood are rich and hopefully for most of us, joyful. People have varying abilities to recall their childhood, but for many many people there are sounds, smells or sights that trigger the brain to remember favourite places, events and people. 

Many of our favourite memories are of play; being up a tree, riding a bicycle around the neighbourhood, climbing up a heather covered mountain to pick wild blueberries or swimming at the cottage. You may also remember drawing with crayons, or the smell of a new notebook, or how a new pencil felt when you began to write or draw in school. You might remember the amazing rocket ship you built once, out of boxes, or a tent from mom’s linen, or a tree house, or a hay fort or a ballet dance with turquoise and orange nylon sheets and James Galway on the record player. These activities are the developmental basis for creativity and children are the most creative beings on the planet. As an educator, Emily discusses children’s play with parents and this always results in stories about their own childhood experiences and what they remember building, making, painting, creating and drawing.

So why do so few adults retain that creative spark? Is it because we stopped playing? Is it because schools stifle creativity? Is it a societal effect, whereby the perception that play is for children, that failing is bad and that academics are the key to success have eroded the ability to be creative? Is it just in our genes; that some of us just aren’t creative? 

I’m here to reassure you that it most definitely isn’t your genetics. Everyone has the ability to be a creative thinker and problem solver. I can also tell you that it can be an unfortunate combination of the other three elements that causes people to believe that they aren’t creative. 
Please remember, being creative doesn’t mean you can draw a figure like Degas, or paint a landscape like Monet or sculpt like Rodin. Technical ability is something else entirely. Creativity is the ability to think of an idea and express it in some way that pleases you. Creativity is being able to think of unusual solutions to tricky problems, to use materials in a novel and unexpected way. Creativity is following the ideas in your head to a satisfactory (not always successful) end, Creativity is the thinking and finding and making and the doing of your brain pictures.

So, we know that creativity isn’t genetic. We know that there are external factors that may have had an effect on how creative we either are or feel we are as adults. What are they and how do they stop us from being creative? Let’s explore.

There has been a seismic shift towards a resurgence in almost all of these activities as forms of ‘stress relief’ in recent years and I am here to tell you that if you do these regularly then you aren’t relieving stress, you are avoiding its build up in the first place. And also building the capacity to be creative. Because unlike activities where points will be awarded, or leagues won, or in the case of playing with your kids (although it can absolutely be a creativity builder in many circumstances) part of parental duties; making time for YOUR playtime will allow your brain to focus on novel solutions and expression of self.

Schools have also contributed greatly to the demise of creativity as a human skill. The westernization of schooling into the ‘sitting at desks, learn what I am telling you, memorise this formula, this is how you do it’ method of teaching is eroding students abilities to try things their way and FAIL at them. Because, hard as it is, failure is one of THE most valuable lessons in how to come up with a creative solution to anything. How can we know and understand what works if we don’t see what doesn’t?

Sir Ken Robinson’s TEDTalk https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?language=en is one of their most popular and he explains it far better than anyone. We value success more than failure, reward success more than experimentation and expect conformity. This is not to say that some students aren’t creative, but I guarantee you most students begin to quash some of their more original ideas as the system begins to erode their confidence and show them the ‘expected’ way of doing things

That leads us to our third influence on the decline of creativity in the ordinary human. Society. Western society and other cultural influences from around the world have had a massive effect on how we see creativity, (the eccentric, the mad artist, the messy maker or the artisan who ‘just’ makes things. These have become specialized programs in schools, and in further education, instead of regularly integrated parts of everyday life. Artists and makers are seen as a breed apart, instead of recognised as the best of the creators among all of us. 

How do we become more creative then- if we think we have lost the skill, or never had it? 

Trying something new is a start. Be it mud handprints on a wall, a crayon and paper colouring, pottery class, dancing in your basement to a favourite tune, doing your own crazy hair style or experimenting with fashion choices, painting a picture- ANY picture, or singing a song, the essence of creativity is being brave. Brave enough to try. Creativity doesn’t care if it works, or what it looks like- at least not when we start our creative journey. Refinement comes later.

Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest for more ideas on how to develop your creative chops; whether you are an absolute beginner, an amateur maker or an experienced creator. We can enjoy this beautiful journey together!