I thought creativity would be a piece of cake. I bought 21 canvasses on Day 1 and vowed to fill every one up with a gallery-worthy work of art by Day 21. It might surprise you to know I didn’t succeed (haha).
“It’s too bad that when considering what endeavors may be creative, people immediately think of the arts.” – Michele Root-Bernstein, co-author of Sparks of Genius
Here’s what I did for 21 days of CREATIVITY:
• Painted (set up my easel ‘permanently’ so I could paint 5 minutes at a time if I wanted to).
• Danced (not the usual – ballet, the twist and anything else I could create without pulling a groin muscle. My favourite was putting on ‘Twisting the Night Away’ and just letting loose).
• Played ‘Pictionary’ with a one year old
• Put coloured water in a spray bottle (took it to a ski jump my 15-year-old was building and watched in amusement as they acted like little kids and made landing strips, take-off zones and logos).
• Baked (we went crazy with our classic shortbread recipe, adding chocolate and chocolate chips to create ‘Holstein cow’ cookies).
Conclusions I reached:
1/. Creativity is not ONLY painting (it is dancing and baking and dreaming and writing and imagining and witnessing and on and on).
2/. You can experience creativity without having to do it (enjoying a snowflake’s pattern, hearing a song, watching teenagers paint a ski jump hill).
3/. Creativity is a state of being or observing the world. It is not just something you do or something you create.