Is Creativity Only For Art?

Since I am an artist, I get a lot of comments on art and creativity. I am so thankful that so many people share their thoughts and feelings. Yet, there is a side to this that makes me feel sad and irritated a little. So many people tell me “I wish I had your talents” or “I am not able to draw at all” or “I used to love to paint when I was kid, but that is all lost now” or “my kids paint, but I have no talent” or “I wish I had the courage to do art” and the list goes on and on and on. People keep telling me how untalented they are or how uncreative they are or how they had it as a kid and lost it completely.

Would you agree with me that there is something wrong with this? The parts do not add up. So do only some have the talent and others are left with an uncreative life. What do they do at home or work? Don’t they cook? Don’t they find solutions to the problems at home or at work? Do these also not include creativity? I believe they do. What are these people trying to say without being aware that they are saying? I believe there are some important things to look into to stop this continuous downgrading of our selves. Maybe we need to look at it from another angle.

I believe that we believe we are not creative or we do not have the talent for art is because we do not work on topics that we are really interested in. We try to work on what we think we should be interested in. If we work on what we care about and think about, then we naturally become original and therefore creative.

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The film director Martin Ritt is known to say all actors have a certain territory that they were born to play which he calls their “vein of gold”. He was famous for spotting this talent in the actors where they perform at their best. We all have our ‘territory’ where we perform the best. Maybe this is the purpose we have chosen as the life lesson or life goal that we chose to be born to accomplish. Maybe going after that goal or dream makes some lives more fulfilled and happy than others. Maybe following what resonates in our hearts and following that call from within and following it makes a difference. I am getting carried away. Let’s go back to creativity shall we?

I believe creativity is thinking out of the box, out of the boundaries. To me creativity is listening to our own soul, our mind, our own heart and to act as it comes to us, not what others might find acceptable. Creativity according to me is discovering to live using our five senses to the full and also being aware of our sixth sense as well. It is accepting to be unreasonable in the eyes of others at times. And it is about making decisions and acting on those decisions. Julia Cameron who probably has written the most on creativity, when she was asked by a colleague in whose theories of creativity she was interested and which theories she enjoyed, she had replied “There’s a misunderstanding here. I do it. I make things. Films, plays, books.” I believe in the same approach. We can talk about art for days, for years, but unless we touch it for ourselves, we will never touch our own soul. We are here in the world to live, not to watch. We are here to experience. To be the player in the field. We may choose to be a spectator in some of the games. But we need to play as well. As Sophocles said “One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.”

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The Creativity Exercises for the Week from Julia Cameron:

Pick a topic on which you sense you have deeply felt, “stuck” emotionally. Take a minute to centre yourself through deep and steady breathing, then allow yourself to begin singing sounds related to your feelings. (Save words for later.) Continue this until you feel you have cleared the energy. This may take anything from a few minutes to half and hour. Take time to calm and centre at song’s end as well.

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As Joseph Campbell recommends “Jump”. May you reach the land of your dreams. With love,
Z
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Affirmation of the Week:
“I lovingly take back my power and eliminate all interference.”
By Louise L. Hay
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Quote of the Week:
“Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.”
Aldous Huxley
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Book of the Week:
This week I would like to remind you a classic maybe to read again: “Jonathan Jivingston Seagull” By Richard Bach. This book seems to have a different taste every time I read it. The Turkish translation of this book is available under the name “Martı”.
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