So, I’m starting something new. I’m calling it Bonnythings Creative…a kind of extension of Bonnythings Studio.
What’s it all about, my exciting new endeavor, these words I’ve written and hope others will read?
I’ve had an idea swimming around in my head for nearly a year. A beautiful, but daunting, idea. It’s a course…or a blog…or a series of activities. I’m still a little fuzzy on the details. One thing is for sure, it’s a journey, and I’m about to embark. Here’s my mission:
I want to teach, build and grow creative confidence.
Let me elaborate. I want to encourage children and adults to tap into their creative side, to realize their potential. Think you don’t have a creative side? I beg to differ. I want to prove that creativity is innate in nearly everyone, it just gets worn down, hard to access and atrophied from disuse. I want to inspire people to stand up, stretch their creative muscle and get it moving again.
I mulled the idea over, I wrote mini-lessons and activities, I jotted down notes and made a few videos. Still, I continued to balk at getting going.
“I don’t know where to start,” I’d say.
“It’s not quite ready,” I’d mumble.
“It’s not good enough,” I’d whisper.
I watched my own confidence falter. I fell into the trap. The idea that if you can’t do something just right, it’s not worth doing at all. The notion that we must present a finished product, rather than growing with our audience, learning as we all go.
I lolled around in this trap for months, letting my ideas wilt, letting pages of notes collect dust in the closet, wondering why I had even bothered in the first place. Until my daughter nudged my ideas back out into the light. Until she unknowingly set me back on my path with four simple words.
“I hate art class.”
Now, I’ve heard these words before, but somehow, as we were walking home from school the other day, these four words lit a fire under me. She hates art class. My talented, creative, art-loving kid hates art class. On the surface, it doesn’t make sense, but her complaints shed light on her dissatisfaction. These are the same complaints she’s had since starting her public-school career nearly five years ago. The art teacher tells them they’re not doing it right (What??). She tells them not to add their personal stamp to a piece (Why not??). She tells them something is too big, too small, or not the right color (Seriously??). And every time I hear these stories, I cringe. They’re not teaching art, they’re teaching students to follow instructions and stick to the rules. If you’re going to tell children what color they can use for a leaf, or a flower, or a castle, you might as well just plunk them down in front of a paint-by-numbers set and call it a day. That’s how you kill creativity.
Art is a form of self-expression. It’s a way of putting forth your own personal world-view, experiences, dreams, pain, or vision for the future. It is not meant to be uniform. It is meant to be unique. That beautiful self-expression that should be nurtured and grown is being stymied in my daughter’s art classroom, and spaces just like it around the world. Some of her fellow students already believe that they are not good at art, that they are not creative…at nine or ten years old. Some may have felt that way for a while.
By telling a child that they are doing art ‘wrong’, they learn to believe that their self-expression is not valued, that the way they see the world is not valid, and that they are not creative. The already muddy waters between artistic talent and creativity are even muddier when one is young and can’t see the difference between wielding creativity and displaying artistic technique. Because, let’s be clear, the two are not the same. It is very possible to be extremely creative, but lack intrinsic artistic talent, impressive writing skills, or an ear for music. Sure, there are people who are born with a natural aptitude for a creative outlet, but most of us have to learn. Like anything else, you can learn technique with time and practice. The same can be said for creativity itself. With time, practice, and a safe space to explore, creativity flourishes.
Though I consider myself an artist, I could never hope to teach artistic technique. I don’t have the skills. But creative confidence, I can teach. The nerve to put pen to paper, I can teach. The belief that we all have something to say, and can say it creatively, I can teach. I can help children discover their creative voices, exercise their creative minds, hold on to their natural creative curiosity. I can help parents nurture the creative voice within their children, and perhaps discover some of their own lost creativity along the way. I haven’t got it all figured out yet. I don’t have an outline. I never finished the plan. If I keep telling myself I’ll work on it tomorrow, if I keep saying I’ll wait until I’ve got it all together, it’ll never happen. I just need to dive in, and so do you. Let’s sink or swim together. Let’s get creative!
