057. Creativity

What is creativity?

By definition, creativity is the cognitive ability to generate original, imaginative ideas and transform them into tangible or intangible value. The definition goes further to say that creativity involves making unique connections between seemingly unrelated concepts to solve problems, rather than just inventing something entirely out of nothing. By that extended definition, I struggle to understand what creativity truly is. 

For most of my life, I have struggled to consider myself creative. Though people would often praise my ability to be creative, I myself struggled to see myself in that way. Beyond simply expressing that I didn’t think I was all that creative, there isn’t much of a justification I can provide to help you understand why I felt that way about myself.

The first thing I ever learnt to draw was a lion. I would repeatedly draw this lion making slight improvements with every drawing. I would consider that lion the foundation of my artistry. From there, it was whatever we were learning in art class, much of which I do not really remember. Along the way, I grew fond of drawing animated rabbits and frogs. They mainly followed the same style so it truly wasn't much of a variation. Eventually, I began to draw faces, fruit and whatever else seemed interesting to me. However, none of that ever felt original beyond the fact that I had created it.

Drawing the things that I saw never felt imaginative. I couldn’t consider it creative as I was simply attempting to mirror something that already existed. Would you consider attempting to draw a realistic elephant from an image of an elephant an act of creativity? Perhaps, if I failed to create a decent work of mimicry then the resulting creation would be a creature of its own, an unintended act of creativity. Though, what value, tangible or intangible, would a deformed elephant provide beyond filling a page in a sketchbook.

Around the age of 15, I grew obsessed with lines. Little squiggles, dots and boxes. I would start in a random corner of a page and in no time, my page would filled. I would draw them on everything. At some point, I believe they were what allowed me to stop my mind from wandering in classes and maintain focus. Though each of them were unique in their own right, they did not feel imaginative, and they definitely did not provide unique connections between seemingly unrelated concepts to solve problems. If the problem was helping me focus in my classes then I suppose they were greatly beneficial, though, what value came from them? I suppose my education.

My final years of high school were spent trying way too hard to be creative. I wanted so much for my work to mean something. For it to symbolise something. A concept I was trying way too hard to illustrate with paint and pencil. The more I tried, the more I proved to myself how uncreative I was. The more I tried to communicate, the more the message was misunderstood. I am so glad that period of my life came and went. Beyond experimenting with some techniques, I am not entirely sure what I learnt about creativity. Perhaps, the lesson was don't try too hard. 

Such a lesson would have been deeply useful then. Unfortunately, that is one I am only beginning to learn now.  

My first year of university often felt like being back in kindergarten. Most of my peers found our class activities to be quite infuriating. I found them to be a little bizarre but, I understood their importance. Spending thousands of dollars to cut up felt and straws and being told to drop them on a paper and make shapes around them can make you question your life choices. However, the objective of the lessons were to help you deconstruct what you had grown to understand as creativity. They served to help you find ways to generate ideas in the most obscure formats. Most importantly, everyone's creations were unique.

 Through most of my creative educational experience, what I can notice is that the problems solved by creativity, are often the ones created out of nothing in order to create a grading criteria. To meet the grading criteria, there often tends to be a degree of creativity that is acceptable, or inadequate. The value, often tends to be the grade assigned at the end of the class and the feelings of achievement that come along with it. 

When it comes to the real world, there is no grading criteria. Of course, there are critics, and public support can always add layers of value to what some could consider mediocre work. However, if you can find your audience, people who find value in your work - an experience that is made unique and original by you, then I suppose, you can consider yourself creative.

I would not say I agree with the existing definition of what creativity is, though, I am not sure I can quite place my finger on a definition that would suffice. So, until then dear reader, I have done my best today and cannot wait to see what defines creativity tomorrow.