Two weekends ago, I was at the OregonASK Afterschool and Summer for Kids Network spring conference with the Maxtivity staff at Camp Harlow in Eugene. We were delighted to see the keynote speaker Ross Anderson from Creative Engagement Lab in Eugene.
Anderson is a researcher. Plus he is a creativity enthusiast like me. His keynote — “How are you creative? Why this simple reframing frees us to flourish” — gave me a big take-away: Why do adults cut themselves off from creativity like it’s a thing we can grow out of? It is almost like an amnesia. Almost always an “ah ha” or “huh” erupts when a grown-up engages those youthful creativity neural circuits in new playful ways.
I have a feeling adult definitions of being creative vary widely but I wonder: What is Creativity? What is it not?
Definition of creativity
Creativity is the use of the mind to imagine or think of a solution to a problem; to innovate a new or different way of thinking about a task before you through inquiry, imagination and improvement. There are numerous potential meanings for readers. For the sake of this column, creativity and creative expression are components of an environment of human flourishing. Wherever the human lives, creativity is needed. Without it, we suffer.
Psychological benefits of creativity
Self mastery and efficacy are cultivated in a “greenhouse” environment, places intentionally created for growing, with opportunities with materials to explore with imagination at the forefront. Imaginative inquiry promotes intrinsic motivation.
Adaptability, resilience and the ability to bounce back from failures are critical life skills. Let me repeat that they are life skills for everyone, not just children but adults and aging adults as well. Creativity spans the lifetime and requires cultivation to keep active. Children crafting is just a precursor to the life skills of painting, public speaking or workplace innovation.
Creativity is not conformity
At the OregonASK keynote, Anderson led simple exercises at our tables exploring how we all think very differently — and that’s a good thing. As you can imagine, a conference room of passionate professionals accumulates hundreds of perspectives with prompts of “well did you see it this way?” Openness to experience and comfort with ambiguity builds a space for there to be many ways of thinking.
There is more than one way to be in the world. When we can disengage from an idea and pursue another, we are being flexible and embracing uncertainty to our advantage. Innovation requires the failures, risk-taking and experimentation that perfectionism is allergic to; human, and dare I say adult, perfectionism falsely claims there is really just one way and every other way is wrong.
For anyone still wondering, “Isn’t creativity really just arts and crafts? Making throwaway crafts and big messes? Why deal with the stress?”
I get this response to my fervor for art a lot. Maybe the thought of doodling in a journal to relieve real world stress is just too big of a leap for some. I know cutting paper and glitter equals fears of big messes. Or even the fear of “not doing it right” pops up. If we are reducing creativity down to its parts, it’s true that it’s messy. Imagination can be messy and messes can be cleaned up.
Reflection
My own creativity journey took a beautiful turn when I asked myself “what can I say yes to?” A magical question that seems to help me solve most of my mental blocks. At the time I was grieving the loss of my dad and needed to reframe art from large illustrations to something more accessible.
When I saw delightfully small sketchbooks just 5-by-5 inches, I thought, “I could say yes to that.” I set out markers or a small watercolor set with my journal where I drink my coffee every morning. Some days I would do nothing and think, “well, that’s OK, right?” Some days I would just paint lines one small page at a time. I created circles with thick pens and thin pens. Triangles and patterns. Pages and pages turned into a pile of notebooks over the years.
None of it really made sense, but it felt good. It was my vitamin “C” for creativity. Later, when I would go on to take art classes, I had a confidence with my hand that others noticed.
“How did you learn that?” Steadiness with lines and ease with materials came from experimenting with materials and making messes daily. I found myself in a happy upward spiral where I not only felt confident, I felt competent. It all started with, “What can I say yes to today?”
In the next column, we’ll dive into the summer opportunities for arts and culture right here in Philomath.
(Sophie Grow is the program director at Maxtivity Arts and Crafts Creative Space in Philomath. She can be reached at programs@maxtivitycreative.space).
