Creativity

What is creativity?

I’d like to start with a quote from the Virtues Project.

“Creativity is the power of imagination.  We are open to inspiration, which ignites our originality.  With creativity, we are resourceful and intuitive.  We solve problems in new and surprising ways… Discovering our own special talents is a gift to the world, whether making a meal, playing a sport, or creating a craft.”

For me, creativity is usually making things out of cloth, thread or yarn.  At the moment I have a loom set up with a long warp for making rag rugs.  As I weave in old shirts that have been cut up, or remnants from cloth from sewing projects, or bedding or curtains that have been ripped into strips, memories come back from the years that have so quickly gone by.

Today I also had someone from my first year in Norway contact me via Facebook.  Again memories came back, sitting at a loom, weaving Norwegian patterns and learning how to speak Norwegian.  Now almost thirty years have gone by since that first school year in Norway and my contact with the crafts of Norway.

While I sit at the loom, my mind has time to remember the past, but there is also the leap into the future.  Thus I decided (while sitting at the loom) that a blog was what I need to create next.  Though I have always been better at weaving, sewing, knitting or crocheting than at working with words, words have always been an important part of my life.  Usually it has been reading what others have written.  Now it is time to start writing more myself.

In order to develop creativity within ourselves we have to do things which give our minds time to think.  For me that is sitting at a loom, driving a car to work and back, or pulling weeds out of one of my many flower beds.  Once the mind has been inspired the next step is to do something active, e.g. starting a blog and sharing my ideas with others.

To be creative, one mustn’t be hampered by what other people think is right, what is fashionable, or the “in” thing to be doing.  Someone who is creative is often ahead of the rest of the people around them, seeing new ways to do things and breaking away from tradition.

One of the characteristics of being human is that we have imagination.  The imagination makes use of color, sound, taste, movement, smells and texture.  When creating something we can make use of some of these characteristics, or all of them.  When weaving I am primarily interested in color and texture.  When making a meal, I am interested in color, taste, smell and texture. The imagination leads us to explore new ways of doing things.

Where does the power of imagination come from?  Humanity is just one of the creatures in this world created by what we call “God”.  God created humanity in the image of Himself, and one of the characteristics that God has given us, is the ability to understand the world around us in a completely different way that most of the creatures we share this planet with.  With this understanding we can improve the world around us, if we choose.  One way I like to improve things is by making beautiful hand-made things.  I get enjoyment out of the making of them and I hope others get enjoyment out of either using them or seeing them.

So, what is creativity?  Creativity is using my mind and the imagination that God has given me to do things slightly different from everyone else.  Creativity is discovering our own talents and using them.  Creativity is one of the signs of God in this world.