Folks are often surprised to learn that I don’t do creativity work with youth or kids and focus all my energy on creativity and art-making for adults. I find this work so satisfying because I’ve seen time and again the enormous shift that can happen when I’m able to get adults to embrace their creative side.
That said, adults are often very skeptical of the inherent value of playing with art supplies and see these types of creative activities as warm and fuzzy frivolities.
They want brass tack solutions and the “grown-up” reasons to do something. They want answers to questions like:
Why does creativity matter?
Why is it worth my time?
What am I going to get out of it that I can take into the ‘real world’?
So, let’s dig into some of those grown-up answers.
Creativity is a vital skill to adapt to a rapidly changing world
We are adapting to situations and solving problems today that we couldn’t have dreamed of even twenty years ago and that requires stretching ourselves to think outside the box.
But outside the crayon box? I don’t know…
In truth, when I’m introducing adults to art supplies I see them as simply a vehicle for opening up this broader way of thinking.
We live in a very cognitive and verbally-oriented world and whenever we think a thought using the framework of words, then it’s like we’re walking along a well-worn track within our minds. The more we walk that track or get stuck in a specific thought pattern, the harder it is to get out of it.
Whenever I ask someone to dig into the more visually oriented side of their minds, it allows the person to bypass some of those well-worn thought patterns—which is, in essence, what thinking outside the box is really all about.
For instance, if I were to ask you “How are you doing today?”, there’s a good chance that you’d answer with the same collection of thoughts and words that you’ve given a hundred times before.
If instead I were to say, “Imagine yourself as a biodome that has its own weather patterns. Can you draw your internal weather today?”
The drawing part is actually less important than the focused attention the art-making provides. “Is it cloudy? Is it sunny? Does it feel like there’s a wind violently stirring the leaves? And why? Why is this the imagery that’s popping up for me right now?”
Odds are that you haven’t been asked this very basic question in this particular way before. By coming up with an answer through the visual part of your mind, that in itself can lead to new insights into yourself and your situation.
The skill and willingness to shift ourselves out of established thought patterns is the essence of creativity. As Robert E. Franken wrote in his book, “Human Motivation”:
Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.
Who knew that you could get so much mileage out of playing with crayons?
Learning to embrace the process rather than attaching to a specific final product
3M scientist, Dr. Spencer Silver, was busy researching bigger, tougher adhesives when he inadvertently discovered an adhesive that stuck lightly to surfaces but didn’t bond tightly to them. His colleagues weren’t quite sure what to make of his “mistake”, but Dr. Silver was convinced that there was a commercial application for it.
When it comes to creativity, adults frequently get fixated on the end goal. You have this particular idea to make this particular thing. You also believe that you need to create that thing perfectly the very first time and, ideally, that perfect, particular product has to make money too. Anything less is a waste of time and there is no greater sin in the productivity-oriented adult mind than wasted time.
Except it’s exceedingly rare that anything gets made in this kind of linear fashion.
Mistakes are an essential part of the process, as is a willingness to go down blind alleys that may or may not lead to success.
I can use art-making as a low stakes way to invite exploration and discovery. When I teach adults how to paint, I first encourage them to let go of the expectations they have around creating a “perfect” final painting. Instead, explore how the colours mix with each other, how the paint behaves when mixed with different amounts of water and what happens when the paint is applied with the various common brush shapes. This discovery process can be taken even further. How is painting different when done on canvas versus paper, ceramic or wood? What happens when you incorporate mixed media components by collaging in paper or fabric?
The grown-up term for this is “experimentation”. Kids simply call it “play”.
I have seen so many folks grind any sort of progress to a halt—creatively or otherwise—because they are so afraid of making mistakes, of doing it wrong and wasting time. In contrast, by shifting our thought process into a space of discovery and play you can create a perpetual motion machine where there is always something new to explore and who knows where those explorations might take you.
Just ask Dr. Spencer Silver with his supposedly unsuccessful, not-so-sticky adhesive—he’s now better known as the inventor of the Post-It Note.
Athena Cooper splits her time between being a fine art painter and a creativity coach with Tilted Windmills. If you’d like to support developing your creative practice, consider booking a free 30-minute consultation.