I was a crayon-wielding, paper-cutting, gluing, drawing, day-dreamy, imaginative sort of child whose efforts were heartily fueled by a sewing, knitting, crocheting, quilting, doll-making, baking mom. If my sister's or my endeavors were remotely musical or artsy-craftsy in any way, that was fine by my mother. She admired art in just about any form. So I grew up thinking that being artistic was a fine and venerable thing. Strangely, however, I didn't pursue any sort of formal arts training or ever even thought about going into any artistic field as a career. Most people where I came from (small southern Indiana coal-mining town) in the era in which I grew up (fifties baby-boomer) went on to become teachers, beauticians, secretaries--my bad, I mean administrative assistants, clerks, librarians, doctors, truck drivers, dentists, coal miners, chiropractors, welders, pharmacists and so on. Can't recall or don't know anyone from my childhood who became an artist. Art teachers maybe, but not artists. We were cultured to be more pragmatic and practical. Thus I believe many roadblocks to creativity come from our upbringing. Salaries must be earned, housekeeping and laundry done, groceries gotten, meals cooked, bills paid, yards mowed, etc. before we can stop and indulge in something so impractical and self-indulgent as art or hobbies. What a shame we impose this thinking upon ourselves! Did Michaelangelo stop to do the breakfast dishes every morning before he embarked on painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? I doubt it.
Believing that everything around us has to be perfect before we can even begin to be creative seems to be a fairly common roadblock. But life marches on, with or without us, doesn't it? Grass grows, dust settles, dishes get dirtied, the toilet paper roll runs out, stuff happens. Guess what? It is going to happen whether you are there to forestall it or not. We must let go of the mindset that we can only create within perfect surroundings or that everything must be taken care of first before we can sit back at our leisure and let our minds wander off into our creative dreamland. Life is too short. Some of the most astounding works of art have been born in the midst of chaos! I do not want to be on my deathbed regretting never having let myself go off into the zone of making something that pleases me and hopefully others as well. Hopefully my creative jags will become a legacy for my children and grandchildren.
Another common block is fear of failure, that everything has to be perfect. There's that darn word 'perfect' again! I say Yuck! to perfection. Of course, we want everything we do to be the very best it can be. But if the goal is to have your outcome always be perfect, we may well become afraid of failure and disappointment, so we never start. You know full well that DaVinci painted numerous masterpieces before The Last Supper. And many more afterwards. You can certainly bet he blasted himself for imperfections and failures on every single one of them. But it didn't stop him. He did them anyway, thus enriching the lives of generations after him. DaVinci was not perfect. Neither was Michaelangelo. Nor are any other great artists that we can name, but they all had one thing in common. They got on with it.
This leads me to self-confidence or the lack thereof, and it's 2nd cousin, indecisiveness. Do you stifle your creative self because you think you don't know how or know enough or can't decide which way to go in your pursuit? So many of us do this to ourselves. If this is the case, set yourself some mini-goals for learning what you need to know and how you will get there. Make it a journey of discovery. And then set about completing those steps. Years ago I saw stunning focal beads in bead magazines and was curious about where they came from. Discovered they were 'lampwork' beads. Decided I would learn about it. Bought a book about how they were made. Read this book from cover to cover numerous times. Got more books about it and read them over and over. Decided I really wanted to do lampworking. The money for equipment and materials was prohibitive for me then, but that came around eventually and I invested in the supplies and tools. I watched the DVD that came with my beginner kit. I watched it 10 times... There I was fully equipped to start but now I was afraid. Afraid of lighting the torch, afraid of getting burned, afraid I couldn't do it, afraid I wouldn't like it. The fears were nearly crippling me. But I had made this investment. I had to do something with it. I struck a match and lit the torch and tried. Thankfully all my fears were unfounded; I found my nirvana and never looked back. (Well, I did once recently but that's a future post!) What I'm trying to say is don't let a lack of self confidence and/or knowledge stop you. Think hard about it; learn what it takes and if you think it's for you, throw caution to the wind and just do it. And don't stop there. Keep learning and keep trying. And if it's not perfect, and it likely won't be, learn from it and continue to grow within your chosen art.
We also limit ourselves by never 'venturing outside the lines'. What I mean by this is that we may learn one way of doing something and then we always do it that way. Why is this? Because this is what we know how to do, we know it's a good way, it hasn't failed us yet, and we are secure in our comfort of doing this one thing this one way. Security and comfort are powerful feelings. They bolster our self-confidence tremendously. They give us strength and control. And we don't want to muck around and lose that by going outside our walls or thinking out of the box. I call this "creative agoraphobia". But not trying new things---a new method of wire-wrapping, using colors you don't normally gravitate to, a new lampworking technique (or whatever fits your scenario), puts us in danger of becoming stale. If a pond doesn't get some fresh water from time to time, it gets stagnant. Heaven forbid that we allow that to happen to ourselves! Don't be afraid to 'color outside the lines' once in a while! It's fun, believe me!
Once I was at a gem and mineral show where I stopped at a wire-wrapper's booth. He had some magnificent pieces, all beautifully showcased with his precise wrapping style. I marveled at his skill and complimented him on it, ending my praise with "I'm just not very good with wire." His response? "You don't want to badly enough. If you wanted to, you would be." I wandered away somewhat stung by his remark. But it truly gave me food for thought and I realized that what he said was so, so true. If we honestly have a deep desire to do something, we will do it.
My own personal roadblocks to creativity came from letting the cares and worries of being a single working mother get in the way of my bliss. Then when my mother passed away, I was hit by a sense of my own mortality. I decided, as I stated above, that LIFE IS SHORT! Do your best to get past whatever might be standing in your creative way. We need to have that creative outlet to add enrichment to our own lives, hopefully the lives of others and make us better human beings. You have nothing to lose by trying!
Till next time,
Life is mostly froth and bubble; Two things stand like stone: Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in our own.
Adam Lindsay [Lionel Gordon] Gordon (1833-1870)
Poet
Poet
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