For my entire life, I have described myself as a creative person. This summer that view of myself shifted, as I started to question myself and my artistic skills. I think the main reason for this doubt was my strict definition of ‘creative’ that I hold myself to. When I only viewed being creative as something that had to have a final, physical, 3D product that I liked, I ended up squashing any remaining spark that I was holding on to. When you hold yourself to an inflexible definition of creativity, you are less likely to actually create, and breaking out of that box is a great way to find your imagination again.
It can be a challenge to keep making art when you have been doing the same thing repeatedly, or you have new ideas that you don’t think you have the skills to fully give justice to. As I’m rediscovering my artistic life, I’m more drawn to breaking out of this box I put myself into. Having made this strict definition of what can be constituted as art, as creative, has done the opposite of what it was intended to. In the end, the box that I put myself into limited my ability to create. I wasn’t interested in making art, and even with the ideas I had, I never acted upon them. I’m working on breaking out of this box by trying new mediums and attempting my ideas, even when they don’t seem feasible. After all, creating something “bad” is always better than creating nothing.
Staying creative is always a challenge, especially with the balancing act of spending equal time on school, extracurriculars and the things I enjoy. It is the eternal challenge of the artist to find time to actually practice your craft. Unless you are a professional artist, school, extracurriculars, homework, social media and a myriad of other things can draw you away from what you truly want to be doing: art.
Not only did I need to open up my options of media and allow myself to try new things, I also expanded my understanding of ‘creative.’ I moved towards defining music—playing bass—or journaling, as creative. Even if most people wouldn’t define those as art, allowing my definition of creativity to expand sparked more inspiration, which eventually snowballed into a wildfire of ideas.
In the past month, I have painted, crocheted, sculpted clay and drawn things that I find interesting, not things that will be ‘aesthetic’ or ‘useful.’ (To clarify: there is nothing wrong with making things to be aesthetic or useful if it pushes you to create, but in my case, the pressure to have something ‘perfect’ discouraged inspiration.) In most cases, all that I need to push me to make something is opening up my mind to new media and ideas. The act of creating is enough.
