I mislaid my creativity for a while, possibly for a decade or two. I got caught in the demands of a corporate career where my brain was in high demand but my heart less so.
I believe that to be human is to be creative. That the urge to create something that has a life separate to ours is universal. There’s something both basic and profound in viewing an object that we’ve created, and having it be both familiar and unfamiliar to us at the same time.
My creativity for the last few years has been in pattern making. When I starting studying for my Advanced Diploma of Interior Design, an early drawing assignment was called ‘144 squares’. Pretty simple. We had to fill 144 squares of 4 cms x 4 cms with hand drawn and painted patterns. Each square different from the last.
I guess the assignment was about pushing us to go beyond the obvious. To get into the habit of drawing. To make bold choices. To know that whether good, bad or absolutely ugly, it was just one 4 cm x 4 cm square. Finish it and start another. And then another.
For me, this simple assignment was a break-through. With each 4 cm x 4 cm square I opened up (for the first time since childhood) to the joys of coloured pencils, of mixing paints and playing with textas. And basically I haven’t looked back!
Now I’m teaching myself how to transfer my hand-drawn motifs into computer drawing software. I’m exploring how to create repeating patterns that could, one day, be printed on to fabrics and other objects. And, after many years of this being my private creativity, I’m starting to show and share my designs with other people.
I’m finally learning how to own my creativity. We all have it. What’s yours?