Is Everybody Creative?
I’ve been thinking lately about what makes someone creative— what does it mean to be “creative?” In a world now where everyone has an opinion, where does creativity fit in? Is everyone creative, too?
In an interview I did with my colleague Roz Chast recently, she said that when she went to art school, she was among so many excellent artists, she felt she was at the bottom of the rung. What ended up happening with Roz is that in her time at that well-known art school, she carved out her niche, her way of seeing the world (even though they told her to put away her drawings!) and she has become a unique voice as well as a hugely successful New Yorker cartoonist. Of course she started drawing as a child, but her years there informed her creative choices even more.
Everyone can have an opinion and everyone can be creative. But it’s the ones who find that unique voice— somewhat hard to describe, and unknown until it exists—those are the ones that make us listen and see.
How do you find that? Can it be something that is found?
It’s a dance with the creative’s own inner thoughts and the culture around them. It’s how they interact with their environment, how it is filtered through them.
One of my favorite painters, Paul Klee, wrote in his book Creative Credo,
“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.”
The internet allows us see so much, but it gets confusing to see and think. There’s so much noise, we can get somewhat lulled by the volume. Creative is not what’s been done before, it’s what’s new that emerged from a sensitive individual. Ultimately it is what helps us see and feel more clearly.
Your thoughts?
I think a big reason I stopped writing songs for 20 years was because I didn’t think I had anything new to say; it had all been said in far better ways than I ever could. But now, this year, taking a course called Songwriting as Truth-telling, I’m re-discovering my unique voice. I can write about subjects already written about, but with my twist on it. During that 20 years, I dabbled with other creative endeavors - photography, collage, poetry - but nothing has been as satisfying or felt as authentic as songwriting. Yah for second chances!
I truly believe we are all creative. I think the creative/not creative dichotomy is a construct. Because I'm a scientist, I was assumed to be "not creative". But the practice of science - problem solving, a lot of the time - is a very creative activity. And so I moved from science to engineering, and from engineering to design. I first started to believe I was creative through house remodeling. Ok, and music. There was always music. OK, and writing software. Slowly, I belived it.
Now I believe it, I find I can write! And take photographs!
Liza, you never make us feel like you're the performer and we're the audience. You invite us to co-create with you. You let us all be creative.