Creating isn’t just a “nice thing to do”. It can literally change your life! As a kid, I vividly remember that on every single road trip I had a little wire basket that looked like one of those ones you get at the grocery store for “just a few items”. Mine was white and plastic with a black handle. Anyways, I used to FILL it with art supplies and other things to keep me entertained on those road trips. My brother had one too but his was filled with action figures and stuffed animals.
Yes, I did have my barbies but I also had paper and markers and crayons and other crafty things. That basket literally SAVED MY LIFE on those road trips. This was before electronics were created that could entertain us. My dad had a cool watch that had calculator keys but that was about it. So no, I didn’t have an ipad, or a laptop or other digital toys to keep us happy. I think I had an etch a sketch. Does that count as a “lap top?” hahahahahaha
Studies have also shown over and over again that creating things transforms “people” just like I can transform a ball of clay into a fire breathing dragon. It feels incredibly satisfying to roll your hands through a mound of clay. To beat it into a shape and then just start all over. There is something so fundamentally therapeutic about just manipulating the clay in your hands.
I personally love to get clay on my hands, to get soil under my fingernails or to get paint all over myself. When you are able to get some tools or other materials added into your work you open yourself up even wider for satisfaction in your work. Everyone is made up of the desire to create, to change, to make it our own. Even if you think it isn’t; it’s there. Waiting for summer like a bear in hibernation.
In an article by the guardian.com there are some statistics that are coming out of the UK in terms of creating. “We now know that creativity is good for the economy too. The UK creative industries generate £84.1bn a year and account for 2.8 million jobs. It’s the fastest-growing sector of the economy. It’s looking good for makers”
What’s a maker? It’s a cool new term for people who make things. Here are a few quotes I found on “Makers”:
“Maker culture is about … learning by doing, taking an idea from paper to reality.” — Peg Mawby
“As he tinkered, [inventor Saul] Griffith became a prime exemplar of maker culture — a community of sophisticated do-it-yourselfers who view hardware in the same provisional way that computer hackers view software, and who believe that making, modifying, and repairing things can be an antidote to throwaway consumerism.” — David Owen
“A person who experiments with creating, constructing, modifying, or repairing objects especially as a hobby. With 3D printers and sewing machines, laser cutters and hand tools, makers are innovating and revolutionizing the creative process of turning ideas into tangible objects.” — Record Observer
Creating Is Messy! And That’s Good . . .Here’s Why
Creating is something we need to respect. As we watch different schools reduce the amount of money that they contribute to the Arts we are seeing a significant setback in the world of creating. Color by number is fun. But what are we teaching our kids about Coloring Outside the Lines?
What are we taking our kids about dealing with a conflict or a struggle they’re having with a brush and the paint and the paper and how to make it all work together. How do we do that if we’re told to paint red in the little circle that’s marked number one. How are we fostering creativity if a child is using a ball of clay and puts it into a mold and lets it dry and that’s the end of the experiment?
Where in our children’s current environments are we helping them explore their lives as “makers” ? We know that it takes on a certain amount of time and energy to provide these opportunities for children or students. When I’m working on my summer camps and I’m trying to set up activities that I want them to engage in, it’s true it does take me a little bit more time to get together the tools they need.
But I’m not about to give them a piece of clay and some molds and call it a day. They’re going to get the tools they are going to get a rolling pin, they are going to get a bowl of water, they are going to get fabrics and other textured materials to explore the clay with. I’m not dialing it in with these kids.
Creating is messy. And I LOVE being messy. I love that I have specific clothes I wear that are covered in paint and epoxy. I love that I have pictures of me covered in paint or glitter.
For me it’s like an “all in “ experience or it didn’t fully happen.
Creating can be scary. We are putting something pure and untouched in front of you and asking you to turn it into something. I can put a lot of pressure on people. I always say to my artists and participants that here they get to decide what they do and how they do it.
I also say things like it’s challenged by choice. If you want to just do something and satisfy level A requirements, great if you want to step it up a notch and go to level B requirements even better. But here you get to decide. You are the maker.
Creating literally makes brain connections. You are literally allowing the hand eye coordination to develop. You’re addressing fine motor skills, you’re addressing gross motor skills, you are allowing the artist to literally make neurological connections while creating something. They don’t even have to know what they’re creating. The experience of creating is what they need.
Scientific American on their website talks about five major personality traits and how they are a factor in your development. And one of them surprisingly enough is connected to creativity.
They wrote that. “Researchers have long been studying the connection between health and the five major personality traits: agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness and conscientiousness. A large body of research links neuroticism with poorer health and conscientiousness with superior health. Now openness, which measures cognitive flexibility and the willingness to entertain novel ideas, has emerged as a lifelong protective factor. The linchpin seems to be the creativity associated with the personality trait—creative thinking reduces stress and keeps the brain healthy.”
Creativity keeps us alive and kicking. SA went on to say that “A study published in the June issue of the Journal of Aging and Health found that higher openness predicted longer life, and other studies this year have linked that trait with lower metabolic risk, higher self-rated health and more appropriate stress response.”
The June study sought to determine whether specific aspects of openness better predicted survival rates than overall openness, using data on more than 1,000 older men collected between 1990 and 2008. The researchers found that only creativity—not intelligence or overall openness—decreased mortality risk. One possible reason creativity is protective of health is because it draws on a variety of neural networks within the brain, says study author Nicholas Turiano, now at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “Individuals high in creativity maintain the integrity of their neural networks even into old age,” Turiano says—a notion supported by a January study from Yale University that correlated openness with the robustness of study subjects’ white matter, which supports connections between neurons in different parts of the brain.
Because the brain is the command center for all bodily functions, exercising it helps all systems to continue running smoothly. “Keeping the brain healthy may be one of the most important aspects of aging successfully—a fact shown by creative persons living longer in our study,” Turiano says.
He also cites creative people’s ability to handle stress—they tend not to get as easily flustered when faced with an emotional or physical hurdle. Stress is known to harm overall health, including cardiovascular, immune and cognitive systems.
“Creative people may see stressors more as challenges that they can work to overcome rather than as stressful obstacles they can’t overcome,” Turiano says. Although studies thus far have looked at those who are naturally open-minded, the results suggest that practicing creative-thinking techniques could improve anyone’s health by lowering stress and exercising the brain.”
So much of this article spoke to me I had to share it here. Anyways, you get the point. BE CREATIVE. You don’t have to be good at it, you have to try. Grab an adult coloring book and some pencils and try that for a bit. Explore making your own doodles when on a call or sitting somewhere. CREATIVITY IS EVERYWHERE!