The Curation of Creation
Creativity in its purest form is the act of invention. From stories to paintings to fashion garments – we are all inventing our own piece of art. As children we often played with limited props, we used our imagination to re-create the world we saw around us. Splodges on paper were lands that were yet to be discovered. There were rockets made out of cardboard boxes and faces were painted - an instant transformation into another character; you were no longer a child but a superhero.
Looking back it seemed that school never really encouraged children to question. From a personal perspective it is poetry that frustrated me the most. We all appreciate a well-written poem but here is the problem. If the poem is written the way you are supposed to write it by using the correct formula then this, technically, is an excellent poem but that leaves you with one question; did it make you feel anything? Did you want to read it again? Did you want to laugh, cry or get angry about it? This lack of encouragement to question everything is somehow beaten out of you and the idea of a free form poem written on Christmas wrapping paper stuck to a tree in the playground is not an expression of oneself. - it’s vandalism. If you have managed to push past this ridiculousness and still maintain your creativity as an adult then that is fantastic news. It is important for us to remember that as human beings we have our own mark to make, no matter what path we choose. Making your own way through life is what makes you so unique. It is there to be explored and this should start from the very beginning of our journey as human beings.
Society has often pushed aside artists. People often say that the art of writing or painting is simply a hobby. For those of you who have maintained their lust for creating will already be tired of this ridiculously old-fashioned way of thinking. If a parent expects their child to only write for monetary reasons and is confused as to why they write for pleasure then this can lead to a dangerous place. This may include them quitting their craft or just having no faith in themselves, which can lead to mental and spiritual illness. Unfortunately we are already plagued with the tortured artist label as so many of our predecessors have struggled with life significantly and we have, for a long time now seen literary death pass our door.
We cannot let that tarnish our nature and reputation, we have to create our own world and not let the world create us. We must maintain strength in our creativity; we must accept failure, embrace change and evolution. We can choose to avoid negativity or we can just work with In essence we make the best of what we have to work with but we should never be afraid to push the boundaries or go beyond our limits.
The creative mind is a busy mind, we never think inside the box we think of what is outside the box, what colour the box is, does it have glitter splashed over its boring brown sides? Can we burn the box and not have a box at all? We can do what we like because we are primarily making art for ourselves and not anyone else at the moment of creation. Compare it to writing a diary, we must put our all into it and write it as if no one is ever going to read it. We create for us because we cannot control our urgency to do so. We create to make some sort of sense of the world that we live in and then we bend it, we shape it to fit our own internal world; the world of a creative mind. We are like museums and it is up to us to be our own curators.
Writer: Katie Doherty
