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Creativity and inherited behavior patterns
Dec. 3rd, 2003 09:28 pmI've cleaned the hall closet of all the finished knitted and crocheted items at last. Baby blankets and adult hats and kids hats and scarves, etc. I mean, how many hats and scarves can one person possibly need? But I've still got that stash of yarn and I keep adding to it and I know I'm going to make more things that I really don't need simply because I like the process.
Which brings me to the inherited behavior part. Mom never sits to watch TV without a project in hand. Sometimes these are just the simple kid and baby projects that she donates to the Arkansas Children's Hospital. Well made but not creatively challenging. But sometimes these are the custom-designed dolls or the intricate and award-winning crochet projects that always bring home blue and purple ribbons at the county and regional fairs. For her the process is almost more the point than the project itself. Well, except for the special clown dolls, those go in the collection. The main thing for her is the creative act.
Then there's my son the artist. Given paint and canvas or plenty of ram and the latest version of photoshop and he's off. When the muses are really there he can be lost for hours.
I think the only creative thing that I have been truly lost in for hours at a time is research in preparation for writing. I mean lost in the process, not just preoccupied with the crochet hook or knitting needle while the television is going on in the background. When I was younger I used to take more risks in designing challenging projects myself instead of sticking with the tried and true.
I guess in the past ten years my challenging projects have mostly been with the written word. But I have never been able to lose myself in writing for more than an hour or two. I have found one thing lately. It seems as if the more writing I do, the easier it becomes to tap into the flow.
I would like to get more creative with the non-writing projects again as well. Somewhere along the line that inner voice that I could rely on to urge me to just create, that the inspiration to begin would be followed by the inspiration to be creative along the way, somewhere that voice just got squelched.
Well I'm tired of that. Now that I've cleaned out the closet of all the done but boring and safe projects I'm going to try to stretch a little into new paths. Freeform crochet, maybe. Or crochet with metal wire and beads.
Which brings me to the inherited behavior part. Mom never sits to watch TV without a project in hand. Sometimes these are just the simple kid and baby projects that she donates to the Arkansas Children's Hospital. Well made but not creatively challenging. But sometimes these are the custom-designed dolls or the intricate and award-winning crochet projects that always bring home blue and purple ribbons at the county and regional fairs. For her the process is almost more the point than the project itself. Well, except for the special clown dolls, those go in the collection. The main thing for her is the creative act.
Then there's my son the artist. Given paint and canvas or plenty of ram and the latest version of photoshop and he's off. When the muses are really there he can be lost for hours.
I think the only creative thing that I have been truly lost in for hours at a time is research in preparation for writing. I mean lost in the process, not just preoccupied with the crochet hook or knitting needle while the television is going on in the background. When I was younger I used to take more risks in designing challenging projects myself instead of sticking with the tried and true.
I guess in the past ten years my challenging projects have mostly been with the written word. But I have never been able to lose myself in writing for more than an hour or two. I have found one thing lately. It seems as if the more writing I do, the easier it becomes to tap into the flow.
I would like to get more creative with the non-writing projects again as well. Somewhere along the line that inner voice that I could rely on to urge me to just create, that the inspiration to begin would be followed by the inspiration to be creative along the way, somewhere that voice just got squelched.
Well I'm tired of that. Now that I've cleaned out the closet of all the done but boring and safe projects I'm going to try to stretch a little into new paths. Freeform crochet, maybe. Or crochet with metal wire and beads.
