I suppose this comes under the category of "lofty thoughts," i.e., thoughts that have no other purpose than to be thought about. I think in general, humans are creative entities, and that their creativity takes many forms. In contemplating my own relationship with creativity, I find two questions worth exploring:
- Why do I create?
- How do I create?
The question of "why" is the one I've been mulling over. To give the question context, I'm thinking of creativity as a pastime, as opposed to gainful employment (which would be a motive unto itself). Pastimes cover a broad spectrum of activities including arts and crafts (drawing, painting, knitting, woodworking, weaving, etc.), entertainments (movies, videos, television programming, spectator sports, etc.), mental activities (books, puzzles, etc.) physical activities (walking, hiking, participating in sports activities, etc.), hobbies (collecting, small scales building such as doll houses or model railroads). I choose working with my hands to create yarns and textiles.
But why?
Concepts that come to mind (nothing that follows is in any particular order):
- inspiration
- curiosity
- intellectual stimulation
- satisfaction
- distraction
- fun
Reasons that come to mind:
- to be creative
- to beautify
- to work with my hands
- to leave my mark
- to not be idle
- to be constructive with my time
- to feel productive with my time
- to influence my home environment, i.e., to create a welcoming, pleasing atmosphere
- to exercise my mind
- to be thrifty
- to not have to buy everything
- to not be dependent on consumerism
- to have unique items
- to have well made quality items
- to not have cheaply made copies of what everyone else has
- to follow my own preferences rather than the latest consumer trend
- to challenge myself to learn new skills and improve upon them
- to help preserve historic knowledge and skills that are gradually being lost
- to reduce my carbon footprint by using environmentally responsible materials and techniques
- it's who I am
I'm sure more will come to mind and I'll add them as they do. I also want to note that there is no reason to rank or weight any of these; it's their sum total that attempt to answer the question of "why?"
Do you consider yourself a creative person? If so, why do you create? Is it important to you? What motivates you? I'm interested to know.
© Sep 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal
2 comments:
Leigh, I hardly consider myself "creative" in that sense, but I do enjoy creating.
Why? Perhaps the biggest thing is that it simply allows me to work with my hands and mind (and body upon occasion) in a way that my regular job does not. In some cases I create things that I use (mostly food), in a few cases things I can gift to others, and in others simply things to read (and hopefully enjoy and provoke thoughts).
The important thing -and you touch on it - is the idea of creating not specifically for money or profit. There is nothing wrong with that of course, but if the measure of something worth doing is simply "I can make money from it", most people would not do it. Which is a shame, because creating a thing is in some form or fashion leaving a mark on the world.
Our knowledge of ancient cultures is built on the things they left behind: pottery, metalwork, buildings, textiles, written works, even art. Without them going the "extra mile" of making something worth saving and using, we would know so much less about them.
In one sense the modern world is a creator's dream, with all of the access we have to almost anything we want to do or use. On the other hand it often seems to push such activities to the side (or completely over the edge) because it does not generate revenue or serve some larger social purpose. Which is a shame, really: the creators of old created for utility and for craftsmanship and for beauty, and we are the richer for it.
TB, excellent points.
In his books on Americana, Eric Sloane echos your points about craftsmen of old and the pride they took in the quality and beauty of their work. Sadly, we've lost that.
Somewhere along the way, making money replaced a sense of making a contribution to society, or one's home and family, or to creation. Almost everything is judged now by its monetary worth. I applaud artists and artisans who can make even part of their living with their hands, but its a shame that our human worth is judged by whether or not we're making money for what we do.
What might future archaeologists find when they excavate the remains of our society? Rusty electronic parts and bits of broken plastic? It would be a sad cultural legacy if that turns out to be the case.
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