I wouldn’t call myself a creative person. What most think of when speaking of individuals labelled as creative are those who can create, they can take the void within the mind, do something on the inside, and then use tools on the outside to convert whatever was going on in their minds to a medium of their choosing. They could use a pencil, a paintbrush, an instrument, a keyboard, a pen, and many more. These could come in the form of words, images, or music, or maybe all of these, or maybe none of them. Creation is not simply assigned to those who have been creating using these methods. No, to create goes beyond archetypal artists, instead, we can view creation in other forms. Creating new mathematics, new sciences, new types of diseases, or even new types of drugs. The people in these fields genuinely create things, although many would describe their actions as discovery, but does the traditional artist not merely discover what lay hidden within the ocean of their mind? Due to the fact that I don’t belong to either of these groups, I want to speak to those individuals who also feel similarly. Creation does not have to come in the forms that have been normalized in society, how you create can be completely individualized, and you would have no idea this was the case unless you played around.
I think most people consider artists as being those who were born with some amount of talent in the three, big, general categories; words, images, or music. Depending on their talent, they will grow into one of these, follow it, and then become developed with it, usually from an early age. This does happen, but talent is not a prerequisite to the action of creation. Sure, it might make it easier to begin that process, and it might act as a means of gratification, that you’re doing the right thing, but talent is not necessary for this. The execution of the task of creation can be learned. If this was not the case, why would there be schools for art? Techniques are learnable, whether it be a technique in perception or one in the movement in the arm. What we would describe as talent is merely the inherent ability to find these techniques natural and not something that others have to spend hours learning, understanding, and practicing. Recognizing this as reality is the first step in acknowledging that anyone has the ability to create, if they so choose. You might lack the ability to use tools, but you can learn to use the tools, no matter what tool it is. However, even if you can use the tool, what good is it if you don’t know what to use it for?
Another quality that people assign to artists is the ability to form something out of the water. The ocean has dark depths, but the artist can find the life withheld in that ocean. One has to learn not to fear the ocean, but instead, accept it. You must learn to search within it, know how to add to the ocean, and how to filter the water. For some, this comes naturally. They spend time looking inside their mind, and the more often they do it, the easier it is for things to come up. Over time, they become proficient at this internal searching, whether it be for words, images, or sounds, and they are also willing to accept that there are moments where they might not be able to discover anything that day. Naturally, some recognize that what they put in is what they put out, not only materialistically, but also mentally. They know what they like, why they like it, and they look intently upon those things, verifying their interest, and following that interest to other places. They are willing to take small amounts of water, look upon it, and then filter it, so that they create something that aligns with their value of quality, and they continually filter until they no longer can.
Once again, these things are learnable, and it might come naturally for some, but it doesn’t have to. You can learn to search within your mind’s eye, working it, and making it stronger. To learn how to recognize what you enjoy, why you enjoy it, and finding more of that is also learnable. Taking your ability to create now, and learning from others to make it a higher quality that you want is also graspable. In fact, you don’t even have to be a creator to do these things, you might do them in order to appreciate the things you naturally gravitated towards. This leads into why I do what I do, why I have grasped for any means of creating, and that is because of understanding.
I am a dull person. In a world of color, I am merely a gray, I am the means to shade the color, and nothing more. In spite of this, I have the ability to appreciate all the color that does exist, despite not being one who produces such color. I know what I like, but I don’t know all the reasons why I like them. I might like looking at things, particular things, but not know why those things in particular I enjoy looking at. This goes for listening and reading, too. Being a human, I have an inherent need to understand things. I want to know why things are, how that came to be, and what can be done with that knowledge. The urgency to know and understand is my catalyst to creation, although my creations are limited in scope and, obviously, color.
At one point or another, I wanted to believe creation, at least in the respects to music, writing, and drawing, were off limits, but obviously, they are not. They are equal to writing code, or designing a building, or math. I’m not good at any of these things, however, competence comes with practice and increased awareness. Another reality of my condition means that, with an inherent need to understand, I have to somehow create a hierarchy of what needs to be understood. Based on that hierarchy, I will attempt to categorize things into boxes, neatly packed, and assign them a priority based on variables outside of my control. It’s not like I was born with the inherent need to understand why I like specific visuals. Nor was I born with the ability to think of imagery within my mind and transfer that to paper. In fact, this is still a struggle, but I want to conceptualize the actions that take you from a blank piece of paper to one with many sets and variations of scribbles to make something I would consider worth looking at.
Sometimes I truly believe I have set up a hierarchy that makes sense, but at other times, reality shows that it is silly. Another reality of my condition is that I can’t understand all that much at one time, and I have to continually practice the thing I want to replicate for many hours before properly grasping and understand it further. With so many things to learn and understand, even with this method of hierarchy, I have no choice but to set some things aside for other things, and even then, I have to accept that more things might come along to take even more of my time. Time is all I truly have, and I continually lose more of it, another moment passing is another grain that slips past between my fingers. I want to focus on drawing, then I will want to write, then I will want to play guitar, then I want other things that aren’t even worth mentioning, and then by never having a clear focus, I actually fail to gain competence in any of those things.
There is a theory that I have. I believe that after enough time of this back-and-forth, I will eventually reach a point where I can actually create things with these tools. At one point, inevitably, I will have the knowledge and the ability to use these tools in a way I would consider desirable. The tool that is the sharpest for me, and always has been, has been writing. That statement alone should give you some perspective on my abilities with the other two things. At the very least, it showcases that someone who has the void for their mind is capable of creation, and that means everyone else is also capable.
Creation coming in the form of what we traditionally denote as discovery is generally labelled as mathematics, physics, biology, psychology, and other scientific studies. These are seen as particular aspects of a larger thing, and they each set out to discover how specific things function belonging to labels withheld in their categorical label. However accurate this might be, it doesn’t differ all that greatly from other forms of creation like drawing or music. The creator has to discover what to do with what they know, and how to go about knowing more, and then knowing how to get there. Like said, tools are learnable, and people can learn how to use the tools to a very abstract level. There is a question that shows itself in the midst of understanding that skills and tools are learnable, and that discovery is the means to creation. How does one discover?
Discovery could be reassigned creation. Even if an individual has the capability and the capacity to use tools in a delicate however moving way, it doesn’t matter if nothing comes of that. Skills are to be used. Generally, those who are gravitated towards these things have the imagination or ability to create within, and search out how to use the tools to faithfully create the inside on the outside. Unfortunately, not all are like this, but that does not mean you cannot train yourself to become someone who does act in this way. In many cases, what an individual wants to create has been done before, and they can use that information to propel themselves to creating something without having to conjure up something totally new on their own.
The information age brings individuals with internet connectivity and the ability to find any type of information they might need. Sometimes the means to obtain that information can be tedious, while at others, it is seemingly hidden away. No matter how the individual wants to obtain that information, if they try, they will, and in many cases, they can learn about many other artists and their means of creation for free.
A theoretical example might be someone who wants to create music, but doesn’t know what to create. In addition, they have the capability to play an instrument and have a level of competence with that instrument. It’s very likely this person has listened to music, and probably a lot of it, which is why they had the interest to learn how to play an instrument in the first place. They could have practiced for the entirety of time they’ve spent with the instrument, or they could have spent time playing songs, and the latter is quite likely. Many people start learning the tool for creation in order to consolidate what they enjoy so much, forcing it to become a part of them, and being able to have that whenever they need it. It could be purely out of appreciation for that thing as well. From here, this person could continually learn new songs, practice, and become better at playing. The creative aspect, creating a song, could come about in many ways, and for those who lack the spontaneity of melodies and progressions, they can learn how to make those via discovery.
Suppose this person has a song they know and have played before, and they can play it well. They could spend the time to break down what the creator of the song has done, finding out what notes are used, where, and why, and assigning the groups of those notes to other labels. The idea is, the song could be broken down to understanding what parts of the song are what, and knowing that intellectually, as well as part of their being, allows them to bring it out of them whenever they please. From there, the one attempting to understand the song could use what they have learned to recreate or augment what has already been done, perhaps by using a similar progression but overlaying a different type of melody. After doing this time and time again, it becomes hard to avoid that whatever the individual enjoys the most will come out the easiest, and they can continually focus on that. The idea is, if you have a mind that is devoid of imagination, you have to suck up as much as you can from others in a logical fashion to feed your own lack of imagination.
Another aspect of this is consumption. Perhaps some individuals can see or hear one thing and immediately think of a plethora of variations and augmentations of that thing with ease, but there are others who cannot. I cannot, and as a result, I have to put in a lot more effort to what I am consuming, how often I am consuming it, and why I have chosen to consume it. I have to choose a book to read that will interest me, it must have creative aspects and be well-written, and by consuming it, I want those qualities to become a part of me. Yes, part of the process is working on your ability to use tools, and that’s pretty intellectual, but consumption appeals to the emotional aspect of the mind. I want to look at things that I find appealing, know why they are appealing to me, and continue that trend. If you cannot create things from your mind that you find appealing with minimal outside resources, do yourself a favor and accept that you need more time to consume. This isn’t a bad thing; it just means it will take more time to normalize that level of creativity. If you know why you like something, attempt to recreate it, and do that continually, and then learn how to adjust that thing to fit your own needs, then at one point or another it will normalize.
There will be moments that make you feel like no matter how hard you try; nothing comes of it. This is the reality of anything that requires rigor over a long period of time. At times, you won’t have anything going on in your mind, and due to this, you have to learn what to do as a result of being so totally void-like, even if you had at one point or another learned how to create in some extent. It will pass, and this is recognizable by the fact that everything passes, so eventually, if you had felt that imagination, and used it to create, but then it seemingly went away, know it will come back again. However, until it does come back again, what is to be done in its place? Is there anything in specific that should be done in a moment like this?
What I would do, if I had a specific thing in mind that I really wanted, I would analyze what I could do that is related to the thing I want. If I want to draw, but my mind is lacking imagination, I could practice without a clear goal in mind, or I could deliberately focus on specific aspects of my drawing that are lacking. If I don’t feel like I know what I want to create, or I find that I have no interest to, but I still want to participate in the action, I can do things that are intellectual rather than emotional. This goes for any form of creation. If I need to be inspired, I could spend more time consuming, finding new things that interest me, and finding out why they catch my attention. While I have described many processes that are seemingly focused, there are moments where you have to let yourself float off into something else.
You might really enjoy jazz, and you want to play jazz on guitar, but you might be unable to write anything. If you listen to jazz and don’t feel like you’re receiving much out of it, you can take a step away from jazz and listen to other genres. You could listen to classical or blues, and try to take away qualities from those types of music and shift them to be more applicable to a jazz style. Sometimes you have to allow things to influence you, and you have to allow yourself to be carried away into different territories that have otherwise been unexplored. The fact that they are new is in of itself a benefit, as that can be the means to being inspired. This should be done with a level of caution, of course, as you should be trying to consume quality art, not garbage, and where you draw that line and decide what is good or bad is totally on you.
Even finding things that are not related can inspire and influence you in desirable ways. You might enjoy drawing in a very organic fashion, it might come naturally to you. You might have never felt the need to follow steps or create abstract objects with fundamental shapes. If you’re that type of person, you could find value in things that go against that type of thinking, and even in things unrelated to drawing. You might find value in something like programming, and while it is completely unrelated, it could influence your thinking when it comes to drawing, helping to inspire you in ways that you otherwise wouldn’t have experienced. There are many more examples, but the premise is that playing around and having fun is necessary. Dabble in many different things if you want to, and the result could be one that brings you thoughts and ideas that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to conceive of.
While the title could be considered misleading, I genuinely think what most people consider “creative” is not accurate. Everyone has created before, and anyone has the capability to create varying levels of abstraction. For some it might come naturally, for others, not so. If it doesn’t come naturally, but you want to create, it needs to be known it isn’t out of your grasp. Techniques and tools are learnable, curiousness and a willingness to understand can allow you replicate what has been done already. Ingenuity and a willingness to play around can enable you to take what has already been done and augment it to fit your own personality. All people have things they enjoy, and they can seek out those things, and find many more things that bring similar feelings, and then they can learn how to do the same thing. Creation is a form of discovery, and this search occurs at many layers of the mind and body. Acceptance in the fact that it might take time, and it might not come easy, can enable anyone to get onto a track of creation. It is only up to the disposition of the person. For some, it naturally comes to them, and they don’t have to work all that hard to accept that’s what they want. The opposite side can still become a similar person though, because if they truly want it, they will get it. If you want to create, then you can create, but you must accept that is truly what you want, and you must believe in it.