On Creativity

Creativity is something I can write about plenty.

Not necessarily because I am the most creative person out there. It is partly because I’m a creative-people-magnet (to the extent that I married one!) so I got to observe them up close. And partly because I have tried myself at all sorts of creative endeavours, with various degrees of succes.

To me, creativity is an approach, an attitude, a way we do life. It is about personalizing what you do: whatever you do or make, let it express a little bit of who you are, of what you have in your heart and mind.

Like I said, I can write about this plenty. But let me not digress.

The Creative Call, by Janice Elsheimer is a book I mentioned before. My friend Nancy gave it to me, and it was the right book at the right time. This provided the nudge for me to start taking photos of books, and learn a little bit of design from my husband, so I can make my own quotes pretty. This is now Gribook Creative.

A few weeks back, we started reading The Creative Call with a bunch of girlies. Creative girlies, I should add. We have started exploring our talents, encouraging each other in developing them, and setting challenges for each one, in whatever area she chooses to develop her creative potential.

A few thoughts (and quotes!) I’d like to share:

God is the one who has given us talents, who has made us with creative potential. It might come in different forms and measures for different people, but we all have a unique mix of talents. It is our responsibility to explore them and work on developing them.  Creativity doesn’t just happen.

Do we really think God would give us a talent and then provide no venue for it? You don’t have to become world renowned to influence other people through your art.

Another thing that came as a bit of a shock:

It is not for us to question how God will use our gifts. It is instead our responsibility to realize that God gave our talents to us for a purpose, His purpose, and it’s not important that we understand what that purpose is before we start becoming productive artists.

Perhaps controversial, but what this says is that we don’t have to be perfect to begin with, for God to use us. We are to start doing it, and God will lead us in ways we can serve others through it.  If you keep practicing your talent, and developing your creativity, you will only get better in time.

This is not to encourage mediocrity, but to say that too often we wait for “inspiration to come”, or to “have time for it”, or we don’t do anything at all because “we’re not as talented as the person I see on TV”. In this book, we’re encouraged to make time to develop our talents, daily or at least at regular intervals. We are encouraged to work at it day in and day out, and inspiration will come.

Besides, I often have to be reminded that most talented people who have “made it big” are not an overnight success and that behind the “overnight” there are many sleepless night when they worked at developing their natural gift.

To illustrate the fact that you don’t need to do something perfectly to start doing it, I’ll share a snippet from one of the very few PUBLIC interviews I’ve done. I had the honour to be invited to speak on talents at the first ever LCC Late Night Show, as part of the Spiritual Life Week at LCC International University.

It was a lot of fun, though I wasn’t exactly thrilled when hubby said he recorded a video of it. Am I the only one who dreads seeing herself  on video?

Here is the video for you to watch if interested.

Side-note: I’m very nervous about sharing this with you, because it’s not perfect, but hey: I am a work in progress!

If you can’t see the video, here is a link: http://youtu.be/dSXI1s-8RGo

p.s. Here is the quote I couldn’t remember during the interview.

p.p.s. Thank you Abby Lanes and Chrisser for the beautiful paint backgrounds that I used for the quotes above.