Friday 6 March 2009

20. Creativity part 2

Since the last time i did research and wrote about my thoughts on creativity, i find out what it means to be creative.

Creativity is the journey of self discovery. To get there you need many components, something which i lack. You need: motivation, passion, enthusiasm and even inspiration. Some of the great masters had these but it didn't come naturally, not naturally enough anyway.

It's like learning to crawl before you walk, you start off with the basics. Learn to hold a pencil, learn how to make lines, learn how to colour in the lines and hey presto you have a basic picture of a flower. It may not be perfect but its a start. But what does all this mean? Well funnily enough, talent is something you gain from experience, patience and practice. No one is born with natural talent, it's like saying a 5 year old can perform complicated surgery just using a spork and a rubber band. That's just pants. To be the best you need to put the effort in and practice. Drawing everyday will help keep the mind focused and helps improve what you already know. But you also need to clock in the hours as well. 10,000 hours over 3 years. Impossible? I think not. Do the work that is set for you, do it and then do your own stuff, mini projects if you like. All of this are key elements in succeeding to become a great artist and showing everyone that it can be done if you put your mind to it.

So, get creating!!!

This is a continuation since i didn't know we were going back through what it's meant to be creative and learning the shocking truth about education and creativity in schools. So here we go again.

After watching the video in lecture i completely agree, creativity ceases to exist in the school curriculum. Now a days children arn't allowed to be creative because they are high expectations in the 3 top subjects that half of it we don't really need to learn. Maths, English and Science. When are we going to use trigonometry when stacking shelves? Where are we going to use the 3 allotropes of carbon in an office? We don't need these yet there there to catch us out and told it's more important than your own creativity. These are the things that hare holding us back. We only need the basics of what is taught from these subjects, not the complicated stuff that we won't find in our chosen careers.

But the biggest kick in the pants is that education seems to leave out Art and textiles. We need to be creative in order to make things work. Without creativity the same things are going to repeat and they won't be fresh ideas. Children need to be creative and be free to explore the world through their own creative ways, not stuck in a classroom and told to learn their timestables perfectly or they'll never get a job. That's not right. Children are children; they need to have fun, something a lot of us don't have any more since either we have jobs or far too serious. We need a balance between what we should learn and what we need to learn. Make Art more important, it's a great way to express thoughts and feelings. Isn't it true what they say? A picture says a thousand words? In this case a picture means your wasting your time if you don't buckle down and get that degree or apprenticeship and earning mega bucks in order to put food on the table and pay your bills.

As a wise man once said 'Follow your dreams now whilst you still have the chance, because once the time comes, you will never get another chance.'

I'm half way there. Because Game art has a little of everything i want to do. And more importantly it expanded my horizons and taught me a lot of things i never learnt in college and it opens many doors of opportunity.

(Again i have ranted rather than answering the question...)

1 comment:

Chenz said...

Whoo! A very encouraging post :).