Aug 18, 2017

How to be brave and create?

Creativity... It's a magical and mysterious force - that shapes a lot of things that surround us in the world and in our daily lives. There is a belief that you are born creative...but that belief is bulls**t.

Recently I've run a few neon light workshops where both adults and sometimes children have come to make things! And I've noticed the strangest thing! Whilst the kids will happily crack on with their ideas and create things without fear - adults on the other hand will hesitate and will often say 'It'll probably look bad because I'm not creative'. I find this strange because the potential to be creative is within all of us! And it comes in many different forms. The problem is recognising the form of creativity that you have and knowing/being brave enough to use it! It seems as children we are naturally more fearless but as we get older we become more aware of what other people might think of us, and this stops us from being fully creative. The biggest hurdle to this is yourself. Being creative is hard - you have to put yourself out there as a little piece of you goes into everything that you make, and when your work does at some stage get rejected and not all people like what you produce. It can be hard not to take that personally. The truth is that there will always be somebody out there who is better at making or is 'more creative' (whatever that means!) than you! But what you don't see behind the amazing instagram photos and beautiful pieces of artwork is the persons journey to get there. You don't see the working day that lasts from 9am till 3am, the pieces of work that have been binned, or torn up or have never seen the light of day!

You don't see the frustration and the tears when things don't go to plan. A picture unfortunately can't show you those things... And being creative is all about the journey. Everybody has to start somewhere and almost everyone starts at ground zero. It takes time, but the journey can be a fun one. You can get messy and try things that you wouldn't normally try. You are allowed to make mistakes and fail as many times as you like. And the best thing is that you get to explore ideas that you wouldn't have dared try before. It's an adventure! The one thing stopping you from starting this rainbow-filled-ideas journey is you. The only way to overcome this is to stop comparing your ground zero to somebody elses top floor. Good things take time and effort - nobody is born into their dream job just like nobody is born creative. It comes though hardwork, acting on your ideas and being brave.