Freeing the inner child
Posted on December 20, 2006, by dazzer67, under creativity basics, inspiration.
I was watching a program on TV and there was a wonderful scene where an eight year old boy and his mother were spending some quality time together. (It was Honey, we’re killing the kids) They were doing some creative art and the boy had made a cardboard castle and they were now in the process of painting it. The boy had decided that it should be painted in a camouflage style and was going about giving the walls a wonderful yellow and green pattern. The mum turned around to him and suggested that the doors be painted a traditional, wooden brown. He declined this offer and painted them in an equally bright camouflage style.
What this illustrated to me was how much our creativity is shaped and perhaps hindered by convention. Imagination and creativity is about doing things different; it is about being original and breaking convention.
That isn’t to say that everything we create can’t conform in any way shape or form, although this does depend on how ‘abstract’ we want to be. It does mean that as we grow older and we accept what the norm is we can create barriers to our creativity. This is true in writing, art and musical creativity. So as you approach your next creative project why not ask yourself this question before you start:
‘Does it have to be like that?’
