Hi there,
I just wanted to remind you that I have an online event coming up on the 22nd of February.
And, seeing as how I’m doing that, I thought this was a good opportunity to send you a creative prompt.
Upcoming event: Relate
A one-hour facilitated conversation:
How do you relate to your own creative self?
And how do you relate, or communicate, the story of that to others?
Join me to develop a narrative about your creative identity.
9am-10am, 22 February 2023, AEDT or
8pm-9pm, 22 February 2023, AEDT.
Online via Zoom.
Bookings HERE.
Creative prompt
I wanted to share a short excerpt from my resource The Right Question. At the end, it has some provocations for you to mull over:
“Where are you at right now, and what can that tell us about your creative self?
Our society has many attitudes and ideas about creativity which, in my opinion, are odd or even unhealthy. Many individuals carry unhelpful baggage about the very idea of being creative.
For example:
· Did you grow up in a household where there was not much enjoyment of art?
· Were you the nerdy kid at school who got beaten up or teased for reading too much or doing ballet?
· Maybe, when you were a little kid, you were one of the ones who did the teasing?
· Do you now work in a workplace where the processes are stale and technocratic, where there is no meaningful investment of time or other resources in innovation?
· Do you read a newspaper where the columnists sometimes rail against arts funding as being a waste of taxpayers’ money?
All the above might seem quite mundane and, to some people reading this, might be just a part of normal life. But all these things speak to a slyly toxic attitude that our society has towards creativity, and it is the normalisation of this that is the problem. If you have absorbed these attitudes then they are going to quietly inhibit – even poison – your attitude towards being creative. Use the questions below to check in on this baggage and make sure that you’re not carrying around stuff that will dampen your confidence of - and connection to - a human quality that is embedded within you and which you deserve to enjoy.
How do you define the word creativity, and what does that say about you and your relationship to your creativity?
Does the word ‘creativity’ suggest to you:
· a process
· a state of mind
· a set of activities or habits
· or all of these?
(It doesn’t matter which you choose: they are all valid. This question is just to give you some insight into the ways in which you identify as creative.)
When you think of a creative person, what kind of a stereotype springs to mind?
· A raving mad artist living in a garret?
· A serious-minded writer working on their novel?
· A hippy?
· A ballet dancer?
· An entrepreneur?
· A potter dreamily shaping clay?
· An architect designing a building?
· Some silly wanker getting stoned?
· A diva throwing a tantrum?
· An adult rediscovering play?
What does this reveal to you about the cliches and stereotypes that you carry around with you regarding creativity?”
By the way, my resources The Right Question and Relate will be underpinning my facilitation of the event – Relate – on the 22 February.
I hope to see you there!