WHAT IS CREATIVITY

First, let’s define what we mean by artist. It’s important that this term doesn’t alienate you. Everyone is creative, everyone has an artist child inside, and the difference between being an artist or not is how much of that creativity is expressed, channelised and manifested.

So, what do I mean by creativity? Let me start by defining this ever so complex, misunderstood term, or the way I would like us to think of creativity for the purpose of this book. Creativity is the personal interpretation of something external to ourselves (let’s call it external stimulus) and the expression of our internal response to it. Let me break this down- things happen in the world outside of us, the world exists and is as it is, we sense it, see it, smell it, feel it- you get it- but what creativity does is it interprets that external sensorial world and places meaning and significance to it, and internally it triggers a response which we express. If we keep absorbing the world as it is and don’t give personal meaning to it, there is no creative response. If we give meaning to what we see, and internalise it without expressing our understanding, again we can’t consider this creative, because there was no expression. Simultaneously, I like to clarify that creativity is not a gift, a particular talent, or a rarity- we all have the opportunity to interpret the world, give it meaning, and express our response to it. Creativity is innate but the expression of it doesn’t happen without the external world- this means the artist or creator can not create without matter, without an external stimulus. This is the reason why we tend to feel more creative when we change external circumnstances, when we travel, or when we are in nature or in big cities- if we have more stimuli to trigger more meaning and interpretation; it is also because of this, that the more we read, watch, study and generally fill our brains with new content, the more creative we can be because we have more of a muscle to create meaning and compose symbols.