“Pick up your canvas and paints, it’s time to create!” My first grade art teacher would say. Her name was Mrs.Pichard. She was an energetic, lively, and bold. She expressed herself very gracefully and inspired young minds to use their untainted creativity before it was touched by the real world. Life was easier before Middle School, I didn’t have to worry about my next structured assignment, studying for a quiz, I wasn’t constantly stressing out. My mind was calmer and had more time to wonder. Instead of thinking about this world, I could bring myself into an alternative universe. I could create my own world, my ideal world. Elementary school seemed like a gym for creative minds. I don’t know about you, but at the age of six I was playing imaginary games with my friends on the playground. I would bring my barbie sunglasses into school and my friends and I would pretend to be undercover spies. Sometimes I’d go out and pick a bunch of dandelions and pretend it was a big, beautiful bouquet my future husband brought to me. At a young age, creativity is imaginative, inquisitive, and insurgent.
As a child, it isn’t hard to tap into creative mode. All you had to do is be curious. For small children, that’s easy, curiosity comes natural. My Brother once asked my father how many flashlights it took to make the moon light up - now that’s a hard question to answer. Kids are born to be curious, I can only guess what my brother thought was on the other side of the moon, maybe he suspected that God was on the other side, making the moon glow. I don’t know, but I wish the moon was lit by flashlights, how cool would that be? My Brother has always been creative, he’s never lost his witty personality, now he just expresses it differently.
When that child that was asking about the blue sky grows a little older, you get to witness a different side of creativity. Around the age of ten, I became a different kind of creative. This time I challenged things. You see, creativity goes against the norms, it rebels against stereotypes. When my fifth grade teacher told me to write my first formal paper, I was told to write about Abraham Lincoln, it had to have three paragraphs, 200 words, be double spaced, and it was due in three days. I wrote my formal paper, I followed all the rules and then stretched them. I wanted my paper to be anything but boring, so I used the font Impact on the whole thing. I may have also stretched my teacher's patience, but I thought my paper looked cool. Even so, I got points deducted for my font choice.
Eventually, we grow up a little more and creativity is seen by society as childish, so we push the thoughts and ideas away, get a job in an office cubicle, and try to live that way for the rest of our life because that’s the norm. But the norm isn’t creative.
I don’t think I could ever be satisfied with my life if I stopped creating. To me, creativity is my outlet. I paint to try to make the world more beautiful. Oh, yeah, did I mention that creativity is beautiful? It’s beautiful to witness and take part in. Creativity looks like innovation, feels like accomplishment, sounds like music, smells like a new pie recipe, and tastes just as good. I hope to never lose my creativity, I want to be like Mrs.Pichard, but I can feel that the world has already taken some of it away from me.
As a child, it isn’t hard to tap into creative mode. All you had to do is be curious. For small children, that’s easy, curiosity comes natural. My Brother once asked my father how many flashlights it took to make the moon light up - now that’s a hard question to answer. Kids are born to be curious, I can only guess what my brother thought was on the other side of the moon, maybe he suspected that God was on the other side, making the moon glow. I don’t know, but I wish the moon was lit by flashlights, how cool would that be? My Brother has always been creative, he’s never lost his witty personality, now he just expresses it differently.
When that child that was asking about the blue sky grows a little older, you get to witness a different side of creativity. Around the age of ten, I became a different kind of creative. This time I challenged things. You see, creativity goes against the norms, it rebels against stereotypes. When my fifth grade teacher told me to write my first formal paper, I was told to write about Abraham Lincoln, it had to have three paragraphs, 200 words, be double spaced, and it was due in three days. I wrote my formal paper, I followed all the rules and then stretched them. I wanted my paper to be anything but boring, so I used the font Impact on the whole thing. I may have also stretched my teacher's patience, but I thought my paper looked cool. Even so, I got points deducted for my font choice.
Eventually, we grow up a little more and creativity is seen by society as childish, so we push the thoughts and ideas away, get a job in an office cubicle, and try to live that way for the rest of our life because that’s the norm. But the norm isn’t creative.
I don’t think I could ever be satisfied with my life if I stopped creating. To me, creativity is my outlet. I paint to try to make the world more beautiful. Oh, yeah, did I mention that creativity is beautiful? It’s beautiful to witness and take part in. Creativity looks like innovation, feels like accomplishment, sounds like music, smells like a new pie recipe, and tastes just as good. I hope to never lose my creativity, I want to be like Mrs.Pichard, but I can feel that the world has already taken some of it away from me.
Image Citations:
Most of the images provided were taken by Ellie Davis. Some of the images were taken from the internet, and can be found either by clicking the picture OR a link citation seen at the bottom of the webpage.
Most of the images provided were taken by Ellie Davis. Some of the images were taken from the internet, and can be found either by clicking the picture OR a link citation seen at the bottom of the webpage.