Can creativity be taught?
It certainly can – but equally important, it can also be un-taught. And that’s the problem many adults find when faced with a creative challenge -‘I’m not creative.’
Well, we were all born creative, and the creativity is still there. Look at any very young child – they have boundless creativity. Left to their own devices they will immerse themselves in their own personal projects.
The wild, crazy paintings they create in their early years often sadly lose their spark as they mature.
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”Pablo Picasso
Most parents will have experienced the moment when their child comes home and says; ‘I can draw a house (or car, or horse etc.)’. Of course you praise them but what they have probably produced is a formulaic drawing similar to those of others their age – it’s a schema. Much of the creativity is lost to early desire to conform.
The evolutionary paradox
Why does this happen? Well, it’s all down to something that humans are very good at – something that has given us a great evolutionary advantage. We are excellent at recognising patterns. This means when we find a solution to a problem, we recognise and store the behaviour. When we come up against a similar problem, we can apply a ready-made solution which saves us a lot of time testing and experimenting.
This massive species advantage can become a huge barrier to creativity. What creativity needs is the freedom to experiment and the avoidance of falling into tired and trusted patterns.
This is not easy for adults. It’s a bit like looking at an optical illusion.
You’re probably familiar with the image below, ‘My wife and my mother in law’. This can be viewed as two different images – an old woman or a young girl. The first time we come across this, we may struggle to see both versions. But once we solve the puzzle, we can’t ‘un-see’ it.
So how do we teach people to overcome their natural pattern-matching ability? Can creativity be taught?
When I first studied art, (more years ago than I care to remember), creativity was taught mainly based upon the principles of the Bauhaus.
Like many courses, mine spanned four years but included a very valuable ‘foundation course’ for the first year. In that year we focussed upon experimentation and understanding the basics of form, line, colour and materials.
Creativity is about constantly seeking something new and fresh. So we need to avoid what ‘we know will work’ and explore ‘what we think might work’.
Experimentation is the key. The child who has learned to draw a schema of a house needs to experiment with other ways to approach the quest – perhaps different techniques can lead to break throughs.
A few tips to find something new.
- Keep a sketchbook. Make it hardback so it will last for years. Remember, a sketchbook is just for you, not something for others to see or judge. Just scribble ideas – be random. Also stick in clippings or objects – stimuli for the future.
- Switch media – experiment with new approaches. One approach I stole and used with students was to give them rolls of wallpaper, three inches brushes and emulsion paint and a subject to paint. Get away from desks and easels, and try working on the floor.
- Choose subjects at random – open a dictionary or a book and choose the tenth word on the page as your subject.
- Draw, draw, draw. Don’t be precious about it, but the more you produce the more chance of something amazing.