'I'm not arty' - why you should create

This is a comment I hear regularly or 'I can only draw stick figures'.

It is true some people either have a natural way of creating or are drawn to it at an early age so it just becomes a part of their lives.

BUT, and here is my own experience and thoughts.

We have all been creative prior to adult hood. Do you remember when you played as a child using your imagination ? or stood in front of that butcher's paper easel at kindy just grabbing any colour you were drawn to and painted freely ? Do you remember how it felt ?

As kids we didn't care what was going on around us, we believed in our imagination and imaginary friends. We created.

We coloured in, made play doh people, made up stories, danced without inhibition, made things out of things, we experimented with paint and drew crazy little images or patterns. This is all art, it is arty and much more than just a stick figure.

So what happened ? somewhere along the way we either thought it was childish or 'kids play'. Usually instilled by our caregivers.

Most commonly we compared ourselves to someone else's art work by our own thoughts or even specifically by others.

Sadly, many of us then stop being creative because our own creations were just not good enough in our own eyes ...

But the cool thing with art and creativity is that it's just that - it's a creative outlet, physically and emotionally.

Creating has no specific rules. Yeah, sometimes we create art work that is questionable but don't we have questionable days at work, making dinner or other things we like to do where things just don't go to plan ?

We seem to categorise our selves into "I can" or "I can't". This is not true.

As we get older we seem to put pressure on ourselves to be successful with certain interests when maybe we don't have to be perfect at it or successful. Maybe the enjoyment is just enough.

For the last while I have been running holistic based art workshops and classes where clients just come and create. Sure, there are techniques involved but what I love most and why I continue them is because at the beginning of a workshop nearly every person has doubt or fear of not being able to create a 'masterpiece'. That's not the point.

At the end of the workshop people leave with a feeling of connection to self, a regained trust and they leave smiling feeling 'arty' just as they did when they stood in front of the butchers paper with brush in hand all those years ago.

Art is healing, creativity is within you, you have just forgotten along the way xx

Expressionism - work in progress by me