The Big Blue 'C'
...CREATIVITY
It started for me after many previous diving expeditions, sailing in Greece & more recently at a trip to the beach seeing kilometers of rubbish & plastic like no time ever before.
After being stuck in the lockdown, the ski slopes shut & me being a bit of amateur surfer I wanted to get out. So I took off to the Atlantic French Coast at a time when I would of normally spent skiing. I couldn't help wonder how it must of always looked like this it was just I hadn't seen it as it was always cleared away by spring. There were boxes every few kilometers trying to entice people to pick it up & put it in but it wasn't working. Everybody was just stepping over it. I was mesmerised by it all like a huge wave of colour & textures.
So I started picking through it & came back to make three pieces if work that are now on my walls.
I then watched a film called 'Seaspiracy' & was really shocked about the extent of the rubbish problem.
When I showed my work to friends & family they said the thing I've heard & hear all the time. 'Oh well you are creative I couldn't do that I'm not.' Yes I thought I suppose I am creative, as an ex Sculpture Teacher with a degree in Architecture & jobs which included paper engineer at a children's book illustrators, surface pattern designer for a ceramics company, It would be hard to deny.
I love designing my classes in a creative way encorporating themes to help learn different aspects of exercise & help participants remember what they have learnt & to prompt them.to discover more.
It got me thinking about creativity, whether you are born with it, or you learnt it & really how it can help you in everyday life in so many ways. Despite what we think, we really all are creative in so many ways.
All I had to do now is convince some of my class participants to jump aboard & let me take them on a journey to discover what creativity was hidden inside them.
Time to get creative!
After a lot of interesting research I devised some classes set to help stimulate the creative side of the brain, which as it happens is very closely linked to exercise...& that's a whole other story!
These included mindful movement classes, visualusation meditation, high intensity classes along with discussions about all sorts. To get the mind wandering from - rules/numbers/reviews/ areas of creativity like music/ film/ getting lost / likes & dislikes - all carefully put together to help each person open their creative channels & learn about themselves.
Alongside the classes there was homework activities to set them on their way to experimentation, information gathering & creative stimulation.
All on Zoom at a time when I felt there was no denying that everyone needed a positive distraction & a more creative outlook at problems we were all becoming too familiar with. It seems a perfect time to escape & channel energy to do some good all round.
The rules came at the end with a THEME of recycling & sea they only started their own journey once the group one had finished. For the very final piece I combined parts of each of them into one piece.
The results as you can see we're fabulous, some from people who were adament at the start would argue they hadn't a creative cell in their mind!
The most pleasing thing for me was seeing such a vast range of styles, from varied thought processes.
Each piece was produced after the exact same set of classes with the same given bag of materials only started after 3 weeks of classes with a deadline & time limit of 20 hours.
Seeing their work set in an artistic scene once it was completed really opened everyone's eyes to their inividual interpretations of the project.
I think this project is really worth shouting about whether you agree or not doesn't matter. What matters is we unearthed hidden creativity in each & every one of us with a strong message for us all & our world. The plan is to take this project on a tour one day to inspire people to see beyond the rubbish.
Through opening our creative channels it helps us to see things with new fresh perspectives, be more creative when solving problems & be more open minded to experimentation.
' Q: What is creativity?
A: The relationship between a human being & the mysteries of inspiration *
Thank you for inspiring me!
By Suzanne
I will let the others tell their story below.
( * Taken from 'Big Magic - Creative Living Beyond Fear- by Elizabeth Gilbert.
I am a fan of Elizabeth's writing & read this after our project...well worth a read!)
Really enjoyed doing this course. I wasn’t sure at the start that I was going to learn anything new, change my thinking or produce a piece of work at the end, but magically you got me to do all three! You started something off that’s still rolling - I’ve carried on doing creative projects since. Thanks for the fun and the kick-start.
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