SPARK the Art - ORANGE

CREATIVITY IS FOR EVERYONE, EVERYONE IS CREATIVE

WHAT IS ART?

Defining art is simple: something that has been created using imagination. That’s it. It’s really no more than that. But we make it much more complicated in our minds, we think it means drawing or painting something of great beauty. And it’s this that stops us thinking we are creative. Everyone is creative. Everyone. It’s just you decided at some point that your “art” was lacking, (or someone said it was) and you’ve never really considered it since.

Ok, great art is something else. It might be very beautiful, it might show great craft or fine skill, it will definitely express an important idea or make a deep connection with the viewer. It might well define an aesthetic movement, or move one on. Yes great art is difficult, but like anything that is exceptional, it has taken years of training and commitment. Which is what we really mean by talent – hard work and a deep connection with the craft – not “born genius” (although without doubt some of the greatest painters did appear to be blessed with drawing hands).

WHAT’S CREATIVITY THEN?

Creativity is the artistic process - the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. It’s the thinking and imagining and working things out. It’s the “sketching”, the working out. It’s the looking and seeing, it’s the making of something (anything) without judging. It’s having a go and finding out what you can do (without worrying you have to be brilliant).

Creativity is the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated things, and to generate solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing.

Creativity, for us at the Heseltine Gallery, is not looking for perfection, it’s about playing around, being a bit messy, experimenting, having an open mind, finding out things, getting to know your skills, enjoying the activity. Creativity is fun!