Be Free!

You can't truly be creative until you kick out that judge. The judge is the big ,scary,thing that's always breathing down your neck. It may be that disapproving look from your teacher, or the judge may actually be you judging yourself. Either way that judge is watching your every move and trying to nitpick every little detail you try and create. The judge keeps you from trying to open up and take risks because it makes you feel that everything you create is a stupid mistake.

During the creative process, the judge has to go! How can you "kick out the judge"? One way is to have a free write. Set the clock for about five minutes put your pencil to the paper or your fingers on the keyboard and get writing! Let out all of your thoughts and ideas,don't ever stop or erase! Kick out that judge and get going! Another way is to have your daily rituals. They make you feel safe, comfortable, and judge free. Trust me, kicking out the judge will get you alot farther.

Sweet Dreams

Dreams, we have them every night. There are good dreams and bad dreams. I personally rarely get dreams and the chances of me remembering them are even rarer! A part of being creative is to explore your inner emotions, your inner self.A big way to do that is to analyze your deams which usually come from deep in your sub conscious, your emotions, worries, and deep thoughts. When i first came to the TAG program i was challenged to keep a dream journal. At first i was pretty excited to be able to analyze my dreams, explore my subconscious, and write about them. That feeling lasted about three days.I had a lucky run in remembering my dreams , but soon i started to rarely remember my dreams! .The first of the three weeks i was at TAG i had multiple dreams of clocks. i looked it up in a dream website and realized that the reason was because "the clock signifies the importance of time in some waking situation. You may be feeling some anxiety of not being on top of things. Your mind may be preoccupied with a deadline that you have to meet or some other time-sensitive issue. It is time for you to tread on and speed up your actions. Alternatively, clocks symbolize the ticking of the human heart and thus is indicative of the emotional side of your life."
I realized it was because i was very worried about how long i would be in a strange world away from home. Also the days that I had my clock dreams I had actually had a bunch of homework due the next day. I realized soon that there was nothing to be worried about. Three weeks is not a long time and I'm having a lot of fun here. My clock dreams soon stopped and were replaced by dreams of my friends from home and my friends here at TAG. I know that my dreams symbolize that while i do miss my friends back home, I really love the friends i made at TAG and without them i would be lost. You should try and write about yuor dreams. This habit helps you out a lot!

What's your ritual?

Think of the word ritual. Many people automatically think of a bunch of people dancing around a fire and singing a foreign song! That's not what i mean. Many people have their personal rituals. They are just the little things that we do daily to keep us feeling sane, comfortable, happy, and ready to start our day. These are the times you can kick out the judge that's always breathing down your shoulders. You can look forward to this ritual every day. Many creative people have rituals. Rituals are important to the creative process because the familiar routine helps get your motors rolling. There is no going back, you must now finished what you started.

One ritual that i found very interesting was the one of Mort Walker (the cartoonist). Before he begins writing he soaks one foot in hot water and the other in cold. Another example of a ritual might be working out everyday. You might wake up each morning at 5:30 am, put on your work out clothes and head out to hail a cab. The ritual is not the getting up or the two hour work out. The ritual is hailing the cab. Because once you are in that cab you cant go back. Another example might be to walk your dogs with a family member and talk about your day. As soon as you get back you are awake and ready to start the day. It's a special ritual and it lets you go out into the world ready to take on whatever life throws at you.

My Defintion of Creativity

"Creativity is allowing ones self to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep"

-Scott Adams

A big part of being creative is having your own personal definition and understanding of what creativity is. This quote made me think deeper into creativity. Many people stop their ideas midway because they are too afraid to fail or make mistakes! They don't have any confidence that they can do anything! If everytime you think of an idea, you decide it's stupid, or you may not be able to do it, or it's too easy to mess up , you won't ever get anywhere! You should try, keep going, and not be afraid of mistakes, who knows what they will become. In any form of art, you should come up with a lot of creative ideas and then look at your mistakes in a new light, and keep that special one that turned out not to be a mistake after all.

I've heard many personal definitions of creativity. What is it to be creative? What is creativity?In my opinion, creativity is complete originality. Something that people look at and find interesting and thought provoking.