Our amazing brains operate by coordinating information from the world around us. We are natural experts at reading signs around us; the ability to recognise faces is a very complex skill but we all do it quite easily. Not only that but we can read the looks on those faces, or even intuitively pick up others’ moods. We interpret body language, conversational hints and other signals around us all the time. Humans are very successful at this – our survival often depends on it. Everyone is creative in some form or another. It’s in our human DNA to seek solutions to problems in new ways. It’s what keeps us progressing and developing. We are endlessly creative, not only in positive ways but also, unfortunately, in negative manifestations too. Some of our inventions are morally or ethically frightening, such as cluster bombs or terrorism. Think of the endless weapons and terrible ways we invent to hurt each other. |
Finding outlets to channel our creativity in some way can be a wonderful release of frustration. There are many ways to access this – by learning to sing, dance, play music, cook, make pottery or crafts. Drawing is a relatively simple and cheap way to enhance our creativity, and seems to be a common desire. Most people wish that they could draw, or draw more accurately. There’s something magical about being able to capture the world around us on paper. | Making a drawing about something helps us to understand it better, whether the drawing is of an actual object or not. Focusing on, say, a bottle, while we try to draw it will teach us a lot about line, form, space, tone and the abstract relationships of shapes. |
Great works of art are created by people expressing their deepest feelings of being human and alive. They are able to use their depressions, revelations, despairs and frustrations to inspire and touch the rest of us. Seeing, hearing, reading another human being’s outpouring of emotion can spark our own inspired creativity too, and help us live richer, enhanced lives.