The Creative Instinct

Well, earlier this week I wrote a post entitled Creativity and Depression. A comment by Sari offered the other perspective on the subject. Among a number of interesting points Sari argued that media presentation and our own willingness (as creative people) to express ourselves skewed the perception towards that of the suffering artist. I’ve paraphrased heavily here, so Sari, I hope I’ve not misrepresented your stance.

The Creative Instinct Blog is all about achieving the joy and fulfilment that expressing creativity brings – but the focus does tend to be about the barriers and blocks that get in the way, and how to overcome them.

In fact the book I discussed in my previous post, The Van Gogh Blues, also argues that creative expression brings joy and meaning to our lives – it’s just that too many of us find our path to expression blocked.

That doesn’t always mean lots of suffering or depression – if family work and other interests are also meaningful. Many years ago (back in the late 70s!) I met many people who exemplified this. For a couple of years I worked as an ‘insurance man’. My job was to visit people in their homes to collect their insurance premiums and theoretically, sell them more insurance too. I was a young man and not a great insurance man. I never did sell enough new insurance and as I’ve always been fascinated by people my conversations with my customers often slowed collections down..

Senior Creatives

I found one type of customer was particularly interesting – the retired person who finally had chance to embrace their creativity. Most of them were painters – and very conventional painters at that – but wow, did they get joy from their art. These were men and women in the suburbs of Rotherham, an uncompromising steel and mining town (now ex-steel and mining) in Yorkshire, UK.

These happy people didn’t express regret at not being creative during their working life – just pride, enjoyment, enthusiasm and gratefulness. When I taught creative writing some years later I saw the same thing.

I suppose one frustration I felt on their behalf was that starting so late made it difficult for them to truly develop their undoubted abilities. That’s why I like to emphasise the need to use your creativity now, if you can. Paradoxically though, you might argue that beginning your creative life early and then being blocked by your other roles in life could be more frustrating (and depressing) than making a decision to leave your creativity for later in life.

Danger of Explosion

Well, I know that some people can put it to one side because I’ve met them – but many others simply can’t live with that. I’m one of them and so is my wife, Lynda. We both left school early and without any real ambitions to be creative, but as we grew into our twenties so did our creative needs. Eventually it wasn’t to be denied and if we hadn’t found an outlet for our creativity we’d have exploded.

Anyway, the point I’m making is that, as Sari points out – we should never forget that the personal outcome of expressing our creativity is joyful and wonderful, and we should tell that story too.

The Good Life is Boring?

Of course, another reason for the suffering artist image is our choice of creative subject matter: happiness and joy, fulfilment, a life of deep contentment and peace… yeah right… as if… All that stuff is awesome to experience but often stupifyingly uninteresting to an audience – and more often than not it’s uninteresting to the creative practitioner too.

Lynda’s sculptures from a few years back are a good example – quite disturbing, even though Lynda herself has a marvellously sunny outlook on life. What she felt driven to express at that time came from the darker nooks and crannies of her soul and were always a surprise to those who thought they knew her. Conversely, for Lynda herself the expression of such dark material was the source of much joy and fulfilment.

It’s a complex relationship – but I guess the message comes back to Sari’s alternative perspective and the question - why are creatives so unbelievably happy & joyful & sane & optimistic?

Are we?

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Stop Press - Creativity and Joyfulness!

It’s just turned 7am and I have this moment heard that my daughter has given birth to our second grandchild and first granddaughter! Mother and baby are doing fine. The labour was so quick that our son-in-law, Andy, made the delivery. What a rare privilege.

So how about that for Creativity and Joyfulness? And now we are off to see our new granddaughter!