RKYV Column #5 - Let That Creativity Flow

Column 5 - Creation In Our World: Let That Creativity Flow

Hello there, readers! I hope our holiday season has begun on a good foot; I know mine has! The day I wrote this Pittsburgh experienced its first real snowfall of the year and my entire dorm floor was celebrating.

Time for a recap: last month I gave out a list about encouraging creativity in a society that has an unfortunate tendency to scorn it. Well, encouraging creativity in others is the easy part. Getting yourself to be creative is the challenge.

For this month’s issue I have searched and thought about as many methods of creativity as a busy college girl can – so unfortunately a slightly limited list. Hopefully I can jumpstart your own minds even if you don’t like my suggested methods.

So, here’s this month’s list of ways to let your creative spirit flourish, whether you write, paint, or just want some style in your life.

1) Decorate the house. It sounds simple enough to organize a house and pick out the color schemes. But if it’s so simple, why do we constantly feel the need to redecorate? If your creative muse calls for redesign, well, acknowledge it. Come up with new ideas that will make your visitors and yourself realize, Wow, this person has creativity in this simple aspect of their life – I wonder how else they use their minds to make the mundane exciting?

2) Cook. Again, it sounds commonplace, especially in this day and age where I can’t go to my e-mail from Yahoo!’s homepage without seeing some new recipes to try out. But that’s why it’s a great way to create. Food is a basic necessity; and if you need a way to jumpstart your brain then what better way to do it than while feeding your growling stomach? Cake designs, creative patterns on serving plates, tweaks in recipes to fit your personal quirks for the day – whatever it is, if it’s different and it makes you think, it’s a great thing to incorporate into your life.

3) Paint the shower curtains. First of all this might actually make those old and faded looking curtains last a few more years before you need to replace them. Second of all, this is another part of the house you’ll (hopefully!) see during your day. Here in the dorms our bathrooms are fantastic examples; our white curtains transformed into an ocean mural over one weekend. If there’s a certain setting you’ve found to inspire you, paint it onto your curtains in as rough a form as your craftsmanship allows. You might be surprised by what ideas come to your head.

4) Speaking of decorating – what about simple things being in plain sight? Our bathrooms also have cut out shapes of fish and sea creatures hanging from the ceiling. My floor neighbors have an entire section of wall decorated in Christmas lights and tinsel, as well as leftover spider webs. When I find a piece of artwork or a photo that inspires me, I think it and hang it somewhere in my room. It’s all about bringing those inspirations to your eyes, and putting them where you’re guaranteed to see them. Inspiration is a quarter of the battle; and hopefully, if you see it enough, you’ll be motivated to sit down and get your ideas out onto paper or canvas.

5) Sing. It’s so simple, singing along with songs you know or just creating random lyrics in your head. But seeing as songs are a basic emotion being manufactured, why not use that emotion to create a more specific and complex picture from the base up? I’ll be honest, songs tend to give me many more ideas than I come up with while sitting in my room.

6) Create snippets of personal language. I’m not asking you to be the next Tolkien. Instead, if you have personal quirks and words that you like to use (because I do!), write them out. See what you can come up with. Just let go and let it become as simple/complex as you want. After all – it’s yours!

It should be pretty obvious what my theme throughout all of these ideas is – simple evolves. The smallest things can create the biggest; it’s that snowball effect we hear about.

I hope this gives you many new ideas; and once it does, just let everyone flow and see what happens. Surrender yourself to that creativity and never let anyone tell you it’s ridiculous or crazy. Ask them what they’ve done that makes them have the right to judge you.

Best of luck,
Larissa