Category: Creativity

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Creativity~ More Than One Right Answer

When I teach a design course, students are encouraged to brainstorm and draw multiple sketches of many ideas. After this, they are to select the idea that is most creative and best meets the design problem. It’s interesting to me that there are always a few who have one initial idea and want to immediately begin their project.

One Answer,(c) 2011 Joni Beach
One Answer, (c) 2011 Joni Beach

Why is idea generation important to the creative process? Because as Dewitt Jones, photojournalist, says, “There is more than one right answer…” Using divergent thinking, we think of multiple answers and solutions and then select an idea to develop through experimenting, playing,and improvising. We can evaluate as we go, making changes as needed to the design.

MoreThanOne,(c)2011JoniBeach
More Than One, (c) 2011 JoniBeach

In using creativity in problem-solving in art, as well as in life, the focus is on considering multiple possible answers and eventually selecting one vs analyzing to discover the one right answer…                                                                                                                                                         Many times it is not the initial idea that has the most creative outcome…                                                          Use creativity and discover more than one right answer.

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Living Life Using Creativity

Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. Red chalk....
Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. Image via Wikipedia

How do we use creativity in living our lives? Everyday…

1. In our thinking--Imagining…many times life presents us with situations that do not follow a typical path. For example, the economy downturns and the professional positions we have trained for evaporate…a spouse becomes ill just as the children graduate from college…the safety in the community where we live has been compromised. Creative problem-solving helps us to consider possible solutions.

2. In our hearing–We respond to the sounds around us. For example, in engaging in conversations we have with others…as we play an instrument and create music…in singing a melody. We both make and respond to sound in creative ways to express our emotions and ideas.

3. In our visualizing–What we see as shapes and colors impacts our daily lives. For example, we can visually study the characteristics of something to better understand it…artists sketch as a way to design and work out the details of their creation…we watch someone else do something and imitate them. Leonardo da Vinci was a master at using drawing as a way to think about how a machine might work or how a bird flies. Using our sight, we visually take in information about the world around us that can be used to design and create in our daily lives.

Leonardo da Vinci, drawings of machines
Leonardo da Vinci, drawings of machines. Image via Wikipedia

4. In our life experiences and family interactions–Whenever we change from what is to what could be. For example, reaching a new stage of life and making some  changes…parents finding positive ways to teach their children good behaviors…adult children helping their older parents adjust to a disability. We can use information and design the future to be different from the past, bringing into being something that is new, or novel in its perspective.

One of my favorite books on using creativity and holistic thinking is How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb. Gelb presents the ways da Vinci used a holistic approach to create major works of art, as well as to understand the subjects of science. Da Vinci was ahead of his time in using art and science to inform one another.

So, in answer to the question, How do we use creativity?

People use creativity everyday to meet the challenges of daily living and to design and create new ideas,                                                                                                                                                         solutions,                                                                                                                                                         conversations,                                                                                                                                                         music,                                                                                                                                                              visual works of art,                                                                                                                                          life stage transitions,                                                                                                                                                and family traits & values. 

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October…A Reminder of Change!

Autumn Leaves
Image by Tom Olliver via Flickr

So far this month has been one of many contrasts! The great autumn colors of the trees have seemed especially brilliant outside our windows this year. Some days have been wonderfully warm and sunny, perfect for time outdoors hiking on a mountain trail or raking the falling leaves. While on other days the temperatures have plunged below freezing, as if warning us to prepare for the coming winter!

Seasons
Image by *~Dawn~* via Flickr
Pumpkins, photographed in Canada.
Image via Wikipedia

The area farms display an abundance of pumpkins, gourds, and varieties of squashand apples to take home and find the recipes for fall dishes, such as traditional pumpkin pie, baked butternut squash, apple crisp, and pumpkin soup. It is an inspiration to the eyes of an artist, as well as to the resident chef.

As the month of October ends, I am reminded of how life just does not stay constant but is always changing and transitioning into new phases.

Sometimes I am ready, sometimes not,                                                                                                                     but nature just outside my window is always there…                                                                                                                                              quietly reminding me.

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