On Creativity

The urge to create often takes several different directions.  Musicians become painters.  Actors do needlework while waiting on the set, or else write the screenplays in which they star.  Artists enjoy gardening, using their color sense to make vibrant beds of flowers.  And so on, and so on.  I’ve just returned from a quilting retreat.  Quilting entered my life about ten years ago when I took a class, just to keep my sister-in-law company.  Like so many before me, I was hooked by the interplay of color and graphic design.  Now it’s one of my favorite recreations—funny how that word has “create” as its root, isn’t it?  I have a quilting room that overflows with fabric, patterns and notions, and own seven or eight sewing machines, from a modern marvel by Viking to a circa 1870 treadle machine.  I collect sewing implements, as well, as my antiquing hobby feeds off my sewing hobby.  I’ve also segued from quilting into machine embroidery and beading; my bead collection is ever expanding.  This is all added to my long-time hobbies of painting, knitting, crochet and cross stitching.  The point here is that creative instinct is not static.  It doesn’t settle on one thing and exclude all others.  The artistic child in all of us loves to play, and giving free rein to that urge multiplies our creativity exponentially.  To become better writers, if that is our goal, we should give ourselves artistic freedom and boldly go wherever it takes us.  The result will be a freer mind, so freer expression of the words and emotions inside us.