IS CREATIVITY SELF-EXPRESSION?
For a long time I held a simple and well-known idea: creativity is not just any human action or its result, but one that contains self-expression, that is, an attempt to express your inner world, thoughts, views and feelings. The idea is not new, but it is important to me.
Gradually this idea not only grew stronger but also developed. As it developed, it changed so much that it almost imperceptibly grew into something new and separated from its original version. Now the matured idea looks at its beginning as something from the good old past that seems weak and insufficient for today.
CREATIVITY IS AN AMAZING PROCESS.
On the one hand, it gives you a chance to show your view of the world through a subjective prism, which is, of course, a form of self-expression. On the other hand, what happens to authors when they express themselves?
To really express themselves, authors go through an important journey: they study themselves, their interests, aspirations and fears, and reflect on ethical and aesthetic values. As a result, authors understand better what moves them and what does not, which states are comfortable for them and which are not. What matters is that this understanding comes precisely during the creative process.
But creativity is not just reflection or art therapy.
What is even more interesting is that, unlike ordinary reflection, creativity lets you create new imaginary worlds. Because these worlds are not limited by anything, they can be built not on who the authors are now, but on who the authors want to be.
If an author shows themselves as they are, they stay the same as they were and even settle more firmly into that state. If an author strives to express who they would like to be, then at the moment of creation they can come closer to their goal.
For example, when an author creates a work about calm, it does not necessarily mean that they are a calm person. It may mean that the author values calm and strives for it. In the process of creating such a work they try to find, create, reach or at least come closer to this state. In this way the author acquires skills that help them achieve calm.
During the creative search, authors actually move away from their existing self towards their ideal self (as they understand the ideal). In the creative process people discover new horizons in themselves: subjects, values; they develop their aesthetics and interests.
Creativity is a process that lets you not only reflect and rest, but also shape a new, “improved” self and change yourself in that direction through action. And an important advantage of creativity, unlike direct attempts to change yourself, is that there is no risk of spoiling anything except paints, film, clay and other materials.
Creativity is a chance to come closer to the self you want to be.
It is known about many works of great authors that before starting they did not know what the result would be or where their creative search would lead. And let me repeat: this search is growth that happens in the process of creative action.
Also, authors often carry the same subject from one work to another. Perhaps this is not because authors have mastered the subject and keep reproducing it, but because the subject is not entirely clear to them and they try to understand it even better by creating one more work?
The same can be said not only about the subject but also about the form – the execution.
A collection of recommendations by successful writers that they themselves do not follow has long been circulating online, under the title «8 Pieces of Writing Advice It’s OK to Ignore (Because These Famous Authors Did)».
The author of the article says you should not follow this advice because those who give it do not follow it themselves. But what if these authors do not ignore their advice, but strive towards it themselves? What if these authors are so wonderful precisely because they try to follow their advice but do not always succeed yet? And perhaps their works would be even more magnificent if they managed to follow their ideals better.
As a teacher, I often set students goals that I am striving for myself but have not yet reached, and give exercises that I myself do not do perfectly. And nothing makes a teacher happier than students who have overtaken them.