Can creativity be learned?

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
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Or is it something you are born with? Or maybe little of both?
I ask cause I have a friend that is feeling down because he has problems in this area. I think it's a little of both but that you can still work at it no matter how much you already have in you. Which is what I do a lot. It doesn't come that naturally.
 
Great question Patrice. I honestly feel like an artist, and feel the urge to make and create new things(sharp ones mostly). But I haven't always felt this way. I really started opening my mind to new thoughts and ideas around 4 years ago when going through some really painful personal growing lessons. I really saw the world as black and white and I was either right or wrong. Opening my mind to new things allowed me to touch a part of myself that I'd never taken the time to embrace. I knew it was there, just never did anything with it.
I have continued to try to expand my "creative" side with knives in particular, by reading books, and online articles about art history. Which is one reason I like your current WIP thread!
In summary, I think all people have creativity, natural talent plays a factor in bringing it forth to a concept or creation, but it can be learned.
Many thanks to Tai Goo for the suggestion on reading art history books.... it's been really rewarding.
 
There's a lot off discussion about this on the internet.

When searching for learn creativity, I found 241,000,000 hits. Searching for can't learn creativity and cannot learn creativity, less than 20,000,000 hits. So, I think, perhaps, more people think creativity can be learned than think it cannot.

One of the first few hits when searching "learn creativity" claims "The idea that some people are creative and others are not is a myth." - here.

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What kind of creativity is he worrying about? I sometimes think just designing something that meets a goal will automatically bring the background, experience, and personality of the designer to the process.
 
Philosophically, you're born with it, in that creativity is an expression of your inner self. We are all artists, it's just that many choose to express themselves in other ways and sometimes not that skillfully, which makes the first rounds of American Idol quite enjoyable.
Creativity is also learned in that whatever media you choose, requires the acquisition of technique in order to be able to express yourself, heck even talking is an acquired skill.
When making knives, I have to wait for inspiration to take hold before I start, I can plan materials and shapes beforehand, but I know without inspiration, I'll either mess it up or not finish it. Many of the creative touches I've used have come from trying to reproduce something I've liked about other knives, and the best ones have been "failures" (in that I've failed to do what I set out to, but had a fortuitous accident that has led to something else)
 
I think creativity is a phenomenon of a brain in a certain state. There are ways to bolster that state, and help it to occur more regularly. I find that if I eat well enough, breakfast definitely being important, and don't drink too much coffee (can't give it up entirely) it helps. Likewise, drinking enough water will give you more energy and help you think, and be more positive in general.

I find being overstimulated can be a problem. Noisy flashy stuff such as movies and TV, even screen time such as the internet kind of beat down your attention span and psychically fatigue you.

A good measure of silence now and then, maybe read a book in your downtime instead of watching a screen, or maybe just sit and reflect, can help your mind clear.

Just some things I think are true for me. They are also hard for me to remember to do. And, I'm sure there are those who are most creative after four cups of coffee, working with "Star Wars" or something blaring in the background.
 
Creativity is developed, not learned. The aptitude exists in anyone with average cognitive ability, but like most human attributes it must be exercised to realize it's potential. My own observation is that one must be able to logically and emotionally immerse themselves into a medium with which to create, before creativity will develop to any degree.
 
I think everyone has creativity, just many out there have buried it.

How many young kids out there are creative? I think practically every child is creative in nature, and I also think that every personality never truly lets go of their childhood personalities. We just start to forget about the creativity and bury it from outside influences, perhaps parents, peers, teachers, school curriculum, media, expectations, etc.

Also, the creativity is probably more engaged to a certain activity than others. Maybe it depends on where we're looking for creativity.
 
I believe "Want To" coupled with skills and talents that are learned and honed over time, allows you to make something to some level. Sticking with it and dveloping confidence that has built over time yeilds different levels of creativeness. Another words, you got to want to do it, apply yourself, stick to it and develope confidence with success measured by yourself, but better yet by others, which will then let you slip into creativity. Some folks can't move through those elements without being stroked, some more than others. I have met and had work for me, some folks that just don't have enough of those elements to do much of anything, but they are rare. I believe some folks are definitely more "Artistic" than others, and I beleive it comes from somewhere that is in your makeup that cannot be learned.
Jim
 
I believe creativity is something we are born with and learn to develop through exercising that creativity. Not everybody has the same type of creativity or the same level of creativity. I also believe that the ability to express that creativity has to be learned through practice and application.
 
Hi Pat (and Friends),

I believe there is hope for you yet, as long as you get in shop that is! ;)

I teach at a Waldorf school. Creativity and imagination are very important to us. It is woven into our entire curriculum from pre-school all the way through. There's an old adage I've always enjoyed, "teach art as a science and science as an art." We strive to do that here more than many places I've seen. I believe folks are inherently creative, we have opportunities that help cultivate it...or not. Unfortunately what usually happens is the obverse of what you're asking. Creativity is usually "untaught" or suppressed, alienated and even denigrated far more often than it is valued and nourished. Creativity is an anathema to standardized education; standardized education is the anathema to creativity. The classic tale of an educator runs something like this...ask a group of first graders who can draw, all raise their hands; who can paint, all raise their hands; who can dance, all raise their hands; who can sing, all raise their hands, etc. Ask a room full of adults and you'll get a depressingly different result on all counts.

Mind you creativity and talent, although bedfellows are not twins. Great question, by-the-way. By which I mean, it's the kind of question that can be lived into, deepened and refined for a lifetime!

All the best, Phil
 
Like so many other aspects of "talent", things can be honed and refined, but the underlying talent has to be there. For example, going to art school can't make you a good artist (visual arts, music, etc). And not going to art school won't prevent you from being a good artist. But I think a lot of formally trained artists gain a lot from their education.

If your friend isn't naturally a creative person, perhaps there is something else they're good at. Some people are creators, others are refiners. Both have merits.
 
Patrice, something else that occurred to me- go to Don Fogg's website and read his writings in "The Way." That's good solid work and art related insight.
 
Salem Straub said:
Patrice, something else that occurred to me- go to Don Fogg's website and read his writings in "The Way." That's good solid work and art related insight.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: I Love Don's perspective. It was an amazing read. I read through it several months ago. About fifteen minutes into it I had to stop and tell my friend about it. :D I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone to read. :D
 
I didn't read the opinions here, only the OP. The reason I didn't, is because I firmly believe that creativity is inherent, yet, that it comes with the caveat of being easily distorted, manipulated, influenced and subverted. That's why I don't look at the gallery section, or the for-sale section, and why I don't subscribe to any of the knife mags, etc. I've already been inundated with the perception of what a knife is, but I'm trying to retain what little personal vision I might salvage.

It's also why IMHO, 99% of the knife work looks to have less than 0.1% variation from the rest. Of course the counter argument is that everything that can possibly done in knifemaking has already been done, but I believe that's a fatalistic fallacy, borne on the defeatist homogeny of our assimilative culture.


Try honestly to imagine what knife you'd make if you were the first person to make a knife. Unfortunately, it's impossible, because your understanding of the idea is already preconceived, but it's a good exercise regardless.

Try also to imagine what non-existance is like. It's equally impossible, the mere act of imagination is a contradiction.
 
Everyone has a creative streak in them, it is just hard to find the right avenue to spark it. Once it is sparked and starts to smolder it is just a thing of transferring it to other roads, yeah I know easier said than done:o. I have always felt the need to create in some way and have been lucky enough to have been reasonably good at everything I have tried. It started out with drawing as a kid, then moved on to story writing as a teenager and young adult, a dyslexic that liked to write, go figure:eek:. Then it was building things, any thing, and now knife making. I have never mastered any of these creative adventures because most of them have come too easy. Making the perfect knife is alluding me so far, I can always find a handful of things I feel I could do better so in 20-30 years I may finally get it.
 
I see it a lot like Javand.

#1. I try to avoid looking to outside sources for inspiration, guidance etc. True originality, inspiration and creativity come from within. You have to find the spark inside yourself. It's not a conscious effort to be original, unique or creative,... it's simply making an effort to be true to yourself.

#2. That being said, I do think a good foundation in art history is important, if for nothing else than to learn what your own place in history is and to get an understanding of what others have done before you. In art, “timing” is as important as anything else... being in the right place at the right time, with the right thing. If you can do that, folks will call you "creative". On the other hand, if all you do is follow the trends of the day, you'll always be 20-30 years behind.

It’s when those two things come together “naturally” somehow…

I'm generally the happiest when I'm in the creative mode. That's my motivation. :)
 
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