Yes, you are an artist, and yes, you can start making art. Right now, in fact. We spoke with several experts on fostering creativity and getting back in touch with your inner artist. Here’s why creativity is so essential to all of us and how to tap back into your artistic side.
Picture this: You’re scrolling through Instagram or TikTok and see a video of someone painting a beautiful portrait or creating a unique ceramic mug, and you feel a twinge of jealousy.
Julia Cameron writes in her seminal book, The Artist’s Way, that envy is a sign that you’re creatively blocked.
The cure? Finally taking your creative potential seriously.
Sounds easy, but what does that look like? Well, it doesn’t (necessarily) look like the picture you have in your head of The Artist. There are infinite ways to be creative in every area of your life.
We spoke with several experts on why it’s important to return to your creative self, and how you can go about doing it, so that you can express yourself freely, regardless of your self-perceived skill level.
Do We Become Less Creative as We Age?
As children, we spend huge chunks of our time creating. But for most of us, as we get older, our creative impulses fade, and we may even forget how to be creative altogether.
Why?
One study suggests that it may be because we become too experienced … and a little lazy. Researchers asked different age groups from 4- and 5-year-olds up to adults to solve problems and found that the younger the participant, the more likely they were to come up with a creative solution. (The exception was that teenagers tended to be the most creative of all the age groups when it came to social problems, which makes sense, since they are highly interested in social behavior.)
The scientists suggest that as we get older, we become less open to new ideas.
Another of their findings? When it comes to problem-solving, humans can either be exploitive or exploratory. As adults, we tend to exploit our existing knowledge to come up with tried-and-true solutions, which saves us time … but also prevents us from learning and expanding our minds. Children, on the other hand, tend to explore novel solutions, leading to greater creativity — and even joy.
Many experts believe that another major reason we become less creative as we age is that society tends to think of art as impractical, and those around us, often well-meaning, discourage us from spending too much time on creative pursuits.
“We are all born brimming with potential and play and love. But then we are met with parents, school, society, and rules.”
“We are all born wildly creative. Some of us just forgot,” James Victore, graphic designer, art educator, and speaker on creativity who authored Feck Perfuction: Dangerous Ideas on the Business of Life, told DailyOM. “We are all born brimming with potential and play and love. But then we are met with parents, school, society, and rules.”
Interested in learning more? Check out Overcoming Creative Anxiety
What Does It Mean to Be Creative?
As you embark on your journey back toward your creative self, it’s important to ditch the image you may have of a “real artist.” You know, the painter brooding alone in their studio or the writer sacrificing meals and social engagements to finish a screenplay.
Instead, think of every sector of your life as an opportunity to be creative. It helps to frame things broadly: “Creative” literally means any pursuit or action involving your imagination or original ideas.
Cathy Pickens, an attorney and former college professor who authored CREATE!: Developing Your Creative Process and whom DailyOM spoke with for this story, taught her students to recognize creativity in their jobs as engineers, bankers, nurses, principals, parents, etc.
“Maybe they felt more comfortable calling it ‘problem-solving’ or ‘brainstorming,’ but they soon found that the techniques used by artists could also be valuable in what, at first, looked like less creative jobs.” For example, keeping a notebook to jot down ideas as they came or taking an art class to learn design principles they could use when building websites.
But Seattle-based writer and poet Priscilla Long, whose book Dancing with the Muse in Old Age is set to be released in November 2022, suggests not limiting your creative pursuits only to your job or managing your home. Instead, find an art you like to do and make time to practice it. And practice it, and practice it some more.
“No one busted ass more than Picasso — he was a fanatical worker,” Long tells DailyOM. “There’s a whole line of thought that you can be creative in organizing your day and so on, and I’m not saying that is not true, but I [also] encourage people to find a specific creative endeavor to pursue.”
Why Be Creative?
There’s a reason why we feel the impulse to create: It makes us feel good — in a way that’s measurable by science. A review of the research on the benefits of being creative found that it may promote relaxation, reduce stress and blood pressure, and even boost your immune system.
Not only does it offer you health benefits — and, of course, bring joy into your life — but research shows that if you carve out time in your day to practice your art, it’ll enhance your creativity in other areas of your life. A study published in Translational Issues in Psychological Science found that when university students were given activities that forced them to focus on creativity for a few minutes a day, they felt more creative and were more engaged in everyday creative activities.
Another study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology concluded that young adults had a better sense of well-being and felt that they were flourishing on days when they spent time being creative.
Adding a creative practice to your life is beneficial at any age or stage. Another study published in Perspectives in Public Health found that people over 65 who engaged in a creative activity saw improvements in alertness, self-worth, optimism about life, and, importantly, social activity — they were able to generate social networks through artistic communities that kept them from feeling isolated.
“The stereotypical images of the lone artist are incorrect, and it’s important to know this,” Long says. “In fact, artists work within communities and the art community is necessary for artistic development. Not to mention that we are social beings!”
In other words, starting an art practice isn’t just a method of expressing yourself; it’s also a great way to find a built-in community of people with a common interest to learn from and alongside.
5 Tips to Rediscover Your Inner Artist and Where to Start
1. Get Serious About Play
A great first step to rediscovering your creative side is to do something that came naturally to you as a child: play. That doesn’t necessarily mean joining a team sport or finding the nearest swing set. It means taking time to do things that seem, well, pointless.
“I encourage everyone, as part of developing their creative process, to schedule rambles — a museum visit, a walk in a park, eating in a restaurant that serves food you’ve never tried, a conversation with someone whose life is very different from yours,” Pickens says.
These are all things that give your imagination license to wander. A landmark study from Stanford University proved that walking stimulates creativity. And you get bonus points if your ramble involves something you’ve never done before: Research in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology shows that doing something unusual breaks your existing cognitive patterns, thereby boosting your flexibility and creativity.
Pickens suggests doing little things that scare or excite you. “Not something terrifying, just something that gives you some butterflies in your stomach,” she says. “Then you know you’re stretching yourself.”
2. Carry a Notebook Everywhere
Pickens also suggests keeping a notebook on you at all times. Not to be confused with a journal, this notebook would be used for scribbles, sketches, quotes, questions, and random thoughts.
“Maybe you talk to yourself on paper about what you’d like to try next, or what supplies or training you need to tackle something new,” she says. “Or maybe you list all your favorite ice cream parlors or your favorite trips — and ask why.”
Carrying a notebook around has the bonus of keeping us off of our devices, and that in itself can improve creativity. And speaking of a digital detox, scientists found that backpackers who spent four days in nature disconnected from their electronic devices scored 50 percent better on a creativity test than they did beforehand.
3. Practice Morning Pages and Artist Dates
If you’re looking for a structured guide to bringing creativity into your life, look no further than The Artist’s Way. In her popular manual on how to connect with your inner artist, Cameron provides two tried-and-true daily practices that help to cultivate your creative self: the Morning Pages and the Artist Date.
The Morning Pages are a particular form of freewriting that aims to declutter your mind of all the little intrusive thoughts that suck up your time and energy throughout the day. Basically, first thing in the morning, you fill three sheets of 8½x11-inch paper with any thoughts that pop into your mind — a stream of consciousness activity for your eyes only.
Not unlike a ramble, an Artist Date is when you block off a chunk of time during your week — Cameron suggests around two hours to start — to take your inner artist on a date. That means spending time nurturing your inner artist, who, for all intents and purposes, should be thought of as a child. So, do things children like to do: visit an aquarium, go to an art gallery, attend a concert, or take a walk on the beach and watch the sunset.
Don’t be concerned if at some point this process feels a little scary or overwhelming. Through this process, “we revisit and heal the wounds of the past,” Cameron tells DailyOM. “This is an emotional journey. One that affords us both highs and lows. The process of recovery is a process of discovery.”
In The Artist’s Way, Cameron tells readers to think of the Morning Pages and the Artist Date as a radio receiver and a transmitter. With the Morning Pages, you’re sending your thoughts, emotions, hopes, fears, and insecurities out, and with the Artist Date, you’re opening yourself up to receive inspiration, insight, and guidance.
4. Take a Class in Anything Expressive
Taking a class, whether you find one that meets in person or online, not only helps you find a community of other people like you, but also holds you accountable to your practice. You show up to class and have no option other than to do the work — it’s as simple as that. It doesn’t have to be a standard art class. Feel free to think outside the box and explore any activity that sets your heart on fire, like swing dancing, woodworking, cake decorating, or stand-up comedy.
“You meet a community and get guidance and assignments that you would be embarrassed not to turn in,” Long says. “Even after decades of writing and teaching, I still try to take a class from another poet once in a while. I always learn something and then new poems are written. It is important to find a community, buddies, and teachers, and to learn from past work in whatever field you are entering.”
5. Persist Through Failures
Here’s a hard truth: At least in the beginning, your art won’t be as good as you want it to be. And that’s okay.
“Just start without judgment and keep going,” Victore says. “Don’t worry if it is good; just learn to enjoy the process. Enjoy making and playing with no direction or desired outcome or reward. Take the pressure off yourself. You are not making ‘Art’ — you are finding your voice. Have fun.”
It’s also okay to take on multiple projects at once. As Long points out, it’s not uncommon for working artists to do so! If you feel blocked by a lack of skill or inspiration at any point during a current project and find yourself inspired by something new, go ahead and change direction, then come back to the original project when you feel like it.
However, don’t get down if you’re not always feeling inspired. If everyone waited for inspiration to strike, nothing would ever get done, says Long. You can keep going, even if you feel stuck or unmotivated. “You don't want to be that person who goes from one thing to another for their whole lives, always quitting when things become difficult. Because things do become difficult,” Long says.
She adds that while creativity is part of the human condition, getting to a place where we’re satisfied with our creations takes consistent practice and effort, too.
“Creative work is also work,” she says. “It doesn’t just happen that you write a brilliant poem or paint a brilliant picture. These things are accomplished after hours — and years — of work. It doesn’t just happen. You make it happen.”
