Thought-tracking by Dee Fleuriot of Spark Creativity
Hellooooo lovely humans!
I’m Dee, and I don’t think there has ever been a time in my life where people haven’t pointed out the fact that I’m creative. I love being creative and seeing creativity through different lenses. My love for creativity started with crafts and quoting movies when I was younger, and developed into acting, directing plays, writing scripts and teaching drama as I've become older. Another development in that time, however, is that I feel as though I constantly hear the phrase “I'm not creative!” from other people... and it disturbs me to my core!
I might be alone in this belief, but I believe with every fibre of my being, that every, single human is creative. Does our creativity look the same? Of course not. Do we all go into the arts and start production companies or work in design? Hell no! And, of course, we've all heard it before. The inevitable cliché: "if you want to make money, stay away from the arts!" OUCH! The sad fact that makes every creative whimper. So, no - people often don't go into the arts. In fact, some don’t even take arts subjects at school because of societal pressures and a host of other reasons. But does any of that give us the grounds to believe that we are not creative?
Hear me out, here… If creativity includes things like problem solving, ordering, observing, designing, expressing and so much more, could we not then say that the corporate workers who are building (might I say creating?) PowerPoints are creative? Or, what about the totally left-brained people who - as we’re so often told - analyse data, create summaries, collect evidence. Are they not problem solving, observing and designing? Yes - they – damn – straight – are!
I come from a family where my father and brother are ‘left brained’ people who work in finance and my mother and I are the ‘right brained’ people who teach drama. However, I can’t tell you how often our so-called ‘left brained’ family members have given us ideas that we hadn’t thought of. For example, both my father and brother have brainstormed with me and helped me develop ideas about how to build on the foundation of my company, Spark Creativity, and grow it into something more interactive, fun and exciting. As creative as I was, and always have been I had unwittingly placed myself into a box, thinking I could only offer one thing. They (the supposed ‘left brained folk’) reminded me that I could build a company that offers multiple things. I recall my brother saying, "Well, why can’t you offer all of those things alongside each other?" And voila! He broke the box I had fashioned for myself and kept me on my toes, creatively speaking! Now Spark Creativity offers educational children's shows, drama lessons educator workshops which are CPTD Accredited, and we’ve even published a teacher’s workbook for foundation phase drama lessons. What’s that? Four different offerings under one umbrella? Yes, my friend... and it’s all because someone said: "Why can’t you?"
Now, where was I? Oh yes - do I believe creativity can be measured? Yes, to an extent I do. I believe individuals can be competitive within the arts if they would like to be. They could be evaluated by other artists in order to advance their own practice in this industry. That being said, I also believe that true creativity has to do with self-expression and not just talent. I believe that one can channel more creativity if and when they want to. I believe that many of us have an innate creativity that cannot be excluded from our expression - even if we try! But I also believe that people who don’t express their creativity are creative. So, when I hear those people talk about creativity as this ethereal thing that they will never possess, it saddens me.
We are all creative. We all channel creativity differently. We all express our creativity differently and we sure as hell all have creativity within us. Maybe it’s in the way you prepare dinner or make your child’s Birthday cake. Perhaps it’s in the way you decorate your house, design a PowerPoint slide, debate an idea or how you dance when you’re surrounded by your best friends. And that creativity is sometimes really scary because expressing it can make you different, and difference takes confidence... but I urge you to do it because that little piece of creativity within you can bring light into your soul and colour into your life. Find it, explore it and enjoy it because I’m 100% sure you have it!
You may not believe it, but I do... YOU ARE CREATIVE!
© Danielle Fleuriot of Spark Creativity for Collab Company | 2021
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