BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Creativity Repressing your Creativity

are there times when you feel you have to repress your creativitiy? What do you gain or lose by doing so and is usually so another's creativity can shine or more of a controlled situation.

Interesting question Moe. I'm surprised no one has answered it. I feel I have to repress my creativity a lot because it's not practical. Maybe if my skills were in designing or decorating I'd feel like it was more acceptable to give in to it. But right now I feel selfish if I take time to create something just for me. Hmmm, that's not really how it should be! This is something I've been working on lately.

Laura - incredible cat picture!
(Sorry to change the subject but I couldn't resist that cat.)

I can't say that I repress my creativity, I just can't seem to channel it in a satisfying way. I can paint, draw, sew, write. I can do a lot of creative things but I don't seem to like what I do when I am done or I lose interest before I finish a project. Any Ideas?

sewnuts - I can relate to your creativity fizzling out in the middle of a project. I will start a painting with a lot of forethought and planning, then after a while I get so caught up in the detail of it I get to the point where I eventually look at it and say, "I guess it's done because I'm tired of it!" I have a painting in my dining room that I can't stand to look at because there are so many things wrong with it that are left unfinished in my opinion, just because I got tired of working on it and rushed to put it in a frame.

I guess that's when your creativity is repressed because you sort of treat it like you do your house cleaning (get it done). But for me it's repressed because I feel I have more responsible things I should be doing. I just don't know why we sometimes don't give our creativity the importance that it deserves. It's a guilt thing - like playing hooky or living a good life when I know others are suffering. That's when I repress my creativity. But our art is something good in the world that people need to look at and experience to feel an emotion toward for just a few seconds. It has a real value.

So I would take a look at what you are experiencing internally and see why you suddenly lose interest before finishing a project. Perhaps you can keep a creativity journal to record your creative process while working on your art projects. Write down your feelings. Just a suggestion. It might help.

Deb, thanks for your input. I get frustrated at my art because I have a great idea but have difficulty manifesting it. I love to sew, for example, and will start making a garment. Then I have problems with fit or what ever. I paint, when my pictures don't look the way I percieve it should, I get frustrated and quit. I have difficulty enjoying the process. So then I try a new medium only to experience the same thing. Shouldn't the process itself be enjoyable? Maybe I expect to much instead of appreciating the "small hurtles" i overcome.

I repress my creativity a lot when I'm around other people because I'm "excitable." I get excited about projects or events and start bubbling over. I've learned not everyone has a creative side and don't really get excited about life in general.

Both you two, sewnuts and Bettyann are describing me. I get bubblling over with excitement about my creative projects and about the details about them and other people look at me like I'm losing my mind when I get into my creative element. Like when I was recently working on my Banafrit Egyptian painting I did a detail that I didn't like so I painted over it and asked my son what he thought and he just stared at me like, "yeah, whatever, Mom." But that's the madness level you have to go to in order to create your best works! Sorry ladies, but that's the honest truth. Sometimes it just goes hand in hand. But even though there are uncreative people that might not understand your excitement in the process of a project, that doesn't mean that what you are doing isn't incredibly valuable and important to the world of art. After all, you are the artists of the world, you have no choice in the matter. You must create. Just like a mathematician is a mathematician . You might find that incredibly frustrating to follow a mathematician's conversation about his or her work, and might even find it boring, but they do what they do. You do what you do and don't make any excuses about being eccentric, odd or more creative than most people around you. Consider yourself lucky! I would venture to say you're probably envied because most people are usually trying to find their creative niche. You have already found yours.

OK, I'm getting long-winded and off the beaten path here. A very wealthy woman once came to my home and said, "you're such the little house wife and look and all the cute little paintings all over the place." I was infuriated. I felt my biggest contribution on this earth, my art, was diminished to a few measly little words of a woman who didn't appreciate art for art's sake. I was crushed because I put my heart and soul and spent countless months on many canvasses only for them to hang on my walls as meaningless splashes of paint globs. Truth be told this woman was jealous that I had the ability to express myself freely on canvass and she was confined to her suits and boardroom. Sure she made a lot of money, but money doesn't buy creativity.

That's all I'm trying to say, stand up and be proud when you feel people around you are pulling at you to be less creative than you really are. And sewnuts, it's definitely about the process! It's nice to stand back at the end and see the fruition of all your efforts and feel fantastic about all your hard work. But when you get into your project you should be getting totally lost in the process. You should loose all sense of time and space and not even know who you are anymore. You become one with your sewing or your painting. The process is what you become emersed with. If you aren't becoming absorbed in the processed and enjoying yourself completely, then you have other things on your mind that are distracting you and you probably shouldn't be creating at that time. It's no good to create when you aren't completely in it. I know, I've tried and I've painted like [censored]. It's better to come back at it fresh when your mind is ready to go deep into it 100% It could be that you are multitalented and want to do more than one thing at the same time. If that is the case, you will have to determine which project will get your attention at any given time and give it all your focus when you are working on it. I am multitalented, but I am mediocre at a lot of things because I never give many things the kind of attention they need because I want to do so many different things. So believe me I know what I'm talking about. But the things that I give the most attention to I tend to do the best, so it stands to reason the more time you give to your crafts, the more skilled you will become and the happier you will become with the output. I suspect you are too hard on yourself. We tend to be our own worse critic. But getting back to my original point, slow down and enjoy the process. That's really what it's al about. If you're not enjoying the process then you are putting too much pressure on yourself to have a particular end result. Don't do that. Let THAT GO! Take it back to step one and enjoy it from the beginning.

Deb and Bettyann,
Today I realized that I give up so easily because of that critical voice in my head that was instilled in me in school. Deb, you are right. I am multitalented and I do have to create. I don't have a choice. When I am repressing my creativity my soul feels so lonely. Frustration is part of the process. My inner voice says "you can't". It should be saying "what if". thanks, I feel like someone understands.

another thing, the artists life can be lonely. It is so good to find this thread. My husband looks at me and says "oh, pretty" and is off doing his thing. He doesn't realize that I need input, truth and stimulating ideas.
Please, keep this thread going!