Not everyone is an Artist but everyone needs Creativity!

What is the purpose of art and creativity?

"Not everyone is an artist but everyone needs creativity"

Woah, big opening statement there.

There is a real difference between someoneformulating a creative practice than picking up abrush, moving to a rhythm on a whim or having acrack at something theatrical.

However that doesn’t mean the latter isn’t just as valid as the first.

I have always been a creative soul from learning music at an early age, dancing somewhat professionally as a child then into my adult life and declaring when I was 5 that I was going to be a real proper artist when I was all grown up, that it only seemed natural to me when struggling with mental health I turned to creativity.

There was always something about the feeling, clarity and calm I experienced when utilizing my creative mind, it was a whole body experience.

My entire artistic practice as an artist is built around my mental health and not just the bad but also the good, the great. See the thing is we all need creativity in our lives. Be it through the effects of interior design on our headspace, listening to your favourite backing track or having a huge cry when the protagonist dies in your favourite show, it is the creative arts that impact our soul.

Like many things in my life most of my personal experiences, choices and observations are in hindsight when a close friend has literally slapped me in the face to make the connection.

That is just what has happened with my own experience teaching visual arts to students from 3 years to adult.

There is more to a class than simply laying marks down on a surface, the process is an emotional one. Over the years I have had tears, good and bad, rich and personal conversations and watched those who have felt stuck behind a writer’s block of some sort or the wall of ‘I’m not creative’ charge through it with nervous, humour filled courage and come out the other-side with so much more than their original idea of where and what they were capable of.

Photography by Love Them Wild