The one thing I will never forget (besides my little library incident) was art class. My teacher was Mrs. H. She was mean. She told me my drawings looked "stunted" and my pottery was "squatty" when I was seven. SEVEN. She yelled at me for leaving paintbrushes in the water too long. I got in trouble for accidentally cutting one of my projects into a bazillion tiny pieces ... okay, maybe that was on purpose. But what really pushed her angry button was that fact that I was addicted to the color brown. I chose brown crayons. I scribbled with brown markers. I even mixed together all the paint in my little watercolor palette to make 12 different hues of ... brown. What can I say? I was a kid who liked brown. Mrs. H just didn't understand.
![]() |
Brown, brown, brown ... woo!!! |
Essentially, I quit creating and started copying.

Bloom Anyway. Read about it HERE. |
I was conditioned to believe creativity is a trait .. either you have it or you don't. As I've gotten older and (hopefully) wiser, I have learned the opposite is true. Creativity is nothing more than a mindset, a choice really. You're not born with or without it. It's not something you can learn in an art class. It's a completely organic, original process. It cannot be forced. It thrives when you least expect it, popping up out of the cracks of your dry, dead, sleep-deprived brain like a lone flower, bravely facing the withering sun of other people's expectations.
Will your creations suck? Possibly. Okay, probably. At least a few of them, anyway. Does that matter? Absolutely not. When the creative process takes place, there's no worry about what other people will think because there is no such thing as "wrong". How freeing is that? It's like, it's like ... going commando or something. Or not. Whatever floats your boat.
Sometimes creativity is just plain weird.
The question is, "WHO CARES?"
Go for it!
Caiti
Glad you've joined the a-z meme. This is a great post. I love your "voice" in this, and also what you had to say!
ReplyDelete@ Shelley - Thanks! I've really enjoyed the a to z meme; it was a perfect way to get this blog started.
ReplyDeleteYou go, girl.
ReplyDeleteYou have hit this so squarely on the head. Wow.
Yup, I LOVED this!!
Really!
Hugs!