“Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”
~ Pablo Picasso
The theme of this month’s issue of Bella is youth, so this month I wanted to focus on young creatives as well as those creatives who are focusing on, working with, or inspiring the youth. As I prepared for this month’s story I came to an uncomfortable realization that there are not a lot of young creatives in my world. Sure there are a lot of young people in my life who are creative, but none that I know of that are considered “creatives” and certainly not a whole lot making a mark on my world.
I will go into some “professional” advice on what can be done about that but let me start by chiming in on what I believe is one of the major hurdles that keeps our youth from realizing their creative potential or being taken seriously as a creative — Us.
By us, I mean the “adults” of the world. We adults teach and constantly instill limits on our children. We teach them what art is, what it means to be creative, and how and when they should express themselves. I believe little by little we chip away at the young’s creativity: we make minor adjustments and corrections, we give “feedback”. Little by little we tell them to stay in the lines, use the “right” color, technique, medium, etc.
“Adults, who outnumber kids four or five to one, are in charge. We wield the resources, run the world, and completely thwart kids’ creativity.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson
At the top of my list of recommendation for adults is to throw away your current definition of art and creativity. You can see last month’s issue of Bella for more on my thoughts about traditional art and the difference between artists and creatives.
The world as a whole will come for the confidence of our young, but who are we not to defend it for all it is worth. I think the value of confidence can be measured by the impact the absence of it has on a life. Personally I see a distinct lack of confidence in the young. They feel they “are not good enough,” what they do is not good enough. I think most of us have had a young person in our lives who have created something that would be consider “horrible,” but they delivered it to us with the confidence of a world renown artist. Where does that confidence go? How are they taught to be less confident in themselves and their work? Again I think we need to first look at ourselves, the adults of the world. As the question goes, “What would you do if you were not afraid to fail?”
“To me creative living is any life that is guided more strongly by curiosity than fear.”
Elizabeth Gilbert
The website GreaterGood.Berkeley.edu/article/item/7_Ways_to_Foster_Creativity_in_Your_Kids offers some great advice and starting points for developing creativity in the young.
Please check out the full article for details, but the steps listed are:
- Provide the resources they need for creative expression.
- Make your home a petri dish for creativity.
- Allow kids the freedom and autonomy to explore their ideas and do what they want. Don’t be so bossy.
- Encourage children to read for pleasure and participate in the arts.
- Give children the opportunity to express “divergent thought.”
- Don’t reward children for exhibiting creativity; incentives interfere with the creative process.
- Try to stop caring what your kids achieve.
Everything created by mankind was first brought to life in someone’s mind, in his or her imagination, born of creativity. However, as a society we tear down what is different from us. We criticize those among us who are brave enough to leave the box. We warn them of how wrong they are and tell them that one day they will come back to us. Until they don’t, until they are just crazy enough to stay out there long enough to make a difference.
I encourage you to join in my pursuit of young creatives, both existing and the ones yet to come. I do hope there will be more to follow soon and I will get a chance to feature each in depth but in the mean time there are two local Instagram accounts I would recommend checking out: Kenneth James Benson and Artsy Rew. As always, you can find me and those I follow at A Tad Creative Production.
Art is defined as producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotion power. This is how Tad sees the world. He is in awe of the moments created by life and photography is his attempt to record or reproduce those moments. After traveling the United States for more than two decades, he was drawn to Aiken for its combination of environment and culture. Tad is the managing partner of Bella Magazine and owns and operates a photography and creative agency, A Tad Creative Production.
