Are you born with a ‘creative gene’? You know, the gene that endows you with the blessings of artistry and natural access to unlimited hidden knowledge that enables you to become a creative genius.
Caitlin is a fabulous artist who effortlessly creates paintings that ooze colour, vibrancy and originality. Her sister is a clothes designer. Her mother is a magical weaver of wool and creator of textiles. Their grandmother was a milliner. You can trace the creative lineage as far back as Boudica. That creative ancestor was a metalsmith.
In Caitlin’s world, the art of creation has never been seen as an alien enterprise: illogical, unpractical, and yes, sometimes even immoral. From birth, Caitlin’s inner creative person has been encouraged, tweaked, teased and coaxed to come out of its hiding place. Caitlin is a natural born artist. Her inner creative self was never sent to a concentration camp, or condemned to a lifetime of solitary confinement by family.
And me? I can’t blame my creativity, or the urge to be creative, on my family. They are not intellectually inclined towards the arts and crafts of humanity. I come from good breeding stock. Pioneers. Hard-working. Sawmillers and fishermen. Hunters and gatherers. My ancestors did not paint or write or sculpt, as ‘in the arts’. Yes, they painted their houses, wrote shopping lists and sculptured birthday cakes.
Unlike Caitlin’s genetic pool, my genetic pool don’t understand a word I write. My poems, my lovely stories and characters, my friends in storyland, are mere black squiggles on white pages. My ‘fantasies’ also come at a cost. Books and paper, writing journals, laptops, pens – they call come at a cost. You can’t eat them, so what do you do with them in the end? Burn them?
The other question is of course, is ‘creativity’ a learned cultural experience? Caitlin has a deep creative gene pool and she also learned to be self-expressive from conception (no doubt). So, how do others like me, who come from a shallow creative gene pool, with little or no encouragement or support, become so obsessed by the inner urge to create?
Tales Creative Writing 