Art's Explorer # 1: My Creative Inspiration

Creativity is a very broad term, and many people define it differently. When I thought about the term creativity and what it means to be creative, I thought about a number of things that inspires my creativity. What is it that inspires me to cook something I've never cooked before, to draw something from my mind's eye, to hum a tune that I've never heard before? Because to me, creativity is doing or creating something unique, something that no one to your knowledge has done. I then realized that the simple act of living and being present in life and it's experiences sparks my creativity. When I go to the grocery and walk up and down the isles without having a clue of what to cook, I think of different ingredients that go together and that might taste good. I usually don't follow a recipe. When I spontaneously sketch something at a back of a receipt or a napkin, I tend to sketch something I see around me like an imperfect lamp post or a salt and pepper shaker. Children also inspire my creativity. During work studies when we'd have to come up with different activities, I'd have to rack my brain for fun and creative ways for the children to learn new things.

I was born and raised in the Philippines up until the age of 12, and as a young child, my family and I would love to travel around Asia. At a young age, I understood that there are a myriad of rich and interesting cultures out there. My mom would also collect different kinds of antiques and paintings from her travels and display them in our home. I saw that not one painting was alike. There were abstract paintings, still life paintings, paintings of landscapes etc. The artists' creativity is shown in their artwork, and how they used paints and painting techniques to convey what they want to express. Having been surrounded by paintings has definitely sparked my imagination and creativity in art class and in everyday life because it encouraged and inspired me to draw, paint, and create something I thought was beautiful, unique, and sometimes useful.

A painting by my favourite Filipino artist named Oscar Zalameda. I particularly love his use of lines to create this abstract painting

The 8 kinds of smart proposed by Howard Gardiner

I believe that everyone has the capacity to be creative. I think that for as long as there is free thought, imagination, and free will, anyone can come up with something new and unique. I also thought about Howard Gardiner's 8 intelligences. He believed that there are multiple ways of beings smart. As teachers in training, we need to be creative with activities that tap into children's different intelligences. Whether they are linguistic, mathematical, interpersonal etc. By tapping into children's different intelligences, we ensure that they are able to understand and learn something. Not just by reading out loud from a textbook or a slide show, but by giving them different materials and activities that caters to the different types of intelligences. By doing this, we ensure that children become creative thinkers. They will be able to solve a problem creatively, wether it's drawing a chart, acting something out, or using materials to aid them.