For as long as I can remember I have been making things. Making collections. Making drawings. Making possessions that I thought to be pretty and valuable. I created for the moment, not for the future. I began to recall my creative doings of the past after watching Ken Robinson’s TED talk. One sentence really caught my attention. I’m unable to remember his exact words, but he said that a child entering kindergarten this year will graduate in the year 2022. His point was, how can we prepare children for something that far into the distance when we really have no idea what the future will be like. This concept has been circling my thoughts all week. At first I thought this notion to be negative. If we don’t know what to expect, how can we ever teach the children the things they will actually need to know.
Then I remembered seeing a poster in my elementary school library that stated Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten. I couldn’t remember exactly what was on that list so I looked it up online. I came across this:
- Share everything.
- Play fair.
- Don't hit people.
- Put things back where you found them.
- Clean up your own mess.
- Don't take things that aren't yours.
- Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
- Wash your hands before you eat.
- Flush.
- Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
- Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
- Take a nap every afternoon.
- When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
- Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
- Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
- And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
What I like about this list is that it has existed for over 20 years, long before people could simply look information up online. I also found it amusing that according to this list it was once encouraged to learn, think, draw, paint, sing, dance, play, and work each and every day. I wonder when this changed? At some point I’m sure that everyone who is now in what is considered to be a creative field was once told that their creative passions were more of a hobby and could never really be a career. From the discussion our class had most people agreed that while we were growing up the creative subjects like art, drama, and music were viewed as electives, whereas math, science, and English were mandatory. For me entering a lifetime of art, design, and creativity was not an elective, it was mandatory.
In contrast to the list of life lessons we were taught in Kindergarten I was recently introduced to a new list, 100 Habits of a Successful Graphic Designer. From the 100 habits 9 were read to the class. The two that stuck out the most for me were:
- Travel as much as possible.
- Look at the everyday world for inspiration.
As a busy student it becomes a habit to return home each day after class and work away at completing assignments for hours on end. These assignments begin to take priority. Day after day, even weekends we sit at a computer and complete one assignment after another. After really considering the list of 100 Habits, it became even more clear to me that to in order to keep creativity levels high and to keep producing new innovative ideas we need to step away from the computer and experience the world. In terms of travel, I know that I have yet to see all that Toronto has to offer. I should do that. One thing I have always done is looked at the everyday for inspiration. Although in recent months I may not have been looking as much as I could have been.
I currently view myself as an artist and designer. I’m a person that has always been observant. My passion for collecting and making has stuck with me. I have a habit of watching people to observe their behaviors and interactions. Day to day life has always inspired me. Gathering motivation from unpredictable events is a big part of my creative process. Sometimes the process becomes more important than the final project.
So how do I create? I do. I experience, I gather, I reflect, and then I create.
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