Creativity and Becoming

I hadn't planned to blog today until I saw a Facebook post from Jenny Petersen of Lakeshore Stamping.

Now, before seeing her post, I hadn't thought too much about why I like to create. I just do. I decided to do some research to see why others create.

In Why We Make Art | Greater Good, seven different kinds of artists were asked why they made art. As you'd expect, they all had different reasons.

For Gina Gibney, a dancer, it is all about giving power to others. She works with victims of abuse as well as individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Dance can provide a way to communicate without speaking words.

Judy Dater, a photographer likes to express emotions; to have others experience emotions she feels when photographing people.

Pete Docteur, a film maker who has been involved in a number of popular Pixar creations, does it because "it's fun making things."

Harrell Fletcher teaches in the art department at Portland a State University. For him, art is anything that anyone calls art—sort of an "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" type of approach. He gets enjoyment from working with a number of people through art.

Kramer Dawes, Ph. D is a poet. He feels he writes as a means to control the world in which lives, trying to recreate it in the way he thinks it should be and to use words to convey the sense of his world to someone else.

James Sturm is a cartoonist who doesn't necessarily consider what he does to be art. However, he does feel compelled to do it.

Lastly, Lawrence Krisna Parker, or KRS-One, is a hip hop artist. He feels that hip hop has kept him young, that it doesn't allow you to grow up too fast; for him hip hop is beyond time and space.

Seven different artists, seven different reasons for making art. For all seven, though, it seems to be something that they need to do.

For me, I know I need a creative outlet in my life whether that takes the form of card making, scrapbooking, music expression, photographing, writing, or even cooking. Life would indeed be bland without those pursuits.

When I am being creative, I can go to my happy place (and no, that doesn't mean my craft room!). I'm in the zone as it were. The zone is a good place.

How about you? Why do you create? Who do you become when you create? Share your answers by leaving me a comment below!

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