Asking Questions about Creativity

1. Do you believe yourself to be a creative person? Do you think your own views are original or influenced by the views of other people? How does your culture influence your creative efforts?

Yes, I believe myself to be creative. I don’t believe other people’s views influence my own creativity. I think the culture I live in, that is a home life that is supportive of the arts and a culture that regards creativity as a high achievement is very helpful.

2. What motivates your creative ideas? What role do you think emotions play in your creative process?

Usually I am motivated to be creative when I begin a new body of work. Also, I am often motivated to work on paintings when I go to an art exhibit and am inspired by other artists work. New experiences such as travel to different places and seeing unusual scenery, different color combinations and other things I have not seen before also inspire me.

Emotions have a very strong effect on my work. I am more apt to be motivated to work when I am feeling well and in a “good mood”, that is confident and cheerful. I have difficulty working when I am depressed or feeling unwell, or if the weather is rotten. However, if I am in a strong emotional situation, such as that which occurred when a close family member was dying, I was stimulated to express my feelings in many drawings.

3. Do you think that creativity is a result of genetics or learned abilities? Did any significant life events influence your creativity?

I believe creativity is a combination of learned and genetic abilities. My mother was a creative person who expressed her art in women’s handiwork such as sewing and knitting. She came from a family who were artisans and crafts people. My parents were very supportive of my interest in drawing which was exhibited at an early age. My mother took me to art school when I was a child, even though these lessons were expensive.

The most significant experience that impressed me was going to art school in Boston at the Gardner Museum. This is an institution that has its collection in a beautiful old mansion and being in that environment was very important to me. Also, moving from Chicago to Boston when I was nine years old was very meaningful because there I became friends with another girl who liked to draw as well as I did and we spent many hours drawing together. It was her mother that introduced me to the art school at the museum.

4. When engaged in a creative activity, do you have specific goals? Do you have any concerns that people may interpret your work differently from the way you intended it?

In making art, my goal is to create a new object using the flat surface of canvas or paper to invent an imagined world. I set up a problem for myself to solve. I solve it by finding alternative solutions to the problem. I don’t have a particular audience in mind. I’m interested in visually expressing an idea of beauty and an interpretation of my life experiences. I expect other people to view my work as a way of entering into their own consciousness. I know that many people wish to find something recognizable in abstraction. People often see shapes of animals in the clouds or in the configuration of the stars. And it is possible to find some shapes in my abstract work that will remind some individuals of landscapes or aerial views of places.

5. As a creative individual, do you believe that you experience the world differently from other people? Do you think that any "unusual" thought processes are involved when you create something?

I wonder about that. Sometimes I feel I view the world differently from other people because I often look at the world around me as a combination of shapes, color relationships, and abstract forms rather than as specific things. Sometimes I may see flowers, or I may see the same flowers as yellow shapes in a brown or green field. I look at a fence and see lines in space or negative space broken by lines.

7. Do you believe there is a connection between your spiritual self and your creativity? Do your dreams play a role in your creative process?

I think creativity is in itself a spiritual endeavor. Often, when I am sleeping, I may continue to work on a painting in my dreams or I think of what I want to draw while dreaming but I don’t paint what I dream.

8. Do you believe that creativity and genius go hand in hand? Do you believe that creativity is linked to madness?

I believe that creativity is not the same as genius, but each form of mental development requires similar thinking in that creativity is actually a system of problem solving directed at a particular artistic goal, such as the problems presented by a painting.

I don’t think madness, as such, has anything to do with creativity, but that people who are mad, that is mentally ill, can also be creative. Therefore, no, I think that it is nonsense to say that creativity is linked to madness.

9. How do you evaluate your own creative work and the
works of other people? Do you think that monetary rewards and creativity are connected? Are monetary rewards relevant to your own work?

I judge my work according to whether or not I have accomplished my goal which was established when I started to work on a painting. I expect the work to take on a voice of its own and then to be surprised by what I have made. Finally, I judge it by standards of excellence which are accepted in my career as an artist. I would like to get paid for my work and I appreciate it when people buy my work. It does serve to authenticate what I am doing as a career.

10. Do you think it would be good for everyone in the world to be creative?

It would be best of all of the world’s population were highly creative because creativity is a form of problem solving and everyone needs to have these skills in order to have a rich spiritual and fulfilling life.