Creativity isn’t reserved for artists. Nor is it reserved for inventors, entrepreneurs, or preschool aged children. The inner prompting to create is a birthright, an innate characteristic of being human. When I hear someone say, “I’m not creative,” I think somewhere along the lines they’ve mistook what it means to be creative. Or else they’ve been given a very narrow view of creativity.
Lately, my curiosity around the business of image bearing, what it means to be made in the image of God specific to His nature as a creative being, has reached a fever pitch. The more I dig into the matter, the more convinced I have become that we all have a creative spark within us, regardless of things such as profession, upbringing, education. Whether or not this spark has been nurtured, is another matter. It is a roaring bonfire for some, an almost imperceptible ember for others. Nonetheless, I’m convinced it is there. This conviction has further spurred my curiosity and brought me to investigate the many ways that creativity shows up in the lives of those around me. I’m calling this investigation, “Creatives in the Wild.”
I use the term “creative” here broadly to include artists as well as those who would identify themselves otherwise. The word “wild” here refers to the places and spaces in which these individuals have exercised their creativity. I’m particularly interested in places that were excavated, infiltrated, or reinvented. In other words, creativity brought to unlikely places, or in an unorthodox way.
My sincere hope throughout this project is to encourage that person who would write themselves off as “not creative”and to reframe what they are already doing that belies that label. To look again. To redefine. I hope to encourage all of us to intentionally nurture one of the most basic elements of our humanity, and to share with one another what comes of it.
So... what are YOU creating? I want to know.