I wanna talk about creativity!

Are you a creative person? Art? Painting? Drawing? Writer? Photographer? Design? Florist?

What do you think it means to be creative? Are the above the only way to be creative? I mean, those are definitely artistic but can someone be creative but not artistic?

Let’s talk about some of my own examples.

My husband is VERY good at pretty much everything, but he’s not artistic. (Sure hope if he reads this he keeps reading without feeling offended! I love you babe!)   He can fix anything, MacGyver anything (Ok who is old enough to know who that is??) and build anything.  But he’s not artistic.  However! He is creative! Like, ridiculously creative. 

What do I mean by this? I mean, that he comes up with the most creative ways to find solutions for very tricky or difficult situations. He’s super creative when it comes to executing ideas that he comes up with- most often it comes in finding an alternative way to a specific tool, or fixing something. And I’m ALWAYS wowed. It’s amazing.

For myself, I’m pretty artistic and creative, but I’d certainly call myself more artistic than creative.

I am a photographer and I write.  (Oddly enough, I have a really hard time with also saying I’m a writer!) I have been told countless times I need to write a book; I need to publish myself….Im just not there yet! So both of these require a certain level of artistry and creativity.

Being a creative, or an artist, or both doesn’t mean it flows and pours out of me with complete ease.
Oh let me tell you about my wedding vows! Let me set the social media scene:
Our amazing wedding photographer sends me our engagement photos (there’s…a lot!)
For the next 84 days I post a different photo of the two of us from our session along with a reason why I love my fiancé.
if I was late to write or post…I would LITERALLY get inbox messages or texts asking about them!
Cue 2 weeks prior to our wedding ceremony and my vows need to be sent to our officiant a week ahead of time.
GUESS HOW EASY THIS WAS FOR ME!?

Spoiler: I sucked.

It’s like when I sat and HAD to create this…my fingers were stuck. NOTHING. NADA. I confided in my friends and they laughed at me and said “You just wrote like 84 days of vows, what are you talking about!” BUT it was real. Now obviously I got my vows done, #nailedthem but those moments where I had a mental block were harrowing.

Sometimes, being artistic and creative you get “stuck”….or am I alone here? Or you have been providing a certain service so often that you feel like you could do it with your eyes closed. So what happens? For many I’ve spoke with, it means they start to feel lacklustre in their appointments or sessions or whatever it might be. It becomes redundant and if there is one thing I’ve learned from all the creatives and artists around me, is that redundancy is vibe killer. So what happens? Either they decide to completely abandon ship and quit or they have to figure out a way for that fire to return at full heat.

So they begin to do creative things “on their own”- outside of clients. Things that they are in FULL control of, not because someone is asking for it, but they can get as wild and crazy as they wish. It begins to fuel that fire and rejuvenate that passion.

Ohhhh I digress…..
So how would you define creativity vs artistic? Do you think they’re synonymous with each other? Or maybe you’ve never really given in thought. Or maybe even, you’re in a block and the idea of one vs the other could be helpful in getting past it. Whichever you believe, the world, your world, our salon and many, many other salons are just FULL of creatives & artists and I think it’s really great to see everyone’s perspective and ideas on their own creativity and artistry. So maybe next time, ask them what inspires their creativity and art!