What is Creativity Anyway?

A few years ago, I decided (with considerable conviction) to take up knitting as a creative outlet. I’d seen a beautiful, expert level, painstakingly created hand-knitted sweater and I thought, yeah I can do that. To be clear, we’re talking about something that would take hours and hours and require decades of knitting experience to create and here I was thinking easy peasy lemon squeazy. Dream on, Hilary. 

So, for Christmas, having voiced my mission much like a little child who fervently declares their absolute unequivocal passion for a toy or game that’s almost immediately forgotten, I received knitting supplies. Armed with some instruction from my knitter mum, and a vague recollection of the most basic skills from childhood knitting lessons, I began my newfound creative pursuit. I was encouraged to start with something simple – dish cloths, face cloths, a scarf. This seemed a good idea and so I made about 15 dish and face cloths. I gave the little squares of uneven and haphazardly knitted rows to friends and to C. Bless my friends because they look them with kindness and without raising an eyebrow, much like accepting a scribbled drawing from a five-year-old who declares it a masterpiece. 

Currently my knitting needles and yarn are in a beautiful basket in our living room. I look at them with satisfaction in that they complement the décor of the room and add a touch of comfortable and tasteful hominess.

I haven’t knit the sweater. I didn’t even attempt a scarf. Sometimes, when I look at those artfully placed needles and balls of yarn, I think about creativity and wonder what it means and if knitting dish cloths counts. 

In high school, I loved art class. I drew and doodled and photographed in my spare time and because of the structure school afforded me, art and thus creativity was a part of my regular routine. Once I graduated, I no longer prioritized art or exercised my creative muscles in that way. Years in university meant I neglected art and my focus shifted to prescriptive writing. Essays. Annotated bibliographies. Critical analyses. You know the drill. There isn’t much room for creativity. After all, if your page number is even one tab too far to the left or the right, it's an automatic penalty. 

I’ve often wondered what the determinants are in calling oneself a creative. Are you required to have a hobby like needle point or collaging or painting or macrame? Or is the definition broader? 

In recent years, I haven’t given myself the permission to identify as creative person. I’ve told myself that creativity lies in being somehow involved in a regular and clearly defined creative practice, and now, I wonder if I’ve been wrong all along. I wonder if, generally speaking, creativity creeps into all our lives without us really being aware.

Perhaps creativity is in the meals I make and the ones I royally messed up and had to somehow salvage in my early days of cooking. Perhaps creativity is in the way I organize and reorganize our living room or in the patterns I look for in the snow or ice or clouds with the kids when I’m at work. Perhaps creativity is in the clothes I choose, the soaps and scents and the way I arrange my closet. 

Since moving north, I’ve been able to be creative in what I share on social media. Maybe a part of me is embarrassed to admit that it is a creative outlet. After all, there is a dismissiveness about content creation. The idea being that maybe it doesn’t have many, or any, redeemable qualities and is merely the latest iteration of reality television-style sharing. However, I can honestly say, it absolutely requires creativity. I’ve found over the years, that there are certain environments, like being among the trees, that nurture my creative side, and there are times when I find myself in a creative slump or feeling a lack of inspiration. It’s a reminder of the importance of creativity in our lives.

Perhaps it’s that creativity is about allowing our minds to see things in an open way, rather than in a set way. When I picked up my knitting needles and set about making my stack of cloths, I believed it was a creative pursuit, however, given that the yarn and pattern were given to me, and that my goal was really methodical practise, there really wasn’t much room for variation in this project. Stitch after stitch after stitch. Was it creative? I think my answer is yes, and no. Creativity can be as much about staying in the margins and focussing on creating something from “nothing” as it can be about creating in a free and open way. What matters is the mindset.