Right Side of the Brain Exercise #12...

OK, back to creativity, nonsense and purple lemons…

I used to teach creative problem solving to grade school kids, prisoners, continuing education paralegals, moms, family and some private gathering. I did it through drawing and imagery and challenging what is real, normal or the correct, conventional way of seeing, doing and thinking. It never failed to get some interesting results. I think I learned more than they did! So I thought I’d share:

Creativity exercise # 12:

Have you seen a purple lemon? A lemon can be purple if you use your imagination you can see a purple lemon. Now imagine biting into a purple lemon, what do you taste? Now grab a #2 pencil and a piece of paper and draw a purple lemon.

What’s that you say? You can’t draw a purple lemon with a black pencil? You can’t??? Why not? There are a number of ways to draw a purple lemon. Here are two:
Draw on purple paper (note I didn't say the paper was white did I?). Or draw with your eyes closed in a very dark room so you can’t see the color. No one else can see it either so it can be purple if you say it is. You can also paint a lemon purple and just draw what you see.

Which brings us to Kate’s Creative Rule #1:
“Just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean it’s not going to.”

 I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong
end of a telescope.  Which is what I do, and that enables you
to laugh at life's realities.  ~Theodore Geisel

How to Create a Myth...

Stories, legends and myths have always fascinated me. Where did they come from? Were they plucked from pure imagination or was there some seed of truth? A seed that grew with the telling or grew in the imagination?

I believe all myths stem from some bit of history or truth. An normal day is upset by an abnormal circumstance or visitor, an expectation is exceeded or a dream fulfilled at the most opportune moment, a surprise from mother nature or a nightmare realized – these are the things that become the seeds of myth.

Of course there is one other essential component of the creation of the myth; the myth-maker. The myth-maker is that person who tells the story and adds an adjective or a supposition. He or she is someone who compares the truth with a dream or another coincidental event. The story, the myth, grows like an apple tree sprouting branches and fruit. Soon those apples drop on heads and at the feet of more myth-makers and more story tellers. The mythical apples are stuck in a pocket and shared with a friend or two or twelve. A myth is born.

Do you want to be a myth-maker? Take a story, any story, happy or not and find the interesting truth: A news story about lost boy. Then add a dose of extended reality: he finds an animal den to sleep in. Then add the miraculous: boy is missing for several weeks but is found alive and well.  Ask the question why?

All you need to do now is find a plausible answer and set the story free (tell a friend or two or twelve). The lost boy was tended by a pack of coyotes who assumed he was some kind of human cub. They fed him and kept him warm and taught him to howl. Now for some reason he is able to understand the language of dogs. It becomes a myth about a Dog Boy. Retold and embellished it becomes more interesting and strange as it grows. The apple seed becomes the tree. And as they say, “We can count the number of seeds in an apple but we cannot count the number of apples in a seed.” A myth is born.

How not to be creative – an internal perspective

I used to think that I absolutely positively had to get my chores done before I was allowed to do anything I wanted to do. That’s what I had always been told and I believed it because I was a kid. But now as a grown-up I realize that although it’s a fairly good lesson to teach children, it can become a crutch later in life.
It can become a reason not to do art, or to write or to daydream.
You know those internal dialogs that insist that:
a) I can’t work on a drawing until I finish cleaning the floor, the dishes, the kids, the top of the bookcase, the cat....
b) I can’t sit down and write while the laundry piles up or the shopping need to be done.
c) I shouldn’t be daydreaming a picture book when weeds need to be pulled.
d) I’ve got to answer that email (oh, look at that youtube video – isn’t that cute!).
e) Etc. and so on...fill in the blanks.
What excuses do you use to NOT to make art?

Teaching creativity, outside the lines....

Coloring outside the lines (literally) gave me a lifelong appreciation for creativity and a desire to inspire others to color outside the lines.
 In the early days of first grade, my teacher had mysteriously gone to “get a baby” and a substitute teacher person was there in her place. She gave us a white sheet of paper with three apple outlines printed in a neat row. Her instructions were to color the apples and cut them out and paste them on another piece of construction paper. Simple, apparently clear instructions, right? 


So I peeled the paper off my new lime green crayon (no no #1). Then I broke them in half (no no #2). Then I used the side of my crayon to smoothly sweep color over all the apples (no no #3). I used another forest green crayon (also peeled and broken) to color the leaves. Definitely dark purple for the stems. I did not stay in the lines, any of the lines. And I finished way before everyone else. 


Happily I raised my hand for the scissors. Scissors were monitored in first grade and doled out as needed…I don’t know why. I had my own scissors at home, they were always handy for giving haircuts to my younger siblings.

The teacher came over and frowned at my apples. She took my paper and held it up to the class. “This,” she said, “ Is not how we are supposed to color the apples”.
I was confused; I had followed the instructions?
“We should stay in the lines and use our red crayons properly.” She announced to the class.
“But if we are going to cut them out,” I asked boldly, “Why do we have to stay in the lines?” She gave me a look.
“And my grandpa’s apples are green,” I said quietly.
“Just do what I told you to do.” She replied as she gave me a new clean printed apple paper.

I guess I had too much 6 year old logic and alternative thinking for a substitute teacher. I did follow her directions but I secretly went outside of the lines every time I could. And my red apples had purple stems.
They still do.

What or who has affected your creativity growing up?

Can you teach creativity?

Yes.
A few years back I was asked to teach a gifted and talented group of children. I firmly believed that my class was for all children because everyone is gifted in some way. I got my way and the class was extended to any class that wanted me.
My method of teaching creativity was to use drawing as alternative problem solving.
The first challenge was to get over,
"But I can't draw".
"Well," I asked, "Can you put a mark on the paper?"
Uh huh" was the answer.
"Then you can draw," I said. The first challenge was met so I went on to the second challenge,
"Are you going to grade this?" They asked.
"Nope" I answered quietly.
"Huh?" is the collective response.
My answer usually gives me 2 minutes of bewildered looks. Then hands shot up,
"Ms. Higgins, there are no erasers on the pencils! What if we make a mistake?"
"You can't make a mistake because everything and anything you put on this paper is OK"
Then, of course, the too cool kid would ask "So what happens if I don't put anything on the paper?"
"Then you won't have any fun!"
I smile knowing that this student will probably be the one who draws the most.
And so it begins.
Can you teach creativity?
Yes, by teaching people young and old to access the right brain not just the right answer.

Next Blog: How coloring outside the lines (literally) made me into an artist.