I took up learning how to embroider to have something to do while people, who were tired of children, had moved 'up' in the school system and gave teacher in-service days' lectures on teaching/discipline techniques. What a yawn. After the first two years of this annual torture, they didn't have anything new or original to say. Embroidery helped keep me AWAKE. (My principal quickly learned to prefer this activity to me being 'creative' during these meetings.)
I have been thinking about trying new things lately. What a process! Deciding to try something new is like fighting all the demons inside yourself. Looking back, embroidery didn't start as a way to relieve the tedium of teacher meetings - that was a byproduct. It started because I admired someone else's needlework. She encouraged me to try it. Her encouragement freed me to buy an embroidery kit which used only one type of stitch. I goodwilled those pillow cases just last year! I was hooked. Then came YEARS of filling in pictures with thread; it was like paint by numbers. (People admire my satin stitches; it's because of all that practice.) It took me years to step out and start creating my own designs.
Getting my foot screwed up with a bad surgery and a dissolving joint was an impetus for creation. There were months spent being only able to walk 50 feet in a day. Creating saved me. What a struggle those two years were: Lost the job I loved; the school I loved closed, and I lost the ability to walk. The anger almost devoured me. Creativity seemed EASY, after all that. It was still a couple of more years before I could admit I was an artist. Stepping out of your comfort zone is not for the faint of heart.
Sometimes we think creativity is only one thing. "I'm not creative; I can't draw." "I can't sew." "I can't craft." "I can't write." "I have no sense of style." See the common thread? You always limit yourself with 'I can't'.
Creativity is all about enjoyment. I just created the most hideous embroidery piece because I don't know how to draw much less draw to scale. San Diego was on the ocean, and I love gulls. That was the basis for the idea of the piece. I knew the birds were wrong, but this piece just kept getting more and more fun to make. Here's the result. You be the judge. My 2 year old great-nephew is getting this as a pillow for his room. I'm pretty sure he won't care about the scale/perspective problem of the flying gulls.
Sometimes for me creativity is about challenge. It's very hard to stretch yourself. Life here in the dollhouse in Sun City bores me. It's very easy to do the very same thing day after day, month after month. This year I'm challenging myself to step out in Sun City in the ways I embrace when we travel. Here's my first challenge of the new year: I'm taking a real college class at the local community college. Is it Yale? Well, no, but it's a class I've wanted to take for over 40 years, so I'm pretty sure it's going to be fun.
I'm taking Art History: Renaissance to Contemporary Art. There are so many gaps in my knowledge for someone who worships museums. I'm also a little curious to count how many pieces of art the professor will show via power point (I almost said 'slides') which I've actually seen in person. I will also be around YOUNG PEOPLE, and hopefully making some new friends. I can hardly wait!
Sometimes when you 'step out' you get an unlooked for reward. After eight years in New Orleans, I still call that the lagniappe.The class is only costing me $149 (that includes the tuition and fees). Good grief - it's practically free! I got the senior rate for tuition. The book costs almost as much as the tuition, and I even bought it used on Ebay.
This winter and spring, I'm hoping to write blog adventures in the same vein I write during the travel months. Hope you're ready, and hope I am too.
