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Who Stole Our Colours?
There is one sentence I hear in almost every workshop, often within the first few minutes.
“I'm not creative.”
It is usually said with a smile, sometimes as an apology and occasionally with complete conviction. What has always fascinated me is that it comes from people who have spent their lives solving problems, raising families, building businesses and finding ways through challenges they had never faced before.
How does someone capable of all that arrive believing they are not creative?
A Story We Learn
Children don't begin life wondering whether they are creative. They draw before they can write. They invent stories, build imaginary worlds and ask endless questions, unconcerned with whether the result is good enough. Creativity is simply another way of exploring the world.
As we grow, many of us begin receiving a different message. Education often rewards accuracy, knowledge and finding the right answer. Creativity becomes associated with art, music or drama. Later, the workplace often rewards speed, certainty and expertise over exploration.
Gradually, we come to see art as something we consume rather than something that helps us express, explore and make sense of the world. Creativity becomes associated with artists, rather than recognised in the many ways we already use it.
Somewhere along the way, we stop asking, “What if?” and become more interested in asking, “What's the right answer?”
It is one of the most influential stories many of us inherit.
What Changes
At the beginning of a workshop, people often glance around before they look at the canvas. They wonder what everyone else is doing. They ask whether they are doing it correctly. Many are still trying to work out the right answer.
A couple of hours later, the room feels different.
People look up less and look in more. The questions become fewer. Their hands become busier than their minds. They begin experimenting with colour, texture and the materials in front of them, responding to what is emerging rather than trying to control where it is going.
What interests me is that no one has had to prove their creativity before beginning. They haven't acquired years of training or waited until they felt confident. They have simply been given time, materials and permission to explore.
The question of whether they are creative is slowly disappearing. Their creativity hasn't suddenly arrived. What has changed is the story they were telling themselves.
The creativity wasn't missing. It was hidden beneath a story that had been repeated for so long it had begun to feel like the truth.
A Different Question
The title of this article asks, “Who stole our colours?”
I'm no longer convinced that's the right question.
Maybe we should ask ourselves, “When did we stop believing they were ours?”
This article is part of the series The Experience and The Art of Navigating, an ongoing exploration of how to find our way through uncertain times. If you'd like to read more articles or have future pieces sent straight to you, please follow the link below.
