What is Creativity?
Elusive concept means something different to three local creatives
By Allison McCrory / Photos by Kate Treick Photography
Flexible thinking. Openness to new ideas. Following a passion. Making new connections.
All the above could define creativity, a popular buzzword in the 21st Century, when unorthodox paths to success are often replacing traditional models. (Think influencers!)
To be clear, creativity is not limited to visual art.
“A lot of people think creativity is drawing,” said UWF art professor and creativity researcher Jim Jipson, who has instructed engineering and business students in methods of tapping into creativity. “I think it’s looking at things a little differently than most everyone else does.”
Jipson believes plumbers and chefs are two highly creative jobs. Starting a new business is a creative venture. Constructing a good life with limited resources requires abundant creativity.
“I can teach technique easily. Thinking is the hard part,” Jipson said.
PUSHING PAST FEAR
“I personally believe that everyone is creative, but we’ve been taught that we aren’t. We have fears that get in our way constantly,” Jipson said.
Mimicking, rote learning, staying in the box, so to speak, are often applauded while new ideas may be ridiculed, often by the least creative critics.
Fear of an insult or rejection or a failing grade can be debilitating — but those things might just be an impetus for change for the better. So Jipson’s advice is to shed the fear — creativity’s worst enemy.
All this resonates with Pensacola graphic designer Katie Cooper-Bussell.
“As a child, I loved to draw and I loved art class in elementary school. Admittedly, though, I was very self conscious about my abilities until I was much older. I also excelled at science and math, so I never really considered myself an ‘artist,’” said Cooper-Bussell.
Eventually she found her way back to her first love, changing her science major to fine arts. In 2013, she merged her technical and artistic skills to launch Lemon Life Design, a branding and design company focusing on local businesses and non-profits.
“I LITERALLY CAN DIE NOW”
“I think a lot of people don’t allow themselves to be creative. Start with a spark,” said Pensacola author Kristen Alger.
For Alger, the spark that ignited her life’s creative work happened 30 years ago when she discovered a bundle of letters in her husband’s grandparents’ Green Bay, Wisconsin, home.
That discovery led to three decades of digging into the story of a Belgian Catholic young man as he traversed Europe with two friends via train, bike and foot. All the while he corresponded by letters with his forbidden love, a Protestant Virginia teacher.
Researching and creating “Three Innocents Abroad” was Alger’s life work despite raising a family, teaching school and publishing a book of short stories.
“I literally can die now,” joked Alger, who describes the book as her “life love.” It will launch on Oct. 24, 100 years after her grandfather-in-law set sail for Europe.
UNEXPECTED CONNECTIONS
Creativity sometimes surfaces as connecting two ideas into one. For example, Uber merged job seekers with cars with carless ride seekers.
Pensacola author and master gardener Terry Henry discovered her 102-year-old mother’s lifelong passion for gardening was a metaphor for growing much more than plants. It was her refuge in difficult times as well as her canvas for creating art that still attracts a host of admirers. Faith in a beautiful garden and the diligence to make it happen inspired Henry to create a book full of gardening advice and metaphors. (Publication date is yet to come.)
As a master gardener, “I can give people gardening tips, but they relate back to relationships and what makes us strong,” said Henry.
As the daughter of an active, independent centenarian (plus two), Henry has a passion for inspiring others to embrace the opportunity for creativity in the later stages of life when time is often more abundant.
“Part of my life vision is to learn and to teach. But also to let people know as we are getting into this stage of our lives that there are adventures ahead. There are things to learn!”
