After I was round 4 or 5 years outdated, my dad took my sister and me to run some errands. We stopped at his credit score union and found that they have been internet hosting a coloring contest for teenagers. They handed us every a bit of paper that had the identical design for everybody to attract on.
We did our greatest to paint our photos fantastically. I appear to recall that there was a prize for the perfect one, although I do not bear in mind what it was. I additionally do not bear in mind what the picture was that we have been bringing to life, besides that it had clouds on it.
The clouds have been necessary as a result of along with utilizing crayons to fill within the panorama, my sister received some cotton balls and glued them to her paper the place the clouds have been. The colour was excellent, however the texture was what actually stood out. In case you might attain up and really feel the clouds within the sky, this was what they might really feel like.
I don’t know how she got here up with this concept. Perhaps she had seen it—or one thing prefer it—some other place. Or possibly it sprang immediately from her creativeness as she envisioned how clouds would possibly really feel.
What I do know is that she gained the competitors. Her image was the one one which was 3D. It actually popped off the web page in a wholly distinctive and artistic means. That is one in every of my earliest recollections of creativity.
Flash-forward a couple of years and one in every of my lessons in center faculty was internet hosting one other coloring contest. I remembered my sister’s successful masterpiece from years earlier than and glued cotton balls on my coloring sheet.
Once more, there was just one piece that used a 3D design component in the whole class. Mine wasn’t probably the most refined drawing, however it did stand out—actually—among the many others hanging on the wall.
After I was chosen as one of many winners in that contest, I questioned if I might nonetheless name my artwork inventive or distinctive. In spite of everything, I had merely borrowed my sister’s earlier thought. However nobody else had finished something prefer it.
Pondering again on each of those experiences, I’m wondering how a lot of our creativity is actually simply an unusual thought borrowed from somebody or some other place? If everybody in my center faculty class had made their papers 3D, would mine have been extra inventive if it was solely comprised of coloured pencil drawings or paint?
In different phrases, do it’s a must to perceive the gang you are in in an effort to stand out? I am undecided what the reply is, however I stay interested by how creativity and uniqueness relate. And I particularly love the best way seeing an thought for the primary time pops out at you in that surprising means that makes time decelerate and life come into focus.
