Letter to the mother of a student

A few days ago I got a message to the platform professor by the mother of a Secondary 2 student (some 13 years).

The first movement that came to mind is to respond as Professor of Education Plastic, Visual and Audiovisual I am your child: do these tasks on color, to do such other perspective ... but the question is not referring directly to the subject, It has a much broader character, but no longer large concrete ... how to fully develop creativity ...

I wear 12 years of high school teacher Drawing, and ones 7 researching about Visual Arts Education at the University and I think I had never asked myself this question so directly and take the challenge of this text answer now.

Obviously the answer will be thinking more about the age at which the question refers, However, many of the things that will raise below are equally valid and adaptable for younger ages, also even for adulthood (where it seems that creativity tends to get lost).

I write also considering a normal situation, as we thought that confinement will have expiration date. I mean the proposals that I see cultural shows, it is clear that now in the midst of the pandemic can not attend in person, However, many of these spaces have been opened for free online on screens.

I start from my subject to go to other places that I dare to enter. And now I try to go answer the question: How can my child fully develop their creativity?

Firstly, from visual arts would propose that may have the most diverse materials have different scope the artistic techniques. From trying to develop abstract ideas through painting, and through the sculpture or drawing; why not, to try to paint with beets or other natural materials, open the toolbox to see what ideas can you think of to create abstract or figurative objects, to try to make sculptures with wire, to play with play dough or clay to try to shape the feelings or any concept that you go through your head, with a knife carve a potato or other vegetables to make any art form ... In short, you have to be too creative with creativity, virtually any material that is capable of being manipulated for artistic work.

To try to draw what you see from the window, to try drawing a composition of glasses and fruits, the faces of the people living, to try to draw your pet, try to take on that role with what he dreamed last night ....

I tried to do a video narrating a story, try to create visual illusions play recording from your mobile, take advantage of the tablet computer to work and creativity from graphic design, make up a logo of a company, to create a poster to encourage people to get along with this situation of confinement. Memes that make fun and hang on networks.

See also, I go to museums to see important works in the history of art, as well as contemporary art (now you can see many of them open). To soak in the drawing, Paint, Sculpture, performances, happenings, installations and video art works ...

Also see plays and dance, from the most classic to contemporary and transgressive. Participate in some play (that when we open the doors of the institute is to point to the theater group of the center that they do really well).

I hear music from all different eras and styles. Personally I would recommend to the least one pass from the greats of classical music to contemporary music (avoiding depending on what reggaeton), through rock and jazz 50 (I'm thinking of Chuck Berry and Ella Fitzgerald ... but there are a thousand more).

That the least try it with a musical instrument, keyboard, guitar, clarinet ... there are so many that maybe he can inspire any. To try to sing, to look if there is a chorus which you could point ...

Read books of both prose and verse. Poetry gives ample room for creativity, I go to concerts (or see online), try to recite himself from emotion, from the feeling. To play to make poetry, write stories invented, fantastic or surreal. Haikus to try to give a lot of play. Which combines text and drawing / painting (there I return to my land), the text you type as if trying to illustrate a book of his were.

To play different games each day, to have fun with the humor is written, illustrated (I recommend Thursday, they are very good) audiovisual. The humor is based on the break with the predictable and this break also sparks creativity.

To try to learn every day is a new word in our language or other, since not all concepts are translated the same in every language. Some meanings lack significant in Castilian. I personally drew attention in ancient Greek terms Aporia and megalosphychia (to my knowledge in ancient Greek, I do not know if they still use modern, I can imagine that if). Equally, Some also invents words comically, in this case I recommend creativity Luis Piedrahita, worth listening to.

Also find some time to read some cosmological theory, I'm still open-mouthed after reading the theories of eternal return and brains in cuvettes. Seeking information on the latest developments in quantum physics.

Trying to be closing this endless text recommend that every day try something that has never done, to cook dishes I've ever tasted, to try new ingredients and flavors, to switch hands to eat, that each day poses new challenges, it stops to observe the beauty that nature opens step in its growth and decline, try to grasp that moment looked light dawn.

Important for creativity is boredom. Find spaces of silence, meditation and solitude. Much of the creativity of the genius comes from within and that calls to stop the noise outside and instead of looking at what happens away from us live what we feel inside. It is the largest of the insights on the creative being reborn every day. That introspection that in the fleeting modern world is so hard to get. Perhaps this confinement give us an opportunity for many to find the time to stop and look inward again.

I did not want to finish without making a small claim to our small and maligned subject. Once a teacher asked me what it was for my subject, For art, what use had in the world. I told: "Imagine a world totally utilitarian that only did that purely necessary. Possibly they invented a food that had the perfect amount of nutrients for humans. We'd take some pills or prepared pasta and not have to spend time in the kitchen ... But, Do not you think it would be very sad not to be able to enjoy good food? Does the utility would lose the flavors of a good rice to the oven or a good piece of fruit? perhaps not be useful (priori) It is not necessary?”

Yes, I firmly believe that art and creativity are the flavor of life and thanks to them we develop our human side; remember this when they come to leave their homes and spend the necessary time to see / experience the spaciousness of a beach, a place full of life lush forest, precious forms of a mountain or the colors of the sky when the sun kisses the horizon.

With the feeling of light a small light, as a beacon that can serve as a guide to answer such a complex question.

Humbly I hope they have been helpful.

thank you so much for your attention.

Josep Ferragut