Week 1

Who am I?
Am I creative?
In what ways am I creative?
In what ways am I not creative?
How and where has creativity been encouraged in my life?
How and where has creativity been discouraged in my life?
Am I an "Artist"?

There was this girl in my 211 English class and she told everyone she was a writer. I had to read one of her papers, as a peer review type of thing, and it was awful. Really awful. No structure, uninteresting topic (maybe if it was well written I would have found it interesting) and I thought to myself, and hopefully this doesn't make me a bad person, where does she get off calling herself a writer? And I thought about it. I came to a couple of conclusions.

1. It is subjective. Everyone surrounding me can write, and yet the majority of them would certainly not consider themselves writers. It was the fact that she WANTED to be a writer, that it meant something to her, and that she had something to say and had to write it was the reason she was a writer.
   
2. Just because you are a writer doesn't mean you are a GOOD writer. In order to be a good writer, to write with some authority and knowledge. The Diary of Anne Frank was written by a girl who had some authority and knowledge of her situation and her life. She wrote honestly about how she felt, what she did, and her subjective observations.

I guess I feel I do not have any of that authority or knowledge to call myself an artist. Maybe the point that was trying to be made tonight is that not everyone can be a doctor, but everyone can be an artist? I just felt tonight that I was doing something wrong by NOT calling myself an artist. I do plenty of artistic things, but I don't see what is essential about me calling myself an artist. And I don't think that is wrong. I think it is fine. I think my life is wonderful. In terms of encouraged or discouraged with creativity, I am both of those things everyday.

I feel it is creative to problem solve. And that is life. Does that make us all artists?