It’s all about Creative Expression – TWL episodes 10-13

These are all the Parts Theory episodes of The Wandering Lightbulb all together in one long episode so you can sit down with a cuppa and lose yourself in the topic without having to click around on the website. Enjoy 🙂

Episode 10 – The Big Picture: Do I really have to read these episodes?

Before we start, and possibly before you decide August’s Lightbulbs are not for you, let me just tell you THEY ARE. If you took one look at the phrase ‘creative expression’ and thought anything like “I can’t draw” or “I’m not creative” or “oh that’s really not me”, then hold your horses.

Ask yourself: WHY is creative expression not for you? What are you rejecting? Are you rejecting the word ‘creative’? Or the word ‘expression’? Is there some deep, early memory of being told you’re not good at singing, or dancing, or drawing, or acting, or building, or co-ordination, or writing or …? (Fill in your own memory – you won’t be the only person that’s had it said of them).

Creative expression is not about art, or performance, or being good at something. It can be something you explore without having to share anything about it with anyone else. It can be as simple as finding or doing things you love. It can be an inner adventure where you decide what is, or isn’t, allowed. If you shudder at the phrase ‘creative expression’ then I doubt you’ll like ‘soul exploration’ or ‘discovering your inner essence’ either. But creative expression is all that. It’s about you. What could be more interesting than that?

For those of you on board with the idea of creative expression, thank you for hanging around through that plea to anyone tempted to skip August’s Lightbulbs. I expect you know all too well how important your own self-expression is.

Let’s dive in!

Creative expression is part of The Wandering Lightbulb series because I feel it’s very closely connected to all three aspects of my Triangle Theory. In fact, it blends all three aspects of KNOWLEDGE, ACTION, EMOTION of the self-development triangle perfectly and causes a dynamic energy that can be positive, uplifting and even regenerating:

Taking ACTION to express something through creativity informs your

KNOWLEDGE about yourself, which causes you to feel

EMOTION which then prompts more

ACTION – and on it goes again.

This is why I appeal to those put off by the term ‘creative expression’ to persevere. The ACTION can be anything. You don’t have to have a palette of oil paints, a dancer’s physique or a guitar with a full set of strings. There are no excuses, because there are no rules. This is YOUR creative expression I’m talking about here. It’s simply no one else’s business.

If that Inner Critic is telling you that you can’t do this kind of thing, remember the critic is only trying to protect you. But there is another part of you that is a very powerful creative energy. Some people feel it as a younger version of themselves, some as an outside creative channel that they tap into. One person I know said they see it as a magic hat they put on, like a wizard. It doesn’t matter how you find it, the creative force inside you is one of the ways to find a fulfilling and happy life, no matter whatever else is going on around you. It’s like a force field, a protective energy, a superpower.

I can see I might have lost you again 😉

At the start of each new topic I explore through The Wandering Lightbulb, I begin with the big picture about that topic. I reckon creative expression has to be one of the biggest pictures out there. As I see it, creative expression IS life, because it’s all about the self.

In his book No Bad Parts, Richard Schwartz states:

The Self is in everybody.

Furthermore, the Self cannot be damaged,

the Self doesn’t have to develop,

the Self possesses its own wisdom about how to heal internal

as well as external relationships.

Wow. Saving a few quid on therapists’ fees right there.

You can see my desire for you to understand this as I do. Creative expression is the act of seeking the self that Schwartz refers to. Whether you like it or not, creativity is the key and, whether you know it or not, you have that creativity in you.

I look back and laugh at my own creative expression. I recall the ‘books’ and magazines I produced as a small child, the whole miniature village of shops I made out of junk when I was in my teens. Then there was the time I painted my whole head in white paint and printed it for a college project. While at university, when drawing architectural elevations, I would be totally focused on ensuring there were dramatic skies, and not really bothering with the details of the floor construction (I left after two years) . Even now I draw diagrams to understand situations. I tear up magazines to produce collages with pleasing colour combinations, make tiny paper sculptures, photograph them, then enlarge the prints up to HUGE proportions. I dance, I sing, I whistle (apologies, many people complain about that one). I find things that delight me and make me laugh.

The reason I tell you all this is because creative expression IS LIFE and there is one thing I love, even more than all these mad, creative activities. I love to teach others how to find that creative expression in themselves. I love to help people explore, discover, enjoy, revel and delight in creativity’s existence in themselves.

I became a teacher, way back in the 90s, to teach kids art. It quickly spiralled into a passion to help others’ self-expression until, one day, I found myself as a consultant change manager, assisting a whole council with its staff development. I have heard A LOT of people’s hopes and dreams. Every single one of us has them.

I was born with a love of creative expression.

I discovered a bigger love when helping people find their own.

This is what The Last Self-Help Book You’ll Ever Need is about. It’s what The Wandering Lightbulbs are about. I want you to find your way to a more expressive, happy, contented, meaningful and LIVED life.

I cannot say anything more ‘big picture’ about creative expression than that, can I?

August’s Lightbulbs will be as follows: in the next episode I’ll be exploring all about the ‘What’ of creative expression. The history, the main advocates, the science behind the woo-woo, if you like. The following episode is the ‘How’ of creative expression. What steps can you take to start your own creative journey, or to explore your creativity in a different way? Finally, and crucially if you follow my Triangle Theory, the ‘Why’ you should consider creative expression in your life.

Episode 11 – What: Creativity is just for artists, isn’t it?

I’ll put it right out here: I’m a visual creative; I understand the visual world and use it to express my thinking. This will be evident as my bias in the creative expression episodes because it’s where I have the most experience and expertise. The Wandering Lightbulb episodes can only ever be introductory snapshots of topics, and I have to narrow my scope to the space allowed. There’s also another reason why the visual arts are a good starting point for anyone looking to explore creative expression:

most people can make marks.

And that’s what differentiates visual art from, say, musical arts, dance, sculpture, craft, singing or any number of other ways to use creativity. Use a stick to draw on a sandy beach, find some leaves in the garden, get out your finest squirrel hair watercolour brush or raid your old school pencil case in the hope of finding something serviceable. Most people can make a mark, so I’m assuming you can too.

If you read Episode 10, you’ll see what kind of resistance we’re up against when it comes to making ‘art’ as a means to creative expression, but that’s not the concern of this episode. Today I’ll be examining how creative expression has been used to help people explore an aspect of their lives, and feel better for it.

I’m kicking this off with an Abraham Maslow quote (he of ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ fame) from his book Toward a Psychology of Being (1962), in which he reluctantly notes:

I first had to change my ideas about creativity as soon as I began studying people who were positively healthy, highly evolved and matured, self-actualizing … (there is a) more widespread kind of creativeness which is the universal heritage of every human being that is born, and which seems to co-vary with psychological health.

A whole chapter in his book is devoted to creativity and its links to self-actualisation. Maslow states self-actualisation is the highest state of achievement: “to become everything one is capable of becoming”. He also stresses that talent and skill are not required when exploring one’s own creativity; the aim is to achieve moment of peak experience. And that’s about as good as it gets for us humans.

This links very nicely into the state of ‘flow’ as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (try this pronunciation: MEE-hy CHEEK-sent-mee-HAH-yee) in his book, Flow (1990). Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. It is this point which I believe is the most important because, if nothing else seems to matter, it could be when all your inner voices, critics and judgement are quieted.

Let’s stray into the world of art as therapy, because I think some interesting descriptions of the power of creative self-expression can be found here.

In Beata Hoffman’s 2016 paper, The Role of Expressive Therapies in Therapeutic Interactions; Art Therapy – Explanation of the Concept, she neatly summarises three things that explain why art therapy should be taken seriously:

Art therapy develops imagination and creativity, empathy, forms pro-social attitude, and what is important, shows that artistic abilities do not play any role in the process of creation.

… examples show that participation in different kinds of art therapy investigate emotional states, provoke positive changes in cognitive development, bypass the communication barrier.

Art therapy can be used by healthy people and patients, children and adults.

In her exploration and explanation of art therapy, Hoffman notes the regular inclusion of children’s art and the practice of art therapy as a way to allow children to express trauma. I want to draw your attention to this in particular, as the practice of creative expression is often seen as a childlike activity. Your opinion of whether this is true, and if it is true whether it’s good or bad, will be entirely down to your experiences of the concepts of ‘art’, ‘therapy’, ‘childhood’, etc. These words and your experiences may cause one of your parts to react. Listen to it for a moment and hear what that part of you is saying.

Perhaps that part is concerned about what creative expression might unleash in you …?

Or maybe it’s saying something like,

‘how do we know if creative expression really does any good?’

Want some science? In her article Your Brain on Art: The Case for Neuroaesthetics, Susan Magsamen describes how a new scientific field, neuroaesthetics, can measure individual responses to the arts and register its effects on the brain.

She writes:

The reward system releases feel-good brain chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin that trigger sensations of pleasure and positive emotions. We see these pleasure centers light up in the brain when we are both creating and beholding the arts or engaged in aesthetic experiences.

How amazing is that?

I hope this brief journey has provided enough provenance to satisfy any of your sceptical parts that creative expression is not only a documented and useful tool to aid self-exploration, but that it could actually be enjoyable.

In next week’s episode we’re getting on with the HOW of creative expression.

Episode 12 – How: Can I be creative with no equipment or paint?

Today’s the day we’re going to get into HOW to start exploring creative expression.

As mentioned, I’m going to focus on mark-making, as it’s probably something you can do and no fancy tools or equipment are needed.

You can even use junk mail …

I actually use collage a lot, as there’s a useful, random element to it that takes away the ‘where do I start?’ blockage. In fact, today’s episode will be all about starting, because once you DO start, you won’t need me or anyone else to prod you along.

Before we get going though, remember that mark-making is easy and you cannot get it wrong. This is your creative expression and you don’t even need to know what you’re doing. Maybe that’s even better than having a plan at this stage.

Start with no expectations or internal ‘rules’. No one is looking.

Supplies. Take your pick – all of these are useful:

Everyday pencils

Colouring pencils

Household paint/tester pots

Scrap paper/junk mail

Magazines

Newspapers

Wax crayons/candles

Specific art supplies such as watercolour/acrylic paint sets, pastels, markers, inks

Biros/cheap pens

Sticks, leaves, grasses, flowers, stones gathered from the wilderness (heh heh)

Interesting bits of recycling like plastic pots, food containers, cardboard, cellophane, cartons

Glue

Cornflour, Polyfilla or other magic things to stiffen paint

Things to make textures with like sand, rice, salt, earth, etc.

Cooking implements like spatulas, forks, whisks, spoons

Paintbrushes – even hairy, old, stiff ones are useful

Scraps of fabric, wool, washing-up sponges, bubble wrap, netting from supermarket fruit

Have you noticed something about this list?

Pretty much ANYTHING can be used for creative expression though mark-making and messing about with stuff.

So don’t ponder on it too long. Go get your supplies, grab a bit of paper out of the printer, or take something suitable out of the recycling bin and stare at my next words for a while …

Now what?

Even fantastically talented and motivated artists, writers, musicians and creators of all sorts can get transfixed by The Blank Page. That’s the bit that happens before you actually start. Happily, that’s not us right now, because all you need to do is make a mark of some sort. Any sort. But, if you need them, here are a few ‘warm-up’ ideas:

Use a pencil or something else suitable (fork, safety pin, cocktail stick?) and poke holes into a random piece of paper. Make them into a pattern, or be random. It’s up to you.
Pick up something from your selection, dip it into something liquidy and drag it across paper/magazine/fabric.
Using pencil and paper, draw something nearby, but you can only hold the pencil with your non-dominant hand, or your foot, or your mouth, or you draw with your eyes shut.
Tear out some images, words or colours from your magazines/junk mail. Move them around on some paper until you like the arrangement. Stick them down.
Mix up some runny paint and use something to drop or spatter it onto paper. Draw the blobs of paint out into stars or other shapes, using an implement or just your fingers. Blowing through a straw to direct the flow can be fun. Mix in some washing-up liquid and you’ll lose yourself all afternoon.
Grab one of those biros and just doodle on some paper. Let your hand decide what it wants to do, whether it’s lines, dots, words, dense filling in or decidedly scribbly.
Print one of your textures, a leaf or some bubble wrap for example, by painting it and then pressing it face down onto paper or card. You can sometimes make another print without repainting, or you could paint on another colour and see its effect on the next print.

This is the experimental, non-judgemental phase. You’re just trying things out. You can’t get it wrong. Have fun and try as many different experiments as you can.

When you’ve done enough warm-up, we’re onto the first considered piece. It’ll be fine – you’ve just created a load of experiments, and these will be useful to look back on if needed.

I appreciate that few people reading this will immediately grab loads of supplies and get going. I’m hoping this exercise is something you’re enjoying reading about and fancy giving it a go and then you’ll make the time to do it at some point in the next few days, before it drifts into the ‘someday’ pile. But if you’re not interested in doing this at all and feel paralysed at the thought of starting any of it, let alone having fun, then get in touch with me, (you can contact me here) and we can have a quick chat to see where you’re holding back. Even if a part of you is saying ‘that’s just not me’, you’re missing out on a major tool for self-expression, which leads to self-discovery. Maybe that’s the bit you’re trying to avoid? Get in touch – the offer’s there.

OK – now we’re on to more considered explorations.

From all your experiments, you might have found some new favourite weapons of art or you could just use a good old-fashioned paper and pencil. What follows is a list of topics you might like to explore using your creative expression. Choose one that appeals to you or challenges you in some way. Usually, one suggestion will stick out for you as you read through the list. Or, maybe, nothing shouts out to you, but you suddenly have an urge to express something else instead.

Re-read and ponder on some of your answers from the exercise in Episode 3. Choose one of your answers. What colours come to mind? Any words in particular? How can you express the feeling using your collected supplies?

Consider your responses to these words. Do any of them spark inspiration?

Home

Imaginary

Collections

Friendship

Contrast

Roots

Challenge

Extraordinary

Hidden

Tear some chosen, or random, words from a magazine or newspaper. Stick them down in an order to form some sort of poem. Draw, paint or doodle any patterns or illustrations that are inspired by your words.

Paint or draw each of these emotions in any way you want, using any of your supplies. Notice your thinking/feeling process as you consider each one:

Rage

Contentment

Suspicion

Joy

Belonging

Ambivalence

Triumph

Agitation

Peace

Create the calmest creative expression you can, using your ‘calmest’ supplies.

Put on some music. You choose the mood, and create what you feel as you listen.

I would usually run this kind of exercise in a workshop, but I’m leaving you to do it by yourself. Sometimes I think that’s the only way to get an authentic response, so don’t judge anything that comes up. Just go along that flow. It can also be interesting to keep notes or write about the experience, either straight after, or within a few days. Note any thoughts, memories, feelings that pop up and any resistance that happened. It’s also interesting to note what caused you to pause, or stop, or overcome any reservations to carry on. You can get all sorts of parts chattering during creative expression. We’ll come back to this work in Episode 13.

All of these instructions, supplies list, prompts and everything in this episode is available to print out from my website here. It might be a bit more handy than trying to read off a screen.

Please, please, please reach out to me if you want to feed back anything to do with this month’s topic of creative expression, particularly if you’re stuck, or think this is not for you. Use my contact form here. There’s no charge or any catch. It’s just you and me chatting 🙂

In the next episode I will be covering the all-important WHY creative expression is important. Because I know if your EMOTION isn’t engaged, then you’re not going to bother taking any ACTION.

Episode 13 – Why: Being creative is hardly a matter of life or death is it?

Before we get to the creative part, let’s examine self-expression.

Self-expression is an essential human need and, even in the most extreme situations, people have found ways to express themselves and their humanity.

Jewish conductor Rafael Schächter and a group of prisoners in the Terezín ghetto learned to sing Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem as an act of creative resistance.

The crew of USS Pueblo were captured by North Korea and paraded in a series of propaganda photos, but they subtly flipped the bird in every one

(if you don’t know the photo, see it here)

The Tiananmen Square ‘Tank Man’ showed his condemnation of China’s too-rapid economic development.

The need for self-expression is also why art proliferates in more everyday incarcerations. In her paper Incarceration and Creative Expression: Why prisons should increase access to art materials for incarcerated people (2020), Laura Calhoun states that inmates pay for their self-expression in different ways:

The high commissary prices for supplies initially suggest that art in prison is a luxurious form of leisure in which almost no one would participate. Yet, people who are incarcerated still create art despite these monetary costs, risking high-level disciplinary infractions in the process.

The production of their art was perceived as a basic need by those prisoners. We’re back at Maslow again, and this time let’s see that famous triangle depicting the Hierarchy of Needs.

If incarceration removes, or negates, the four lower levels of the hierarchy, self-actualization is the only one perceived as still available. Perhaps the unnatural state of incarceration forces the prisoner to have to remember, or discover, who they are? For some it could be a way of coping with a surreal and frightening curtailing of freedom.

In 1957 Carl Rogers wrote an article, The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change, in which he describes the client as being in a state of incongruence. That is when the client has an internal mismatch between what they are experiencing and their own view of themselves. Could this account for prisoners of war repeatedly and inadvisably attempting to escape their prison camps? Their perceived view of themselves of being heroic and brave being incongruent with their ‘reality’ of being held captive and rendered impotent.

It’s this human need for self-expression that causes me to include it as a Lightbulb topic.

Life in the 21^st century is so fast, busy, demanding and complicated for some people that they don’t have a chance to even learn who they are. From birth to school to training for work, then along come responsibilities such as mortgages, families, bills and other obligations. Some people find that their work, or their friendships, or their family informs their knowledge of who they are. Some don’t. Numbing becomes socially acceptable, even celebrated: wine-o-clock, livestream shopping hauls, boxset bingeing. Perhaps, at this point, there IS no meaning to life?

So WHY do I bang on about creative expression?

When we create, we can reflect and learn from that creation. We can learn things we didn’t know about ourselves, or experience things we don’t like, or notice aspects about ourselves while we are in the process of creation. Creative expression is very much ‘in the now’. In the moments of creation you are in flow (remember Csikszentmihalyi? Remember how to pronounce his name?) And when you are in flow, time stops and you are caught in the act of pure creation.

Catching yourself in a moment of pure creation is you getting to know your self.

One of the overarching aims for The Wandering Lightbulb is to offer you an opportunity to build a picture of your self. If you take the time to discover and get to know your self, you will find what excites you in life is like your North Star. You can align your dreams and plans toward it, decide which opportunities to take up and which to reject. You can always feel a sense of purpose.

I’ve always thought the only way to lose your fear of death is to LIVE your life as fully as you can. I suggest creative expression is a way to do that.

August’s episodes have been SO interesting to write. I knew how I felt about the relevance of creative expression but, until I started writing these episodes, I had no idea it would be the most important topic I cover.

In September’s Lightbulbs, we’ll be back to studying structures that make meaning of life, and I’ll show you another triangle. But never fear, it’s not mine 🙂 I’ll be examining the work of Robert Dilts’ Neurological Levels using the Lightbulb framework, Big Picture, What, How & Why, to develop the topic.

Get excited – I’ll see you there 😉

As ever, I’m always available for questions and comments and you can leave your thoughts here or, if you’d like The Wandering Lightbulb delivered fresh into your inbox every Saturday, you can join me here. A very warm welcome is always waiting 🙂