I believe that creativity is within all of us. To be creative is to be connected to and expressing the life force that runs in and moves outside of us.  As Humans, we create naturally. Some people are not ‘more creative’ than others. It is just that the intensity of needing to express something can be at different levels and for different reasons. 

We think therefore we create ideas. We invent, we worry, we imagine, we problem solve, we interact with materials - we make things. We make things that are external yet shaped from an internal feeling or idea. Artists are people who have decided to commit their lives to this, as a work and as a way of being in the world.

The images of lions are thought to have been made up to 30,000 years ago. If we think about the drawings made by the light of a flickering flame in the darkness of a cave, it soon becomes clear that the person making them has spent much time watching these animals. They are well observed and realistic. The style and touch of the marks seems to be made by the hand of a consciously developed person. There is a grace and maturity of spirit. 

When I see people noticing and connecting with their own unique style and materials, my heart leaps. The conversation has begun. The relationship has been opened where a different kind of learning can take place.  

Art making can expose us to the complexity of the things that we feel and experience. We can notice how we interact with the materials, our style and choice of application andhow we make our mark. We are no different to those humans of long ago in that we seem to extend ourselves in order to gain a greater understanding. This extension, this inner yearning can result in a tangible form whether a sculpture, painting or a dance others may relate to - or push against. It is a place in which to wonder through our own experience - something real in an unreal world.

 When an image resonates with us, it can be affirming, even healing. We are not being asked to fit into a religious tradition, or live by somebody else’s story. We are being invited to feel our own way, to form our own unique way but in relationship to others.

I’m for an art that includes the wider experience of humanity; the hopes and whispers of dreams within us, the elusive glint of deep knowing, the earth and decay and destruction, the vitality seeking it’s flow in a movement - greater than we can even imagine.

Art, at it’s best opens us to meaning beyond the confines of society. It can connect us in a healthy way. It can strengthen community and ignite growth in human culture.

 Lastly, Art and witnessing Art can shift us into a profoundly different view of time and timelessness. We realise that our imagination can hold access to all time and experience. Therefore we are truly free - if we choose to accept this gift of our freedom.