I want to...

It's hard to separate being creative from making things.  I think, though, that being creative is more than being imaginative.  I saw on a motivational poster something like, "Everyone has dreams, some people wake up and do them."  It is possible that a few people saw the world as Picasso did, only he went ahead and drew what he saw.

Maybe this blog is about motivating me to do stuff as well as learn about it.

I have tried wood carving and had some success but I am not particularly coordinated.  I currently don't have the patience or the ability to do fine detail.  This is true for most artistic fields.  I guess that keeps the discipline of writing open as typing doesn't require the hand-eye coordination of most other art forms.

That isn't good enough.  I can be a sufficiently skilled wood carver if I put the time in.  XKCD and Dinosaur Comics are great comics even if they don't contain drawn pictures of great complexity.  I should be able to work around my limitations and still display creativity.

Further, creativity is not the exclusive domain of art.  Science is built on creativity to at least the same extent and most famous scientists should be considered artists of the same caliber of the great of the painting and music worlds.  A scientist first has to create a hypothesis, then has to create an experiment to test that hypothesis.

As a teacher, I need to open student's heads (figuratively) and give them an almost Buddhist style awakening so they remember and absorb what I teach.  Difficult concepts need to be explained in new and interesting ways.

So, a big part of this blog will be describing the fruits of my creativity.  It won't be all wood carving, it probably won't be much about carving, in fact.  I want to learn about other art forms.  Following a recipe for food or instructions to make paper airplanes aren't exactly examples of creativity, but I will have created something and worked on my coordination.
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I need to correct a possible misunderstanding now.  I am not a complete klutz, nor do I have any official or documented disabilities.  I have trouble writing legibly and my drawings - used in the classes I teach - are simplified as much as I can manage to keep them understandable.  I was a great swimmer although not quite world class.  I am comfortable in the outdoors and have not cut off any digits or limbs when using an axe or chainsaw.  Still, I was never picked early for sports teams and my attempts at juggling did not show improvement after thirty minutes (I may try again, as part of this blog).]
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Although I will be describing how I am learning to do or make things, I will also be looking at theories and research into creativity.  This will be for me generally, to see what I can do for my son and what I can do as a teacher.  There are ways to encourage and increase your creativity.  I intend to try them.

Creativity is a subject that everyone agrees is important and everyone acknowledges having to some extent.  But it, consciousness and memory are ignored by laypeople as too difficult or intangible to study.  I hope to learn different.