creative demons

The following is a segment of a seminar I am teaching on drawing. I thought you might enjoy it.

When I first started teaching art classes I thought I was just going to take the students through the steps of learning how to draw. But there are other issues that block our abilities that must be addressed before we can proceed. I see these emotional blocks in every one of my classes and in most of my interns. It takes on a personality and can stop a person cold....

Learning to draw is an easy skill to teach. Students do not need to have any special skills to be able to succeed. As in music, one should be able to read music or have a special ear to hear subtle tones to accomplish any form of success. Drawing is putting pencil to paper. End of it.

As soon as a child can hold a pencil they begin to draw. They draw before they can write. They can color and put their imagination to paper (or walls) often before they can talk. We proudly put those drawing on the fridge and jump for joy as they show them. When did we loose this ability? I don’t think we ever do. What happens is we let our hearts and our minds get in the way. As get older we become aware of what others can do so we judge our work against theirs. Somewhere in school (usually middle school) we are told by someone we respect or by ourselves that we can’t draw. Our awkward years give us doubt and we judge ourselves so harshly that many of our skills that we had in elementary school become non existent in middle school just by our belief systems. We continue to judge our work and then start to believe our judgments… I have met many people who say things like… “I can’t draw”, “I don’t have any talent”, “Not my gift”. But yet want to learn. First challenge is to identify those negative messages, define where they come from and to hold them where they can be seen. It’s not so scary then.

I had joint problems as a teenager and was told that I would never be an athlete. Being from an athletic family I retreated to art classes and patiently worked hard and poured my self and my disappointment into it. I learned to draw. But I can’t shoot a basket…I never learned and therefore shy away from that display of my inept abilities. (Family reunions, picnics, etc. --If I do so dare, I must endure the teasing as I try. It's all in good fun now...)

I see this in my kids and their friends today. If you are good at one thing then by default you must not be very good at another. Artist or athlete, Math or English, Drama or music… The list and comparisons go on. Think back to your stories of your childhood. What are your blocks or obstacles to being creative? Do you have any?
What are your creative demons?