The drive to create... no matter what (part 6 in a series)

In part 6 of our ongoing series on the roots of design, the artist behind OneClayBead, Lee, discusses her drive to create... no matter what.  

Such a powerful part of being an artist! Picasso once said that, for him, painting was "just another way of keeping a diary." This shows how natural creating and artistry can be for many people. Thank you, Lee, for sharing your inspiration!

 (handmade pottery pieces shown above + below by Lee of OneClayBead)


According to Lee, "the urge to create has been with me as an internal drive from my earliest memories. I drew on everything, and with everything. My mother bought me art supplies when I was a toddler to stop me from drawing on the walls with her make-up. I was given Play Dough to discourage me from molding all the food on my plate into landscapes and animal faces.  My parents are both business people with few creative urges of their own, and have never, to this day, understood what it is that I do, or why."

"I was gifted by them with permission to be creative without judgment. Consequently, art feels very much a part of who I am rather than like something I was taught or shown.  As an art major in college, I found structured assignments tedious and had a lot of self doubt about my abilities for the first time."

 "Towards the end of sophomore year, I finally learned to use the structure and parameters of an assignment and infuse it with the wild  inner passion to create. Learning to channel my natural artistic instincts into a given project is probably what has allowed me to make a full time living as a studio artisan. But what has allowed me to enjoy my studio life, and to progress as an artisan, was the early formative experience of being given supplies and tolerance without too much rigid and formal education."

"Experience has shown me that art is a predilection or predisposition that some are born with more than others. While we all have creativity that we can tap into and enjoy, studies show that only 10%  of a population in any given culture have a very strong drive towards artistic expression. These people are going to create no matter what. I've seen those kids when I taught afterschool art in an elementary school. My daughter is one as well! When you bring out the supplies, a few kids will start to assemble something or experiment on their own accord, while the main group waits for instruction. As an art educator, I used to hear the words from Pink Floyd echoing in my head, 'Hey! Teacher! Leave those kids alone!' Because creativity isn't about what you make. it's about who you are being in the moment."