The Creative Soul

"A quote can change the way you think about challenges you face."

   ~ Catherine Pulsifer ~

Lately, I've been studying mixed media and collage art.  In my journey of learning more on this interesting art form, I came across a blog.  On it, I found the following article that for me, sums up what it is to be a creative person.

Dreaming Goddess, Mixed Media by B Giordano

10 Attributes of Creative Types

Written by:  ~ Alease Mitchell ~

We all have heard it before, "You are one of those Creative Types". And typically my response is, "Yes I am, so I'm to assume you are not". The statement of being creative can come across as condensing or sympathetic , like we have problems. Others just don't know how to deal with us. Like we are a mystery.



But honestly the other types are the people I sympathize with. Being creative is a freeing and joyous experience. Creative people live creative, colorful, self reflecting lives. We love spending time with ourselves - because we can entertain ourselves with the most creative things. We enjoy being around other creative souls because we feed off of each other.

I've listed 10 of those attributes and have provided brief explanations of each.

1. Creatives are highly intuitive, big picture visionaries. We are at our best when we are working with abstract, analytic work that utilizes our divergent thinking. We can envision possibilities that don't exist, connecting the dots and recognizing what's missing in a given situation.

 2. Creatives are agents of change. Because of our divergent thinking we often see problems before they arise. And this thinking on many levels places us in roles of critics or evaluators.

3. Creatives want and need to be seen and appreciated for their uniqueness. We have an unusually high need to be seen and heard. We often work in companies that are small or in small groups. We need to be recognized and appreciated for being forward thinkers.

4. Creative are nonconformists. We like to do things our way. We like to define our own work and be able to take action without asking for permission. We hate to be micromanaged and we can feel stifled in companies with strict norms of behavior, excessive amounts of rules or large bureaucracies.

5. Creatives have their own internalized standards of quality. We may often outperform other employees, but this is because we have a personal, intrinsic commitment to work and feel creative ownership over our work and personal projects.


6. Creatives have a strong need to believe in what they do. Our engagement with work is first and foremost must have a sense of purpose and meaning for us. New projects, creative freedom, and unlimited resources are high on our wish list. If we are not stimulated and engaged in our work, we can in fact "Rust Out" - present a lack energy, sleeplessness, loss of creative ideas and withdraw from others, resulting into a debilitating depression.


7. Creative have many talents and enthusiasms. We tend to have 3 to 4 highly developed skills and enthusiasms far many more activities than most. As soon as we loose interest in one area, we move on to the next subject with great enthusiasm.


8. Creatives have an insatiable appetite for learning opportunities and new challenges that utilize their diverse talents. We need a place where our intellectual and creative boundaries are limitless and where there is an abundant of opportunities for self-expression and personal and professional growth. Many times if our day job isn't satisfying us, we have to seek other ways to express ourselves with hobbies and projects outside of our day -to- day work lives.


9. Creatives like variety and dislike routine. We like to use different skill sets on evolving projects. Rarely do like repetitive work. Working on an assembly line would just kill us.

10. Creatives often have acute sensitivities. It's very common for creatives like us to have one or two areas of hypersensitivity. We can have anything from a strong intuition, an appreciation of nature to an extraordinary sense of taste or smell.

Well, Do you see yourself in any of these attributes? I did! I totally understand why I do what I do. 
 

~ ~ ~

 
Thank you, Alease.  I remember once during a brief encounter, a person referred to artists as "quirky".  I don't know, I honestly do not see myself in that way.  What do you think?  As an artist, how do you see yourself?
 
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