Everyone has the spark of creativity in them but not everyone knows how to channel it. Aside from external factors like a lack of time and resources, we all face internal doubts in our own capabilities.
However, when the potential for creativity exists in everyone, it’s important to help it grow.
Expressing yourself can help you become a better problem solver, feel more confident, and can even help you change your career path.
The great artists, writers, and other creative persons of the world have powerful advice to help us bring out our authentic, creative selves. Let’s look at what we can learn from artists and writers.
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo’s paintings represent a strong woman who bears herself with pride and acceptance. This type of art is profoundly courageous because Kahlo’s life has been filled with tragedies from her very childhood.
Starting with polio, then a life-altering accident that affected her spine for life, having an unfaithful husband, and then an amputation towards the end, Frida seems to have been met by one difficulty after another.
However, she channeled these experiences into her paintings. Her definition of creativity reveals how she experienced her art:
Humanity’s cry for love.
Frida Kahlo. Source
Here’s also how she explained the motive behind her paintings.
Painting completed my life. I lost three children and a series of other things that would have fulfilled my horrible life. My painting took the place of all of this. I think work is the best.
Being creative is a powerful way to channel feelings. Whenever you’re unhappy or distressed, turn towards art to express yourself and to turn difficult things into something beautiful.
Vincent Van Gogh
Van Gogh’s artwork holds a significant place in the artistic landscape. But his early efforts at art were unqualified failures. He was discouraged by his artist cousin and father from working as an artist. Van Gogh could not receive criticism, nor could he let go of his desire to paint.
He would work at one painting for weeks and months and still go on no matter how little he improved. Van Gogh recognized that creative people face resistance.
Entrepreneurs, writers, painters, cooks, hobbyists all face resistance that is proportional to their creative spirit. Resistance appears as self-doubt, procrastination, fear, and other negative feelings. There’s no easy solution to managing these things except to sit and work.
Here’s Vincent’s response to his father when he pointed out that Vincent’s work was not fruitful.
“Nature always begins by resisting the artist, Father,” he said, without putting down his pencil, “but if I really take my work seriously, I won’t allow myself to be led astray by that resistance. On the contrary, it will be a stimulus the more to fight for victory.
Van Gogh
Whenever you feel self-doubt or resistance in any of its forms, remember to work. It’s starting to work that leads to real progress in your creativity.
Pablo Picasso
Picasso is hailed as the greatest artist of all time. His journey to worldwide fame and recognition is not an overnight success story but one that comes after failure.
Picasso has great lessons in creativity for artists and can be especially helpful entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple is said to have gained inspiration for his vision from Picasso.
Picasso’s artwork is characterized by simplicity without losing any sophistication. His drawings often reduce objects to its simplest form. In Apple’s internal training program, employees were given Pablo Picasso’s sketch of a bull as an example for simplifying designs.
It’s this type of thinking that has led to Apple’s innovation, unmistakably unique designs, and excellent user experience.
As an entrepreneur or a leader, you can approach problem-solving by asking these questions:
- How can I strip problems to their simplest forms?
- What’s the most obvious or direct solution to this issue no matter how impossible it seems?
- What basic needs of a customer am I trying to serve?
Remembering the basics and looking at the bare bones of a problem will help you become more innovative and impactful in society.
Conclusion
The artists of the past can help us today find solutions to our creative blocks and even rediscover the artist within us.
We’ve looked at some powerful lessons from Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso on creativity. What shines is that great things come from plodding through work and channeling our emotions into something creative.
Use the lessons in this post and develop your creativity, whether you’re a writer, a businessperson, or any other type of creative individual.