In my experience, the gift of creativity comes with a quality that is both a blessing and a curse. We are sensitive to our surroundings, and the energy around us influences us. 

Let me get the curse part out of the way and not emphasise it much. I have stopped watching the news and cut off a lot from my life that depresses me. You may call me selfish, but I can’t take it anymore. It is hard for me to come out of a state of sadness, and it takes months, not days. I have seen this pattern in many other creative people and artists. 

The good news is that you are not born creative. You develop yourself to think like that, so here’s a secret to share with others. As you can see in the image above, that’s my car driving through the storm as my wife talks about how creative minds think differently. These words are written down as I have almost zero visibility on a South African road towards Cederberg that has been declared a disaster zone because of the storm.

It’s fascinating how different humans transpose their interests into a different world experience, mostly not consciously. The photographer and filmmaker in me is scanning these somewhat extreme visuals and thinking about how I will shoot this scene. 

“All you need is a massive telephoto lens, and the lonely tree on that green hill with a thunderstorm will look amazing”, I told my wife.  

She replied, “I was thinking about watercolours and the choice of pigment, how to create shadows, and what colour the shadows will be.”

“Can you please stop the car? I think that old barn with this light will make a great painting”, she requested, and because I am a good husband, I continued to drive.

Artistic people experience the world both consciously and unconsciously with a different filter than people who don’t have an artistic inclination. The same drive on a rainy road could be a scary experience for someone just trying to go from point A to B, and the artist's eye sees the mist in the distance and thinks about how it will be composed or be painted. A rain-drenched road might be boring, and the artist wants to encapsulate the experience, and the mind constantly scans how to achieve that. You are thinking that in microseconds.

“How would I paint it?”

“My eyes are the eye of a lens”.

A scene's beauty, colour, contrast, and texture are a healthy challenge to the mind to convert it into a painting or a print. An artist's brain takes a million photos and compositions in a day. Their world is full of opportunities. This is what their heart desires to record, and the desire cannot be controlled. It’s deeply imprinted in them.

My wife told me that as a child, it was always her desire to express herself through her paintings. I can relate to it because that’s all I have always wanted.  It’s because it brings us the ultimate joy and sense of fulfilment. It’s something deep seated and a thirst that can't be quenched. People who scroll online are fed with dopamine by rolling their fingers down. Meanwhile, for the artist, it's a dopamine rush amplified a thousand times by something they create. The desire cannot be dampened…

If you aspire to be creative, start observing and training your brain. Let the surroundings itch your mind and create curiosity. Dive into the world of imagination; there are no limits. Inspiration is all around you for your next recipe of sour-dough bread or the design of your lounge!

Kind regards

Muji