someone recently asked me can you tell
me about the time you first realized you
were an artist and I couldn’t you see
I’ve always been an artist I was born an
artist and I never stopped being an
artist it’s just something I do it’s
funny he said because for those of us
who don’t consider ourselves an artist
we can usually remember a time when we
realized that we aren’t an artist now I
believe that at one time or another we
were all artists and somewhere deep down
inside we have the ability to find that
creative side of ourselves again and
nourish it now if you were to walk into
a first grade classroom and ask who in
here is an artist you’d see dozens of
hands shoot up into the air children are
creative sadly all too often children
stop believing that they are creative
and start believing that creativity is
something reserved for a select few
people with natural talent I recently
asked one of my art class is the same
question who in here is an artist you
want to know what happened
to students slowly raised their hand and
then one of them said I’m not really an
artist but I’m trying to have a positive
[Laughter]
yeah crazy hi it’s and it’s kind of sad
it’s kind of sad that that kind of thing
happens somewhere between when they’re a
child and by the time they become a high
school student they’ve lost that
creative sense and by the time these
children become adults that this has
become a very deep and long ingrained
mindset the fact is I hear the words I
suck at this
far too often what I always say to that
is you don’t suck you’re just learning a
frustrated student once told me mr. Bohr
up there are some people that just have
a lot of natural any pause for a moment
I thought he was going to say natural
talent and that he’s not one of them
I hear that kind of thing a lot he
surprised me though he said some people
have a lot of natural suckage
and I’m one of them natural seconds that
doesn’t even exist I said to my surprise
there were other students in the room
have started nodding their heads in
agreement with him say yeah there is mr.
Bora I have that I have natural suckage
ah what are we gonna do I this is when I
first realized how big of a problem this
was now I’ve taken some time and I
sculpted this student and believe it or
not you will see these feelings and
beliefs about himself reflected on his
yeah it doesn’t look very pretty does it
as you can see because this student is
always comparing himself to others he’s
developed a very negative attitude about
creativity the corrugator muscle here
and his brow as furrowing his brow and
anger also because he hasn’t taken the
time to practice and develop his
creative skills he’s constantly
disgusted with his own creative
incompetence the levator lab lies
superiority R is creasing his nose into
a disgusted sneer and because of all of
the negative words he’s always saying
about himself it’s affected the shape of
his mouth the rice aureus muscle right
here is pulling the corners of the mouth
down in sorrow now this is a problem not
because of the unattractive look on his
face not because this student doesn’t
have the ability to be creative but
because he believes he doesn’t now this
sculpture not only represents the
student it also represents you it
represents me and countless others who
have ever felt these feelings now what
do you suppose would happen if this
student were to stop comparing himself
to others now he is constantly comparing
himself to me his teacher who’s been do
art for twice as long as he’s even been
alive he just started taking an art
class and for some reason he thinks that
if he is not immediately as skilled as I
am then he must suck it’s sad isn’t it
sad sad now it is sad he doesn’t suck
though that’s an imaginary thing there
is no such thing as natural sockets
that’s why I call it imagined natural
suckage see now the this behavior is
very destructive and it will kill his
creativity it’s unfair and if he doesn’t
stop well it’s just going to continue on
and on and on now I sometimes do a
project with my students we’re at the
very beginning of the semester they make
a self-portrait then after months and
months of teaching them all sorts of
drawing skills they will draw another
self-portrait lots of times they get
better in fact most of the time unless
the student has just completely given up
on everything it gets better
this student however was convinced that
after months of practice and learning
new things he got worse he was convinced
that his first self-portrait looked
better than his second self-portrait
isn’t that strange you see he was trying
to compare himself to other people he
had not yet started comparing himself to
himself now this is what he should be
doing comparing himself to himself not
only is it good for his creativity but
it’s essential for him to be able to see
his growth and progress when I took both
pictures and I and I showed them to him
side by side he was shocked to see how
much he had improved and it’s not
surprising but the look on his face
also changed as you can see his brow is
no longer furrowed that corrugator
muscle right there it relaxed and guess
what the frontalis muscle here in his
forehead also contracted a bit making
his eyebrows raised and surprised
looking a little better still not quite
there though let’s do something about
this sneer let’s imagine that this
student now with his newfound talent
after realizing that he did progress
let’s say he committed himself to
practice let’s say that he actually
spent time developing those skills all
too often we we give up on developing
our creative endeavors before we’ve
given it a diligent try no notice I said
try a diligent try not just try you see
has anybody in here ever seen somebody
do the pottery wheel
have you seen somebody do the pottery
wheel looks pretty fun hi and if you
were watching somebody that had any sort
of competence on the pottery wheel like
probably looks kind of easy now
lots of my students are very excited to
try out the pottery wheel they have
these grand imaginations of the giant
cereal bowls they’re going to create eat
Froot Loops out of however after about
10 minutes on the wheel well they’re
just hoping they can get through the day
without doing something too disastrous
they it’s a really hard thing to do and
it takes lots of practice
this student man when he when it was his
turn on the wheel after about thirty
minutes he stormed off threw his hands
in the air and said I can’t do this this
is too hard mister bore up and I said
well you have to try I did try he said I
tried three times and I couldn’t Center
the clay three times try three hundred I
said
he didn’t like that very much but the
point is anything worth doing is going
to require practice and trying something
for three times it’s hardly trying at
all now anybody who has ever dedicated
some time and effort to learning any
sort of creative skill knows that the
first year is barely scratching the
surface give yourself five years and see
where you’re at in fact if you want to
master something you may have to
dedicate a lifetime of practice to
learning that skill now as our student
has one second here I spent some time
practicing it’s changed his face a bit
too you can see that he no longer has a
disgusted sneer on his face his levator
lab-id superiores has relaxed and his
orbicularis oculi right around his eyes
has contracted ever so slightly
narrowing his eyes in determination to
get better looking a bit better
still kind of sad looking though this is
you remember was from the negative
language coming out of his mouth
now what if he stopped telling himself
negative things what if he started
telling himself positive things what do
you think would happen well if you ever
noticed how hard it is to say something
negative with a big smile on your face
I’m gonna try it I’m gonna try it for
you man I suck at drawing
I must be a horrible person it sounds
weird doesn’t it sounds strange strange
and sarcastic it just doesn’t sound
right and guess what the reverse is also
true
if you have this guy’s look on your face
it’s really hard to say something
positive so I’ll turn that to you
I just love how when I work hard at
it’s just strange now an interesting
thing happens when we start telling
ourself positive things our brain starts
believing it isn’t that interesting when
we tell ourselves something positive our
brain starts thinking more positively
and guess what the more positively our
brain thinks the more positive words
come out of our mouth this starts an
amazing upward spiral to positivity it’s
a great thing now didn’t get through the
sculpting as fast as I warned it got a
hurry there we go got a smooth some
things out here alright now that our
student has started saying more positive
things the look on his face has changed
no longer is he that sad angry disgusted
person no he is now a pleasant and happy
and confident person
[Applause]
now I want to make something clear
creativity is not owned by the visual
arts human creativity has no boundaries
you can use creativity in every aspect
of your life the skill of creativity
would be well it would be well if you
learned it and nurtured it in your own
life now we saw before that our student
wasn’t only smooth his face out a little
there
he wasn’t comparing himself to his self
he wasn’t practicing things he wasn’t
telling himself anything positive but as
we do those things as we monitor our own
progress by comparing ourselves to
ourselves as we dedicate ourselves to
practice and as we use positives
positive language to reinforce that our
own creativity will grow and those signs
of imagined natural suckage will go away
remember you don’t suck you’re just learning thank you