Pablo Picasso once said… ‘We are all born an artist, the problem is how to remain one as we grow up…”. Pushing aside my reservations for showing enthusiasm for Picasso in this one area, he certainly gets me thinking; where does our creativity go?
If you ask a 5 year-old to draw you a picture, they will, unsurprisingly, come up with artwork that is fundamentally non-representational in the traditional sense. The mistake we make is to dismiss the art as bad – just because a person doesn’t have blue hair, or a donkey isn’t pink etc.

If you take the time to listen to 5 year-old child when they show you their art piece, there is normally a story; “This is mum, this is me, this is my cat, these are aliens and they are in a ship….”. The child is telling a story; the art is not intended to be accurate, but they are proud of their art as it succeeds in telling a deeper message they want to convey.
A young child uses their innate creativity to explore, discover, collaborate and problem solve. As we begin to tell them when art is good and when it is not, and when their representation is right or wrong, they begin to question their own ability.
Artist were traditionally trained by masters in their studio to produce the art required of them when commissioned by a patron, often to evoke beauty of the highest form. Are we subconsciously conditioned that visual art must do this today, even though contemporary artists try and break down these conventions? Is this what we are teaching to our children?
As we become teenagers, we learn more and more about artists, designers and the technical standard we need to reach - that we feel is far beyond our capabilities.
So we stop.
Most adults will never delve into creating artworks - despite it being innately in us as human beings to express and document our existence in this world.
Are we teaching creativity out of children?

Picasso was trained - he knew what ‘good art’ was and he responded to these expectations creatively, which manifested in the Cubist style - The Fauves went back to expressionism through a creative use of colour and the surrealists ‘imagined’.
Perhaps it’s not ‘remaining an artist’ as Picasso states, but having the courage to have a voice, be different, go against convention and expectation, say something new, and most of all, not be afraid of what others think.
All the great artists from the 20th Century were brave; they didn’t care about how others would respond and were true to themselves in presenting the world in a different way.
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