Home > Articles > Understanding Your Personal Creative Nature

"Knowing yourself is the foundation of a satisfying and fulfilling creative life." — Chris Dunmire - CoachingYourCreativity.com

Understanding Your Personal Creative Nature

Knowing and Flowing with the Authentic YOU!

Why do you think it's important to understand your own personal creative nature? How about for the simple reason that knowing yourself and embracing your strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, aptitudes, gifts, and talents is the foundation of a satisfying and fulfilling creative life.

Let me illustrate. In this chapter of my life, I do not consider myself to be a "fine artist", skilled at drawing, painting, or any other traditional pencil-to-paper type of art. This has no bearing whatsoever on my ability to be creative or express my creativity through writing or artistic means, however, it's just that I haven't gone through enough (for who?) formal art training and personal practice to be satisfied with my level of fine artistry skill. I'm a fine art dabbler, which may very well turn into a fine art DOer with a significant level of passion attached to it. I'm not there yet, and that's OK.

(Right-brained Tangent: Ha! The corny jokes are just lining up waiting to pounce on this one. "Hello, I'm Chris Dunmire, and I'm a sketchy drawer." [not a sock drawer, mind you, but if I could only get a HANDLE on my painting skills]...)

That being said (before the tangent), most of my visual art is produced in a graphic artist, illustrative kind of way. I have gone through a formal design school training program and do plenty of graphic design for work and play. I'm quite capable of producing eye-catching graphics, layouts and abstract, collage, and cartoony art, but ask me to accurately render that bowl of fruit in chalk pastels in that still life over there and you're going to get smiling fruit with googly eyes jumping hop-scotch squares instead. That's that playful, humorist nature of me that gets expressed through my creativity — and life — every day.

Though I've wrestled with my lack of representational knack for years, I'm accepting more each day that I'm drawn to expressing myself in large concepts with a twist of humor instead of in serious fine details. (Not to mention, these days there are myriads of ways to get that fine artist effect on graphics and photos without being that kind of artist.) For some reason, standing in front of a tree with canvas and paintbrush and reproducing said tree in its splendid exactness doesn't satisfy my continual creative quest and appetite for filtering life through my own sense of what's important to me. Why create what's already there? And yet, I'm extremely grateful to those who love and choose to do that, because that skill is necessary in our world.

Continue to article page 2 »

© 2007 Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com. All rights reserved. (03/17/07). Please do not duplicate this article elsewhere without my permission.

Dollar Bill Origami Money Plant Project e-BookAbout the Author
Chris Dunmire finds meaning in life as an artist, writer, humorist, and Certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach®, and is the driving force behind the popular Creativity-Portal.com Web site. Chris inspires people of all ages to be more creative through her articles, writing prompts, and project e-playbooks like her popular Dollar Bill Origami Money Plant, a "fun to make and gift away" craft project available for instant download at CreativeSlush.com.

Share |


Home
Contact
Creativity Coaching
Free Downloads
Recommended Books

The Amazing Creativity Tool! Humor Writing Contest
Coaching Your Creativity Humor Writing Giveaway
Here's your chance to share your how-to humor knowledge with the world! Authors of writings chosen for publication will receive The Amazing Creativity Tool! Submissions accepted through April 1, 2010. Winning Writings »


Creativity Inspiring Quotes
2009 Creativity Quotes

Free Coaching Guides
Secrets of Creative Women
Make Creative Dreams Real
Van Gogh Blues

Nurture Your Creativity Articles
26 Simple Ways to Nurture Your Creative Life
Act As If
Break Some Rules
Collage Your Fragments
Doodle Cartoony Things
Explore Everything
Forget what "They" Say
Grow with the Flow
List Thankful Things
Make Creative Smoothies
Question Everything?
Play (Mind, Body, Spirit)
Tune In to the Life Within
Focus and Grow
Zen Garden



Creative Possibilities
Tenured in Creative Bliss
Messes of Creativity
Personal Creative Nature
Transitioning Dream Job
Inspiration vs. Perspiration
Affirming Your Creative Life
Quoting Great Minds
Nature of Work
What Prompts Creativity?
Wish U Were More Creative?

Humor & Fun
The Amazing Creativity Tool
Gingerbread House Story
Stay Creatively Blocked
Make Someone Smile
Sidewalk Chalk Art Tips
Unbelievable Sticky Notes
Free-Range Ant Farm

Creativity Links
Creativity Portal
Creative Slush ePlaybooks
Chris Dunmire dot Com

Copyright © 2006-2010 Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com. All rights reserved. No portion of this Web site may be reproduced or published elsewhere in print or digital media except for brief quotations with attribution and hyperlinks to the originating pages on this Web site. Contact | Sitemap

CoachingYourCreativity.com - Coaching Your Creativity - small-step simplicity