The Art of Exercising our Imagination :)

Dear friend, as you can see in the picture above I am so excited about writing this post today :) And the reason is: your participation in my yesterday's post about the Flower Girl drawing. 

I would like to start saying that I have an invisible little box full of treasures. And those treasures are important lessons that I have learned over the years from teachers and other great people. Yesterday's post had to do with one of the lessons in my little box and I would like to share it with you today:

When I was still a very green artist (student) I was lucky enough to attend an art school run by someone great: Ramiro. He was a revolutionary teacher and the things that he did as an art educator were remarkable. 

I have heard that art cannot be taught, maybe that's right and maybe that's wrong. But what I am sure about is that, as creative people, we can exercise our imagination, we can push our mind a little bit further and make it work often so it becomes stronger. Like a muscle, the mind of a creative person needs constant stimulation and Ramiro understood that so well.

One of the things that he did that I consider remarkable was this: He created a program for us to exercise our creative minds. He organized small teams of students and over the school year each team had to put together an art show in the lobby of the school. The team had to work closely to make of the show a success. Each student had to create a few pieces individually and then talk (or write) about them when the group show was up and running. At the same time you were expected to talk about other student's pieces as well.

As you can imagine that was a lot of pressure for a crowd of teenagers that were still very insecure about exposing/sharing their own ideas. But as the shows and the debates started coming out a great thing happened: Suddenly we were all excited about these shows, we couldn't wait to see what people were going to come out with, every student's creativity was on fire and I remember this period as one of the most amazing ones in my creative life.

While reading your interpretations of the drawing yesterday I felt the same excitement that I experimented in the team that I was lucky to be part of so many years ago. There is something so unique and inspiring about expressing/sharing our ideas with other people. Each one of your interpretations was just great and each one was colored with your own unique personality. That's the beauty of every person's point of view, there is never right or wrong when it comes to our imagination, the most important thing is the imagination itself and the fact that we can practice it as much as we want. By doing so we develop our creativity even more. 

There are two things that I miss so much: being a student and being a teacher. I have been thinking a lot about how to bring these two elements together into this blog so that you and I can learn from each other and teach each other at the same time . I have to say that through your interpretations of the Flower Girl drawing I learned amazing things that I was not even aware of and you also brought lots of smiles to my face. Your ideas went way beyond my imagination and to me that's an amazing gift and lesson. I want to thank you so much for your generosity.  

I invite you to keep these interpretation games alive in this blog as a way to stimulate our imagination and as a way to connect with each other through one of the most rewarding things ever: art :) 

Let's do it!

We make such a wonderful team! 

Long life to our amazing creative team!!!!!!

Elsita :)

(If you would like to read my ideas about the Flower Girl drawing I invite you to take a look at the comments in the previous post)

Comments

[Elizabeth]

Ramiro is a smart guy. It is a great challenge because you need to be verbal about the feelings you have regarding an object.
On an everyday level it is not done so explicitly but the feelings are there anyway. Nobody buys everything in a store, just the object that makes them feel good or forfills another need.

Thanks Elsita for raising my awareness, it is a great lesson.

Elizabeth

[Ana]

Hi Elsita,

I love your idea of getting your readers to comment about on drawing and it is great if this sharing can go on.
Here it is my interpretation, although with some delay:
- The little girl is completely trapped by the rose. For me the rose represents all the material, superficial things that are atractive, comfortable and that make our ego feel good (thus the contented smile in the girl's face). But living our lives in this way doesn't allow us to develop our real Inner Self. Fortunately, the girl has the potential to fly (symbolized by her feathered dress) and if she makes the right chioces she can still get free of the worldly trappings and become a wholesome human Being.
Cheers,
Ana

[Margaret Oomen]

I really loved reading all the different interpretations of your drawing . You really are a most wonderful teacher Elista and we all have learned so much from you about art and most importantly about life.Thank you so very much.

[Marisol]

Hi Elsita!

Thank you for giving me this unique space where I can communicate, learn and have a pause in my day and dream of other realities and use my imagination, after reading your post I feel inspired and happy beacuse I realise that what I see, imagine and feel whenever I see your work and blog is part of me and is within me. Creativity is a question of letting our trueselves flow from the inside to the outside and the more we know ourselves more creative we become I think.
Thanks again for this space it really means a lot to me!

[SnippetyGibbet]

I thought the post yesterday was a great exercise. I get kids to to interpret art all the time, but I don't really take the time to do it on my own.

[La Donna]

Thank you for this opportunity! This is so wonderful!
Here it is my interpretation: This is an "off" day for a little fairy who is learning to fly! : )

[christine]

great idea for us to all communicate this way!!! (btw--that's me on the left with the four pigtails!!!)
I love reading everyone's thoughts and interpretations, and it is wonderful to see the variety and depth in the comments.
Keep up the good work!!!

[emma]

It's such a pleasure to read your cheerful, positive, generous posts. It was also a delight to read the thoughtfulness and intelligence of your readers' interpretations. A wonderful exercise all around!

[Anna]

This is such a lovely post Elsita. I love your positivity. Anna x

[nyjlm]

I love the drawing of "us" all on our computers, talking together. So sweet.

[Colleen (BCharmer)]

I love your drawings of your teacher and of all of us working together. I love your blog; I can hardly wait to log on every day and read it because I get to PARTICIPATE in ways that make me feel connected to you, to others, and to the art world. And YES, my creativity is definitely a benefactor of this process. Thanks to EVERYONE. Now I must go and read the rest of everyone's responses to yesterday's post.

[gina]

I love this idea! I'm just beginning to understand that art isn't something that you have to miss out on if you didn't learn it in school. I love your work.

[susan m hinckley]

I've never seen one of your posts I didn't love, but I particularly loved this one because I am a great champion of creativity -- I speak out on its behalf whenever and wherever I get a chance! People who say "I'm not creative" are really just saying, "I never try any of my ideas." Everything about your art is inspiring. Thanks for sharing so many important ideas and so much of yourself.

[lefiligree]

this post about your teacher, and esp. your drawings, left me hoping you'd write a children's book. your perspective is just SO magical and encourages community.

and that is the feeling i miss about being a student, too. the brainstorming and the sharing of ideas. i enjoy doing it here, now, and reading my fave artist blogs (like yours) is bringing back that sense of a stimulating community. :)

[Janet]

I want to thank you Elsita, I look forward every day to reading your posts, when I come home from a long stressful day at work, the first thing I do is look at your work. The beauty of what you do is inspiring and calming in a world that does not always have enough of that. Thank you.