The Creative Mind

I spotted this in a Martha Stewart magazine and decided to use up some of my stash of black paper. Everyone who has seen it thinks it turned out pretty well. It makes me smile when I walk up the stairs. I'll store the infestation of rats to use next year, too.

I was talking to my husband about this. He thinks it's incredible how I come up with ideas. I don't come up with ideas. I got this out of a magazine. But he said that he would not look at a magazine and see a possibility that he could do that. He'd look at it and think that it was neat, but he wouldn't think that it was something that could be done by him or in his house. His brain just doesn't work that way.

I've been mulling this over. Is it Nature, or nurture? I think in my case, it is nurture. My parents had several books of activities for kids. We were free to look through and pick out things to do. We were rewarded with parental praise, participation and assistance when we did. I created a forest out of newspaper in our basement once. The trees became all sorts of settings for imaginary play until I tired of them and recycled the newspaper. My mother recited, "Woodsman spare that tree..." with great drama and bad acting as I 'chopped down' the forest.

How can I not enjoy looking at idea books and attempting to create things after a childhood filled with memories like that? I still enjoy the rewards of my creations. I don't need to come up with the ideas, I'm fine with following directions.