{"id":1309,"date":"2016-12-04T09:54:16","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T09:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renatawatts.com\/?p=579"},"modified":"2021-03-18T16:05:58","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T16:05:58","slug":"how-this-creativity-course-uncovered-the-visual-artist-in-me-and-changed-the-course-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renatawatts.com\/how-this-creativity-course-uncovered-the-visual-artist-in-me-and-changed-the-course-of-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"How this creativity course revealed the visual artist in me and changed the course of my life."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[This post was originally published on December 04, 2016 in my now-folded blog Mrs. Ramsey & Me.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d been longing to head up to Yestermorrow, a design-build school in the Mad River Valley, VT. The school’s motto is “think with your hands,” which struck a chord with me. First, because I attended a Montessori school from preschool through Grade 5 (Montessori advocates for hands-on learning). Second, because sometime after starting high school I’d stopped feeding that very primal desire to ‘create with my bare hands.’  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my dad said he was coming to visit, I promptly signed us up for Fundamentals of Design. My dad lives nearly 5,000 miles away. When we meet, my top priority is to maximize our time ‘thinking’ together. I love seeing the man in action. It was fateful that Fundamentals was the only course that worked for my dad’s visit. This powerhouse course started in the Bauhaus with Josepth Albers, went on to Yale with Robert Engman, and is now being offered at Yestermorrow by architects Dave Sellers and Jim Adamson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I arrived with an open mind and ready to get over my ‘fear’ of using my hands. For that’s what it’d become: a fear. I never knew where to start anymore. I’d become too self-conscious. Last year, I bought watercolor crayons. I drew something. I recoiled. I stuffed the crayons in a drawer. I ignored them. For years, this had been my typical creative process. I rarely got past the inner critic. I somehow wrongly, habitually, made the process about myself. I took the work to be a reflection of my ability or lack thereof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through hands-on explorations with paper and metal, Fundamentals taught me 3 transformative lessons about creativity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n