The Creative Eye

Recently, I posted on my business social media accounts asking followers to answer the question, “What does having a Creative Soul mean to you?”

I thought it only fair that I too answer this question through my preferred medium, writing. I've broken my answer down into three parts: the eye, the mind, and the soul. So, without further ado, I would like to present the readers of Ramble & Write with my take on the creative eye.

People who have met me know I’m a rather creative individual. It can sometimes be difficult explaining to others what that means, or how deeply creativity runs. Those who do not fancy themselves creative live in a slightly different world than those who do. While we may be the same species our realities differ in the world as we know it.

You see, creativity is so much more than the ability to make something pretty. Being creative is part of how a person perceives the world around them, interprets it, or draws inspiration from it. Someone who is not creative may look at something and see it only on a technical level, whilst someone who is creative sees the very same object as a detailed work of art, or an in-depth metaphor for something else.

For example; a non-creative person might see a bird feeder and think, “That's nice.” They can appreciate it's pretty; they appreciate that the birds who come and eat at it are also pretty, and they may see how someone might want a bird feeder outside of their house.

Meanwhile, a creative person might sit looking at the very same bird feeder, watching as birds landing on it causes it to spin in the sun, bouncing light off the glass. They might get lost in thoughts of colour as rainbows flicker across the walls of their home.

Personally, I've once gone so far as to see sunlight shifting a Grackles’ feathers from black to florescent blue-green. I’ve surprised myself as a writer by creating a whole new fairy realm where all things shine in such beautifully brilliant hues. Later, while on a hike, hearing the stunning sound of a Veery Thrush lead my imagination back to the fairy realm where even blades of grass in the wind sing like a wet finger being lead around the rim of a crystal glass.

To one person, it is just a bird feeder. To people like me, it is a whole new world waiting to be discovered if you only just sit and watch for a while. If you only take the time to truly see what is right in front of you.

This is just one example of something two people can observe in this world only to see very different things.

A scene about a creaky front gate from an old show I used to love watching (Sliders) comes to mind. For those of you who haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching if you're able to locate it on one of the many streaming platforms out there.

Sliders followed a group of people who travelled through a portal from one parallel universe to another. The premise of the show being how one small thing, were it different, had the ability to change everything as they knew it.

I think this show is a prime example of creativity seeing something simple and viewing it in an entirely different way from someone who may not be as creatively inclined. It is a perfect example of one thing as simple as a creaky gate opening a creative person’s mind to a realm of possibilities.

So, what was the creative spin on a creaky gate? It's significance. To everyone else, a gate was just a gate, but for the main character the gate creaking when pushed open was how he would know he had finally returned to the right universe, finally found his way home.

There you have it, part of my take on what creativity means to me. Stay tuned for the Creative Mind and the Creative Soul.

Cheers!