Creative Thought Space |
Melva Medina | Centro Mérida Yucatán, México | www.artistsinmexico.com
Artist/Sculptor, Director of Nahualli Casa De Los Artistas
What do you think being creative means?
Being creative is to be complete. A person whose development is comprehensive, needs to be creative to solve each of the tasks, projects, or challenges that arise throughout life. A person does not need to devote himself to the arts to be creative. Creativity in life will make it flow more easily and can be more joyful. Someone creative enjoys life fully, has fun, is a more positive person, and has more options open to selfrealization.
How do you include creativity in your life?
For me it is a difficult question to answer because for me the challenge would be how to remove creativity from your life. Human beings are creative by nature. With the passage of time, educational influences and an accumulation of beliefs imposed by adult society, creativity goes into hiding. While we grow and “prepare”, we tend to become more practical and learn to do things like most of the people do. It is then that we leave creativity to one side.
Technological advances and the comforts of our current society have managed to put aside the need to create different options to sort out life. This brings us to standardize a way of living without seeing beyond our surroundings in a microenvironment in which we have safety and a pace of development of our day to day life. Speed and technological efficiency has led us to a very fast-paced life that prevents us from seeing the essential, the fundamental. We already forget to contemplate and encourage our ties with nature. It is necessary that we return to the land, that we acknowledge the roots of our being and re-establish the relationship with our natural and inner primitive being. This is why the children and rural people around the world give us examples so rich of creative culture, manifesting itself with such basic things as the Earth, dancing, singing, flowers, plants, making crafts and expressing the purest of human essence.
It is important to play, have fun and enjoy every day, with the little things. It is important to laugh, sing and dance; to read poetry, to talk with the elderly, the mad scientists or with the dreamers and be infected by their dreams. A large percentage of human beings have set aside their creative abilities, entering an automatic role that does not need to change anything to make the system work.
To be creative, we have to take risks, to undertake new projects regularly, to invent challenges to achieve new goals - challenging ourselves. These challenges can range from the household level, to work or a relationship. If one considers projects involving the search for solutions to challenges, this will be the detonator to boost creativity. If one starts with planning out the weekend with the family to a different place and under different conditions, this will involve challenges and creative solutions for the family. You can plan projects that involve fewer hours in front of a screen, either the TV or the computer, and by having free time you will be creative to not bore yourself.
In the case of creative development in the arts, in my case, it is only discipline and a bit of rebellion against the system. I continuously set challenges and goals with varying degrees of difficulty to be covered. This keeps my mind occupied creatively during the entire day. I am stubborn and I cling to new ideas. Many times I risk and put all my energy into achieving my goals. These goals may be the development of a theme in a sculpture, experiencing a new technique or the achievement of an exhibition that is totally different from what I usually do stylistically speaking. I like to break patterns and remake them my way. I can include creativity in my life from the moment I prepare a meal for my family. It may suddenly seem nicer to eat in the garden on this occasion, listening to the water of my pool and the songs of birds, feeling the warm air of the evening. We are a family, and all the time we are getting involved in trying new things. My youngest daughter came up with the idea of welcoming the New Year by setting the table very elegantly, with candle lights on the roof to look at the stars and the fireworks that go on during the celebration in the different squares of the city. We had a wonderful dinner together, and as if we had planned it, we received friends who we hadn’t seen for many years, and ended up having an amazing and memorable evening. Sometimes my daughters get involved in creative projects on vacation. Often holiday periods require us to be in the gallery to deal with clients that arrive during this season. Lately, my daughters have developed ideas, decorating chests with their designs. Abel and I give them guidance on the technique they can follow. They have made precious works and the time invested in the creative process is really enjoyable and fun. Then these works have found customers and they make a profit to buy things that I am not ready to buy, but are their wishes. This makes them finish an interesting cycle where they discover that creativity can become a very convenient purpose.
My way of working must be the most creative one every day. I am the mother, the wife, the manager of a gallery, the artist; I am the one in contact with customers closing deals, organizing courses and events at the gallery. I watch over my daughters’ schooling, their health; my husband helps me take them and bring them to school and their meetings, he teaches courses and produces artworks. He helps me with difficult processes in sculpture, he makes breakfast and between the four of us we manage to prepare meals and work out daily cleaning. So as you can imagine we need to have much discipline to be able to have time to create our artwork, and this time we always find being creative.
What are your thoughts on how your life has influenced your creative imagination, and how your creative imagination has influenced your life?
I am a very dreamy and very passionate woman by nature. Any exercise in life involves a challenge for me. My health from an early age was very fragile. I had to overcome the challenge to continue living despite the fatal diagnoses from doctors. Since that time my life was filled with dreams and challenges to continue along alternative routes, not paying much attention to doctors and family perceptions that looked at me as someone who could not do things as others. My challenge was to overcome my health problems and my fears; my thoughts were always focused on living fully and doing what I liked the most. So I spent every moment of my life creating art, which is my passion. Every decision has been a challenge that I have always overcome being stubborn and endlessly having big dreams. My big dream was to start a family. I did it and I’m very proud of them, they have become my inspiration. I love my life and the road I have travelled alongside my family and art.
I know that we are very fortunate because in the same way that I believe in my dreams, Abel believes in his dreams. We carried it through together, bringing about satisfying results for the two of us and giving a great example and encouragement to our daughters, who are already developed in art and creativity. Now we are a great team.
What, if any, exercises do you do to get into a creative mode?
Every day I have new ideas, many ideas. My challenge is to bring order and to follow a discipline. I work every day, sometimes a few hours, sometimes all day. Sometimes at night during sleep I am solving some projects. I like to read and I like to write from time to time - although this is not my greatest talent, it helps me to define ideas and direct my themes and objectives of the works I am developing. There are times that I have no topic or project, and I just draw and get ideas and they materialize on paper. It is as if someone was telling me what to do. Many times I’m surprised by the result, and while I am doing it, my inner being is full of enthusiasm. I greatly enjoy those moments in which I do not know where I am and why I’m doing what I’m doing, I just go with the flow and it is wonderful.
How important do you think creativity is in life?
It is the strength of my life. Without creativity I am empty, my dreams do not exist. There is nothing around me. I do not exist without creativity.
*The above answers have been translated from Spanish by Mariela Castillo.
Being creative is to be complete. A person whose development is comprehensive, needs to be creative to solve each of the tasks, projects, or challenges that arise throughout life. A person does not need to devote himself to the arts to be creative. Creativity in life will make it flow more easily and can be more joyful. Someone creative enjoys life fully, has fun, is a more positive person, and has more options open to selfrealization.
How do you include creativity in your life?
For me it is a difficult question to answer because for me the challenge would be how to remove creativity from your life. Human beings are creative by nature. With the passage of time, educational influences and an accumulation of beliefs imposed by adult society, creativity goes into hiding. While we grow and “prepare”, we tend to become more practical and learn to do things like most of the people do. It is then that we leave creativity to one side.
Technological advances and the comforts of our current society have managed to put aside the need to create different options to sort out life. This brings us to standardize a way of living without seeing beyond our surroundings in a microenvironment in which we have safety and a pace of development of our day to day life. Speed and technological efficiency has led us to a very fast-paced life that prevents us from seeing the essential, the fundamental. We already forget to contemplate and encourage our ties with nature. It is necessary that we return to the land, that we acknowledge the roots of our being and re-establish the relationship with our natural and inner primitive being. This is why the children and rural people around the world give us examples so rich of creative culture, manifesting itself with such basic things as the Earth, dancing, singing, flowers, plants, making crafts and expressing the purest of human essence.
It is important to play, have fun and enjoy every day, with the little things. It is important to laugh, sing and dance; to read poetry, to talk with the elderly, the mad scientists or with the dreamers and be infected by their dreams. A large percentage of human beings have set aside their creative abilities, entering an automatic role that does not need to change anything to make the system work.
To be creative, we have to take risks, to undertake new projects regularly, to invent challenges to achieve new goals - challenging ourselves. These challenges can range from the household level, to work or a relationship. If one considers projects involving the search for solutions to challenges, this will be the detonator to boost creativity. If one starts with planning out the weekend with the family to a different place and under different conditions, this will involve challenges and creative solutions for the family. You can plan projects that involve fewer hours in front of a screen, either the TV or the computer, and by having free time you will be creative to not bore yourself.
In the case of creative development in the arts, in my case, it is only discipline and a bit of rebellion against the system. I continuously set challenges and goals with varying degrees of difficulty to be covered. This keeps my mind occupied creatively during the entire day. I am stubborn and I cling to new ideas. Many times I risk and put all my energy into achieving my goals. These goals may be the development of a theme in a sculpture, experiencing a new technique or the achievement of an exhibition that is totally different from what I usually do stylistically speaking. I like to break patterns and remake them my way. I can include creativity in my life from the moment I prepare a meal for my family. It may suddenly seem nicer to eat in the garden on this occasion, listening to the water of my pool and the songs of birds, feeling the warm air of the evening. We are a family, and all the time we are getting involved in trying new things. My youngest daughter came up with the idea of welcoming the New Year by setting the table very elegantly, with candle lights on the roof to look at the stars and the fireworks that go on during the celebration in the different squares of the city. We had a wonderful dinner together, and as if we had planned it, we received friends who we hadn’t seen for many years, and ended up having an amazing and memorable evening. Sometimes my daughters get involved in creative projects on vacation. Often holiday periods require us to be in the gallery to deal with clients that arrive during this season. Lately, my daughters have developed ideas, decorating chests with their designs. Abel and I give them guidance on the technique they can follow. They have made precious works and the time invested in the creative process is really enjoyable and fun. Then these works have found customers and they make a profit to buy things that I am not ready to buy, but are their wishes. This makes them finish an interesting cycle where they discover that creativity can become a very convenient purpose.
My way of working must be the most creative one every day. I am the mother, the wife, the manager of a gallery, the artist; I am the one in contact with customers closing deals, organizing courses and events at the gallery. I watch over my daughters’ schooling, their health; my husband helps me take them and bring them to school and their meetings, he teaches courses and produces artworks. He helps me with difficult processes in sculpture, he makes breakfast and between the four of us we manage to prepare meals and work out daily cleaning. So as you can imagine we need to have much discipline to be able to have time to create our artwork, and this time we always find being creative.
What are your thoughts on how your life has influenced your creative imagination, and how your creative imagination has influenced your life?
I am a very dreamy and very passionate woman by nature. Any exercise in life involves a challenge for me. My health from an early age was very fragile. I had to overcome the challenge to continue living despite the fatal diagnoses from doctors. Since that time my life was filled with dreams and challenges to continue along alternative routes, not paying much attention to doctors and family perceptions that looked at me as someone who could not do things as others. My challenge was to overcome my health problems and my fears; my thoughts were always focused on living fully and doing what I liked the most. So I spent every moment of my life creating art, which is my passion. Every decision has been a challenge that I have always overcome being stubborn and endlessly having big dreams. My big dream was to start a family. I did it and I’m very proud of them, they have become my inspiration. I love my life and the road I have travelled alongside my family and art.
I know that we are very fortunate because in the same way that I believe in my dreams, Abel believes in his dreams. We carried it through together, bringing about satisfying results for the two of us and giving a great example and encouragement to our daughters, who are already developed in art and creativity. Now we are a great team.
What, if any, exercises do you do to get into a creative mode?
Every day I have new ideas, many ideas. My challenge is to bring order and to follow a discipline. I work every day, sometimes a few hours, sometimes all day. Sometimes at night during sleep I am solving some projects. I like to read and I like to write from time to time - although this is not my greatest talent, it helps me to define ideas and direct my themes and objectives of the works I am developing. There are times that I have no topic or project, and I just draw and get ideas and they materialize on paper. It is as if someone was telling me what to do. Many times I’m surprised by the result, and while I am doing it, my inner being is full of enthusiasm. I greatly enjoy those moments in which I do not know where I am and why I’m doing what I’m doing, I just go with the flow and it is wonderful.
How important do you think creativity is in life?
It is the strength of my life. Without creativity I am empty, my dreams do not exist. There is nothing around me. I do not exist without creativity.
*The above answers have been translated from Spanish by Mariela Castillo.
