When I see people enrich their sense of self with sculpture, I know my sometimes difficult pilgrimage through creativity has been worthwhile.
Throughout school, I felt restricted by having to conform to a system where getting answers right earned affirmation and reward. To succeed you needed to behave, to study diligently, to memorise data and, regurgitate the required information. The system determined my intelligence.
Young and impressionable, this approach taught a fear of getting the answer wrong and reinforced the illusion of only one right answer. A creative approach permitting a variety of possibilities and solutions would have better suited my needs. I slowly understood that the system measuring my intelligence was flawed. Others, I would later learn, had reached similar conclusions.
‘Schooling teaches us out of creativity’
Sir Ken Robinson, whose TED Talk ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity?’ has clocked over 44 million views, helped further validate what I have felt my whole life. He said ‘the schooling system teaches us out of creativity’. Looking back I can see this was one of the main issues I struggled with as a child.
The school system taught children to pursue high grades solely to enter a tertiary course, based on the same motivations and merits. I now see that schooling rewards only one type of intelligence. As a result much talent and potential remains under-realised. When personal strengths go unacknowledged, problems inevitably arise.
As my abilities were unrecognised, I couldn’t explore and express myself. Feeling devalued repressed a true and open connection with myself, and a strong sense of identity. I felt rejected, alone, stagnant, and helpless. What difference could I make if I couldn’t contribute something of benefit.
‘A fidgety, difficult child’
Internally, however, I was always bursting with energy and a desire to contribute. When they were denied an appropriate outlet, the result was a fidgety, difficult child who struggled to remain focused: symptoms commonly diagnosed as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
My struggle to find my true self continued when I graduated from high school. My whole family (mother, father and older brother) had careers in education. Conditioned as they were, they found it difficult to understand my relentless pursuit of creative endeavors, and almost impossible to see my imaginative pursuits as a legitimate vocation.
‘You’ll never get a job doing that!’ they told me. Only now do I appreciate that they had the best of intentions. How could they advise otherwise when they belonged to a system that ‘teaches us out of creativity’?
‘Every child is an artist’
Pablo Picasso wrote: ‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up’.
I’ve subsequently come to understand that I was simply hyper-active, a condition that affects many people and one which we can harness for positive purposes.
Only when our creative child survives can we live authentically in our identity. I thank God that I survived the system and have been able to find my calling.
Creativity has been the back-bone of my career for decades. It drives and nourishes me and my practice and creates ever more rewarding opportunities. My satisfaction comes through the joy I see in people when one of my sculptures helps them find a connection, make a breakthrough, or enlarge the boundaries of their own creative self.
My fulfilment emerges when I see someone’s stories and values playing out from one of my sculptures, which is not only life-giving to them, but to others around them, and me.
To share a discussion on the redemptive powers of sculpture call Todd Stuart on +61 4 5151 8865, or visit mainartery.art.
