Creativity: A Mode of Thinking

Kathy Bell

Ruby's first show was a resounding success. With 39 recent canvases available, she sold them all. Presently there is a two-month waiting list for would-be collectors. One knowledgeable collector hung her painting with a Helen Frankenthaler and a Robert Motherwell. This success story is even better because it did not come easily. A deprived youth without close family ties and with little sensitive support, Ruby had grown surly, irritable, and sometimes violent toward those she lived and worked with. Then in 1987 someone gave her some paints, brushes, and prestretched canvases. She has been painting ever since, and her work has grown steadily more intricate and controlled. Though her style is abstract, some of the paintings suggest associations with events in her everyday life. It is gratifying to know that the creative outlet she has found in painting has replaced her former antisocial behavior and calmed her hostility. Painting has literally transformed her life.

The preceding story is true, but I omitted one or two important details: the "artist" is an 8000-pound Asian elephant living at the Phoenix Zoo (Gilbert, 1990). Ruby's story seems to suggest a need in her life that was filled by a creative activity.

Creativity has always been subject to double interpretation. While people seem to envy those with creative abilities, they also harbor a number of prejudicial notions. Some people think of "creative types" as spacey, undependable, temperamental and extravagant. Worse yet, some assume that all creative children are rule-breakers, freethinkers, and rebels. But if the typical image of a space-headed floozy with paint spots on her clothes isn't correct, what are creative people like?

Creative people are fluent thinkers, flexible, original; they elaborate on ideas, are willing to take risks, love complexity and demonstrate lots of curiosity and imagination. All of these traits are related to thinking skills. Fluency and flexibility show in a child's ability to think of many things and skip from one point-of-view to another easily. This person is not long stuck in a rut; he is apt to circle around and find a different approach for solving a problem.

Elaboration and complexity are two other traits typical of a creative thinker. He will constantly refine an idea until only he is able to remember all the details. Yet the more complex the task becomes, the more clear it becomes to its creator. Without writing down anything, he will be able to explain the process in excruciating detail.

Curiosity, willingness to take risks, and originality relate to each other too. Inventors are the most curious people. They look at something which for you and me would be a minor annoyance and use that problem as a springboard to an invention. All creative people take risks: they must jump from the known directly into the unknown, often without an inkling of how to find the answer they're seeking. People sometimes ask me how I find my layouts for calligraphy. I try things until I find something that works better than anything else I've found - and it's never the first thing that came to mind. Originality of "statistical infrequency" is, of course, the result of curiosity and the willingness to take risks.

Imagination is the ability to visualize the solution to a problem. Inventor Nikola Tesla was able to design a machine without blueprints and to test it by "watching it run" in his imagination. He could examine his invention to determine points of wear, all without having built it yet (Gardner, 1983).

Instead of the mystical notion we often have of it, creativity is really learning to use one's thinking skills. We associate creativity with childhood, because all children of normal intelligence possess it at birth. But by the age of 5-7 years, there is a 90% drop in children's creative ability. By high school, when other abilities are reaching their peak, creative thinking has been almost totally replaced by "avoidance of mistakes" (Miller, 1989). Obviously, in that frame of mind, little creativity will take place. Creativity is not just for artists. The need for creative thinkers in business, politics, and the sciences is so acute that major universities have begun to teach creative thinking courses (Stewart, 1985).

Consider the need for creative thinking in ministries. What missionary, faced with formidable obstacles of foreign culture and thought processes, does not need creativity to find ways to relate the gospel persuasively to his people? What pastor or school teacher could not benefit from creativity in applying his message to those in his charge? The reason creativity has become so strongly associated with art is that art class is one of the few places in a traditional school setting where creative thinking is rewarded.

Do we have a Biblical mandate to bother about creativity in our students? Isn't readin', ritin', and 'rithmetic more important than creativity? In two different parables Christ challenged His followers to make full use of all that He has given us. Matthew 25:14ff. and Luke 19:1ff. tell similar stories with a few important differences. In both cases, the gifts were given by the master. Rewards were given for faithfulness in developing the gift, not for the results. Failure to develop the gift brought censure, loss and even destruction, while greater effectiveness brought greater opportunity in the future. Luke includes something that Matthew does not: some of the master's citizens rebelled against him. How typical that is of a world that wants God's gifts but rejects His authority over them.

We all know children who have the gift of creative thinking. Let us help them develop that gift for Him.

References

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind. New York: Basic.
Gilbert, B. (1990, December). Once a malcontent, Roby has taken up brush and palette. Smithsonian Magazine, 40.
Miller, D.A. (1989, February). Board Report: for Graphic Artists.
Stewart, D. (1985, August). Teachers aim at turning loose mind's eyes. Smithsonian Magazine, 44.

Reprinted from Balance, a publication of the School of Education, Bob Jones University. Used with permission of Bob Jones University. Please write BJU Press, for permission to reproduce this article.