blank wall fix

Moving into a new apartment at the start of the semester means a couple of things. Most importantly, it means the living space is pretty bare, especially when it comes to wall décor. I was on a mission to solve this problem. With some materials my roommates had and a few directions from a friend, I began creating. The steps I followed to create the piece were: 1) color with oil pastels in the shape of a heart, 2) place rocks over the heart shape, 3) spray paint the whole thing black and 4) sit and watch the paint dry. After finishing the piece, I began to realize that the piece itself was not all that creative. The process was creative, however. On the “creativity 1” assignment page it says, “alternatives and uniqueness do not occur by change, but are linked to qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability and enjoyment of the unknown.” Not having any idea of how, or even if, it would turn out at the beginning of the project led to a large amount of creativity. As soon as I put the rocks down on the canvas and began spray painting, it became very unpredictable. I was unsure whether I was spraying too much or too little, if the rocks were in the rights places, or even if I had colored enough with the oil pastels. Because I had never actually seen what the piece would look like, I had no idea what to expect. All I could do was embrace and enjoy the unknown.

            Last week in class we watched a TED talk about a man who learned to channel creativity through restrictions or limitations. I did not go into this project with set limitations or restrictions, but through the process developed one. While I was waiting for the piece to dry, I remembered I had to be somewhere. With a time limitation, I had to improvise another method to get the piece to dry. Because I didn’t have time to let it air dry for hours, I brought a hair dryer outside and began to blow it dry. When I removed the rocks a few minutes later, I noticed there were a few places where the spray paint had dripped or smudged. This was most likely from the shortened drying time. This brought a level of uniqueness and personality to the piece that it otherwise may not have had.
            In all, both the inherent method as well as the limitation, allowed for this piece to be creative.