"Where Does Creativity Happen in The Brain"

Interesting Guardian Article from 2015….

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/dec/28/where-does-creativity-happen-in-your-brain

“If painting, mathematics, and parking your car engage totally different brain areas and processes, so should creative painting, creative mathematics, and creative car-parking. Creativity is, in a word, everywhere. Asking neuroscientists for the neural centres of creative thinking is like asking them for the neural centres of thinking. It’s the brain, stupid.”

Rocks, Hoops, Boulders, and Getting the Ball Rolling.....

I wonder how often any of us have found it easy to achieve something without hindrance. How often has something gone really smoothly or easily? It’s brilliant when it does happen like that but I’m guessing most of us have experienced the opposite a lot of the time.

I’m also interested in the way art can tell a story without us realising. It is a form of communication that taps into our deepest thoughts and can say things we don’t even know we are thinking or experiencing.

I work with children and young people in a therapeutic setting and what I enjoy seeing most is the way the process of art making can do a number of things. It gives those involved a chance to allow their minds to switch off from the worries and ruminating thoughts they are having which can lead to a place of pure joy and delight. It can also be frustrating but allow the creator to problem solve. Another thing I have noticed is the way the art itself can give expression to something within us that perhaps has no other outlet. It can be an outpouring of things without us realising.

I titled these four artworks ‘Rock’, ‘Jumping Hoops’, ‘Boulders’ and ‘Get the Ball Rolling’, quite a while after making them and the titles came quickly when I looked back at them but at the time I had no real idea what they were saying - or what I was saying - I was just in a flow of creativity. As I looked at them I realised that they tell a bit of a story about my quest to achieve a number of things related to my goals as an artist. Without wanting this to sound like a sob story - it’s not easy being an artist when you also need to contribute to the household income! Many artists, musicians, poets etc have to juggle jobs, families and the practicalities of life as well as fitting in time to hone their craft. Many never make a living from their art but pursue it anyway and many are unable to because there are just too many hindrances. But - creativity will never die because it is an essential part of our humanity. Artificial Intelligence cannot replace it and so it is worth running over those rocks, jumping through those hoops and finding ways around the boulders.

Throughout my adult life I have tried to find ways to make art and get better at it but I also love the teaching and therapeutic work I have done. So I have managed a balance between the two. However, there have been many rocks to climb over, hoops to jump through and boulders in the way…I’m hoping now that I have this website with everything I need in one place that I can make progress with the next stage of my quest! How apt that the first piece of work I sold when making the website live was titled ‘Get the Ball Rolling’

Heritage

The green of the grass, the delicate white flowers of cow parsley randomly grown from seeds which have been blown or dropped by birds. The damson tree gently moves with the breeze. The trunk stays steady but the more fragile branches and leaves sway. They are held by the trunk but they are more vulnerable because they have reached out beyond their safety zone. Their delicate vulnerability is beautiful. Small, fresh green leaves grow there – they are new. They are the brave ones who have reached out into new space to make progress in this tree’s life. Thank you nature, thank you creative force that made this tree, this grass, these delicate flowers. I am filled with remorse about the devastating treatment of our beautiful planet.

OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET.

I draw and paint the landscape because I love the natural world with all my heart. It is our home, but we have trashed it. We’ve graffittied the walls, torn up the carpet and smashed the windows. We’ve dumped our rubbish in the middle of the floor and the stench is too much but we can’t smell it anymore because we have become desensitized.

I paint it because in spite of this there is still so much beauty to be celebrated. So much to be preserved and enjoyed. Nature is strong. She is resilient. She is calling to us. She uses her beauty and immeasurable intelligence and wisdom to woo us to her.

Conversation:

Comfort and Joy, Sid and Nancy Reborn

Sonia and I had another great play session today, involving two plump tartan cushions Sonia salvaged from a skip yesterday. We experimented with putting them inside a box so they looked like the inside of a 'ring-box' which was quite fun but unresolved. We then decided just to go for it with the paint. Having discussed whether to take out the stuffing from inside the cushions we realised this would take from them, the very thing that was so attractive about them and made them what they were....plump cushions. We did not want to rid them of their very essence;their identity! The painting process was fun, natural and quite relaxed. We continued our conversation whilst painting, talking about the way painting is often dismissed as being merely decorative. Is this true? If it is, does it matter? What is wrong with being merely decorative? We discussed as we often do, the necessity for playtime. Ideas are born through playing, wandering and experimenting.

With their tartan origins the cushions now began to look quite 'punk'. They had started life as providers of comfort, the process or transforming them was full of joy. Now they reminded us of Vivienne Westwood. We put safety pins on them and called them Sid and Nancy, reborn.

Drawing for Lent Concerts

Looking forward to a day listening to some moving music and drawing in response....this drawing will then appear at the third week of a series of concerts which are put on annually at Queens College chapel in Oxford in the weeks leading up to Easter.

Life and Dirt

Sacred clingfilm, treasured kitchenroll

I am starting to use all sorts of materials which I use in my everyday life as a mother and person in charge of a home! I had a revelation a while ago about the way my life seemed to be separated into different compartments...I would spend time at my studio and then feel I had to get into a different mindset to go and collect children from school and make their tea and clear up the general mess made from having a family.

I was forever switching from one to the other and one day it dawned on me that I could no longer do this. My work was not separate from my everyday life and both were important to me. My family is the most important part of my life and I love being a mother, I am passionate about it but I need to make art too, to be creative and use materials like paint, charcoal, paper, canvas.

I needed to bring the two much more closely together and make work about the life and roles I have and how I cope with all of this. I started to use materials which are things I use everyday, cereal packets, lists, cardboard, clingfilm.....I also started to make work about the things I do for my children, the notes I write to them and things we say to each other. The repetition of parenthood and living together as a family. This is sacred to me and I place huge value on the depth of these relationships. This developing series of works is a working out of this life, treating as sacred and important, the everyday stuff. Even dirt is a sign of life, a sign of the people I share my life with. I hated dirt and I hated having to clean it up but this work has helped me to value even this aspect of living with others whom I love.