A creative man, Henry Darger

When anyone in our class hears the name Henry Darger i can almost promise you we think "the crazy dude who was obsessed with kids" or something along those lines at least. I feel that Darger is just a different kind of man, I do not feel he is mentally ill. Henry was treated like he was mentally ill and put into an insane asylum, but i do not think that was right. The people around him never wanted to take the time to get to know him, but then again, Darger was very closed off to people, he only had one friend. The people who lived around him were always kind though, and they helped Darger when he needed them, especially when it came to rent money, or when he was very sick and dying. Darger was very closed off to the world, he mostly kept to himself in his apartment drawing and writing his huge book of roughly 30,000 pages. I feel Henry was truly a creative man, i feel this way because he created his own world though his story. Even though some of the events that took place in his story were based on his life and this world, doesn't mean he isn't creative. He created characters that eventually became his friends, he loved them and he never wanted to leave them. Darger drew huge pictures the size of a school white board, and it was drawn on the front and the back. He had wonderful artistic skills, he used many different tactics to draw is characters and backgrounds, he copied, traced, enlarged, and he also used his imagination. Henry had a very out there imagination, one that I had never seen before, which makes him very unique in my eyes and that is why I feel we should care about his art and his creation. He seemed like a wonderful man with a rough life, but he did not let the unfortunate events of his life bring him down, he created wonderful and interesting pieces that are now displayed in a museum, if a person is in a museum, I feel that it is necessary to pay attention to him and his works of art.  

John Cleese

The tactic that John Cleese uses about humor is a good way to go about being creative. When people are serious that usually leads to people thinking inside the box and following rules. Humor is a good way to think outside of the box and think lightly about a topic, this tactic I feel is more effective than being in a serious manner all the time. Some comedians are said to be creative thinkers, they make people laugh, and I feel that is on the creative side, I could not stand in front of a crowd and make people laugh with the thoughts in my head like comedians can. Television shows are sometimes humorous and the writers in my opinion would be creative, for an example the show, Spongebob Squarepants is a funny show, and the writers were creative in making it funny. The writers thought outside of the box and being outside of the box is a main idea in my definition of being creative.  Using humor to reflect creativity is an idea that I support and agree with. When a person uses humor as appose to seriousness, the person thinks about things in new ways, humorous ways that most people can understand. Using humor in a classroom is more understandable than seriousness because we as students can relate to the humor being used. When we go back into our notes at the end of a chapter to get ready for a test, the things we remember are the topics we can most likely relate to, because it is easily remembered in our minds. Serious topics are usually said to be boring in way. Humor is creative in the sense that people understand it more often than not. Creativity can be used in many different ways, but the way John Cleese decided to use it works in his favor. As a student having been assigned this video to watch, I feel it was interesting and humorous, which I feel is most memorable when learning and creative as well. 

My definition of creativity

Many people view creativity in different ways, not all people think and feel the same way about what is and is not creative. I feel that creativity is originality, being yourself, using things a new way, letting your mind wonder, and thinking outside of the box. Creativity is usually used to build an object like a building, which is first drawn or sketched out by an architect, or used in engineering to build a machine, which is also first drawn out in plans. Creativity is also used in art forms in a sense the builders and engineers are also artists who are making something creative. Originality is creativity for the reason being that if all buildings or machines are the same, there is nothing interesting about them, because they are all the same. When all things are the same, that is not creative, it is copying. Being your own person and having originality helps create different models of a building or a machine. The different models and new ideas that were used to update the older product are what make the idea creative, someone can tweak and edit the product to make it more efficient. When thinking about an idea for a product or an art piece, one should never have limits. Thinking outside the box is a successful way to think about something. When your mind has no limits or boundaries that is when the creative ideas start spilling out. When your mind is closed off from new and interesting ideas the person will only think about things that are already invented, but that is not creative, it has already been done, therefor that makes it not interesting to people. Creativity can be viewed differently from person to person, but I feel that creativity is inside of you, with the walls down so you can fully reach your minds potential to create something wonderful and creative.

Introduction

Hi, fellow bloggers! My Name is Rachel Winslow and I am from Mentor, Ohio.  I am currently in my freshman year of college at  the University of Mount Union located Alliance, Ohio. I am studying early childhood education to become a teacher. My interests include music, fashion, photography, swimming and anything creative.