Coloring Books, Creativity & Conformity

Anja &Nora-- Creating with Passion!

Laszlo and I start our day together with a walk around the block.  On the north side of the busy, metropolis block there is a huge elementary school.  Norm, the gregarious street crosser always greets Laszlo with a fuzzy butt rub (Laszlo is my dog, by the way).  Laszlo responds enthusiastically with his yelping language of love and utter cuteness. 

We try to time our stroll so I can watch the little people make their way to school.  It brings back nostalgic memories of my elementary school days.  My twin sister and I walked to school everyday.  Each year when we travel back to Maine for our family reunion, we drive the route that we used to walk.  I'm actually really surprised at how far it was!  Maja (my twin sis) and I probably walked over a mile each way to school.  Rides to school were not an option; we had pretty decent rain & snow gear.  We held hands the entire way. 

A couple of weekends ago, I got to play with my nieces, Anja & Nora (ages 7 & 4).  They are the daughters of my twin sister, Maja.  We were in Moab camping, biking and creating all kinds of fun projects.  Aunty Icky (my nieces' name for me) was in charge.  We had a super creative day.  I loved letting go of my calculating, task & goal-oriented mind so I could enjoy the fresh, creative mind of my nieces.  It helped me reflect on some very fond childhood memories.

Let me take you back to the 70's-- 

My parents were really busy running a restaurant so our supervision was minimal.  In hindsight,  I'm grateful for the minimal supervision because we had to entertain ourselves.  Nature was our babysitter.  My parents did not believe in TV so the standard American babysitter that many households use these days, was not an option for the Hamory children.  Nature would start babysitting us right after breakfast.  I have fond memories of whipping up perfume/potions with ground blossoms that we harvested off the neighborhood trees.  Our minds were always trying to create something new.  This creative energy that we shared together as siblings was so fun.  Time just flew by; in fact, it seemed that we never had enough time.  Hunger didn't bother us and the fact that we were covered in dirt 'n grime at the end of the day was inconsequential.  We put in a good 12 hour day of dirty, creative, natural fun. 

Anja & Nora (my nieces) are getting really good at their creative endeavors.  Dancing, cooking, drawing, singing-- their creative expression is endless.  My twin sister, Maja (niece's mother) is recreating an environment that encourages this creative play.  When psychotherapist talk about reconnecting or healing our inner child,  creativity can be the most effective, painless way to make this happen.  

The title of this blog is about coloring books, creativity and conformity.  I'm always curious what happens to to this glorious, divine creativity that children are overflowing with.  Do we start to disconnect from our creativity when we our artistic expression is paired with precision and correctness?  Coloring books don't deserve a bad reputation because they do help children develop fine motor skills and dexterity.  However,  there needs to lots of emphasis on creative expression.  The coloring book is a metaphor for what happens to humans when we loose our connection to our creative flow.  Precision and perfection is a way to measure artistic success with coloring books instead of originality and authenticity.  

It reminds me of a time when I threw a bridal shower for a dear friend.  We tried to play a game with the purses but we couldn't because 4 people had the same $300 Coach purse.  So much for originality!!