“Creatives add a little more beauty” (Post 100)

The Indian mystic Osho said, “To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”

This is Post 100 and I have decided that it is time for a change. This is the last plate of my “fruit” that I will place in front of you in the current format. Thank you that you read or shared my posts. I am grateful for the time you devoted to my images and if you occasionally read the entire post, I thank you. I understand that in today’s world with its many demands, flashing appliances, social media and the deluge of information, finding time to read someone else’s reflections is often an act of bravery.

If the Covid-19 did not appear on the scene, I would never have started this blog. In Post 1, you can read about the rationale for these “talks” of mine. It was never my intention to “flaunt” my work or to appear as if I had some special knowledge of art or the creative process; I simply wanted to encourage fellow creatives too, with a few of my ideas. In the words of Osho, I simply wanted to add a little bit of extra beauty perhaps and I could use my own works as examples (because I own the copyright).

At heart I am a teacher too and my post-graduate studies focused on the benefits of the arts therapies for self-understanding. I think it may be appropriate to mention a few of those benefits here. I will quote from the introduction I wrote for the Firstfruits colouring book.

Just keep in mind that the benefits refer to the arts (plural) and not just art (singular). Here are a handful of simplified benefits we may encounter when we are engaged creatively: a cathartic experience which may awaken new spiritual paths within us, healing of sad memories may occur, metaphors and symbols emerge with which we can address unresolved issues, the attainment of a higher level of self-knowledge may be achieved and we may become conscious of unconscious issues. If one were to read about the arts therapies one will encounter different versions of what I have paraphrased here but that is more or less the essence as I remember it.

The work I included here is an oil colour still life on board. May we all enjoy the fruit of our creative labour; may we keep on inspiring each other to add those poems, dances, art works and acts of kindness that God placed within each of us. Be blessed.