Few experiences thrill me more than a walk through an elementary school art show. Children are astonishingly—enviously—creative. Moreover, their creativity appears effortless and automatic. Wild and unanticipated combinations of shapes, colors, animals, and people come together beneath their uninhibited hands. Pablo Picasso famously said that we are all born artists. Assuredly, he did not mean that we all exit the womb with the ability to paint like Leonardo da Vinci. Instead, he was making a point about our natural creativity. As children, we all, to a greater or lesser degree, seem to have the imagination and will to create. And yet, as Picasso also recognized, many of us lose the artist within somewhere along the way. Why is this? In this post, I want to explore three considerations that likely play some role in the loss or reduction of creativity that tends to come with age: (1) a stronger sense of self, (2) a loss of brain plasticity, and (3) a lack of boredom and free time.
As we age, we develop (1) a stronger sense of self. We become increasingly self-conscious of our actions and how we appear to others. During and after adolescence, we are influenced by peer groups and social forces. Some of these changes contribute to our capacity to act morally. We become aware of how we appear in the eyes of other people, and whether they approve or disapprove of what we are doing. This prompts us to stay in line and monitor our own behaviors. The inner critic looms large here. At the same time, it becomes more difficult to create freely and automatically. As we create, the inner critic tells us what we are doing is stupid, silly, talentless, etc. Even worse, other people may in fact tell us as much to our face or on the Internet. Recalling a harsh judgment from the past, our creative inner child may stop in his or her tracks and retreat, too self-conscious to create.
It is likely that (2) a loss of brain plasticity also contributes to a decrease in creativity as we age. Our brains are most plastic when they are young; among other things, this allows us to learn the language in which we are immersed with very little effort. As we age, our brains become less plastic, and for good reason. We need certain important lessons (e.g., don’t play with fire) and skills (e.g., this is how to ride a bicycle) to be deeply embedded in our brains so that we can survive and thrive. As Alison Gopnik has demonstrated, childhood play is a way of testing hypotheses and learning about the world; it makes a crucial contribution to child development and knowledge acquisition. By reducing or eliminating play in elementary schools, we may unwittingly harm our children. The young and plastic brain is exploring the world through play; it readily engages in fantasy and make-believe. I want to go beyond the empirical evidence (that I have seen, at least) and suggest that creating art also involves play, fantasy, and make-believe. And thus, our artwork may become less imaginative as we age because our brains have become more rigid and fixed. The adult brain has a more difficult time moving beyond what has been confirmed by the world and its own set of experiences.
Finally, (3) most adults lack boredom and free time. Sadly, adulting does not always involve “art class.” Indeed, many adults do not even have “play time.” We often become so overwhelmed by the busy-ness and stress of life that we experience a time deficiency, or what J. B. MacKinnon has coined, “time famine”. We may work all day and then come home to a house that needs to be cleaned, children that need to be fed, and a lawn that needs to be mowed. When we finally have a moment to ourselves at the end of the day, we may simply zone out by scrolling through social media or turning on the television (or what artist Luis Scafiti has called “the dumb box”).
On more than one occasion, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman has written on the importance of mind wandering for creativity. When we are constantly on the move, with our minds focused upon set cognitive tasks, we may be unable to experience the openness, rest, and boredom that allow for creativity. Relatedly, Barbara Oakley, whose research focuses upon how to learn math, has said that a mind that struggles with focused attention may be better able to imagine and create because there is cognitive space open between thoughts for all kinds of fruitful associations to break through. By demanding constant and uninterrupted attention, our habits, schedules, and way of life may be inimical to a life of creativity and imagination. We lack the time and cognitive space to let our creativity unfurl.
In a future post, I hope to talk about strategies for overcoming some of these challenges.