Evolution in Creativity

by Emily Majeski

I do not remember I time when I did not make art in my life.

The act of creating has been constant throughout my life and a

major force in developing my identity. I will discuss some of

things that have helped my to evolve as an artist, as well as

people who have shaped my creative sensibilities.

My main motivation for creating art as a child was to get

‘oohs and aahs’ from my family. My mother was a single

working mom who worked evenings at a store, so I spent the

majority of my time with grandparents. They encouraged my

creativity and encouraged my to be industrious in making

drawings, paintings and objects. I still remember many of my

earliest drawings, many of them drawn on my grandfather’s insurance paper pads, imprinted

“Majeski Insurance Agency” at the top. I frequently designed Miss America gowns and ice

skating costumes, since that was an activity my mother and grandmother bonded over. We would

watch shows like Knots Landing and my mother and grandmother would talk about the fashions,

so I had a strong desire to recreate what I saw and what they were talking about. Ivanovich

(2006, p. 58) says, “The factors that may lead to spontaneous picture

making range from aesthetic or kinesthetic pleasure to the need for peer

recognition, for communicating thoughts and ideas, or for creating

"working models" of the world”. This was certainly true in my own

creative growth. I sought connections with my family and peers through

my art making. The more I drew outfits, the more I realized that I was not

pleased with the way ‘my people’ looked and was dissatisfied with stick

figure drawings that adults would show me how to make. I wanted my

drawings to look real, even in preschool. My grandmother

would hang them on the refrigerator and it gave me great Peacockby Emily Majeski, Kindergarten

Pink PrincessEmily Majeski, Preschool

satisfaction, but I would sit and look at my drawings and try

to figure out how to make them look more real. I practiced

every day. In kindergarten I distinctly remember being asked

to draw my family and my house. Well, there was my

grandparents, my mom, my four uncles living at home, and

myself. I drew them all, paying exquisite attention to detail

on my grandmother’s beehive hairdo and on drawing the

individual red bricks on the house. I saw art making as a

challenge all through school, sometimes a competition with

others, but mostly with myself. I was trying to work out

problems with my drawing skills. “Whether a drawing is

made at home or at school, created alone or together with friends, it always bears the distinct

mark of the particular child’s interactions and ideas in negotiation with others” (Ivaskevich,

2006, p. 57). I took it as a personal slight in the third grade when I was trying to figure out how

to make my figures’ hands more realistic and, instead of potentially drawing them imperfectly, I

decided not to draw fingers at all and I was made fun of for making stub arms. From there on, I

was determined never to make a mistake or skimp on details. “What one knows is determined by

one's ability to encode or decode within a form of representation” (Eisner, 1980, p. 332). Once I

worked out certain details, I felt like I understood more about the world, like I had graduated to a

new level of mastery.

I suppose around fifth or 6th grade I became more aware that there was an expectation for my

to be “the artist girl” or “the good artist” in the school and I became more self-conscious about

my drawings in comparison to those of my peers. I remember being more interested in copying

the artworks of what I perceived to be ‘the ultimate’ art- Disney characters. I wanted to be a

Disney animator or a book illustrator at that time. I was never interested in tracing and was

highly skeptical of other students who said they had drawn a picture that I was sure they had

traced from a coloring book. I was aware that if I was to be a ‘serious artist’ someday that I

would have to know how to draw characters with no help. So I observed and drew characters off

of VHS movie jackets or out of story books. I was frustrated at that point that when I drew from

Emily Majeski, 3rd Grade

my own imagination that my pictures

did not seem as detailed and I was often

upset when I felt that maybe my

imagination was ‘broken’, so I went into

another phase where I tried to make up

my own characters and draw them

repeatedly in new situations. I was still

very much in an ‘outline everything’

mindset, as I thought a comic or cartoon

artist would. Eisner (1980, p. 333)

explains how one comes familiar with a

medium or art form and is inspired by the

representational forms that are made possible by using it“...the act, once engaged in, is never

wholly conceived in the cortex. What might be conceived is a theme or image of a general

nature. The process of working with actual material is a process that clarifies, confers detail,

provides the material upon which vision can be conferred and correction made. In this sense the

opportunity to use a form of representation within a particular medium is an opportunity to form

ideas, not simply to express those already formed”. After I felt I had explored as much as I could

in that form of representation, I was ready to move on again. The primary media I had access to

or experience with were markers, colored pencils, and crayons, up until middle school. Only then

did I really have a chance to try paints or clay. That sparked another change for me all together.

It was beyond exciting to me that my middle school had an actual art class, though I remember

it felt more like a study hall for most of the other students in the class. It was highly unstructured.

The art teacher was a football coach and seemed to spend more time watching play-by-plays

with the boys on the team than he spent teaching us anything. He never demonstrated anything or

talked to us as a class. There were no notes, slideshows, or art terms to learn. We chose our own

projects and told the teacher what we were going to make. Looking back on that experience

however, it was very much a ‘workshop’ style environment and a place for us to try new things.

It was a testing grounds for any media we wanted to learn and the teacher would talk to us

Drawing inspired by “Alice in Wonderland”By Emily Majeski, 5th Grade

individually about our plans. He would offer ideas and suggest materials or resources. It turned

out to be just the kind of freedom I craved and I became a much more independent person

because of that experience. “Out of action, out of one's engagement with the set of materials in a

context. ideas are born” (Eisner, 1980, p. 332). The old problems I had felt about not feeling

‘creative’ enough were gone. I understood now that creativity was a process that required work.

“Creativity can be thought of as a "process whereby the individual finds, defines, or discovers an

idea or problem not predetermined by the situation or task" (James, 2004, p. 360, cited from Kay,

1994, p. 117). Set in motion were the creative habits that I would carry with me into my work

and my life as an adult. I had begun to build upon the raw drawing skills I had and broaden my

knowledge base of resources, media, and experiences, further developing my ideas about

‘creativity’ and ‘imagination’. Before, I had seen them as the same thing, but I came to

understand those were two completely different concepts.“Persons doing creative work choose,

change, and shape the environment, methods, and tasks to support the needs of their work, and

they use diverse ways of knowing, including insights, metaphors, and various heuristics to make

sense of their work. Creative work is not a solitary practice; creators utilize their personal

experiences, sense of self, and ways of making meaning, but they also interact with cultural

knowledge and with other people” (James, 2004, p. 361, as cited from Gruber, 1989).

Through high school I had a wonderful art teacher, Mr. Deines, who taught us about art

history, did demonstrations, showed us slideshows of images, and put on an art show each year

with everyone’s work. Simultaneously, I was very involved with 4-H and participated in regional

and state art competitions. It was a time where I developed more of a realistic concept of what it

would mean for me to study art or be a professional in the art world. I understood that this was

part of my identity and that I needed to develop that side of myself for the rest of my life. James

(2004, p. 359) did a study of a student, Carol, and followed her creative development, which I

feel could just as easily have been a case study of my own artistic development after high school.

“By interacting with materials, artistic concepts, her personal knowledge, other people, and the

environment, Carol was able go beyond her initial beliefs about art to become receptive to new

and unpredictable ways of acting and thinking. She moved from the security of replicating

accepted formulas to the uncertain territory of finding and solving her own artistic

problems. In other words, she developed her ability to think creatively. I use the term

"creatively" here to mean a complex set of thoughts and actions that occur as students give

artistic form to their ideas and emotions”.

In college, I zeroed in on the rigors of artistic

development, had struggles, success, and made

decisions about what was, and what was not,

working for me. My first “ah-ha!” moment

happened when I painted a still life of a gold

merry-go-round horse, some autumn berries, a

ball, and a printed blanket. This painting pushed

me over the edge in a good way. I was fearless,

fought through tough decisions, learned to use

my professor’s guidance as critique instead of

criticism, and I had an epiphany about the

beauty of being painterly instead of being

perfect. I found my stride in painting from

observation and using my creative license. I

also discovered that I saw beauty in ordinary things and that I wanted to explore this concept

much more in my artwork. I developed the habits and practices I have to this day. Today, it is still

my goal to find beauty in ordinary things, though it is not always through paint, my goals as an

artist remain the same, whether my medium is photography, printmaking, or fiber. I continue to

evolve as an artist and I hope this process never stops.

Carrousel, oil on canvas, 2000By Emily Majeski

References

Ivaskevich, Olga (2006 ). When we were young Perspectives on the art of the child, Drawing in

Children’s Lives, pp.45-59.

Eisner, Elliot (1980). Artistic Thinking, Human Intelligence and the Mission of the School, The

High School Journal, The University of North Carolina Press, Vol. 63, No. 8, pp. 326-334.

James, Patricia (2004). Beyond Her Own Boundaries: A Portrait of Creative Work, Studies in Art

Education, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 359-373.