In my experience as an art teacher and artist, I have encountered these 3 ideas more times than I can count:

• You have to be good at art to be creative.

• If you can draw realistically, you are creative.

• You are either born creative, or you're not.

Let’s bust these myths:

• You have to be “good at art” to be creative.

First things first, "good at art" is subjective, so there is flaw #1. Secondly, there are TONS of super creative people in this world who don't make art at all. They have original ideas and can solve a problem 101 ways - all without ever picking up a paintbrush. 

• If you can draw realistically you are creative.

Drawing realistically takes skill, as do things like baking, solving math problems, and playing sheet music. However, inventing novel ways of doing things, or using different techniques, or combining disparate ideas to make a new object take creativity. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to learn the rules, but creativity allows you to break them.

• You are either born creative or you are not. 

You can learn to be more creative. Creativity is a way of thinking, and the more you practice, the easier it gets. 

Want to exercise your creativity muscle?

1. Doodle - start with a short line or a small shape, and repeat it, making a pattern, so that it fills up a corner of your page. When you have filled in a couple square inches, choose a new line or shape to use. Look at objects around you for inspiration (wall paper, appliances, plants, buildings, etc) Do this until you fill the whole page, without repeating any patterns.

2. Find an Alternative - Choose a task you normally do with a tool of some sort (a pen, a fork, a trowel, fly swatter, etc) and figure out 10 new ways or tools to use to complete the task without it. 

3. Collage - Using an old book, magazine, or newspaper, create a collage by cutting out pictures and rearranging them, or cut out words and create a poem from them, or do both to create a captioned image!

4. Free associate - choose the first word that pops into your head and write all the thoughts and ideas that follow. The more nonsensical the better! If you feel inspired, use some part of it as the inspiration for a drawing or story. 

5. Iterate - Use 5 different everyday objects that you have many of to create a simple image. For instance, use paperclips, toothpicks, pennies, safety pins, and napkins to make a heart (or a smiley face, or a stick figure, or a snowflake, you get the point).

   Once you have completed any of these ideas, share your creation on social media with the hashtag #getrealcreative so I can see what you made!