Any Artists here?

Are you an artist?

Gordon MacKenzie renowned for his creative work in writing Hallmark cards in the 1980s was intrigued by the factors that make up human creativity.

He proceeded to create a social study to identify the factors that makeup artists. Surveying a group of adults, he found that 10-15% of adults consider themselves artists. Unhappy with this result he wanted to understand why.

MacKenzie took his work to schools. He went to a full class of kindergarteners and posed the question.

"Any artists here?"

And as you may have already guessed, the entire class put their hand up.

"ME! ME! ME! I'm an artist! ", the kids would yell in enthusiasm.

Intrigued, MacKenzie followed the same group of kindergarteners. Once they were in grade 3, he followed up with a similar question to the class.

"Any artists here?"

This time around, only about half of the class put their hand up with little enthusiasm.

Following the same group, as they aged into grade 6, MacKenzie asked again,

"Any artists here?"

And only about 10-15% of the class put their hand up while looking around at their peers for validation.

Something unusual must have happened between kindergarten and grade 6.

Either you became worse at art than you were when in kindergarten.

OR

Someone along the way told you that you weren't good enough...

Many think that to be an artist you have to be good. That is incorrect.

The only difference between an artist and someone who is not is that an artist creates.

To be an artist you need to create.

In parallel, the only difference between a leader and a follower is that a leader takes action.

A leader creates.

“Everyone is innately creative, it posits; creators are just people who act. And, of course, they don't always succeed." - James Hamblin