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I was chatting to my hairdresser the other day about her young son. A keen artist, he had been persuaded by his school to nonetheless give up art studies in favour of concentrating on more basic skills like English and maths. She conceded his basic skills were more important, but was keen to encourage him to continue with his art in his free time, and we talked about good places to buy art materials locally.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘if he wants to draw, he’ll probably draw with anything.’
‘He does!’ she said, and it set me thinking about artistic creativity.
Here was a young lad, just starting out in life, and here am I, comfortably into my seventh decade – and we have something very much in common – we’re both full of artistic ideas just bursting to get out. I can honestly say that, far from winding down, my impulse to create is more intense than ever. The sense of urgency is quite overpowering at times. My young friend is probably not over-worried about his eyesight or steadiness of hand letting him down any time soon, but I am. So it’s important to me to get it all done, or at least, as much as I can manage.
It’s very much a key part of human nature to mull over an idea and ask, can I do that? Can I make it work? I was wondering recently, having written a story about a magpie, whether I could actually draw one. I drew birds all the time when I was young, but it’s been a long time. It will take a bit of effort, but I rather think my magpie will appear. The first rough sketch is already on my pad.
Do I stop and ask whether I’m too old to learn new arty stuff (or relearn old stuff)? Of course. But mostly I just get on and do it. The more I do, the more my confidence increases. And, increasingly, I find I just know how to get the results I want – the benefits of long experience kicking in, I guess.
If the creative need is there, it’ll burst out one way or another. There’s simply no stopping it. I have friends in their eighth and even ninth decades who still feel that intense need to be creative. It’s one of those things that makes you feel alive, however old you are.
There are no age limits to creativity, then, from the youngest to the oldest. I hope my young friend enjoys his artwork – and for myself, I’m looking forward to a highly creative future!