Welcome To The Silent World!

Pablo Picasso once said that “Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once we grow up.” In The Silent World we will explore the intricacies of creativity and the effect of society, education, and age on the creative process. As a creative person, I am interested in human creativity as a whole concept. I have often noticed that kids tend to have a free and open mind in terms of creativity and imagination, whereas adults tend to be scared of creation – or assume they’re going to fail. As I developed this project, I began to wonder whether it is the lack of ability or fear getting in the way of creativity as we age. The Silent World will ask the questions: what happens to the creative human mind as we get older and how do the rigid societal expectations associated with education and creative ability morph our creative processes?

The Silent World – named as an homage to the pioneering 1950s Jacques Cousteau works documenting early deep water exploration – will travel to various schools in the community and engage classrooms from Pre-school to Doctoral degrees. Each group will be given the same prompt:

“95% of the ocean is still unexplored. Make something that’s never been seen before that you think lives in the deep ocean.”

In addition to having the same prompt, I will give each participant the same materials and time frame to complete their piece. The primary medium for The Silent World will be painting and low relief in order to allow for collage and extensions beyond the canvas. In addition to exploring the creative process, I am interested to see the choices in materials as the age range changes. I have selected schools and programs that are as separated as possible from the artistic community, whether by choice or by financial necessity.

The Silent World is rooted in the community because it is created by the community. As part of The Silent World, I will also randomly interview within each class and curate quotes from the different members to include as part of the displays. After the creation process, I will select 2-3 pieces per demographic group to display at a gallery showing at the close of the project. The creators of the pieces selected for the show will be invited with their families to bring a dish and attend the show opening to discuss their pieces and share refreshments with the community. Throughout the project, from pre-planning to conclusion, I will also curate a blog at DiscoveringTheSilentWorld.blogspot.com to enable community members to follow the day-to-day progress of the project.

My true hope is that the project will open a dialogue within the community regarding how our creativity is affected by our age and societal expectations. As the viewers read the quotes from the interviews and see the finished pieces, they will not only be able to discuss this question, but will be able to connect with other members of the community through introspection and shared creative habits and feelings.