Enhance Your Creativity in 4 Steps

Enhance Your Creativity in 4 Steps

While I was doing my undergrad in Biology, I would literally wait 364 days in a year in order to express my creativity. Halloween suddenly became the only window I had to escape from all the science books to finally be myself. Throughout the whole year, I would silently brainstorm the theme, design, colors and materials of my Halloween costume creation while I pretended to listen to the professor defining the concept of species. “A species is defined as a group of organisms whose divergence is capped by forces of cohesion”. Yeah I know it sounds incredibly confusing! I myself had such a hard time understanding what that even meant that it turned out to be the only definition I can perfectly remember from the top of my head. What does that have to do with anything anyway? Even though I was the happiest person on earth when Halloween arrived, I was miserable for the rest of the 364 days of the year. I would start to count the days for the next Halloween literally a day after it passed. One day, I decided I could not continue living like that anymore…for I felt I was going to explode if I did not let my creativity fly more often!

At this point of my life, I decided to start applying the first part of my personal manifesto:

1) DON’T WAIT ‘TILL HALLOWEEN TO EXPRESS YOUR CREATIVITY

       Halloween costume 2014, designed and created by me

I mainly express my creativity through makeup, props and costume designs. Every material, every color, and every theme I choose has a meaning. I am the type of person that doesn’t really like explaining what I was trying to express or say with my creative work. Instead, I like it to be self-explanatory, to the point where it is easier to look at it and just take it as it is. Since I am an activist in the defense of human rights in Venezuela, my home country, I constantly use my creativity to contribute to the cause. I create posters, props and makeups that represent the precarious situation of my country with the purpose of raising international awareness.

As a result, the second part of my manifesto reads:

2) LET THE LANGUAGE BE BODY…LET THE IMAGE BE WORDS             Picture taken at a Venezuelan assembly in support of Political prisoners. (Credit: Jose Caruci)

It might be frustrating when you are trying to think of something unique and creative and no ideas come to mind. I know how it feels and I really hate it! In my case, it takes me weeks and sometimes months to come up with a new costume design. I am always under a lot of pressure because I feel like my new creation always has to be more outstanding and impressive than the ones from previous years. As a matter of fact, I’m only a month away from Halloween and I still don’t have any idea what I’m going to be dressed up as. Yet, I don’t really stress that much because I know that:

3) INSPIRATION IS AROUND THE CORNER AND IT WILL HIT YOU AT ANYTIME

Retreat to New York 2015.

Finally, there is nothing more rewarding than loving who you are as a creative person and enjoying every second you spend when you bring your ideas to life. It wasn’t until too long ago when I would still try to ignore the fact that I was creative in a very unique way. I didn’t want to accept that I was different. I mean, what crazy person enjoys designing costumes, wearing wigs and dressing up all year round if it’s possible? Well hopefully I’m not the only one… and even if I were, I would NOT care!

That’s is why the last and most important part of my manifesto is: 

4) BE PART OF YOUR ART, FEEL IT & APPRECIATE IT
My fairy themed Birthday Party, 2014.