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Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Pablo Picasso at DailyLearners.com

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Is Academic Performance An Indication of Your Child’s Creative Potential?

Hi! I'm Terry Holliday. I want to inspire you! Here you will find articles to get you thinking about your creative journey. I hope you enjoy the site. If you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and come back often!

daz2 performance 300x149 Is Academic Performance An Indication of Your Childs Creative Potential?Creativity is the ability to create something new using one’s imaginative skill. When it comes to childrens’ creativity, it can include the ability to come up with innovative and novel solutions to problems, designing new inventions and producing innovative works of art. Every child is born with at least one talent and often more. For some children, the talent is readily visible but for most, it is not quite apparent. It is up to grown ups close to the child to really discern the abilities of the child and to cultivate them. These people can be the parents of the child, the teachers at school, the child’s grandparents or close relatives, or even the friends of the child’s parents.

Some children exhibit their talent at a very young age and it is for all to see that the child is gifted in a particular field. Unfortunately, this kind of exposure is quite rare. Most children go through life sometimes without recognizing their talents until much later in life. Sadder is the fact that many people go to the grave without ever discovering the hidden talents lying dormant deep inside them. No one had discovered their talent when they were young and they had not discovered it themselves when they got older. They have lived their entire life possessing a talent that they never knew they had, let alone developing and using it.

Academic performance is many times used nowadays as a yardstick for a child’s intelligence and creativity. But unfortunately, most education systems are ill-equipped to truly evaluate the creative potential in a child. They might be able to measure the cognitive skills of a child, but lack the faculty to really estimate the child’s innate creativity. Parents and teachers need to be careful to never let children to have a poor estimation of themselves based on their academic performance. Academic knowledge is only a small fraction of a child’s faculties. That should not be used as a complete measure of a child’s mental worth.

Children should be raised in an atmosphere where they are free to think, ask questions and explore life on their own. Grownups should provide an invisible fence within which they are allowed to wander freely. Only when they are at risk of making costly mistakes should they be diverted away from their present course of action. In such a healthy and safe environment, children can have unlimited growth potential. Without an ‘apparent’ limitation to their freedom, children can really learn to be creative and effective in coming up with novel solutions.

Amy invites you to browse strikingly beautiful collection of cordless fountains and tabletop fountains at the Tabletop Fountain Store.  Flowing water is known for its ability to foster creativity and increase focus and concentration.

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A New Writer for My Creativity Blog

My Creativity Blog will have a new writer contributing to the blog. Russell Cushman will be writing articles about creativity and more once a month. You will be able to read his articles the third Thursday of each month. Russell will post his first article in September. Since today is the third Thursday of the month, I thought I would give my readers a chance to learn a little more about Russell by including a bio about him. I look forward to hearing what Russell has to say next month!

I hope you enjoy reading about Russell and his creative experience.

Russell Cushman’s public murals and monumental sculptures can be found all over the Brazos Valley, which he calls home. His original works are treasured in prestigious private and corporate collections throughout the Southwest.

Russell and his wife chose to establish themselves in Navasota, Texas which is 75 miles northwest of Houston. Just south of Bryan-College Station, Navasota sits at the junction of the Brazos and Navasota Rivers, just a few miles from historic Washington on the Brazos, the cradle of Texas Independence.  Cushman loved the natural beauty and lore of the region, which included being part of the original Austin Colony, the hunting grounds for the Caddo and Coushatta Indians, the Blues Capital of Texas and the last trail of La Salle.

Making a living as an artist was not easy, and Russell has worn many hats over the years. He has worked on farms in the Brazos Valley as a farm worker and cotton scale operator, and a museum director and ranch hand. For years Cushman did construction and remodeling and sign painting. And all along he has taught private art lessons, for over thirty years in many Texas towns, like Katy, Tomball, Houston, Columbus, Brenham, Hempstead, College Station, and of course Navasota.

In 1996, Russell went back to finish his Fine Arts Degree at Sam Houston State University. Today his reputation has grown as a highly qualified historical and nature muralist, sculptor, and landscapist. He works in oils and acrylics. He has murals in Tomball, Caldwell, Bryan/College Station, Houston Baptist University, and every campus in the Navasota School District. His most famous is a 140 foot mural at the Star of the Republic Museum at Washington on the Brazos. Russell was selected from a field of outstanding Texas artists to create the most exciting and authentic epic renderings ever done on the subject.

He has done several fiberglas and epoxy sculptures for Bryan schools, Stelzig’s Ranch western wear in the Houston Bush Airport, and a life-sized bronze of Harvey Mitchell, a Texas Ranger and the first educator in Brazos County which stands in the halls of Harvey Mitchell Elementary. His life-sized bronze of a Depression era mother teaching her children how to fish adorns Heritage Park in Bryan.

Today Cushman stays busy with murals and other commissions, and sells much of his easel work at galleries. He and his wife of thirty-five years live in Navasota, where Cushman is a familiar face, having been elected twice to the Navasota City Council.

Russell Cushman has spoken to scores of art clubs, demonstrating his techniques, and taught art classes and workshops throughout Texas. He has been interviewed by Ray Miller for the Eyes of Texas, written about in Texas Highways magazine, and pictured in US News and World Report. He has been featured in local papers many times. A public servant, church leader, and art show judge, Cushman is also an accomplished writer and is presently working on a book about the history of blues in the Brazos Valley.

A great deal of his art can be viewed at his website, www.russellcushman.com.

If there is something in particular that you would like Russell to write about you can leave him a comment to make a request.
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How To Spot Creativity In Your Child’s Talent

child creativity How To Spot Creativity In Your Childs TalentEvery single child born into this world comes with a set of talents. Some are gifted with more and some with less. Nevertheless, they are all blessed with one talent or the other. There is never an individual born into the world with no talent whatsoever. Every single person has some talent. So the next step is to identify the talent that the child inherently possesses so that it can be brought out, nurtured, cultivated, developed and used for the good of society as well as the individual. Every talent that every individual possesses is for the common good, and not for the individuals themselves to keep and enjoy. The talent needs to be used for the good of everyone, and in the process, the possessor of the talent would also be blessed.

Therefore, parents and elders in close association with the child have the responsibility of identifying the gifts and talent of the child and bring it out into the open. While with some children, it is extremely easy to identify what particular talent they are gifted with, with other children, it may not be readily apparent. But parents need to strive hard to recognize the talents that their child possesses so that they can develop them even further.

There are various ways to spot a child’s talent. The first task is to expose them to as many fields as possible. When they are babies, we may not have a clue to what they are talented in. So we need to expose them to music, to pictures, to toys of various kinds and to a variety of different stimuli. This exposure will tremendously stimulate their minds during the early stages of mental development. It is crucial that the all the senses of the child are stimulated so that the child has uniform development in all spheres.

Once the seeds are sown, the parents can be ready for the harvest. Sooner or later, the child will start displaying specific attributes based on their unique skills. If they musically inclined, they will be singing and playing instruments. If they are artistically inclined, they might be with their pencils and brushes, drawing or painting things they had seen. At first, these might be very rudimentary. But the parents need to recognize that they are still in their early stages of development. Given time and nurturing, these talents will one day take the child to great heights. It is to that end that every parent needs to invest their time and effort in their child’s gifts.

About the Author
Amy C. enjoys expressing her creativity through the creation and design of calming water features.  She invites you to browse beautiful collection of indoor fountains at the tabletop fountain store.  Amy’s most recent addition features calming cordless fountain How To Spot Creativity In Your Childs Talent collection at the tabletop fountain store.

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Taking Off For a While

Hi! I hope your summer is going well. Mine has been interesting. Not doing exactly what I planned, but that is what keeps things interesting. I want to let you all know that I am going to be taking off from writing for My Creativity Blog for a short while. I am not exactly sure [...]

Creating a Pleasing Composition

Designing or creating the composition of your art work is very important in order to end up with a pleasing result. I have been painting for many years, and I find myself doing much of the composing as I take photographs of the subject matter I want to paint. Sometimes I do not consciously think about it. Other times I [...]

Creativity Devotional – The Spirit

 

But God has revealed it to us by his spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
 
 I Corinthians 2:10 NIV
Thought:
I think every person experiences or sees the world in a slightly different manner from the next. Visual artists might be prone to notice color, texture, value, shape, and line. A musician might be more sensitive [...]

My Thoughts on Using Creativity Prompts

Purple Orchid

Last week I wrote an article about using creativity prompts. If you missed the article you can click here to read it. Yesterday I decided to use the prompts I had written about. The prompts I mentioned were:
orchid
color – purple
texture – rough
emotion – childlike
principle of design – movement
I decided I wanted to do a fast and fun [...]

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