Why I Love Being Creative

Creativity is one way to express what kind of human being you are, what you love, and who you are.

Creativity lets you see who you are, what you’re interested in, the values and standards you set, and how you want people to get to know you. Being creative you can show what life means for you.

At least, for me. I mean, when I play the violin, the music goes right through my soul, my veins. They are thrilled when I am playing or even listening to music. There is so much joy to it. My thoughts go onto the paper through writing, the words flowing after each other. My vision goes onto the painting canvas. One stripe after another or just the little details.

Heart and soul

When I do this, I pour my heart and soul into doing those creative projects. It helps me understand why I do things the way I do. It’s a reflection of who I am, or who I want to become. The longer I think about it, the more ideas I get to write or paint about.

When I play the violin, I look at how the music has written, who wrote it, why the composer wrote it and when it was written. Then I know how to play written music and what kind of emotions I can use to imagine the music. That’s how the music comes alive to the audience. You can imagine a tree while playing a certain passage. The great Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov once said during a master-class when there was a passage repeating higher and higher in Kreisler’s Tambourin Chinois: “Imagine you climb the Chinese Wall, and finally when you arrived, you suddenly fall off the wall.”

What happens to me as a person?

I truly have no idea, to be honest. But I’ll try to explain why I love to write, paint and play the violin.

First of all, as a child, I started to play the cello. After one year playing the cello, I replaced the cello with the violin. The cello was too big for me and didn’t fit with me as a person. I do believe that an instrument is like a character of a human being. A violin is smaller and fits me much better; physically and mentally. Plus, I like the sound of the violin much more than the sound of the cello. Although, last year I listened to a recording on the national radio station and heard a cello concerto: I was sold again.

Besides all this, my sister plays the violin as well. I heard her practicing all the time when I was a little child. That’s what I wanted to do as well. My parents thought it would be a nice idea to have lots of instruments at home (they have five daughters).

Violin

When I’m playing the violin, there is a certain amount of joy that’s beating my heart out of my chest. Even when I’m listening to (classical) music. It’s like butterflies when you fall in love with your soul-mate. That’s how I feel when I play the violin every day. And yes, it is like a marriage, there are issues to solve, but most of the time I like to solve those issues. What do I do when I can’t solve a problem during playing the violin? I ask my sister through Skype or e-mail.

Painting

Painting is another kind of art that lets my heart beat a million times faster. Two years ago, I discovered painting as a hobby. I thought about it for a long time to start. But I never thought to buy stuff to create canvasses. I never got the courage to begin painting. I thought I couldn’t do it or I wasn’t suitable for it. But then I realized how I started playing the violin… Just by doing it!! So, why not the same with painting? I was always fascinated by other painters, like Vincent van Gogh. Not that I can paint like him, but how did he start? I think by just doing it! Like playing the violin and writing, it’s your voice to speak the way you see the world.

It’s amazing when the blank painting canvas gets filled with your vision. The paintings say the vision you created in your head. Seeing your vision on that particular canvas with colors your head had dreamt of feels so good. And when it comes on canvas the way I envisioned it, I get the most precious smile on my face. That happens rarely. That joy inside, oh man, you have to see that!

Writing

I love writing as well. Like here on Medium (Agnes Laurens). Writing articles gives me fulfilling joy. It also gives me the opportunity to express my feelings and it feeds my fantasy. Writing my ideas in articles give me the reflection of my life, the things I know, and my fantasy comes alive. When I have a good productive day, I smile a lot and I want to do more and more writing. What is my opinion? What are the tips and tricks for a situation I’ve been in? What do I know about a certain topic I want to write about? The list goes on and on. You see ideas everywhere!

When I write, the words tell the story from my head into the words I want you to read and understand, like painting the vision you want to paint and the feeling of playing the violin through my veins to express my mood and feeling.

Poetry

Poetry is another form of writing I love that I discovered a few months back. I still practice writing poetry. There are different forms of writing poetry and I kinda like it.

Foremost, I write for the local newspaper. I write about local events: I talk to couples who are married for 60 years, meet the mayor, and interview local police chiefs. And there are so many other subjects I wrote about.

The most beautiful part of art is getting your reward.