Last updated 4/3/2008
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Writing from the Creativity Course:
Angela Legendre

This is a series of postings about creative work on a personal level from Angela Legendre, who took this course in Winter 1999. It offers a close look at trying to solve creative problems.

Angela Legendre, Creative people we know...
One of the areas that I have always loved is visual arts. Ever since I was a child, I have greatly enjoyed nature and all of its beauty, and I have been awed by the wonderful array of colours that occur naturally and those that can be used in artwork to create new visions of beauty. I have also always enjoyed colouring and drawing, and I think that I am especially lucky to have been blessed with a talent in these areas, since I've talked to many people who've expressed an interest in these activities but found that they just didn't have what it takes to become really adept at it. (However, I must mention that it wasn't until my mid-teens that my talent in this area became greatly recognized by teachers, family, or anyone else.)

Although my developing abilities in art more often involved copying something as closely as possible to the original (which in itself is very difficult), they sometimes also involved (at least for me, in a "small c creativity" way since they didn't contribute anything to the world in general) a creative insight or breakthrough that had followed deep thinking about how to solve an artistic problem or how to be innovative in my artistic creations. I fondly remember one time when I was in the third grade, and everyone was supposed to fashion a boat out of flattened out play-doe. Most of the children had already finished their two dimensional boats that they had created by flattening out the play-doe and cutting out a shape that would resemble a boat. I remember feeling that this was a boring task and having had a keen sense there must be some other way to do it. After a while, it finally came to me that I could create a boat that was actually shaped like a boat! I was over-joyed at that new found prospect, and then tried hard to figure out how I would actually do it. I eventually came up with something like a clothing pattern (although I didn't have words to describe it back then). I had cut four separate pieces, the first one was shaped like the bottom of a fishing boat (a flat bottom) and the other two were cut into long rectangular pieces (to make up the sides of the boat), and the last piece was a rectangular square that would serve as the back of the boat. I then assembled all of it together and wound up with what looked like a three dimensional fishing-boat! I was quite pleased.

Throughout the years I have become pretty good at creatively solving problems that crop up while creating artwork, and very good at creating things that look completely life-like. (Unlike Picasso, I am more interested in experimenting with colour than with form, and I prefer forms that are true to life. I mostly have experience drawing and painting landscapes, figures and portraits, and still lives). In high school I had many opportunities to explore my artistic side, since in my second year I switched to another high school, one that was involved with a special training program in the city for talented young artists. In order to get into the program, I had to present a portfolio of my artwork and to audition. Luckily, I had enough talent to pass the audition, and had been studious enough in the past to have developed a distinguished portfolio, which led to my acceptance into the program. During those years I accomplished a great deal, and learned a lot about all kinds of different aspects of artistic creation. This was an invaluable experience, not only for the specialized training, the free supplies, the opportunities to display my artwork throughout the city, and in France (while on a tour through Europe), but also because it gave me the  opportunity to get to know and observe the different art styles of other talented students from across the city, and to experience what it felt like to be part of an artistic community. (The only major drawback is that because of the very high expectations and demands, I lost a lot of the joy in painting and the fun of creating which I had possessed when I was younger.) There are several creative experiences I had at this time which I also fondly remember.

One of these was during my first year of high school when I was trying to draw a portrait of a model, and I just couldn't get her eyes to look as they actually did in the photo. After trying several times, I took a break and thought about why I was having so much difficulty. I realized that it was because I had a certain expectation of what an "eye" would look like and that this was interfering with my ability to draw what I actually saw. It's kind of the same issue as David Bowen brought to our attention with regard to that creative puzzle regarding the dots that had to be connected with only three lines, and which meant that the lines had to go outside of the box. Because we had expected that the lines would have to remain in the box, this limited our ability to solve the problem. In my case, because I had expected that the eyes would have to look a certain way, this limited my ability to draw what I actually saw. After having realized what the problem was, I tried to figure out how I could get beyond it. I decided to turn both the photo and my drawing upside down and draw it from an upside down position since this might preclude my trying to draw it the way "an eye is supposed to look". Voila! It worked, and the eyes turned out looking exactly as they did in the photo! Not only that, but my teacher noticed what I was doing and told me that a lot of artists use this "technique" to do eyes. She was really impressed that I figured this out on my own, since most artists have to be "taught" this technique. And I was very pleased, also, because this was the most critical and negative teacher that I had ever met, and everyone knew that she hardly said a kind word about any one's art, and was hard to please. Not only did I get a perfect mark on that painting and was at the top mark in my class, but my teacher ended up being in the "Special Arts" program that I later got into, and I was one of the only students that she respected enough not to hassle. (Also, this was the first time in my life that I had really proven myself as an artist).

Another favorite experience of mine was more recent, and occurred when a  friend asked me to paint a portrait of his grandfather who had just passed away two years before, so that he could give it to his grandmother on Christmas. Well, I had never PAINTED a portrait before, and usually don't take requests from people (since virtually everyone I know wants something or other painted and I just don't have that much time) but this struck me as a chance to make someone very happy through my painting, and I decided to try doing it. First of all, I had read a chapter about "how to paint faces" in my spare time a year or so before, and I looked it over. Secondly, my friend and I looked over the portrait photos of his grandfather and decided which of these I would use for the composition. Thirdly, because my friend wanted me to do a whole composition including important aspects of the grandfather's life, we brainstormed together what would be most important to include, and then we worked out where we would put these things at in the background. We decided to put an ocean liner ship at the bottom, which represents his career and hobbies involving ocean liners, a small diagram to the right representing the family tree, a train at the top (I forget what this represents) and a tricycle on the left representing an event from childhood. Fourthly, because I can't draw things (with the exception of landscapes) without a picture or something to go by, I had to find pictures or photographs of these different things. And the last major thing that I did to prepare for the painting was to do a complete drawing of the grandfather's face so that I would become very familiar with the contours, shading, shapes and planes of his face, and so that I could practice beforehand drawing glasses (which I had never done before, especially since I rarely draw faces). After all of this preparation I worked on the actual oil painting which I only had two weeks left before Christmas to complete, but I managed to get it done. Not only did I finish it the day before Christmas (although the oil paint wouldn't dry for a while yet) but it turned out looking exactly like the grandfather, and the colours and degree of subtlety that I had chosen for the background turned out perfectly as well! It was a good Christmas. When he gave the painting to his grandmother, (a woman who is usually bored with receiving gifts) she started crying, and was so happy with the painting that she decided to put it right up on the wall over the fireplace in the living room where she could see it all the time. I ended up meeting her later because she wanted to thank me, and she told me that now her husband would always be with her. We stayed in touch for a while after that -she was a really intelligent and likeable person.

One aspect of doing artwork that I have mastered somewhat but not nearly as creatively as I would like to is "composition" (Since I have previously focused on mastering "colour" and "form".) This involves the creating of an image that is not copied overly much from any other artist or photographer, and which involves the choosing of items to be incorporated into the drawing/painting, and the exact placement of these, the colours to be used and how these will draw the eyes to a focal point and lead the eyes around the page/canvas, perspective, etc. I would like to explore this realm of creativity much more in the future. Another way in which I would like to more greatly explore my creativity in art is through doing creative fantasy artwork including working with such images as unicorns, castles, mistiness and skies, spiritual images, etc.

Thus, although I have already learned and explored much in the area of art, (including learning and practicing to draw and paint in a highly precise manner, creating colourful and uplifting landscapes, seascapes, portraits, and still lives, having auditioned for and been accepted into a special art school, having had a chance to display my art work in many areas throughout my city, and in a city in France as well) there is much more that I would like to do. And I hope one day to come up with something that is "Big C creative" in this field.

Angela's reposting of Creative People We Know
In addition to describing one of my favorite and one of the most creative people that I know besides myself, I'd like to mention how this course has impacted me -in terms of my art work (relates to my original posting).

I have found this course to be extremely valuable in exactly the way that I was hoping it would be -in terms of better understanding myself and my creativity as an artist. This course--and especially Howard Gardner's book on highly creative individuals, my third book by Rollo May "The Courage to Create", and the  course conferences--have helped me to look beyond the technical aspects of doing art (which is what I was mostly encouraged to focus on by parents and teachers in the past) and to focus instead on the creative process and on the meaning of the art work.

It has also helped me to realize that even though I didn't think that I was being very creative before (since I would approach art in a logical, highly organized and fully conscious manner) -that subconsciously I was actually creatively expressing a great deal in my art work about who I am and how I see and understand the world that I live in.

I now realize the hidden meaning in much of my art work -I generally choose to do portraits and landscapes that convey both strength and beauty (strong, courageous and beautiful women, beautiful mountains which also signify strength and stubbornness); and portrayals of children sharing with each other and playing out in the beautiful summer landscape (depicting the beauty of youthful love and innocence, and which reminds me of the one thing that I most loved as a child -playing outside in our beautifully landscaped yard or climbing trees and eating mulberries in the park across the street). Also, I tend to use an impressionistic style much of the time which conveys my love of putting separate things together in a manner that creates a holistic image (I greatly enjoy synthesizing information also), and conveys a sense of free-spiritedness and the desire to be expressive.

My favourite aspect of doing art work is using colour, and I greatly enjoy teaching others how to use colours also. In my new-found understanding of why it is that I paint and draw the way I do, I have come to realize that my choice of colours deeply reflects two things -a strong, free-spirited and passionate nature, and a deep sense of the need for love, peace, and tranquility both in my own life and in this world in general. I tend to use bright, vibrant colours to paint, and especially love to use purples, blues, reds/pinks, and greens (although I love and use all colours).  I can see now that many of my choices were not just haphazard and "logical" but were a reflection of how I see and feel about the world, and that they actually convey a great deal of emotion and spirituality. I hope to use this understanding to further explore my creative expression of what life is truly about in terms of the importance of love, strength, beauty, and soul/spirituality.