The Rainbow Way – Creative Inheritance

Today, my  post is part of Week Three of the month-long Carnival of Creative Mothers to celebrate the launch of  The Rainbow Way: Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood by Lucy H. Pearce. 

Today’s topic is Creative Inheritance and I volunteered to write a post about this topic too…
Do read to the end of this post for a full list of carnival participants. 

You can also Join the Carnival and be in with a chance to win a free e-copy of The Rainbow Way! Next week is the final week! December 11th the topic will be: The Creative Process.

I do believe that creativity is (partly) in the genes, but that it can be strenghtened and encouraged as a kid… my parents, for example, were both creative in their own way and so they gave me the example on how you can embed creativity into your life – and I, too, passed a creative sparkle into my son…

Last week, I dived into the old photo boxes and viewed hundreds of photos (yep, that much! You’ll find out why there are that many when you read further…) I was looking for images that would show the creativity going on in our house when I was a child…

My mom, Johanna Kruit, is a poet and a writer of children’s books. Here’s how she/her desk looked in the seventies…

From my mom, I inherited my passion for words and the trait to look at the world with different eyes. To imagine ‘that other world’ that may possible lay behind ours – a world where fairies fly, mermaids wash ashore and dragons exist. As a child, I found it fascinating that the stories my mom read to me came out of someone head (hers, another writer’s) and that the fantasy of the writer could be passed on through written words – heck, I STILL find that fascinating!

My dad, on the other hand, is more of an analytic and visual type. He is a great amateur photographer. When I was a teenager, we made quite some ‘photography trips’ on the peninsula where I grew up. I found this photo I took from him taking a photo of the view from the balcony of our holiday-home in Luxembourg in 1979.

He taught me not only to look, but to try to really ‘see’ (and analyse) what you are looking at: contrast, golden ratio and also how to choose subjects or take detailed photographs. He had no teaching experience whatsoever, but he would certainly have been a great teacher at an art school or something…

This photo shows me with my photo camera. (1976?)

In our family, there was an interest in all kinds of art. While searching my photoboxes (an awful lot of photos my dad took when I was little are in there – hence the big number) I came across this cute photo from my brother. He must have been approximately 3 years old when this was taken (in the late sixties) and I just had to include this photo in my post… aahhh

So in me, I combine the genes my parents passed on to me. The fantasy, imagination and love for words that I got from my mom and the analytic skills, curiousity for techniques and eagerness to pass on knowledge that I inherited from my dad automatically lead me to become a teacher in art.

I almost couldn’t believe it when I found this picture… a photo from my art class! I even remember that teacher (Mr. Elzinga?) And do you see the girl with the red, henna-dyed, hair and coloured sweater (second from right?) That’s me around 1985!

The art I made while studying at the art school (1984-1989) often showed a combination of images and words and looking back on it, I was already art journaling without knowing that this word existed. Here’s a book that I made for the graduation exhibition (the theme for my graduation exhibition was “Lord of the Rings”.)

After art school, I went on studying on a more theoretical level (science of children- and adult education) and was not thinking about (creating) art in those years. However, I lived together with a graphical designer and when we had a son, we passed on the creative gen!

We did stimulate him – for example – to paint…

Years passed since then… I broke up with the father of my son and found another love… my son grew up being fond of mathematics and computers – which is alright of course.

But as the above stated: creativity somehow is in the blood and I myself picked up being creative when I started scrapbooking around 2002. A few years later I found out about ‘art journaling’ which made me re-discovered the combination of words and images in a way that truly combines all the ‘mom and dad’ sides I have in me… and it feels like I’ve finally come home.

Oh… and my son?
He studies artificial intelligence at the University and besides that: he works as a free lance photographer for a musical website; visiting concerts, photographing musicians and in his free time playing the piano.

How’s that for creative inheritance?!!

Or order from your local bookshop.

• Carnival host and author of The Rainbow Way, Lucy at Dreaming Aloud celebrates her creative fairy godmothers, and gives thanks for the creative blessings that each has gifted her.
• In “‘From Trash To Treasure”: Christmas Decoration’ Laura from Authentic Parenting shares fond memories crafting with her mom and a little project her mom did recently.
• Lucy Pierce from Soulskin Musings celebrates the rich creative inheritance of her mother’s poetic soul and artful ways. 
• Is thinking differently a curse or a gift? Zoie at TouchstoneZ susses out whether her family legacy might hinder or encourage creativity.
• Dawn Collins at TheBarefootHome Dawn thinks we’re all born with a creative inheritance from the mother we all share… Mother Nature.
• Licia Berry at Illumined Arts looks at the creative inheritance passed on by our ancestral lineage, discovered through sexuality and the Sacred Feminine within in “Sexuality and the Sacred Feminine”
• Alex at The Art of Birth explores the nature of creativity. 
• Handcrafts are prayers, that’s what Corina from PatchScrap learned from grandmother.
• Jennifer at Let Your Soul Shine retraces her creative inheritance from her childhood and all the way back to the 19^th Century.  
• Kirstin at Listening to the Squeak says “I have always known my creative inheritance and it is so very important for my children to know theirs.”
• Becky at Raising Loveliness reflects on her experiences of creativity.
• Creative Inheritance is a Beautiful Thing, says Aimee at Creativeflutters and discusses where her creativity comes from and what influences in her family have helped her on her artistic journey. 
• Georgie at Visual Toast shares her creative inheritance.
• Esther at Nurture Workshop expresses the gift of a creative mind and the doors that are waiting to be opened for those who are willing to explore.
• Whitney Freya at Creatively Fit is inspired by the sacred spark within each of us, a spark that transcends time and is infinitely creative.
• Denise at It Begins with a Verse  looks back at her family’s creative inheritance.
• Womansart shares her reflections on creative inheritance.
• Lys at Stars and Spirals looks at the creative inheritance as described by the astrological chart, drawing on her personal journey into motherhood and reawakened creativity.
• Biromums wrote poems about their creative inheritance.
• Kae at The Wilde Womb reflects on the various artists within her family and how it has shaped her identity and what impression she wishes to leave her own children. 
• Lucy at Capture by Lucy  reflects on her experiences of creativity.
• Knitting blankets and the inner landscape–my mother’s life’s work, writes Nicki from Just Like Play. 
• Something Sacred – Sadhbh at Where Wishes Come From writes about how the creativity of the women in her family has influenced her.
• Mamma Bloom at Breathe and Bloom writes about her creative inheritance.
• Mama is Inspired shares how she loved to make holiday ornaments as a child, and now is continuing that tradition with her own child.
• Ali Baker is a creative mama to twin girls who reignited her creative energy and sense of who she used to be by just doing it and creating whatever needs to be created in an imperfect way. 
• KatyStuff hopes inheritance is a long way off, but, when the day comes her woodworker father has already said he is comforted by knowing his work is in so many homes.
• Jasmine at Brown Eyed Girl realizes that the creativity she craves for so deeply may actually be something that runs deeper than just her imagination.
• Darcel at The Mahogany Way shares her creative journey.
• Rising on the Road shares her experiences at Finding Life in a Death.