I like reading about others' experiences, so I'm sharing mine too. I was always keen of making various crafts (sewing, crochet, knitting, papercraft). So I have some kind of art background - I design paper decorations and pop-up cards plotter templates as a hobby (blog / Instagram links in my profile), but I feel my designs are so simple and not very impressive (although people like them, because they are also easy to make). Generally I find it difficult to create my own project without "feeding" my imagination with other people's creations. Of course, I don't copy their ideas literally, but I don't have my own distinct style either. That's why I'm here. I'm also participating Stan's "Drawing Basics" course.

I also dont mind sharing a few thoughts: Are you new to creativity or experienced? - I'd say I am experienced. I like the broad definition of creativity where you figure out new ideas, or figure out novel ways of applying old ideas. I've been sketching on and off for most of my life, but more for personal enjoyment than for employment. Some of the jobs I have held encouraged creative problem solving and troubleshooting, so even though I created non-visual things, they were still unique works of art. I also really enjoy discovering how things work, from mechanical to process-oriented, and finding nice surprises when I can apply a seemingly unrelated concept to solve a problem in a separate domain. Do you have an art background? - I played jazz in high school (improvisation) and studied music performance in college (orchestra, more exact and precise expression) in addition to my drawing hobby. I also decided to explore watercolor painting a couple of years ago, so I sketch from life and photos whenever I get a free afternoon. Where do you want to be more creative? I'd like to be more creative in how I communicate my ideas to other people. Sometimes I think I sound like a crazy person trying to jam a weird analogy into a conversation to try and help people understand my off-the-wall ideas. I manage a team of data analysts and would like to find ways to inspire their curiosity beyond the numbers in front of them. I think asking good questions is an art form, just as much as crafting experiments that will probably fail but will yield some new clues on what to try next.

Here are some answers I'd like to share: -- Are you new to creativity or experienced? I'm experienced. My background is in IT, as a programmer, database architect and data analyst. In other words, I'm a problem solver, which requires quite a bit of creativity, most of the time. The reason I'm posting this here is because I think it would be helpful to make a few points. As I was reflecting on this (I will spare you the long-winded reflection and internal conversation that resulted in this exercise), I came to the conclusion that I was NOT a creative person as a child. I don't think that I would have fit in that study of highly creative children, but rather developed my own creativity later in adulthood. Perhaps it has to do with how certain people have their own way of processing information. After that self-reflection, I came to the conclusion that my creativity as a child was not properly stimulated. For example, in 3rd grade we were given an assignment: build a musical instrument. I couldn't come up with any original way of designing and building a musical instrument. The only thing I could come up with was an empty box of Kleenex and a couple of elastics to make some sound as this very badly designed guitar. However, I did come up with something that I was very shy to present, was scorned by my fellow classmates for, but left the teacher very impressed: I had everyone clap in their hands at different intervals to create the sounds of a crackling camp fire. Then I proceeded to have them hit their fingers together to create the sounds of rain hitting a roof. My point is, if the assignment had been "create a new way to make sounds", which is way more abstract than "create a music instrument," my child's mind back then would have struggled a lot less to come up with that idea. To my peers, it was a lazy solution: I hadn't done any work or built anything from my hands to get there - obviously, my poor attempts at making a guitar with a box of Kleenex didn't count for anything. But having them work for ME and my assignment, while unacceptable to them, was impressive to my teacher. I've had an epiphany about talent and creativity since a few years ago, and my approach to my own art has changed drastically, but mainly is that I don't really care any more what my peers think about my approach - as long as what I do and how I go about it is satisfying to ME. -- Do you have an art background? Yes. I've been sculpting clay since 1995, although I don't earn my living as a professional artist. Being a professional artist is just my second job! I teach the art of ceramics: sculpture, pottery, glaze making. I received my Bachelor of Fine Art back in 2022 and really loved the experience of college education (all done online) even though I recognize that it was lacking on many aspects - which I'm working to remedy. -- Where do you want to be more creative? Mainly in my art process. But creativity serves all aspects of life, and I'll take all that I can get. Strangely enough, I only recently found the "art category" of my own artwork - Creative Realism. And that alone put everything into focus for my artwork and my future projects.