It's been said time and again that messiness is a sign of creativity. They say the messier a person is the more creative they are; but is it really true?
(Image from Wikipedia on Art)
First, I will say, I am an artist. I have never been neat even as a kid. I don't even understand why I cannot, for the life of me, arrange my stuff to be as neat as the neat freaks' stuff. I mean... okay, do I sweep the floor? Yes, I do. Wash the dishes? I can do that too. Cook, mop, do the laundry etc, definitely easy things to do. But why the heck is my room still messy?
I mean, even my cousin used to arrange and fix up my stuff for me back when we were in grade school and I would always be amazed at how she could do it. As a little kid, we used to have maids so I guess that's why I didn't need to bother with cleaning up. Not that I messed stuff up or disarranged things voluntarily, it just doesn't happen that way.
(Image from Wikipedia Commons)
Somehow, when something happened in our family during my childhood, suddenly I found myself kind of messy. No more maid/s, for one, so I had to put stuff back where I got them. But even when I lived in a dorm in college I don't remember why I can live in my mess and not be bothered at all. I mean, from someone else's perspective, it really is not nice to look at. Other people would always neaten things up for me, if they didn't, then they suffer the consequences. Hahahahahaaaa~ Thanks everyone!
Seriously, sometimes I think it's a problem, but deep down I'm not bothered at all! I am only bothered when other people get bothered by my mess. This doesn't mean that I don't want a clean place, I do! When I clean up, I'm thorough and throw a lot of stuff away. But I mean c'mon, yeah I can put something back where it should be, I can clean up and organize my stuff but then I'm going to need certain things again so why not put it where I can easily reach it, right? Does that make me creative? It does make me sound more practical and efficient, right? (kidding)
Messy Things = Chaotic Artwork?
Well if my room and everywhere else is a mess, would it also make my art messy? Back when I was fresh out of college and starting out in an ad agency, my art director would always comment on my designs being disorganized. That was the only time I realized I need to make simple and clean designs. You see people like to see nice and neat things right? Even I like to see simple and uncomplicated designs.
I did learn a lot from my stay there but did it remove my messiness? Perhaps it did, or it must have given me a better way to arrange "the mess". It also probably gave me a better understanding of abstract art.
Remember Jackson Pollock? He's one of the first famous abstract artist and look how "chaotic" his paintings are. Here's one of them: Number 14.
(Image from Yale University Art Gallery website)
Upon seeing his work above, do you think it is art or just a piece of crap? Personally I didn't think his works were much of an art before but apparently there's a market for all this wriggly, squiggly, irregular kind of art.
As I don't prefer the above pic as "real" artwork I avoid doing such unless it has color and something else aside from just the utter nonsense of lines and shapes. Call it texture and it turns into something else entirely. With any art texture, it is acceptable to look dirty and ugly. For me, once textures are combined in such a way, it can make beautiful art.
This combination of different kinds of texture is what I started to do last year. Currently I'm into doing digital abstractions like these babies I posted on my Instagram art account: Handwritten calligraphy plus digital grungy backgrounds.
("We can do this friend." & "Keep on tryinna change me, stop it.")
As you can see, does the two above artwork seem much of a mess to you or does all the grit etc add to the overall feel the design is trying to portray? Now who's calling anyone messy? Haha.
The Famous Geniuses or Creative Western People
(Images from Wikipedia Articles of Einstein, Mark Twain and Steve Jobs respectively)
According to an Elite Daily article: Being messy will not make you creative. Messiness and Creativity are just correlated. If you're naturally messy, perhaps that does mean you are a creative person. Lots of geniuses / creative people are said to have had really messy desks or work spaces, like Einstein or Mark Twain... Even Steve Jobs is said to have been messy.
Here in the Philippines, being a slob at work is not something people would really take note of, unless maybe it is an extreme case. I mean, I've never heard of entertainment news saying, "This and this creative artist/person is so messy and such..." Who would want to know how disorderly one celebrity or famous person is, right? It's not like someone is out to prove this theory of messiness = creativity locally right?
But enough talking about the disorder of things, we still need to know why creatives are messy!
Perhaps the answer is with the results the creative person comes up with. We humans certainly come up with a lot of things. Geniuses make innovative things. Most of them solve problems and create innovations that we'd not think they are messy people, right?
When you say Steve Jobs, Einstein and Mark Twain, I don't think they are remembered for being messy people. They are more known for what they have contributed to humanity: the technological, scientific or cultural advancement they've shared with us.
Personally, I don't want to bother with mundane things, like cleaning up, when I need to do more important things like create art stuff, work and make a living.
- @Art.Stephanie.Rue
I mean, in the end, does it really matter to the world if you are a messy person as long as you make great things? I wonder. If you do not have any work or creative activity at all behind all the piled up stuff everywhere then maybe this just means you are a lazy person and a hoarder.
If you are a writer, director, inventor, scientist, artist, etc then perhaps all the disarray and chaos in the house only matters to those who are bothered by all the clutter. Usually it's the family member/s or any house mate a creative/messy person is living with.
Now I get why Jesus told Martha not to bother with what Mary is doing...
40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Now let's watch some videos.
And because I have concluded everything with the above paragraph, here's a fun video to watch: messiness and creativity according to geniuses(?). There's a circle at the top left to control the viewing of the "room" so you can see all the quotes and such.
Here's another video to understand what a creative person is like. Maybe it can help you or someone you know learn about how the creative mind works because frankly I don't even understand why I am the way I am. Haha. The video below explains it best. :D
And another video you can watch is this one, it's based off of the result of a US group research.
Well I hope this blog helped you in some way dear reader. This is the end so have a nice day!
