Where does creativity come from?

I am always hearing people say "oh I'm not creative." There's no such thing! Everyone has the capacity for creativity, but not everyone gives themselves the freedom to try it out.

The other day I was asked by a local gallery to judge an art show by the local elementary students. The gallery owner told me that he enjoyed the elementary students' work because it was so free as opposed to the middle and high school student work which he said became more regimented. That got me to thinking, why is it this way?

Do you remember making art when you were a little kid? Everyone made art. Everyone painted. Everyone drew. Everyone worked in clay, playdoh, ketchup, dirt - whatever we could get our hands on. But as we get older, there is more pressure to be "good" at something. And students begin to focus more on praise and grades and stop exploring. I think honestly the middle and high school students work is more regimented because it has to be. The teachers have to make these structured assignments in order to get their students to produce. As people become self-aware, they loose that freedom of experimentation and the risk of failure comes into the picture.

How to fix this? I don't know. But it's my job everyday to teach college students it's ok to play again, to experiment. Get out that dirt, that ketchup, yarn, photoshop - whatever, but don't worry about failure or success. Just play. We are all creative if we're not afraid.