Exploring Through Creativity

WRITTEN BY JEANIE LO | ILLUSTRATED BY MAGGIE YUEN

When we think of travel, we tend to think it means going outside our city — somewhere new and full of adventure. But, what if I told you that you’re already traveling every day? The word “travel” comes from the Middle English word “travalien” — which means to torment, labor, strive and journey. These terms have a lot to do with the creative process. As art students, we know creating art and design is a laborious process. 

To be creative is to have the ability to make unexpected or unusual connections between ideas. This depends on our ability to observe the details in everyday life. When you’re traveling, you pay attention to different things — the architectural details and colors of mosques, or cobblestones in narrow, medieval alleys. Similarly, you find inspiration in the most ordinary subjects — the different shades of green on a leaf, or how the bubbles form on a bar of soap. Pixar made billions by being imaginative with the ordinary, producing stories about mice that could cook and toys that could talk. You’re traveling when you bring a sense of wonder and a spirit of discovery with you every day.

Imagine you’re in the midst of a lantern festival in Japan, or you’re at a luau in Hawaii. What makes traveling enticing is the break from our daily routine. The process of creating original art and design is also like this. For the sake of our work, we go out to the mountains for the perfect picture, check into a cabin to write or draw quietly and venture into different fabric stores to find the right texture. There are many unexpected twists and turns in our process of creation. Nothing can replace the joy of traveling outside your town, but you are already on a journey of discovery, learning and creation when you’re making art. You’re traveling every day.