Introduction
Creativity is a funny thing, a really funny thing. It’s mercurial, unpredictable, and often spontaneous. Even more, it typically takes on a life of its own. In fact, that actually means we’re doing it right! But perhaps most curious of all is how it cross-pollinates with, well…everything. Literally everything informs it and it informs everything! Really, if you brass tacks it all, creativity permeates every aspect of our lives from the design of cars to the books we read to the shows we stream to the music we enjoy to even the graphic design that creates advertising. Creativity is a fundamental part of all our lives.
What does this mean? Well, that literally you can improve your equine art from pretty much any source! How cool is that? Or put it another way, if you’re really paying attention and digging deeply, you find that even basketweaving has lessons to offer simply because arting is arting.
This means that we instantly have an expanded horizon, don’t we? If everything informs our art then anything is fair game to learn from, right? Yes! Double cool! So let’s consider this possibility further.
Growth and Development
Here’s the deal: If we want to grow as creatives, progress in our work, and expand our possibilities, it’s a really good idea to bust out of our proverbial creative corral. Sure, we can figure things out on our own, but why take all that time, headache, and waste when taking some classes provides all that information right out of the gate, plus more? Quite literally, life is too short not to take classes!
Classes can also demystify something, making it far more accessible to open up whole new horizons for you. For example, for decades I thought oils were just too much of a chemical-laden headache. Ugh! But once I took an oil painting class on a whim, I soon discovered that this wasn’t the case at all. Murphy’s oil soap, galkyd drier, and linseed oil — that’s it. To think, all those years fighting acrylics when oils did a great job far easier and in half the time. I was doing it the hard way this whole time — argh! But this is the power of exposing your creativity to a host of new things — you just never know what sort of revelation awaits you. Like, maybe some new process, medium, or perspective makes your creative life far more easier, enthusiastic, and fascinating, or perhaps it'll take you in a whole new exciting direction! Who knows, right?
What’s more, pretty much whatever you learn in any classroom setting, even in a paint ’n sip session, you can bring back with you into your regular equine art. New techniques, new media, new training, even new philosophies and new attitudes await you in a class, and who knows what kind of enlightenment they hold for your equine art.
There's this, too: Classes can be just the ticket for kicking you out of an artistic block or perhaps even squelch your burnout. Both block and burnout can be devastating and quite stubborn to boot, but few things can get our creativity ramped up again as effectively as learning a fresh, new artistic thing. And it can have nothing to do with horses or our art form! Just as long as you get creative again, in any direction — that's the goal. It's the doing that matters, not the outcome. You see, creativity thrives on momentum so just get those gears going with a creative class of some kind, and you might be surprised just how quickly those artistic drives come back to you.
But perhaps most importantly, taking various classes keeps your creativity resilient and adaptive, two qualities that spell only one thing: Progress, and a lot of it. Really, you evolve and grow so much faster when actively putting your creativity through its paces because the more you use it, the more you get! You see, creativity is one of those curious qualities that grows the more you tap into it, making it an everlasting pool of possibility if you’ve got it geared up.
What’s At Stake
And that’s nothing to shake a stick at! Why? Because the vigor of your creativity is far more important than you may suspect. It can be life-changing, even life-defining, as Brené Brown so astutely observes…
“I’m not very creative” doesn’t work. There’s no such thing as creative people and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who don’t. Unused creativity doesn’t just disappear. It lives within us until it’s expressed, neglected to death, or suffocated by resentment and fear. The only unique contribution that we will ever make in this world will be born of our creativity. If we want to make meaning, we need to make art. Cook, write, draw, doodle, paint, scrapbook, take pictures, collage, knit, rebuild an engine, sculpt, dance, decorate, act, sing—it doesn’t matter. As long as we’re creating, we’re cultivating meaning.
Bingo! You can imbue your life with so much more depth when you engage your creativity! And why is that? Because, what you’re really doing is three-fold. First, you’re tapping into your inner essence of all that is wonderful you! You’re excavating, extracting, exploring, and revealing into the light your soul, your heart, your mind, your spirit, your instincts, and your moxie. All of you is infused into your art. You are your art, and your art is you — what a blessed pairing! Indeed, you were gifted with a creative Voice by the Universe, a Voice that is unique only to you in all space and time. Think about that for a moment, how profound that is. Yes — that’s within you. As Martha Graham put it…
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.
And there you have it — your duty tasked to you by the Universe. It’s not perfection, and it’s certainly not to be the “best.” Your whole job instead is to simply use your unique Voice courageously and boldly, keeping that channel open. That’s it, that’s all. And we help to keep that channel open and clear by keeping our arting vigorous with challenges, growth, exploration, experimentation, and variety which also happens to be served up beautifully by a classroom!
Second, you’re fulfilling your genetic heritage! Indeed, this may be one reason why creativity can be so darned satisfying and fulfilling. Truly, you were born to be creative — creativity is programmed right into your DNA, right into your bones. Indeed, you’re descended from countless creatives who made bows more ornate than they needed to be, cups more beautiful than were necessary, rugs more colorful than was required, hair combs more lovely than function demanded, bridles more decorated than was essential…and on and on! As Elizabeth Gilbert explains…
If you’re alive, you’re a creative person. You and I and everyone you know are descended from tens of thousands of years of makers. Decorators, tinkerers, storytellers, dancers, explorers, fiddlers, drummers, builders, growers, problem-solvers, and embellishers—these are our common ancestors. The guardians of high culture will try to convince you that the arts belong only to a chosen few, but they are wrong and they are also annoying. We are all the chosen few. We are all makers by design. Even if you grew up watching cartoons in a sugar stupor from dawn to dusk, creativity still lurks within you. Your creativity is way older than you are, way older than any of us. Your very body and your very being are perfectly designed to live in collaboration with inspiration, and inspiration is still trying to find you — the same way it hunted down your ancestors.
And third, creativity is good for you. Very very good for you. Studies have found time and again how wonderful creativity is for your brain, your mood, your psyche, and even your sense of purpose and meaning. For instance, arting returns us to a resting state tied to the parasympathetic nervous system, calming us, reducing cortisol, and pumping up dopamine and seratonin, improving our well-being. A recent study even found that engaging art regularly has the same efficacy against biological anti-aging as daily exercise! How could it not be though? When you’re fulfilling your tasked duty, following through on your ancestral heritage, expressing your inner essence, making a connection, and indulging something your entire being loves to do, of course there'll be wonderful benefits!
The Bottom Line
So now that we understand what’s at stake here, what’s the bottom line? Well, to step back and Big Picture it all, quite simply, it’s just plain smart to take classes. And it can be literally anything creative! Like think about taking a class sculpting other animals — why not? Or a class making art journals or scrapbooking — why not? Or a sewing or gardening class — why not? Or a glass-blowing or enameling class — why not? Take a flatwork class — why not? Go to a paint ’n sip — why not? Take a dance class — why not? Take a writing course — why not? Take a cooking class — why not? Like I took clay hand-building classes. We made pumpkins, platters, planters, cups, and bowls — nothing to do with horses. But oh, the ideas now for horse stuff in hand-built clay! Never forget that whatever new you learn, you can always slap a horse on it, our beloved motif. You just have to know how to make the thing first, right?
The point is then, get your artistry involved in lots of different creative outlets, really put it to work! Why would we really want to do that then? What are the specific benefits? Well, lots of them, actually…
- A new experience: Getting out and living life is good for you so quit doomscrolling and get out there to experience new things! We are the sum of our memories, and classes can make amazing ones!
- Fresh inspiration: There are few things that can get your inspiration going again as well as a classroom experience. The learning, the lessons, the structure, and guidance, the new things, the fellow students, the insights of the teacher — it’s a whole wad of inspiration fuel in one place.
- A new skillset: The more skillsets we add into our repertoire, the more options we have in both our equine art and our problem-solving. This isn’t to say be a “jack of all trades, master of none,” but in seeking further learning, we’re really scouring life for those things that can further our art, trouble-shooting, and creative drive.
- New possibilities: It’s exciting to dive into whole new art forms or new angles of creativity because you just never know what’s possible until you’re in the thick of it! Like if you take a jewelry-making class — who’s to say you can’t make horse earrings? Or if you take a book-making class — who’s to say you can’t put a Unicorn on the cover? In a new creative adventure, you learn new ways to apply the equine motif, and maybe even come at the subject with a whole new aesthetic.
- A new perspective: When you dive into a new creative avenue, something curious happens — your mind loosens up to soak it all in. New concepts and philosophies and styles seep in to flavor your own creative sensibilities and before you know it, you have a whole new perspective on your art.
- New aesthetics: Many times each new medium does best with a certain approach in style, detail, contour, and whatnot. Like watercolor has its own capabilities as does oil and acrylic and pastel and color pencil and so on — they each have their own “look” born of their unique properties. In exploring these capabilities then, we get to explore new ways of interpreting our subject and that can be tremendously useful for problem-solving, exploring effects, inspiration fodder, or amping up our regular work.
- New environment: A classroom isn't just about learning, it's about what happens when you're there. When you're surrounded by like-minds who are observing, questioning, and working the same challenges, your progress accelerates, your inspirations click into place, and the processes and ideas become clearer than by going it alone in your studio, struggling on your own. And interacting with like-minds, discovering the shared experiences and challenges, builds confidence and more trust in your own processes and Voice. It's incredibly synergistic, and that only means great things for your work! Indeed, learning in isolation has its place, but if you really want to jump to the next level faster, beyond slogging through needless trial and error, reinventing the wheel needlessly, it's a classroom that's going to elevate your work by providing you with countless moments of clarity and new options.
- A potential new obsession: Hey, you just never know what’s going to trip your trigger until you try it, right? Like throwing pottery — that’s become my new fixation all because I took some classes to learn this new skill. In turn, the clay taught me a host of new skills from “feel” to more organic lines to a stream of philosophical outlooks that boosted the enjoyment of my equine art immensely.
- Renewed motivation for your regular work: It’s so interesting how creativity’s momentum will spill over into other areas of your creative life. Because that’s another curious thing about creativity — get it speeding along and it creates its own momentum which pulls everything else creative along with it. Really, do you need to become inspired again in your equine art? Take a class in something else creative! It works!
- Refreshed and informed regular work: I often find that after a class, its lessons — practical and philosophical — have rubbed off onto my regular work in the best ways. I also find myself rejuvenated in my equine art not only from the break, but because my creativity has been so revved up.
- An improved process: Often times the methods, technologies, and media of a class can be applied to our equine art to actually improve our own way of doing things. New approaches can often bode new great things in your work!
- New tools: You never know what tools you’re going to come across in a class that can prove incredibly useful in your equine art. I’ve actually discovered three new tools through my classes that have become very handy in my regular work.
- Mental stimulation: It’s good for your brain! Indeed, if there’s one thing the brain loves to do most, it’s to learn something new and then apply it in practice. So give it things to tinker with! You really should be learning a new skill every year or so to keep your brain stimulated and resilient, so why not put it through its paces in some classes?
- Breaktime: Getting out of your own head for a couple of hours a week in a class can be one of the best things you can do for your mental health. Classes also get you out of the isolation of the studio to carouse with like-minded creatives which develops its own positive energy.
- Newbie magic: A classroom asks you to become a newb again, and lemme tall ya — that newb energy can be tremendously beneficial on so many levels. For instance, it can pump up your curiosity and sense of adventure if you frame it correctly, and that attitude can splash over into your own studio work. You can discover new-found kinds of confidence and courage, too, and that definitely influences your equine art. Newb energy is especially good for established artists who think they know enough because believe me — no one knows enough! And it's so wonderful to find out just how much you don't actually know!
- New people: One of the best things about taking classes is that you get to meet fellow creatives who are as passionate about arting as you are, and that kind of enthusiasm is infectious! It’s great energy! Just as much, each student brings with them a creative heritage that you can learn from, making an art classroom an incredibly dynamic environment.
In a nutshell then, taking creative classes literally breaks your old habits and routines, creative or otherwise, and that can be a very good idea from time to time. It shakes your own tree in the best way, and whatever shakes loose can be discarded to make room for new growth. And believe it or not, all of this will influence your horse art in really positive and unexpected ways. Creativity is just like that — it cross-pollinates with everything around it, literally turning anything into something potentially useful for your art. Exploit that by exposing your creativity to lots of possibilities, lots of fuel, then just watch it explode in a blazing array of enthusiasm and surprising new horizons. And perhaps just as much, taking classes boosts your moxie and courage because you see you can learn new things — you can do it! And believe me when I tell you, that refreshed attitude can influence not only your studio work, but also your everyday life in such affirming and positive ways!
For example, I regularly attend a paint n’ sip just to play around with arting and get out of my head for two hours. It’s all super low-key with zero expectation of perfection because, instead, it’s more about the experience and simply having some fun with creativity. And trust me, that creative no-pressure environment is rejuvenating and incredibly inspiring! It’s also generated more spontaneity in my own work which has lead to a lot more desirable organic chaos that makes my horses more realistic. See? One artform informs another in the most unexpected ways — stay open to it!
Conclusion
Clearly there are tons of tremendous reasons for taking classes! There really isn’t a downside come to think about it. It’s pretty much all positives. Now sure, breaking your everyday routine can feel a bit jarring, but stick with it. Sometimes breaking your routines is good for you.
And it’s okay to feel anxious, uncomfortable, insecure, unconfident, and a little bit lost in a new classroom. There’s a lot to take in and a lot of peopling. That’s a lot of stimulation. So pace yourself, take big breaths, muscle through it, and lean into the positives. It’s all about your frame of mind, so attend to that religiously because — believe me — the benefits to taking a class can far outweigh the emotional challenge. So frame the experience as a new adventure, spinning it into an artistic safari or treasure hunt laden with a trove of insights for you! Really, just enter the experience in the spirit of excitement and curiosity, and you’ll ping the best mindset for a great outcome.
There’s this, too: When we enter a classroom, we have our own expectations to contend with, don’t we? We expect certain standards of ourselves most probably. Well — stop. Seriously, just stop. Go into every classroom as a damp sponge because that absorbs more than either a dry one or a wet one. In other words, stay completely open and expectation-free so you allow every possible bit of information to flow in without your sensibilities filtering them out because of biases, blindspots, or knowledge gaps. Curiously, this is where attending paint n’ sips can be particularly helpful because they train you specifically to not have predetermined expectations with your creativity. So just go with the flow and let things evolve as they were meant to evolve. Ease up and chill out. Dive into spontaneity and chaos more, and develop more economy of arting. In short, let go of rigidity and perfectionism and embrace wabi-sabi and organic chaos, and that only comes back into your equine art in the best ways! So enter every classroom as a blank slate with zero expectations, allowing the full breath of the experience to inform you more completely. Make it more about the process, curiosity, experimentation, and exploration and you’ll find you’re going to glean a lot more out of the experience.
What’s more, proactive education isn’t just good for you and your art, it’s the hallmark of a thoughtful and farsighted artist who takes their work seriously. Indeed, you can tell a lot about an artist’s dedication to their artistry by how prone they are to dive into continued education. This is because the classroom is a pillar of our long game, and every smart artist knows that it’s the long game which holds all the promise of a fruitful, fulfilling, and exciting art life. Absolutely, no artist knows enough! Don't allow your competency to be built on complacency! There's always that extra tidbit of insight that can take you to the next critical step.
But perhaps most of all, artistic learning is a kind of creative play. It’s an opportunity to test your mettle, to shake off what’s no longer serving your art, to expand your potential, and to explore some new mindsets, all in an exciting, dynamic, and fresh new circumstance. And make no mistake, playing around in your art is a powerful pathway for progress, growth, and innovation! “Creativity lives in paradox: serious art is born from serious play,” observed Julia Cameron. Spot on.
So whether on-site, at a paint n’ sip, or online through Zoom, absolutely consider taking some classes and workshops! A kaleidoscope of potential and exploration is simply waiting for you to dive in — so cannonball! And the truth is that no one has been at this madness long enough to no longer need their tree shaken. Even if we’ve been creating equine art for a hundred years, there’s always room for growth and evolution. Like, it’s said that Michelangelo quipped at eighty years old, “At last my apprenticeship is finished, I am ready to begin.” You can be the most established dog in the room and still have untapped potential! Absolutely then, there’s no perfect time to start your new educational path — just start now! So check out all the classes available in our own community while also exploring those locally or even those that may require travel. Tap into everything you can — the options are limitless! So don’t just think outside the box, bust it apart! And classes are your sledgehammer — grab yours today!
“It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.”
— Claude Bernard
