I’m one of the lucky ones who has a Creative Dad present in my life. He is not mentioned often here, since this is not a family blog, but a blog about (my) creativity. But today it’s Father’s Day here in Sweden, and I’ve made a spread about him in my art journal, phoned him to tell him I love him – and also found this great photo from this summer:
Creative heritage
I’ve also been thinking a lot about my creative heritage lately, and where all this creative feelings I’ve found inside me comes from. When I have been considering I’ve always thought it came from my mom. But she is surely not the only creative person in our family? She craft a lot, and dad don’t I had to ask myself… My Dad expresses his creativity in other ways than my mother, but he is a very creative person too.
He has a train model world (Märklin), where he has created mini trees and hills, lakes and snow fields. The people who lives there are about 1,5 centimeter short and the houses are awesome with fences, gardens and little dogs running around. Remind me for Christmas and I will snap some photos of the little train world. It’s really cool. My dad has really big hands. I can’t imagine him making this world – but somehow he does!
The pond and the garden
He also practice his creativity in their garden, where he has built a pond, where the fishes live. He has made lots of flower arrangements in the garden, and a herb garden together with my mom. He is also a great chef, with lots of imagination and he is great when it comes to try new things. He cuts out every cool recipe he finds and tries it on the family before he treats any invited guests. My favorite food is Dad’s Chinese Stew and his Shrimp Cocktails with lots of garlic.
When I was a child he built an aquarium (and painted it in 1970th brown), he used to bake lots of breakfast bread for the family (says my mom) and he also built model boats (like Ejdern) with tiny sails – now collecting dust on the shelf in their living room.
Here is the spread I made for my dad in my Art Journal:
Do you think creativity reveals itself differently in men and women? Or is it just our way of looking at what’s creative/crafty that makes the picture differ?
What a lovely tribute to your dad – I loooove looking at those tiny train model worlds!
That question about creativity in men & women is one to ponder – When I thought about this, I started to think Yes there is a difference, “Men are more function oriented, women are more comfort oriented” and then I thought, No… Not always true.
Then I thought, My boys like to try anything I am doing – beading, crocheting, collage, drawing, painting, etc and everything their dad does – building with wood, fletching arrows, inventing tools, tying fish flies…
I don’t think I could say there is a real difference between men and woman when it comes to creative expression (if there is one thing I have learned in life is there are no absolutes, there are always exceptions!) Maybe traditon and personal interest plays a roll though. Percentage wise there may be more women knitting than men, for example.
This is a long comment – I like how you wrote about your dad on Fathers Day – I called min Pappa ig?r, och nu k?nner jag mig inspirerad att skriva mera – det f?r bli ikv?ll i s?fall f?r jag ska faktiskt jobba nu (!)
Kram!
Nice spread of PAPA!
I too have wondered where my creativity came from. At first I immediately thought of my mother, who sews. But then I realized that my father is an avid woodworker, carver and house-fixer-upper. I remember sitting on his workbench, playing with sawdust as he worked away on something. I did the same with my mother’s sewing table. I suppose his form of creativity wasn’t as evident because it wasn’t labeled ‘crafting’ but it definitely influenced me.
[…] Don’t miss the Mini world of Dad’s train station! I promised earlier to show it to you, and it’s worth looking at. It’s so damn tiny and well made. I could stay there a whole day… Take a hike up those snowy montains and then walk down to the valley where sprin has arrived… Some of the photos turned out really great. […]