Creativity- Can it be Taught?

Briefly in class today we discussed whether creativity can be taught or not.  In my opinion it cannot be.  Creativity is something that you are born with.  Anyone can be creative, it is what defines you and your personality.  We also discussed how art class when you grow up is a way for you to experience art, not learn how to do art.  You cannot just learn how to do art, art comes from within and what you perceive something to be at a particular time.  I feel as though yes anyone can be creative but you have to use your imagination, it's not something that can be taught in a classroom or through books, it's is your own personal self that creates creativity.

We also discussed in class today Bruce Nauman.  He was recognized to be an innovative contemporary artist.  He believed that anything he did in his art studio space was considered to be art.  From watching the video in class it was hard to consider some of the things he perceived to be art actually be art.  In one of his "artworks" called Setting a good Corner, he used a forklift to place wood poles into the ground to form a corner and called it art.  It is hard to imagine this as a work of art.  Nauman is also known for his torture videos, one known as "Clown Torture", which honestly is just freaky.  He explains in his video how he does not use repition in his artwork yet in his torture videos he repeats and emphasizes a particlar word, kind of strange.  The whole idea of this  sort of artwork is very odd and weird.  If anything I think it would just annoy an audience and want to never see it again, at least after seeing it today I know I would never want to see it again.

(posted by Kaitlyn)