It was a cool table, I really liked the idea of a blackboard as a table.
The blackboard was really clean and had an invitation to create on it. It also had a well drawn picture suggesting one possible direction of what this could look like.
I found myself thinking that this was a cool idea but I did not feel like participating in creating art on the table, it felt as though I would mess it up and take away from the nice picture already there.
As the meeting progressed we started to use the table to sketch out ideas and illustrate things. What I found was that at first I was careful to be neat and tidy, so as not to take away from the cleanness of the table.
As we filled the table more and more up I observed that I was becoming more and more creative and free. Ideas began to flow and the table began this great tool for inspiring creativity.
The point is that the clean, tidy, well drawn table did not inspire the intention it professed. In fact it intimidated me slightly, making me feel a small amount of pressure to create something really good.
Now I am a confident creative person but it was only as the table became a dirty blackboard, did it serve it's intended purpose - that was to inspire people to create.
A dirty blackboard inspires creativity and freedom.
Jared Diprose is a graduate from Carey Baptist College in New Zealand. He runs a creative fabrication business and believes in the power of words to shape lives. You can view some of his work at www.jareddiprose.co.nz.
Jared Diprose' previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/jared-diprose.html
