Ask A Pro Live: Creativity
Join Us!
I’m super excited for this month's Ask A Pro Live because we are talking about creativity! Studies have shown that activities such as writing can help to process difficult emotions and painting and drawing can help people express experiences that are difficult to put into words.
Being creative can mean so many different things and there are some very solid reasons why having creativity in your life has some rewarding effects on well being. An article written by Medical News Today goes into more detail, if you’re interested in having a read you can here.
We wanted to delve into the idea of creativity being good for mental health and we found the perfect guest to have this live chat with. Rheanna Lotter is an artist and young person who has both accessed ReachOut as a service and has now come full circle and does art for the organisation. Below is a little more about our guest!
"My name is Rheanna Lotter. I am a proud Yuin woman from the south coast.
I grew up on Gundungurra Country in the Southern Highlands and am an active member within our Indigenous community. I have been painting since I was a young child, alongside my mother and sister. I named my business Ngandabaa (Yun-da-baa) after my grandfather Keith Thorne in 2014.
I am extremely honoured to provide custom pieces to Individual's and companies around Australia and the world"
Rheanna has used creativity has a tool to manage mental health and connect with her culture. I feel super lucky that she will be making some time to chat with our community on Wednesday 3rd of June. I'm looking forward to hearing about the role creativity has played in everyone's lives and how we can use this powerful tool better in the future.
Rheanna is looking forward to answering our questions about creativity and her experience as a Yuin woman and artist.
Join us live on the 3rd of June from 7:00pm - 9:00 pm (AEDT).
@Bre-RO sigh, I was busy yesterday night, would have loved to join in on this one- creativity and mental health are two of my favourite things. Read through the chat, it was fascinating. I hope I can join in the next Live Chat now that I'm done with uni, can't wait!
So excited for this. It's a very pressing topic for me since mental health has both inspired my creativity and has actively blocked it (e.g. fear of failure, perfectionism, lack of motivation...).
@Bre-RO -- I'm not sure if it's happening to anyone else, but I just wanted to let you know the forums not letting me submit questions right now! It's showing up 'Must be a valid URL'.
@Hozzles That's happening for me too! I was going to post about it yesterday but I didn't have time.
Some questions I'd like to ask are:
- How can creativity improve our mental wellbeing?
- What are some easy ways that we can get creative, particularly for people who don't consider themselves to be very creative?
- What are some useful resources we can use to admire art or get creative while staying at home? For example, apps and websites.
It sounds like it's going to be a great chat! I'll try to be online for this. If I end up doing a medical test that day, I hope I can be well enough to join in later.
Thanks @WheresMySquishy and @Hozzles I fixed the form so it should be working now!! Hope to chat with you both on Wednesday night if you're up for it 🙂
Happy Wednesday night everyone! We are going live in fifteen minutes with Rheanna Lotter who is joining us to chat about Creativity and Mental Health. Can't wait to get started @Ngandabaa
Just going to tag some people who might be interested in getting involved tonight
@WheresMySquishy @Hozzles @Bee @Anonymous @JazzInMay @ecla34 @natalie1234
Hi @Ngandabaa ! Nice to meet you! I just went and had a bit of a squiz at your work and wow! It is stunning - what gorgeous colours!
Hey @Ngandabaa welcome! Thank you for chatting with us!
I just had a little look at your work also and I have to agree with @JazzInMay! I love it, such vibrant colours!
It is our pleasure to have you online to chat about such an interesting topic @Ngandabaa Really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on some of these great questions that have come through. To kick off we'll start with question one!
Introduce yourself and tell us about one of your first memories about art
I own my business Ngandabaa (Yun-Da-Baa) which means Red Belly Black Snake – This is my grandfathers totem and nickname 🙂
My first memory of art was alongside my mother and sister, although I grew up very connected to sport; I spent time painting with them. I remember working out on the back-deck painting on small canvases which was always a lot of fun
It sounds like you have a really close family, that is nice. It's also really cool that you named your business after your grandfathers totem and nickname 🙂 As mentioned by others, your art work is beautiful.
What inspired you to start creating?
I was incredibly lonely, I used painting as a way to connect back to my culture, it also really helped with my anxiety. I would hate going home, because I didn’t want to be alone. So I picked it back up as a way to not have those feelings and to keep my mind focused on productive things (I’m a big over-thinker).
Painting was also a great way to feel connected to my culture. I now create everyday and my mental health is doing well
Thank you for sharing that @Ngandabaa I'm sorry to hear you had such tough times but it's amazing to hear how you used an art form like painting to connect to yourself and your culture. It's really admirable that you focused on keeping your mind busy and that is has grown into so much more in your life. Which brings me to our next question..
How can creativity improve our mental well-being?
Being creative gives me control, which is something I felt I lacked while struggling with my mental health. It allows us to express our feelings and tell our story.
I have become much more focused and also very appreciative of smaller things, such as clouds in the sky or how green the grass is. I feel that it really grounds me.
It also allows us to also look at things in a different life, it can also give the feeling of accomplishment once you have completed something
Thank you for sharing that @Ngandabaa - I feel sometimes art and creative expression is underestimated in what it does for us
I think for me one of the best uses for creative expression is getting things off my chest that I can't exactly say to people in my life or things I'm still processing internally. It makes it easier to work through heavy things, without having to know exactly what to say. A really interesting question that came through is..
How can art represent the things we feel but struggle to put into words?
- Adult colouring in books
- Youtube tutorials on basic painting techniques or any other creative avenue
- Scrapbooking, jewellery making, photography, writing etc. Remembering that creativity isn’t just about painting 🙂
I found scrapbooking as a great way to channel my thoughts and feelings and express them onto the pages. Maybe start a yearly scrapbook where you get old photos and create a 2019 scrapbook (for example) 🙂
@Ngandabaa @Hozzles I enjoy writing and scrapbooking too! I've been trying to get more into scrapbooking recently as I used to do a lot of it when I was younger. I've thought about putting all the things I like to look at into an album. I've also been meaning to try colouring in but I haven't had much time.
Those sound like perfect ways to get creative, especially when it's not something you feel "good at". Scrap booking memories is so fun! I also love collaging.
I really want to start scrapbook/ bullet journalling but I never know where to start! 
same with journaling and... everything, really! Even learning an instrument... I'll get there one day? 
@Hozzles I can't find myself committing to designing full bullet journal spreads. What I've been doing is using journaling apps to record photos and how I feel. I've also been using a notebook for some creative things. One of the things I put in it was a chart to record the weather using lots of colours.
