The Humanity of Creativity & Aesthetics:A Process to Extend & Develop Visual & Aesthetic Awareness

The importance of awareness of self, our ability to gesture and respond to our surroundings kinaesthetically, the senses of touch, taste, smell, are often ignored or, at best sidelined, in our quest for knowledge and skills. The purpose of this paper and the outlined sequence of art activities is to break the distance and isolation we continually enforce between ourselves, our human response to our surroundings and our actions. This sequence is based on an approach which involves the individual in a direct response to sensory perceptions in an attempt to free the expression of even the most enclosed and introverted individuals. There is a positive attempt through this sequence to awaken and develop the synaesthestic response of the individual. "I can't draw", the statement most heard in any art room or studio, is a reaction to the conventional presentation and expectation of image, the processes of art and the conceptual framework within which it is presented. As humans we are often forgetful of our need to respond in broad open gestures. Instead at an early stage of our development we are directed and confined to fine motor movements in an attempt to achieve the sophistication and visual expectations of our societal conventions. The result of this approach is an inhibition and an automatic restriction of the act of creation. To encourage the development of this important aspect of the human character there must be an awareness of the systems of growth and the building of sensorial responses in the individual.The purpose of the process outlined is to speed and ease the creative awareness of the individual and to empower the innate essence of aesthetics within us all, which is a very natural and integral part of human expression.