Joanne Miller Answers 6 Questions About Her New Book

Joanne Miller, along with Dorsey McHugh, recently released their new book, Be Your Finest Art. It is a book packed with pictures, quotes, and stories of how everyday people (including me!) have awakened their creative side and have been radically changed!

Because I think the message of this book is so important, I asked Joanne if she would be willing to do a little interview about her new book and her views on creativity.

1. Most people think of themselves as either creative or not creative. Do you think everyone has a creative side?

Oh, yes. Creativity is in every one of us. If we are made by the greatest Creator of all, in HIS image, then it stands to reason we have creativity within us.

Often people think they aren’t creative because they don’t sing, dance, write, draw, paint, sculpt…..all those things we relegate to being an ARTIST. There are so many other ways of being creative. How we dress, how we decorate our homes, how we educate our children, how we manipulate a computer, cook a meal…and on and on. The key is letting go and learning how to play with your gifting. Enjoy it. Who cares if it’s impractical or silly or weird. If it is how you are gifted, then release it. You will become a much more interesting person to be around!

2. Have you always been an artist?

Not at all. Like so many people I didn’t think I could draw a legible stick figure. I had not had any training and really not even been that interested in art until I reached a crisis point when I began to question where I was going in my life. I look back now and see that I WAS creative in how I dressed, how I lived my life, decorated my home, landscaped my gardens, home-schooled my children, etc. I just didn’t realize it was artistic.

3. Why did you write “Be Your Finest Art”?

Wow! That’s a complicated question. I love to write. I know it is my God-given gift. I have so many words inside me just waiting to be released. One day, my husband, Dan asked if I would be interested in updating a re-release of a book he had bought the rights to (the author was a friend who died suddenly). It was a book on being innovative and creative and I jumped at the chance. However, I quickly felt it could be expanded, made to be more beautiful and artistic. I asked Dorsey McHugh to help me with it. She was my art teacher and dear friend. Together we kept thinking up new ways to make this book a real piece of art.

We had so much fun writing, laughing and creating the look with our illustrator, Rose Gauss. And needless to say, the outcome of that is nowhere near like the original book we were supposed to be updating.

4. You say in your book that creativity is an essential part of a healthy body. Can you expand on this?

When I turned 50, I had a mid-life crisis. Trite, I know. But it happened, call it what you will. I was facing the loss of my youth, having my last child leave home and dealing with a lot of depression and physical symptoms that resulted in a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. Not a fun time. I got to a point where I decided I would not allow MS to define my life and I had some hard decisions to make. I felt I had been fired from my job as Mom and Housewife. I didn’t know what to do with myself.

One day I randomly discovered an ad in our local newspaper for a drawing class offered at our recreation center. I didn’t have a clue if I could draw but I thought it might be fun to try. I took that class for 13 years! I discovered a whole new world in creativity that helped me heal. It is hard to be depressed when you are really excited about what is going on in your life.

Now, I don’t mean to say my MS was cured and I never had another problem. MS is not a curable disease (yet) but there are many things I do to better care for myself and help stave off exacerbations. Stress does a lot to undermine one’s health and for me, art became a fun way to de-stress. In my book I have other examples of how people have used their creativity to cope with grief, illness and loss.

One thing I think we lose along the path of growing up is the importance of PLAY. We take ourselves and our lives way too seriously. When I am in my right brain and into writing or painting, I feel like I am a kid, exploring the world in a whole new realm.

5. Your whole book is about awakening our creative selves. Why do you think our creativity goes to sleep in the first place?

For me, it was my very critical, English teacher mother who repeatedly corrected and rewrote my papers in high school so they became more her voice and not mine. So for many years I never wrote even though I loved to.

My release was in writing long hand-written letters to people I loved and cared about. I still do that (and you, Claudia, are one of the recipients of that gift because you are my dear pen-pal) but now I have allowed that old love of writing to resurface and become a very important part of my life. I have written four children’s books and the Be Your Finest Art book and have another in the works right now.

There are many reasons our creativity get’s stifled or buried. Sir Ken Robinson does an amazing TED talk on How Schools Kill Creativity. Since 2006 that talk has been viewed over 28 million times. Pretty significant and tells us that many people are concerned about this topic. Teachers, parents, pastors, friends….. anyone can say something negative or critical and a creative gift becomes suppressed and forgotten. I have heard so many instances where this has happened to people I talk to and it is so sad.

But what is awesome is that it is NEVER too late to release that “inner child” who loves to sing, write, paint, decorate, sculpt, bake, and on and on.

6. Has embracing creativity actually changed your life?

Oh, yes. I can truly say I am not the same person. Disciplining myself to do art (writing, drawing and painting) has made me more confident and more outspoken to others about looking inward and exposing their authenticity in ways that might have laid dormant or never been uncovered.

It has also allowed me to help others break down the walls that are built when they are told their gift might be impractical or silly, and to become more introspective as I did while releasing the gifts inside me.

I believe when one becomes more authentic (true to oneself, acknowledging one’s gifts) the more they embrace joy, beauty and adventure.

Thanks Joanne! 

Have you awakened your creative side yet?