“Forget a Fast Car. Creativity Is the New Midlife Crisis Cure.”

Who needs a Ferrari when you can pick up a paintbrush?

(A recent article from the New York Times)

http://creativgrowth.com/t8ot

Creative courses and workshop for people in their 40’s and 50’s are thriving according to this article. In part this influenced by the “Maker Movement,” a return to craft using old tech like knitting, and new tech, such as 3d printers.

In my Visual Thinking: art + innovation courses, each year I incorporate more doing and making, and less talking and reading as I assist students in growing their creative confidence.

The idea is that if you find success through an activity you regard as a hobby (amateur baking, for example), it will give you a boost if you start your own company, or revamp your own creative business, that somehow slumped into a dull one. Rediscovery, reinvention are important elements of life for those at midlife, and beyond.

My favorite feeling in making something is less a matter of communicating with other people, but more one of enjoying my solitude while giving birth to a painting, or a piece of furniture.