FAIRBANKS — Mareca Guthrie is on a mission to get people to exercise a skill they might not even know they have. The fine arts curator at the University of Alaska Museum of the North wants people to try drawing.
Many of us can create a family of stick figures or put a smiling sun in the sky, but we might not be willing to push ourselves further. The secret is to keep drawing even if your inner critic is telling you that you should stop.
Guthrie is an accomplished artist but still knows what it’s like to have a negative voice in her head that she had to learn to manage. It isn’t necessarily something that goes away entirely.
“I have always loved drawing, but it has not always come easily to me. I was lucky enough that I was encouraged to draw from a young age but I have a great deal of compassion for people who have anxiety around drawing,” she said.
At the root of this form of expression is creativity. Guthrie said humans are remarkably creative. “We have an innate interest in exploring and experimenting. Most people are happiest if they have some kind of creative component to their work.”
Creativity is difficult to define, but essentially it is the force used in the creation of something new. This can happen on a large scale, such as inventing a cure for a deadly disease, or it can happen on a smaller, more personal scale, such as a child learning that she can bring the chair over to the kitchen counter to reach the cookies. Both kinds are important and like any other ability, creativity can be developed with practice or it can weaken with lack of use.
But why drawing and not some other creative outlet? Guthrie said drawing is taught as a foundation for other forms of visual art. Drawing also is used in other disciplines as a tool for observing, recording and communicating.
Guthrie will talk about drawing and the value of creativity at the next Museum Discovery Series presentation at the UA Museum of the North at noon today.
“I want people to feel encouraged to try to include a little more drawing in their life,” she said. “I’m hoping people can come away with a sense that they can develop their drawing ability more easily than they think, and that parents can support their children’s drawing interest without having to be confident artists themselves.”
Guthrie said drawing is a perfect tool for developing creative abilities, an arena where the cost of failure is low and where a great deal of experimentation and growth can occur in a short period of time. The tools required for drawing are affordable and can be used in nearly any environment.
Drawing can help problem-solve, it can help process emotional experiences, it can test or demonstrate existing knowledge. Drawing can help focus your attention and serve as a form of meditation. Drawing can also help build confidence and be used to explore and express identity.
There are many interesting drawings in the museum’s collections. Guthrie said her current favorites are a series of ink and watercolor drawings by an artist named Florence Nupok Malewotkuk.
These pieces depict daily life in the village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. Guthrie will be showing these and other drawings from the collection during her talk.
“One of the things I’m excited to talk about is what criteria we use to evaluate a drawing,” she said. “My favorite part about my job is the artists behind the work. Even though many of them are long gone, I still feel like I have conversations with them through what they’ve made.”
If You Go
Fine Arts Curator Mareca Guthrie will talk about the value of creativity at the Museum Discovery Series presentation at the UA Museum of the North at noon today. Admission is free.
Theresa Bakker is the manager of marketing and communications at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. Contact her by phone at 474-6941 or by email at tabakker@alaska.edu.
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