- Creativity is in your soul, and what you do from your soul using all of your facilities becomes a creative event.

I am Anthony Tomaselli and this is my take on creativity.

I've been a member here at the Providence Art Club going on 30 years.

And here I am in the oldest studio, the first studio in America built as a studio in 1885.

That's when this was.

And I get to paint here.

I've been here since 2012 and what an honor.

What an honor.

I am the sixth artist to house this space.

It gets better every day.

Creativity happens in the garden.

It happens while you walk.

Doing something out of the ordinary, doing something that's unique to you is part of creativity.

I'm often asked "How did you start?"

And it's kind of funny, I have ADHD, like many artists and people in the arts have.

So one day I was drawing as a child and someone came up to me and said "Nice job there."

And I looked because I was so used to hearing no, stay still, not good enough.

That affirmation, not necessarily the fact, all kids liked to draw and paint, but that wasn't why I kept doing it.

I kept doing it because someone said something nice and I just kept doing it.

For me, it became a drive.

Even in my young days in sixth and seventh and eighth grade, I loved making art.

I started being influenced by Michelangelo.

I remember buying a book, and from there, as I matured as an artist, I think true maturity as an artist is acceptance of all styles.

But I really gravitated to Edward Hopper.

I gravitated to Edward Hopper accidentally.

In college I was doing these building things, sides of barns.

Somebody said to me "Oh, you must like Edward Hopper."

And I said "Who's that?"

And I quickly found out my visual style is usually expressive.

It can be realistic, it could be non representational, and everything in between.

I'm inspired by life.

I'm inspired by visual.

Not only beauty, but sometimes the beauty in the ugly.

It's more of a meditative style.

It's more of putting you in a place to become one with God because that's where I go when I paint.

It's a zone.

And when I mention the zone when I teach, people get it.

It's a place, it's this special place that you arrive in.

And when you get in that zone, you are in a special place.

And when you get in that zone doing that special thing you do, again, I'll mention gardening, running a marathon, playing a sport.

When you get in that zone, that basketball player gets in that zone.

When the artist gets in that zone, it is heaven.

So what I'm doing is I'm unifying and then I'll start picking it apart.

When I got here at the Providence Art Club, I began teaching adults.

And let me tell you, adults that come back to art, I call them born again artists.

They're insanely engaged.

Fear will douse any creative process you have because it will cover your soul and smother you.

My job is not to teach them how to paint.

My job is to inspire them, is to give them that challenge.

I say "I want you to leave my class inspired and challenged."

And let me tell you, I learned more from them than I can ever teach them.

Former CEOs, teachers, architects, people who put their art journey aside, I get to teach and share this unbelievable creative process.

Each one has something decent about it.

Their eyes light up.

These are 50, 60 year old, 70 and sometimes 90 year old individuals that come to this art club and share their passion for art with me.

And their passion is every bit as intense as mine.

That generates creativity, that passion, that camaraderie.

And it's a wonderful thing.

And people that say they don't have it, get over it, you got it.

You just don't spend the time.

I'd say to them "Spend the month with me.

How much do you paint?"

"I don't."

Well how are you gonna get better at it?

Spend the month with me.

Put as much time as you put into this as golf, as even your job.

In two months, I will have you sparked and going.

It doesn't take creativity to make art.

It does take relinquishment of fear, which is the whole negator of creativity.

If you are afraid, you will never be creative.

If you are afraid in your job, in your life, if you fear, if you instill fear in your children, you are blocking their creativity.

What do you love?

What do you love to do?

Do it.

What are you waiting for?

Don't wait till you retire, and don't wait to find the time.

You're gonna make the time.

Creativity doesn't find you.

You gotta find it.

And once you start, once you get bit by whatever it is you do, collect stamps, whatever it is, when you get bit by that, life becomes so different.

So different.

I get it.

You gotta feed the kids, you gotta put a roof over you.

I get it.

But that creative process is in all of us.

And even at our work, at our workplace, how you treat people, that's part of it.

It is just part of it.

I am Anthony Tomaselli, and this has been my take on creativity.