Curiosity, Creativity and Magpies
What's in a name?
What’s in a name? Do names define something/someone or is it the other way around?
When my parents made the decision to call me Océane were they just lucky that I grew up into a person who loves being in water? It’s hard to imagine someone called Océane (the feminine gender of the noun ocean in French) who doesn’t like water, isn’t it? Or did my name predestine my love of the sea and the ocean? So in truth, I never had a choice in the matter, my name decided for me.
We spend so much of our lives naming things and people - children, pets, businesses, brands, publications, novels, songs etc. It was about this time last year that I had the idea for a creative membership. I wanted to create a space for people, all sorts of people not just writers and illustrators, to come together and feel inspired from simple creative prompts I had designed for them.
I felt and still do today that having a daily or at least weekly creative practice can have a positive impact on people as it has on me. It opens a world of possibilities into people’s established lives. And more often than not, simplicity is best. These prompts range from hands on crafts, simple drawing/doodling via self-discovery and journalling. It’s the supportive community I wish I had when I started my creative journey a few years ago and a helping hand to create without expectations.
As the idea took shape, I needed a name - The Curious Magpie is what I ended up with and later decided to keep for this baby Substack publication. I’m very glad I did and this is why.
Curiosity is the Drive to Explore
Curiosity sometimes gets a bad rep because it’s often associated with being nosey and wanting to know other people’s business. But curiosity is a fundamental human trait that drives exploration, learning, and creativity. Curiosity leads to questions, experimentation, and the pursuit of new experiences. In the simplest of terms isn’t curiosity our human right to ask why?
When my children were younger, they both went through the why phase (all children do). It can be a challenging phase for parents, I remember losing my patience after 5 or 6 whys and saying ‘BECAUSE IT JUST IS’ but… I was genuinely sad when the phase eventually started to fizzle out. My youngest is really into how? at the moment.
As adults many of us stop asking why, perhaps for fear of being seen as ignorant or pride of believing that we know enough already. We don’t - we never stop learning and this can only happen by being curious… by asking why.
Curiosity is like a gentle tug at the sleeve, urging us to peek around the next corner, to ask the next question. It's that spark that ignites our passion for discovery, propelling us into the unknown with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
Creativity transforms Curiosity into Expression
Creativity is the magic that happens when curiosity meets expression. It's the paintbrush, pencil or Apple Pencil in hand, the pen to paper, the melody in the air, the eye to the camera lens - transforming our thoughts and ideas into tangible forms of art, innovation, and beauty in all its shapes & forms.
Creativity is the manifestation of curiosity in action. If curiosity sparks ideas, fuels imagination, and inspires innovative thinking then creativity is what we do with it.
Curiosity brings us to ask why and creativity is how we apply it in real life. It is what we decide to do with the new information we’ve gathered during our curious explorations. Now, our how doesn’t have to revolutionary. We don’t need to use it for ground breaking ideas or world changing innovations.
When I hear someone say almost apologetically: ‘Oh, I’m not creative’, I know they’re thinking in terms of creative scale - low, medium, high. As in: you’re not creative with a bold C if you don’t use your creativity to help cure cancer, write a masterpiece or work on the technology to develop flying cars (!!)
Let me get something straight here, there is NO creative scale. Anyone saying they are not creative in my books is a dormant creative, someone who I’d love to wake up from their slumber. Joining my subscription might just be the key to their creative awakening (hint hint).
Magpies are Nature’s Curious Collectors
So, I knew I HAD to use the word Curious in my membership name, now I wanted to find an animal to complete it.
Enters the magpie, a creature of both mystery and charm, with its penchant for collecting treasures that catch its eye. Their instinctual behaviour resonates with our own curiosity-driven quests for discovery and acquisition.
As a child, I was always fascinated by magpies as we would always call it a "pie voleuse" which translates to "thieving magpie" in English. A bird that steals things sounded like a fascinating creature to little me.
Turns out they’re not so much thieves but collectors and not just of shiny things which sounds even better if you ask me. Their name likely originated from the observation that magpies have a tendency to collect shiny objects, leading to the misconception that they steal or "thieve" these items. While magpies' behaviour of collecting shiny objects might lead to the perception of theft, it's more accurately described as foraging or gathering behaviour.
Magpies are known for collecting and finding value in seemingly ordinary objects which they then use creatively to construct their nests or simply out of curiosity just like we has humans we often gather inspiration from our surroundings, collect ideas, experiences, and materials to fuel our creative projects. The keyword here is ordinary - I feel it’s so important not to dismiss the ordinary. If we only found value in the extraordinary, we wouldn’t grow much of a collection even after a lifetime, would we?
Where Curiosity, Creativity, and Magpies Meet
When we explore the mélange of curiosity, creativity, and magpies, we discover a shared spirit of exploration and appreciation for the world around us. It's a reminder that inspiration can be found in the most unexpected places, whether it's a trinket in a magpie's nest, a fleeting idea in the recesses of our minds or the leftover memory of a dream.
My wish for this publication is to nurture your curiosity, unleash your creativity, and help you embrace the wonder of the world with open hearts and open minds. After all, it's through our shared experiences and connections that we truly find meaning and joy in our life’s journey.
Here are my paid subscribers perks:
A weekly creative practice prompt
A monthly online drawing session
Updates on my personal children’s book project
A private community of Curious Magpies
Loved reading this essay! And I’m so glad I was part of the original Curious Magpie and get to see this new version x