Does Pot make you more of an artist?

Can you be more creative when you smoke pot? Today is a monumental day in Canada. Consuming marijuana has become legal.  A major cultural shift in this country. One that inspired my 14 year old to ask me if I would now be smoking a joint in the house before I go to the studio. This brings up an interesting point. Is creativity enhanced by smoking weed? In the article “Does Smoking Pot Make You More Creative?, the author notes that it all depends on the individual.

Creativity makes for more opportunities.

As I sit here and write this I have a sense of disbelief. For so many years I have preached just say “no’ to drugs to my kids. I have not touched the stuff since high school and have always seen it as a danger drug. The consumption of something that we don’t know what is in it has made me be wary. However, this has changed and now with regulation, the drug is like alcohol. Amazing how this shift has happened.

Personally, I don’t consume marijuana. I have no shortage of ideas when creating my work. Each piece is a puzzle and somehow the ideas still keep coming.  I have created a process whereby the work seems to make itself. Step by step the building of each piece comes together. Of course, this is not the case for many artists. Many need a bit of escape to let the ideas flow. It is a good thing to know that I live in a place that looks to this drug as a tool. Who knows- maybe the cultural industry will have a boom time with all the ideas exploding from the True North. Time will tell if there is a difference.

One thing that makes me laugh are the business opportunities that seem to be on the horizon. In an article from Business Insider, an artist created a “puff pass paint” class. If anything this unique art class takes art therapy into an entire new direction. This article touches on the concept that the use of weed enables a freedom from judgement. There is an allowance for exploration. A good thing for all of us.