"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web. "
The creative process is a mystifying one.
To harmonize passion, inspiration, and opportunity is in itself an art, and it is- well… a bitch. As you know, If you consider yourself “creative” (whatever that may mean to you) there’s hardly a shortage of passion and inspiration. You also know, if you have what Zorba the Greek calls "the full catastrophe"- family, house, pets, that job thing, etc., the opportunity phase of the process tri-fecta is quite elusive. Trying to synthesize the “process” in your day to day life, requires an enormous amount of time obsessing and strategizing over the monumental task of having and balancing it all. Once you get to the place where “opportunity” strikes, you may find, at times (more often than not for yours truly) the door to self-doubt and fear opens. Leaving you (me) in crisis mode. More about this in an upcoming post.
I bring this up because I’ve been floundering to finish a photography project I began last winter. A project, that at the time, had a wonderfully organic, spontaneous beginning. It is an ambitious project, which I have been peripherally working on in very small doses over the past several months. With THIS winter beginning to sneak up on us, I’ve been obsessing yet again to finish the first phase of what I consider a grand body of work. A body of work that my friends, colleagues, and creative soul mates have been insisting I complete if I know what’s good for me. My friend- who I’ll call Jim- because it’s his name, has been lovingly nagging me about my progress. "Have you developed that f@#&ing film yet?? What are you f@#&ing waiting for??" He does this frequently, and being a catholic school survivor, I do find I respond fairly well to it. (If you have friends in similar situations take a page out of Jim's book. They need it!)
The topic of “the process” is one that voice in my head and I discuss a lot. I don’t think it's something that will ever really be figured out. I guess it’s why it’s called a process. We all have our own. We all respond to it differently. I guess the whole point is whether or not we respond.
Try to pick up at your library or local independent book store “Art and Fear” by David Bayles and Ted Orland. It has a reputation for being a little "self help-y" but it's actually an insightful, humorous look at what making art does to us.
