I believe in magic
Overthinking and too many ideas can be a battle for the creative soul. Lack of time to fulfil ideas is another. Staying focussed on one idea and not going off at tangents is the push and pull of the artists’ life.
It sometimes helps to have a splurge. To write down all the possibilities for different projects. To see them in black and white and as separate entities to each other (rather than a swim of 3am thoughts) helps you to then select one.
Then take that one project and make a mind-map of all the possibilities for that project. The inspirations, the techniques, other artists that may have inspired this path. Then edit this mind map. Go simpler.
As January started I had no energy and looked to the sky as my muse. Last week I was back in the studio filming. After filming a session on mono-printing I received some photos from a friend of the landscape and immediately reached for paper and my mono-printing plate and interpreted the photo in bold lines. I was ready, I was in the moment, I had the focus of the photograph and one technique at my fingertips. It was simple and I felt liberated. Taking away options helps with decision fatigue.
Now I have two paths in my head - one that wants to capture the variety of the skies that I have seen, the richness of colour. One path that is pared back simple mark making capturing the landscape in black and white. My intuition says that at some point these two pursuits will overlap.
And there is the push and pull. I don’t want to overcomplicate and pick up a third strand. Also I don’t want to box myself in too early in the project. But having a moment of clarity as I mono-printed in the studio, unlocked something and now I have a weekend of drawing outdoors planned as I can feel a sense of purpose, small steps towards feeling in flow.
“So, in order to do so, we take a decision. Not because we're sure it's the best decision, but because taking it will make us feel better. Well, the most creative people have learned to tolerate that discomfort for much longer. And so, just because they put in more pondering time, their solutions are more creative.”
John Cleese on Creativity
In a fast paced world taking time to ponder and fail is seen as time wasted but it is essential to finding your foundations as an artist. The flailing around is uncomfortable. In my head, I am trying to create a corridor to move along, opening doors and allowing in new materials and ideas as I go without opening all the doors at once and feeling overwhelmed. It isn’t a process that can be over planned, or over controlled. It has to be bravely embraced, the ideas, the self-doubt, the fear and failure. And somewhere along the way the magic can happen. If you believe in magic…..