some well spoken words about process
I finished up my last post a little abruptly last week, not desiring to linger too long on my melancholy state. But I wanted to wrap up the thought process a bit more eloquently by quoting a link my friend and talented jewelry designer (http://www.etsy.com/shop/delisadesigns) sent to me on the topic. It is a portion of an interview with Chuck Close- I’m quoting my favorite parts below, but you can find the entire link here:http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/12/27/chuck-close-on-creativity/
“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will — through work — bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ‘art ida.’ And the belief that process, in a sense, is liberating and that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today, you know what you’ll do, you could be doing what you were doing yesterday, and tomorrow you are gonna do what you did today, and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere.”…” for me, the most interesting thing is to back yourself into your own corner where no one else’s answers will fit. You will somehow have to come up with your own personal solutions to this problem that you have set for yourself because no one else’s answers are applicable.”
– Chuck Close
very well spoken. And in that mental space I focused back on work last week, because of course I’m not going to waste sitter time! Still working diligently on my large piece in progress, which was the perfect piece to just immerse myself in. It’s still very much in the thread by thread “planned” working stage… but, working methodically put me back into a creative space and this weekend I had some time to tackle four smaller pieces in progress. Since the sewing on these goes considerably faster, I get to the spontaneous stage after only weeks, not months of work. This phase is totally in the moment and about “handling” the work- I cut into, paint, drench, stuff… whatever feels like the right thing to do in the moment. I have ruined things this way, but more often than not something surprising and enjoyable happens. The only caveat is I must be in the kind of emotional space that gives me the freedom to allow ruin.
Two new “possible” pieces drying
Jayne Peña Art 