Coaching the Creative
When it comes to the creative process, every artist has his/her own methods and techniques that help them propel their work forward. Every individual artist who is watching or currently working on a project will have a process they work through that will move them through the different stages of creating. Personally, my studio work typically starts out with a series of self-questioning sessions that help me focus myself. These inward, contemplative sessions are what ultimately bring my projects to life.
As a creativity coach my self-examination and questioning sessions each begin with losing my thoughts from my mind onto paper. I engage a lot of visual thinking during this phase of creating. Processing thoughts as pictures, words or colors helps me to move my own reflective questioning sessions from the philosophical into a narrative that is more cohesive and essential. By using visual thinking during my narrative process, I am able to take all of my inspired thoughts and turn them into the visual components that will eventually become components of the physical artwork that I will create with my hands.
While I am engaged in my deep thought sessions, my mind presents me with set of images and a narrative or story to go along with these images. Many times, the story involves a problem that needs a solution. I consider all of these elements to be the ingredients that I combine into a theme, and then the physical work of creating in the studio can begin.
As I begin the physical part of the creative process, my pieces very often remain fluid and changeable because I continue to question myself in order to answer any problems that may have arisen during my internal narrative and visual thinking sessions. Different mediums become solutions to the problems I want to solve while creating. These mediums include: sculpture, painting, mixed media, digital media, video, and installation. When I begin the thought process involved in a project, I avoid zeroing in on any one particular medium, and instead I keep myself open to any medium or a combination of several mediums to reach the solution that will ultimately be my creation.
By leaving myself open to any form of mediums, I allow my work to change as I progress through my creative process. This fluidity in itself is what allows my work to stay focused on the process rather than the outcome. I always manage to find what I’m looking for by using this fluid and open ended method.
I allow myself to be guided by what feels good and right. It could be said that part of my methodology is simply doing what feels good. I feel that is a great reason to do many things – because it feels good! I feel a need that drives me to sculpt and make things. This need is deep within me and is what propels me forward in my creative processes. Each piece or series that I create is made with the idea that I want to create something from my mind that makes me happy.