Some people (not many thankfully) – but some, do think that creativity is button that you can switch on and off and something you have control over. Every, and I mean EVERY artist I’ve ever spoken to agrees this is such a misconception about us creative types. A writer friend of mine asked me that question once – What do you do when you hit a creative brick wall ? I answered that I pick up one of the hundreds of sketches, backgrounds or doodles I have lying around my studio and just add something to it — whether its another colour, a scratch or flicker of paint or extend part of another doodle I may have in my numerous sketchbooks and that usually kickstarts some form of creation or adaptation of an image.
My answer was probably not helpful at all to a writer who has to methodically produce their writing in a certain order — ie; starting a story from the beginning and progressing from there. I mean how many writers create an ending and then work back from it to produce a full and cohesive story ?? As artists we can add, manipulate and paint over things we don’t like — as I have many, many times. Whether it’s an improvement is anyone’s guess …!!!
When starting my huge Cosmic painting titled In My Own Headspace I had absolutely no vision of it’s final composition or even colour scheme — I just made a start. About 15 hrs into it I took a risk and poured diluted acrylics and metallics and let the paint do it’s thing. I didn’t actually like the dried outcome but it did resemble gases intertwining which I developed and enhanced much more for another 6 hrs or so . Music always helps and I resorted to listening to my old set of favourites including a lot of Philip Glass — his music is very layered with instruments being introduced and released constantly – rather like Mike Oldfields ‘Tubular Bells’. Philip Glass composed the music for a beautiful film called ‘The Illusionist’ about a magician in the 19th Century. A masterpiece of artistic expression in every sense – watch it if you can. It’s the sort of music that gives you tingles. Close your eyes and enjoy………….
