I have heard before to "trust the process" when making art. Art making is 98% process, and the remaining 2% lies in results and opinions. Some of those opinions are ours, some are from others. But we all know that opinions are the opposite of being in creative process...because opinions are left brain "thinking" processes. The creative process dies when we think. When you think about it....if we had the future opinions in our ears of others while we were in the middle of the creative process, it might not ever be. It might not make it off the drawing table. We are so quick to say...."well, it's not done...don't look" "I have so much more I'd like to do to it." "I was thinking about adding this or taking away that." You know....that IS the art, right there. Making it, thinking about it, and frankly sharing it. But art is best when it's shared. What can we do with something that is stuffed under the bed? We can't enjoy the things that have never been painted.
Talking about art was one of the most difficult learning processes for my freshman design college students to grasp- they went kicking and screaming into discussion critiques. No one wanted to discuss their own work, no one wanted to talk about areas that they thought needed improvement. And if I asked them to talk about some one else's work???? Forget about it. However, with time, and mandatory requirements, the students understood that critique was more about an understanding of our fears, of making the ego smaller, of comparing our work from the work we used to do....to see how we have improved, and talking about work that could have been changed, and how.
I am drying some clay pieces in the studio now. There is nothing to it, just let it be. Some really flat pieces should be slightly covered in the winter heat of the studio as to avoid warping. Some were just left where they were to dry. I am also waiting on an oil painting to dry...with the aid of modern mediums, will be ready in another day for more layers of oils.
In the meantime, I wait. I wait for the next step...the next move toward the completion.
I let go while that process takes place.
Soaking, drying, firing, mixing...a pause in creation, so the creation itself can go on with out the creator...to do it's thing.
I like to think about that painting or clay piece sometimes, upstairs in the studio, doing it's work without me so that we can move on towards completion.
It sounds silly, but i even love that part, the part about watching paint dry.
The reasons are because i have been that wet paint before, drying and deciding....hoping that no one disturbs me. Hoping that I can just sit here, and dry. As the creator/artist we are always deciding what our next move is. Although that path is not always clear, we walk away and let our creations be. When the time is right, we will know our next stroke of paint, our next mark on the clay, or our next word to write. In time, if you trust that you will know, you will know.
