Some thoughts on my creative process as it is right this moment. A snapshot, if you will.
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What am I working on?
I'm in the midst of an informal and unplanned hiatus from my usual mediums of painting/paper arts and writing. I'm tending a container herb garden on my back deck. Transcribing an almost-100-year-old diary kept by young Pennsylvania woman. Cutting, pressing, and stitching units together for a quilt. Yapping on Facebook. Settling in to a new job. Daydreaming. Night dreaming. Listening to The Beach Boys on an endless loop.
How does my work differ from others in its genre?
I don’t really think about genres when it comes to what I do.
Why do I write/create what I do?
An answer with two parts:
Part I
Notice things closely, and remember.
Part II:
In the documentary Man on a Wire, Philippe Petit - the man who surreptitiously strung a tightrope between the Twin Towers in New York City in 1974 and spent the better part of an hour walking, sitting, squatting, and dancing on it - is asked what compels him to do these sorts of daredevil things and he says people ask him this all the time, and even as he’s answering the question, he’s walking away from the camera, waving his hands dismissively, saying he leaves the whys to the psychiatrists, he’s too busy to doing his thing to analyze why this is his thing.
I love that.
Does it really matter why? I can. I want to.
How does my writing/creative process work?
All I know for sure is it ebbs and flows, has its own rhythms, spells, and moods, and because I am not seeking to monetize or market my work, I don’t force anything. If it isn’t fun (and by fun I mean absorbing, not necessarily happy, skipping, la la la “fun”) there isn’t any reason for doing it at all.
Mostly, it’s a mystery. It brings to mind surfing, what I understand of it, anyway. Paddle out toward the horizon, squint, sit, wait, watch. See a wave that looks right, hop on the board, and ride it for as long as you can – sometimes only a few feet, sometimes all the way home.
What makes me happiest, the thing that feels rightest to me: going out into the world and looking around, coming home and writing it, painting, it, remembering it all down.
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And now, over to next week's participants:
Hollie Sessoms is a girl from nowhere who routinely neglects family, friends, and health to spend time with her imaginary friends on Microsoft Word. She is passionate about spaces in between, Sunday afternoon, and fall leaves that crunch underfoot. Once, when she was young, she saw an orca breach in the sea off the Alaska coast.
Sandy Lupton is a lifelong learner, graphic designer, painter, mixed media and jewelry artist from Courtland, Virginia. She loves the beach, John Wayne movies, polka dotted dogs, beer and her family & friends with all her heart. She may have warped her brain a little by watching too many 70's sitcoms as a child.
