It has been a few days since I’ve blogged because, to be honest, at the end of the day, I just don’t feel like it. I know that is not keeping with my goal, but it’s true. Another truth is the incubation stage of the Creative Process. This is not just a myth or something creatives made up; it’s a real thing. So, the creative process goes like this.
- Preparation ~ You get an idea and gather infromation.
- Incubation ~ You think about it, and think about it, and think…
- Illumination ~ The “aha” moment or that moment it seems to come together.
- Evaluation/Verification ~ You try out your idea to see if it works.
- Elaboration /Production ~ Introduce it to the world.
This process can begin in different places and go back and forth through stages, but in the end, this is the process everyone goes through when creating something.
Let me give you an example:
I have had these urchins for awhile. They washed up from Penobscot Bay near where I live. One is how it was found on the beach, and one is cleaned off. I knew that I wanted to do something with them, but I didn’t know what. I wanted to take a bit of a break from Peek Babies, so I pulled them out of my nature basket.
I often start with some type of material or fabric. In this case, I started with the urchins. Before I start to make the piece, I ask for a name for the piece. Almost always, I go with the first title that comes to me. This time it was Fragile. I think I thought of that because these urchins are very fragile in this state. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I drew a circle with my disappearing pen and started to play with positioning the urchins. Nothing really came to me.
So I thought, and thought, and thought, and cleaned the bathroom, and made the bed, and put the dishes in the dishwasher. (Some would call this procrastinating, but in the creative process, it’s called incubation.) You let the idea set and see what jells. This is a bit of a controversy because if you truly believe this stage exists, it could take hours, days, months, years to get through. I think where the problem lies is the inability to create anything because you are stuck in this stage. If you actively thinking about your project, I believe it is still part of the process no matter how long it takes.
I painted a couple pieces of fabric with acrylic and put one piece behind the fabric with the hole and stitched around it. Then I cut some shapes like seaweed and rocks and placed those pieces over the hole.
I put batting and a backing fabric behind it and pinned down the pieces. I took a picture and thought some more. The next day, I decided I didn’t like the pieces on top, so I took them off. I looked at the piece and once again, asked it what it needed. I looked at the hole, and it looked to me like a window in a submarine looking out on dirty water. Then, I started to think about pollution in the water. I looked up all of the things that cause pollution in our waters and got a list.
As I write this post, this is where I am.
To be continued…
