The Process of Creating
The creative process can be a frustrating but rewarding process. It’s easy to grow impatient and force ourselves to finish a project before it’s ready to be completed. Learning to respect the process involved in creating is important or your will easily become frustrated, stressed, or attempt to rush finishing a project before it’s ready to be completed.
The creative process is spontaneous. At times, our creative ideas and thoughts flow freely and easily. Other times, it’s a slow and tedious. However, if we can learn to respect the amount of time it takes to finish a project, we can save ourselves a lot of unnecessary headache. Exercising our creativity is the process of exploring something that is unknown - creating substance from the intangible.
Ideas and thoughts take time to develop, connect and grow. We may have a string of thoughts that comes quite quickly and easily - and we become spoiled if we believe that art should always flow naturally and conveniently at all times. Inspiration comes unexpectedly. It can happen when you are out in nature, interacting with a friend, or simply when your mind takes a break from trying too hard to process its own thoughts.
Nature is very refreshing. We need to connect with being outside. It’s unnatural for an artist to sit in a room with artificial lighting and expect the imagination and inspiration to flow indefinitely. Having new experiences, processing emotions, and trying new things are what spark the inspiration. You can’t expect to creativity to flow continuously without regularly nurturing your mind with new experiences.
Taking a break and getting back into life is important for refreshing the creative pool. Some artists think that life is art and art is life. However - life is separate. Life shouldn’t be compartmentalized by putting your identity so closely with it. If your art doesn’t work out, then you may begin to think that your life is lacking in value. It’s through living a valuable and meaningful life in which great art is made – not the other way around.
Learn to be fully present in the moment and experiencing life fully, and you will develop a natural flow of thought. Learn to process emotions instead of suppress them. This is especially true of negative experiences – facing them is key to keeping your mind clear and focused.
Those who pursue art in hopes of getting famous are coming from a completely different place of creation. Art created with the intention of gaining from the approval of others isn’t going to be genuine art that comes from our own unique identities.
Be true to yourself and learn to be present in the moment – creative thoughts will come naturally. There isn’t any reason to force art to come out of you – it wouldn’t be genuine. For further reading related to creative blocks and learning how to overcome them, please read Overcome Creative Blocks and Lack of Inspiration.
