What is your favorite moment in the creative process?
For me it's the moment before the thing that's so full of promise
In a previous post about my interview with artist Libby Black, we talk about her swimming from Alcatraz to San Francisco in the dark, frigid waters of the Bay. She said that, as she was fighting for her life to stay warm and not be eaten by sharks, she remembered something she had read that told all would-be swimmers to look around during their frantic journey to shore. Enjoy the swim because while it’s scary and hard, it goes fast.
It made me think about my own approach to art-making and what part of the creative process I am most present and excited for. What I realized is that the part where I feel the most excitement and joy is in the making and the anticipation of a deadline.
For me, that feeling is addicting, especially when it comes with a slightly unrealistic deadline that will require me to drop everything. This is where my workaholic tendencies thrive. Devote my whole existence to the grueling ritual of being in the studio to the exclusion of having to make other choices and do things that make me feel uncomfortable like socialize and meet new people? Don’t mind if I do.
This is also the fantasy moment, where the work is still being made and the fate of the thing happening - the exhibition, the book, the short story - is not yet set in stone. What could be better than making art for the fantasy world in your head for a while, before you have to navigate reality and all its concessions?
This is still a bit of a trap because the joy is conditional, predicated on the future of the thing being the outcome that you hope and dream for.
I am in these exact fantasy stages for an upcoming solo show with The Pit in Los Angeles. The work will be about the landscape around the gallery which is in Glendale, not far from where I live. I have become deeply inspired by the mountains which have been a solace to me when I moved to the city almost a year ago and was still finding my niche. I hiked countless hours both by myself and with people I met in Meet-Ups, the Sierra Club hikes, and the occasional random encounter.
Having grown up in Minnesota, the mountains of LA feel exotic and scary - in an exciting way. There is real danger looming just down the gravel path with real mountain lions, black bears, and owls hooting all within city limits. I think this wildness inspired my imagination and allowed me to connect more to the land than I might have in a more urban hiking environment.
Here are a few of the paintings I have made of the mountains in the last year - inspired by the energy of the land. (The IG widget cuts off the photos so to look at the whole thing, you can click thru to my profile.)
One of the inspirations that I am hoping to mine for the show are traditional panorama paintings and works inspired by them like Monet’s Waterlilies at the Orangerie in Paris. Like many, I am deeply in awe of Monet’s mystical color and effortless brushwork. The closer you look at his canvases the harder it is to tell how he applied the paint and in what order. Painters, I challenge you to try it sometime.
I am hours away from taking a plane to Paris and then London to do research and get inspiration before 9 months of hopefully not-too-grueling preparation for my show. I will be posting here and hopefully recording some interviews for Le Side Woo.
What about you? What’s your favorite part of the creative process? Are you a fast starter or a good finisher? I feel like you can’t be both…