The Creative Process Visualized: Artist Statement

Annie Dillard, in her essay “Seeing,” beautifully describes how she experiences the world. It is so different from my own perspective, I wish my lens could align with hers and I could focus on the thousands of details I’ve missed every day for the majority of my life. I see things in steps and processes, completely at home in the straightforward and the chronological. I even have a narrative approach in this project, but in honor of seeing things in a different light, I have tried something much more outside of my comfort zone—a stab at the abstract.

I’ve been told Jackson Pollock’s paintings are a translation of jazz music. In some small way, these collections of images have been based on that approach. Not by visual inspiration (nothing here is like the works of that great painter), but by finding inspiration though melody. Memories, an instrumental piece composed by bensound music, reminds me of a difficult journey I’ve taken a hundred times: the creative process. For me, the song is divided into eight different segments, and each part reflects how I feel as I try to finish any project. The images below are the steps visualized.  

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/memories

First, captured through light piano music, is the feeling of curiosity. I’ve seen something new, or something old in a new light, and my mind takes it in to process.

New Light

Then, the idea, like the melody, begins to form. Everything at this point is bright and big and there are so many vague possibilities I can hardly process them, and all I really have is a concept.

A Single Drop

The beat gets stronger as this concept becomes a project. It’s hard work, and I realize that my ideas lose their color somewhere between mind and paper. I have to force myself to organize those free floating images, turning untranslatable chaos into something tangible.

Get It Out

The piano comes back in, and the melody is more complex. I’ve been building on that fragile inspiration, but not everything is fitting the way I envisioned.

Pieces

Now nothing is working. The music becomes melancholy and gray, and I feel disgustingly untalented. Abandoning the project seems like the best option.

To Be Or Not

My mind is exhausted, and if I’m going to finish this, I have to remember what inspired me in the first place. By now the memory is less than picture perfect, but there’s a repeat of melody like my new determination.

Foggy Rekindle

What else is there to do but push through it all?

Against Myself

As the music and my project conclude, I have no idea if anything is good or even if all the effort is worth it. But now it’s time to share what I’ve made. I suppose the universe in some way gave me the inspiration, and it’s only fair to give it back.

Giving Back