Ordered a couple of second hand books by Michele Cassou,
Life, Paint and Passion and
Point Zero-Creativity Without Limits. Just got Point Zero and started reading it today. She makes some great observations that cause you to think. Things like:
"A creative block happens when you think you should do something while you are truly interested in doing something else. The block is caused by looking in the wrong direction because of fear or prejudice, and by striving to reach an unwanted place."
She then explains that you need to ask yourself the right questions in order to break out of the creative rut you're in but that finding that question is not so easy.
"A good question must pull you out of the fascination of thinking that you know what needs to happen or what will make you happy..."
The right question is there within the block itself, it comes out of the judgement, the fear the whatever is preventing you from creating. Although I've never put it in those terms I can certainly see that is was the essence of most stalled moments I've had creatively. Some of them it took some time to finally come up with the right question that contained my answer at the same time. Interesting reading so far, up next her discussion about 'dragons.'
"The Dragon of Product: he fights your spontaneity because it loves aesthetics. It wants you to plan exactly how your finished painting will look." Oh he has given me a tussle, I ran into him while working on
Worlds Crumble and
here!
"The Dragon of Control: he guards the doors of the unknown by using fear to stop true exploration. It feeds on your lack of trust in your spontaneity and fear of changes and try to convince you that you must be in control of your creation at all times."
The Dragon of Meaning: fights your intuition by demanding interpretation and resolution at every move. It wants you to analyze your creation and assign meaning/value to everything you paint."
A nasty bunch don't you think?
NOTE: This was a play session done on 18X24" water-colour paper and will be used as backgrounds in my art journal.
