Taking journeys through creative processes.

My typical creative process when I receive an assignment usually begins with me writing down ideas and sketching which leads me to talking to other people about what I came up with. In this process, I don't do a whole lot of doodling until I talk to someone. Once I talk to others, I am able to flush out ideas more on paper where I will come up with 20 to 50 thumbnails. I go from there to taking one of those sketches to a larger scale - i wish that I would experiment more during this process with mixed media - that way I can have more versions. I should also try more angles of the same subject matter which I did employ a couple of times. Once I have a nice sized sketch, I translate that over to the scale that I plan to work at. No matter what media I use, I first block in areas that the shapes will occupy then I actually block the forms in. From there I bring the piece to a more finished state, taking breaks, sometimes pictures, and getting advice from friends. Those friends include with art education and those without.

I met this dancer who described her thesis to me. I was surprised to hear that she didn't actually perform it. She composed a conceptual composition based on her experience in life and especially in college. She spoke about how she first brain stormed ideas and came to the conclusion that piece had to be about her experience staying motivated and inspired in the mist of other creative minds and sometimes restricting instructions from teachers. She developed this dance that expressed the task of taking the skills that she learned and making them a natural experience. She did this by creating an imaginary jello wall in the middle of a dance stage. So there are three parts to the stage distinguished by color. From left to right, a red side, yellow strip, and blue side. The dancers all occupied the blue side dancing in a stiff manner and each dancer pursued the other side through the jello wall to a side that allowed them more grace and freedom over their moves. The only problem is that, with each artist that went through the wall, the thicker it got until the last dancers needed the help of each other to get through. This came to symbolize how hard it is to shine once others have made themselves a success but came from the same place as you. It becomes your responsibility do something even more impressive.

The most impressive thing about this piece to me, is that it was never performed.