The Dreaming Stage

 Last week was one to rest and this week was one to rejuvenate. I’ve started to get the itchy feeling of I want to create, a sort of beginning to restlessness. I’ve started not sleeping well again and I have to wonder if its because I haven’t done much creating in the last 14 days. Creating is such an integral part of how I function that it can impact every part of what makes me tick. So I have to wonder if the not sleeping is connected to the not creating. Last week I needed to rest, but this week has gotten busy so I’m starting to get a bit swirly in my head, I need an outlet. So tomorrow the plan in to make something, do something, anything to take the edge off. 

The itchy feeling isn’t all bad though, a big part of it is the inspiration stage, the part of the creative process where I get excited, where I feel giddy. The only real problem I’m facing in it this week is that I haven’t had the capacity to give enough time to the inspiration. So I’ve had many ideas and fleeting plans but nothing has come to substance. 

Back in the end of June I published a blog post tilted An Artists Identity, in which I break done the widely accepted bullet-point version of the creative process. In it I mostly discuss the point that artists often attach their identities to the quality of their work, which I argue it being very unhealthy. However in said blog post I mostly skipped over the bringing of the process. 

So where I am in the beginning of the process again I thought it good to let you into my process. People often start discussing the creative process for where you already have the brilliant idea and now just need to start. But for me once I’ve got the idea then all I need is a plan, so lets talk about getting an idea. 

This is one of my favourite stages to the creative process, I love the dreaming stage. It is where I get to let my imagination and creativity run wild and just see what it brings back to me. It is where I feel the most free in the process. But I know for some this is the most daunting part. So to get an idea, when I’m looking for one, I have a number of place I go looking. I look in my own portfolio of completed works and sketched ideas, I look on Pinterest, I look at nature, I talk to people about life. Any and all of those places can and do spawn ideas or the beginning of them. Sometimes it takes multiply places to get a fully formed idea, and on the other end of the spectrum sometimes it just comes to me. For beginners, or someone who it just coming back to creating, I would recommend Pinterest, and I would specially say go look at things you like. There’s no point in looking things you don’t like, so look at the things you do, it’s okay if it’s super niche and it’s okay if its super broad. 

People often say there are no mistakes in art, and I would say I 95% agree with that statement, I would say every “mistake” is an opportunity for improvement and or problem solving. I would also say that there are absolutely no mistakes in the dreaming stage. No one has to see the half though sketches or the inspiriting picture, and also no-one really knows what its “supposed” to look like. When I have an idea I have this “picture perfect” image of what it will or should look like and most often the end result doesn’t perfectly resemble the image in my head, but like I said no knows that unless I tell them. So the dreaming stage for me is peaceful. It’s everything that comes after where things get a bit funny, but that’s next week. 

So my challenge to you this week, is let yourself dream. Go look at things you like, have interesting talks with interesting people, go discover what you like. Then see what drives you after the desire to create and then go chase that. Go run wild in the creativity and see what it whispers back to you. Just give yourself permission to dream, and if you can’t I’m giving you the permission to dream a little. So go dream wild dreams. 

I hope this finds you well and have a blessed week!