As a child writing never came naturally and at secondary school the struggle was so frustrating I sometimes resorted to cutting up my essays and joining them back together with sticky tape to help me organise my ideas. I was reminded of this during the week as I wrestled with the writing up of the Prince's Shirt Project. The result was a kitchen wall covered in print outs, post its and washi tape, the only way I could move the ideas around where I wanted them.
As a keen gardener I only took on my first garden two and half years ago but have found it surprisingly difficult to design with plants. I struggle to visualise the effect I will get without putting them in and then moving the poor things about at a later date.
So perhaps it is unsurprising that in the studio I find it hard to plan out and execute a piece from scratch. Instead inevitably something is started, cut up, moved around, placed and replaced until the componants seem to fit.
I wonder do I have to always struggle, can collage be a way of life?
Interesting post - and it rings very true.
ReplyDeleteI too write this way - on the wall. I need to be able to see my ideas. I start with rough research and pare away - move things .
I think this way of working is very normal. When you make the comparison to your way of gardening or of creating art - I think more people do it this way - doing, undoing - re-doing - than you would think.
It's as if we have to create something - and then actually destroy it before we can re-create something that is true to what we need say.
Psychologists have written about this. Artists too.
Join the club - and welcome.
x
Good to know I am not the only one stumbling through life in this way... thank you.
ReplyDeleteI do the same, did. I can't claim to write much these days. I paint in a similar way, it can become a bit like reclamation after I often destroy bits I like. I suppose the creative process is a struggle to grapple with complex things. I try to rely on my instincts and mess up things as I go along. I don't like too much 'finish'. What am I trying to say, lost it. Love those cynotypes. Plenty of lovely effects.
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