Kat Eye Studio

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Seeing the Light

The difficulties are always the most important ingredients in the total picture of a creative experience.
— Shaun McNiff in Trust the Process: An Artist’s Guide to Letting Go


I started a new book for my “morning practice reading” in the last few days, Trust the Process: An Artist’s Guide to Letting Go by Shaun McNiff. This book has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time, probably back to 2009 or early 2010. As in anything, my reading goes in cycles and I found interest in going back to the basics of the creative process. How nice to have this great book waiting for me, with gems like the quote above sprinkled liberally throughout the first chapter alone. It resonated with where I am right now. Here’s another:

Creativity cannot flourish and reach its deepest potential without the participation of its demons as well as its angels.
In other words, there is no such thing as a free lunch. We don’t get the good stuff without some bad stuff thrown in. Some challenge, some struggle is needed for the creative process. That’s what helps us find new ways of doing things.

These statements struck home, after my struggles with the “down” part of the creative cycle this month. As I come out of it and see my creativity picking up, as I see my inspiration begin to flow as it usually does, I see what the down time has been giving me. A respite, a time to go within. A time to revisit the process, with all of its ups and downs.

I’m off from my corporate job this week, a planned holiday shutdown. I have been frustrated about the inflexibility of forced time off at work because I don’t have any vacation time left this year, but I find that I’m enjoying the space to focus on my creative pursuits. Not to mention hanging out with my family, doing things like learning to fly an RC helicopter from my son and getting addicted to Glee on Netflix with my husband.

But under it all, after coming through the down cycle, I find that new stuff is brewing and I have some space to create. It should be interesting around here!

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Hopeful

It always amazes me the range of emotions you can capture with still photographs of objects. Perhaps that’s why I love the medium of photography so much. To me photography is as much about capturing what I feel as it is capturing what I see. Or, put another way, it’s about capturing what I see with the emotion I feel.

At any rate, while in Ashland a few weeks ago, I spent a good long time capturing these vines against the wall. Yes, the same day I captured crispy fall leaves and a wintery black and white tree, I captured these springy vines. I love the fresh leaves, against the colored wall. Today, as I look at them, the color and new growth fill me with a hopeful outlook. That even in the winter, there are moments of green. Fresh growth and color still exist.

I choose this image because that’s how I feel in general too. Hopeful. After struggling against the down cycle I’ve been in, I finally accepted it at the end of last week. I said to myself, “Here I am. I am sad this holiday season. I miss Italy. I have no creative ideas. I accept it. I’m going to tell my friends, and then I’m going to curl up and read a book.” I’ve been doing that anyway, the book reading part, but I finally gave in and took it all to heart. This is where I need to be. You know what? That’s when I started to feel better.

You see, by accepting where I am, I allowed myself to begin to move through it, and there found a glimmer of hope. I allowed myself to share it with others, and there found encouragement. I’m not alone, neither is the down part of this cycle permanent. It’s hard to remember that sometimes, when you are fighting it so hard.

So this Monday morning, I find myself content with where I sit. The sadness is still here too, and it’s not like I’m bursting with creative ideas yet. But there is a glimmer of hope, and that’s all I can ask for today.

Today’s Many Muses Musing prompt is HOPE. Tomorrow’s prompt is COZY. Come on over and join in!

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