DEVELOPING IDEAS

"I sit and sit in the silence, looking hard into the blankness and wait and wait quietly for my hand to bring me a form, for my heart to speak to me and for spirit to surface. In making art we use our bodies and our minds, our hearts and our spirit. Spirit, once it comes, sits on our shoulders and gives us vision and presence, brings form and speaks to the spiritual practice of art making." - Nancy Azara, Spirit Taking Form.

The rain has put paid to my wood cutting plans for today but it's great weather for developing ideas. One of my art making rituals is to surround myself with art books and sketching materials while I mull over the possibilities. This seems to signal to my subconscious that it's time to produce something. Even writing this blog is a signal of sorts. It was one of the reasons I started a blog. If I write about the art process, it encourages me and puts me in the right frame of mind.

I have also adopted one of Twyla Tharp's methods which she writes about in her book, The Creative Habit. Being one of America's greatest choreographers she is often dreaming up new steps and dances. She starts off by first labelling a box with the name of the project and as the ideas begin to take shape she sketches and makes copious notes which she then puts in the box. Clippings, CDs, videotapes, books, photographs or anything pertaining to this project goes into the box as well. It is an excellent way of organizing thoughts especially when you are uncertain.

"....the box means I never have to worry about forgetting. One of the biggest fears for a creative person is that some brilliant idea will get lost because you didn't write it down and put it in a safe place. I don't worry about that because I know where to find it. It's all in the box." - Twyla Tharp.

So far my box contains sketches, notes, magazine cuttings and photos of old doors, a few metal objects that I might use, a bottle of copper nails, seed beads, a coil of wire and a block of wood I've been experimenting on. It's a good start!

"When inspiration doesn't come, I go halfway to meet it." - Sigmund Freud

SPIRIT TAKING FORM

I've been reading Spirit Taking Form by Nancy Azara and at the moment I'm enjoying the chapter on Visual Diaries. Azara speaks of the workshops she used to run called Consciousness-Raising, Visual Diaries, Artmaking. A group of women gathered weekly to discuss topics relevant to women such as the essence of birth, life as a woman, the traditional ways of working, crafting and arting etc. During these sessions each person would draw and doodle in a personal diary while listening to the discussions, making visual conversations , using colours, signs, symbols, shapes, marks and "primitive" drawings. These drawings were personal diary entries to be shared only if one chose to share.

"It was thrilling to be part of their discovery" writes Azara "I watched women change their processes, many returning to art after years of being stuck. Others shifted gears and made more authentic images. We drew and made collages, built up pages in our books, and made substantial and powerful diaries." "In these books were new visions, ideas, ways of seeing - shadows from the past".

Hickory with hands - by Nancy Azara. Carved and painted wood with gold leaf and encaustic.


She goes on to suggest incorporating these diaries into daily life, keeping a blank notebook at hand and markers and crayons or whatever else takes ones fancy to record feelings and happenings by means of images.


Leaf Alter for Nunzia - by Nancy Azara. Carved and stained cedar plank with aluminum leaf.

Joan Arbeiter, one of the first participants in the workshops, writes that her visual diaries were made from the "stuff of my ordinary daily life. Mundane notions such as shopping lists, appointments, and phone numbers were used along with philisophical commentary, overheard bits of dialogue, and other sayings that came my way. These words were often grouped into shapes that 'read' as images along with doodles, designs , and sketches. It was in fact soon after the workshop that I began to integrate these ideas into my own large format paintings and drawings".

Although I don't belong to a discussion group I think I have been doing something similar whilst having long phone conversations or listening to audio books. While my mind is engaged with the discussion my hand creates intricate designs which are often intriguing. Abstract doodles, created without interference from my inner critic. These I tear out and glue in my journal where I sometimes develop them further. As Azara experienced, I am coming back to the same forms over and over again. I suppose it's a way of discovering one's own personal symbolism or art vocabulary.

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for." - Georgia O'Keeffe

www.nancyazara.com/