May - Patient Creativity

There is a lot of patience involved in making art. You start with a blank canvas, a new sketchbook, the inkling of an idea. Through you these ideas will grow and fruit. But creativity is rarely linear. It is about starting and starting over. Some things get put to one side as others are started afresh and reach fruition.

Teaching workshops I am often helping others over their fears of getting art wrong. We talk about the fear of the white page, about quelling the voices in our heads that judge what we do, the marks we make. I don't think any human being can turn off these voices completely but in order to progress, to try, to fail, to start again we have to be prepared to turn down the volume on those voices. I think it is about getting back to that childish play with art, before we were criticised, before we learnt to judge our self and others.