Trusting the Process - a love letter to self

Art is a way of recognizing oneself - Louise Bourgeois

I was thinking about various projects I want to work on and came up with some brilliant ideas to explore. Crisp, clean, and fully developed, with several iterations speaking to my Interim Place/Space theme. Unfortunately, it was 3 am. I did that middle-of-the-night thing, and rather than get up and write stuff down, I agonized over whether or not I would remember it in the morning instead. I did not remember. The takeaway - get the paper and write down the darn idea. 

I wanted to get the ideas worked out as there were residual, vague notions swirling around, waiting to be excavated from my mind and placed into the world. I got out my sketchbooks and gathered some brushes, ink, colored pencils, and pens to realize those ideas. I was on a roll - then the inner critic showed up, and self-doubt started to surface. Amongst all the feels and critical noise, a faint, internal message emerged - the process of doing is the art. 

It's important to let the action of your mind and hand connect and move together. And not placing any value on the image or the concept or whether or not the work is even good. Let the ideas journey along. After all, it's only ink and just paper, and every mark leads to the next. It all plays a role in informing the art and the art making. It is sitting in the process, processing, not assigning any value or creating tiers. Think of it as scaffolding.

Here is my list of how to trust the process:

• allowing in and receiving the uncertainty

• letting myself be uncomfortable

• getting every form of art media out and goofing around

• create a limited palette to use or gather a limited number of supplies to support decisions

• honor when everything seems to be going the wrong way by taking a pause and reset 

• looking at a favorite artist and detailing what we like about a piece or using their work as a color resource

• letting the questions become discoveries

• make the work regardless and not take the outcome too seriously

• What would be on your list?