Bridgette Guerzon Mills | Between Earth and Sky, encaustic mixed media, 9×12 inches
The other day I went into the studio with a list of things I need to work on or get started on. One was to work on a 24×24 inch painting that had been stalled for several weeks and my idea to get me moving again was to move in the direction of a grid composition for that panel.
I ended up not even touching that painting, but working on this 9×12 inch painting that was completely different when I entered the studio. I may make plans, but often I end up following what my hands/spirit tell me to go to. It’s like when you’re in the midst of the creative process…there is this flow you just follow. I think that with so much practice at this, I have learned to just trust. As for my day’s to-do goals: at least it’s sort of grid-like!
I’m reading an interesting book of quotes and collected thoughts called Simply Living, edited by Shirley Ann Jones. And this one struck me:
Not in my head, everything about me knows. Knowing it is like the river that comes out of the ground here and flows as the land slopes. Soon it will join another river and then another until it gets to the ocean. The river knows the earth and the river knows the river it joins. There’s no confusion, just a knowing that the source of all the rivers is the same.~Masanea, Kickapoo
I’m pretty sure the speaker was not talking about the creative process, but that’s what those words say to me.