Creative Portraits: Annie in Henna

Depending on the day, the life of my mind is usually best described as resembling either a carnival funhouse or an all-hyena cast performing Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Photography is my tether and my release valve. Creativity keeps me sane. And I am blessed beyond measure to have a spouse who not only helps me hold back the crazy, but loves to create art with me.

Thinking about the creative process...

I've spent the bulk of this solar rotation working on my manuscript.  I've never finished a novel-length piece before, and I am determined to have this one finished before the end of the year.  It's placing demands on my creativity like I have never had before, and I'm enjoying the challenge.  Like all would-be writers, my dream is to see the book published and on store shelves, but I'm trying to avoid thinking that far ahead right now.  For the time being, I am contenting myself with letting the journey be journey is the destination.  In the meantime, the subjects of creativity and the creative process are on my mind as I take a short break from Pages.

Creativity, whether with words or the visual arts, is an interesting and fickle entity.  The best analogy I can think of from my own experience is that creativity is like an ember.  It's always smoldering, but you have to give it a little kindling and stoke it into something hot and lively.  My own stoking / creative process has become increasingly interesting as I have grow more disciplined and organized as a wrier.  Sometimes I write well when I write in a library or crowded coffee house, wearing my earbuds but not playing any music through them; it makes me feel strangely comfortable and insulated when I do that.  Other times I write better in an empty room with music up nice and loud.  And, as always, there is always a tumbler of hot, strong coffee close at hand.

Today has been a music day, and as the story I'm working on right now is set in 1960's Mississippi, replete with dusty roads and vanishing point cotton fields, there is only one option:

What is your creative process?  By what means do you stoke the ember of ideas into a roaring blaze of creativity?