Ambushed by art

The process of artistic creativity constantly surprises me. Sometimes it can be rather like walking down the street, minding your own business, when somebody leaps out and mugs you. Several days ago I decided that I had finished my “Green Man” series, with a total of seven images in the series. So confident was I that it was all done and dusted that I arranged for a good friend of mine, who is a professional photographer, to come round next Tuesday and photograph them, so that I can begin to think about approaching potential exhibition venues. Then, two nights ago, as I was lying awake in bed, to my complete astonishment two additional ideas came into mind.

The astonishing thing about this experience is the completeness and clarity with which they presented themselves to me. I just had to get up and note down some preliminary sketches. I didn’t sleep too well last night either, and I don’t know whether a cause or an effect of my insomnia was the return of the same ideas, this time with additional reflection about exactly how I might address them technically. I did manage to get off to sleep again, but today I have spent a good part of the time working frantically on the realisation of one of these ideas. I believe that it is possible that the finished work will be enhanced by the addition of a little lettering. I’ll wait before making a decision, however, because there needs to be symmetry between this picture and the other, which I expect to tackle tomorrow.

Artistic creativity is a very odd experience, because it seems to be quite different from “thinking”, which I suppose to be goal-directed in some respect. Often, in my experience, the development of an artistic idea resembles a situation in which I am being directed by the process, rather than it being a process that I direct. I wonder how general this is. Early next week I expect to have a conversation with friend of mine who is a writer of fiction, and it will be interesting to ask her whether literary creativity is similar.

PS: The hedgehog food was taken again overnight, so I can only suppose that we do, indeed, have another tenant.