Saturday, September 19, 2009

Do You Feel "The Bubble?"

Anyone who has ever created something or felt like creating something, I think, will know what I mean here. I often feel that there is something bubbling in me when I have an idea or want to make something very badly. I'm curious though about how others experience "the bubble."


Right now, I am unable to sew for physical reasons (sorry if I keep mentioning that all the time), and I keep thinking of things I want to make. It feels very bubbly/boiling-y not being able to do it and not being able to get these ideas out of my head and into a concrete form. I find that keeping notes in an idea journal helps a ton. But, not being able to sew also helps me to get more deeply involved in the things I can do-- like knit.


On a related note, feeling the initial spark toward creating an idea also involves the executing of that idea. In his book, Trust the Process, Shaun McNiff writes,

"While he played the piano, Duke Ellington said 'I'm not playing, I'm dreaming.' It is like the Islamic Mystics who quote the Koranic saying, 'It is not you who throws the dart when you throw it.' Creativity is a force moving through us, and only through practice do we learn how to cooperate with it. The "process" is like a muscle. It needs to be exercised in order to function properly."


What does it feel like to you to have an idea or want to create something? Or, what do you feel when you are creating? Is this something you think about on a regular basis? I think artists-- no matter what their medium may be-- are driven to create by this feeling of serenity (or however you'd describe it) and motivated by the challenges "the process" brings.

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