Stepping into the creative realm is always a journey that provides the chance to unearth a discovery. It is this journeying that I do every time I create a painting. This trip grants me access to a certain spaciousness to explore things around me. It grants me an access point that is wholly different from my day-to-day. It gives me a chance to process things, to unravel that which has been knotted and bound, as well as simply just exist in a blissful flow state devoid of ego. Simply put, it is meditation through exploration.
The process surrounding the creation of a new piece is a journey to a new land, swaddled in fog and restorative darkness, with a trail map loosely referred to before the first steps are taken. I know the roughly formed terrain ahead of me, but it changes and there’s no way of knowing which way the trail will head. I bring with me the essentials and prepare for a journey that is unique. Everything is cloaked in darkness; there are no forms readily available to cling to. The times I plan the route ahead of me have previously led me to be lost in the wilderness. I have learned that I must simply and confidently take a step in any direction and follow up with another. And another. Mistakes can certainly be made but new experiences await. It is me and my ethereal companion who go on this journey alone. And ultimately, it is a tangle of this within and without that creates a tangible something… something that I take back from it. An amulet. A physical token of an experience. A reminder of a place visited. Each journey is unique. The only thing that remains the same is the ritual surrounding it. And before it all begins, one simply must take the first few steps into the ragged night.
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