I trust that this finds you well and refreshed and ready for the new week. This is a slightly different post from me this morning. It's Q&A time. A little while ago I was contacted by Sandie Cottee whose blog, Itchifingers, can be found HERE, and asked to participate in this. Having looked in my diary and having a small window of opportunity (By which I mean that all my children have been returned safely to UNI and my sister is still gadding around the country with our cousin before returning here), I said yes and promptly "forgot" about it until this morning...... this is where I must apologise to Sandie; you see, in all the reading, the messages going back and forth, my brain did not register the "pass it on to 3 others" ! Well, yep, you guessed it; I haven't asked anyone and it's a bit late now isn't it.
So, I'll answer the questions and though I can't promise, I'll try to line up at least one person to keep the hop going.......
1. What am I working on ?
Currently I am working on a few different things; I generally have a few things on the go at a time as I seem to be incapable of just sticking with one thing. Today on my desk I have a box of flowers that I am making for my mother.
2. How does my work differ from others in my genre ?
That's kind of difficult to answer. I try not to compare my work with others too much. If I did I think I would freeze as I think there are awesome mixed media artists out there. We are surrounded by inspiration and I always try to create work that touches my heart and hope that someone somewhere will be inspired by it too. I would like to think that I create in a style that is unique to me while still drawing inspiration from work that I see that touches something in me.
3. Why do I create what I do ?
To put it simply, because I "need" to. For as long as I can remember I have felt the need to express myself in a visual way. I believe that creativity is a gift from God and it is there to be shared. I have had a lifelong love affair with boxes and books; I love the feel of a book in my hands, the textures, the crackle of pages and even the smell of a book so in many ways I think it was inevitable that I would end up making books and filling them too. With boxes, I love the excitement and curiosity they give; a beautifully crafted box just calls out to be opened. Though I do a variety of projects I always seem to come back to these two things. They are my creative "Happy Place"
4. How does your creative process work ?
It's all over the place LOL...... I honestly don't have a routine process, it is as creative and fluid as my life (IE chaotic....)
Some days I will have everything mapped out in my head; it's almost like a personal step by step which I then just follow in reality. Those are the good days when everything flows.
Most of the time though I sit in my studio "shuffling" stuff waiting for something to happen. I have this "need" to create but no starting place. It can be intensely frustrating but I have a couple of things I use as kickstarters :
I make flowers, I find it restful to do, I will make a batch of flowers and usually by the end of that I have a head full of ideas as to how I can use them.
I will batch cut assorted dies. It bugs me sometimes to take the machine out just to cut one piece so I will stockpile them. I have a tendency to "forget" how many dies I have so by cutting them it reminds me and at the same time I find it inspires me too and I then have a pile ready to use, especially when I am looking to add textural elements to books and boxes...
I will pick up one of my journals, there are always unfinished pages in them so I will just pick one and start to doodle in it.
As I am fortunate enough to have my own range of book cover kits I take one of those and just begin to paint it white and hope that by the time I have finished that I will have the next stage in my mind....
Well, I hope you have found this little Q&A session remotely interesting.
Thank you Sandie for asking me, and once again, I'm sorry I didn't realise I needed to pass it on!
Take care folks.
3 comments:
Thanks for taking part Neil and I really enjoyed how your creative process works. Your flowers look beautiful and I always find it so interesting how people find different ways of finding their muse. I really enjoyed this post and I know you inspire me and many others :)
Snap! As you already know, we've both been asked to contribute to this blog hop today (and the hop ends with both of us too lol). Interesting to read how similar your answers are to mine in some areas and differ in others. As you say, they are not questions we usually ask ourselves, we just create on instinct :) Funnily, I began crafting with books and boxes too, though I haven't made either for many a year now. I still love looking at other peoples book arts etc, including your own wonderful creations :) Pxx
Crikey Neil...I could have written that as its so similar to the way I work. I have had a lifelong love of books too, the older the better x
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