(Flow) positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is a mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is the characterized by complete absorption in what one does. [Wikipedia]
One of the most difficult things is finding the zone ... your creative art zone! It's a place where almost everything you do in your practice is working and the ideas are flowing. You are unstoppable, each medium you try is working and the adrenaline for creating mass amounts art is at its highest peak. You can't sleep for the fear that it may leave and we as artists can bare witness to the notion that it eventually leaves you. It usually has nothing to do with drugs,liquor or any other substances, though I've heard from others that it can ignite the flow.
As for me, when it happens I love it! I don't anything special, because I work all the time and it make take months to kick in. It's just one of those things that happen to creative and driven people. In the mist of it I just want to be left alone to work; to build on my ideas, grapple with methodologies and different disciplines and hopefully find new ones or various ways of expressing old ones. I can work for countless hours on one thing or a group of works. I recently came out of one of those "creative synergy" and i could feel it when it left. Real "life stuff" broke its spell and i was consumed by all the minutia that tends to clutter up a person's life. Too bad, I miss it and all i can hope for is that it will return just as quick as it left. In the meantime back to cutting, pasting painting and drawing.
Here are a few things that helps kick start my synergy!
Read: Any type of art related book, blog, magazine or article. Reading is a must it helps in so many ways.
Lectures: Find a art lecture, there must be one at a local college or university in your area. Just listening to how someone else navigates the art world can be helpful. Then there's TED talks lots of great stories on this site.https://www.ted.com/talks
Other artists' work: Looking at other artist's practices can make you better and sometimes unlocks ideas you have been grappling with. http://www.artspace.com/magazine/news_events/akademie-x-sanford-biggers
Your practice: You must work! Not working is like starting over every time.
Go ahead start creating!
I love your description of the creative zone! It's a beautiful place to be working from!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the kick start links... .all helpful suggestions, especially at the beginning of a new project when endless possibilities feel overwhelming and starting can be challenging!
I also like the Yale Open Courses for getting the synergy flowing- here's the link: http://oyc.yale.edu/