Being Creative



Deconstruction of a Church



"What inspires you? Do you wait for inspiration before you start work on a piece? How often are you inspired?" These are some of the questions I often get when talking to people about my work. Inspiration carries an aura of mysticism and is most of the time given an importance that it rarely deserves. It's true, that divine moment, that spark of enlightenment may be the start of something great. But a start is just that, a start. A piece of art is much more than a start, much more that needs to be done.

My preferred medium, painting, can be described in two basic parts, the technical part and the creative part. The technical part, ie painting drawing etc can be learnt. Yes, through hard work and patience it can be learnt. It is just a language like any other language. We learn to talk by hearing other people talk and then we try it out. At first we make a mess, then we start making some sense. Painting is exactly the same. Most people just give up because they don't have the patience to wait for results. Which might take years.  Then comes creativity. Even creativity has its methods. The creative process is well documented and a simple google search will lead you to thousands of pages relating to the topic.

So where does inspiration stand? The closest thing that I experience and can describe as inspiration is those moments during work that you feel that you chose the right direction. And even then, sometimes you realise you were wrong.