This will not be a how-to post.

This is more of a how-it-happens post.

I believe that your how-to-skills as well as the how-it-happens creative process both take place in the context of making. You’ve got to create a work space and make work. A lot. Just keep doing it.

And then things can happen.

This picture is one I shot some time ago, an alleyway opening in downtown DeLand, my hometown. I love the photo—the aesthetic qualities of it, the angles, the lines, the shadows. So I have had it simmering on the back burner for a while, not sure where it would go.

As I work on other things, I sometimes create a bit of fabric that I think is interesting and somehow speaks to me of this photo. I throw it in the pile.

Meanwhile, I am working away on other projects.

About midway through this week, I reached a good stopping place in the other projects and allowed myself to return to this idea. To see what I would find.

Turns out I have a fascinating accumulation of fabrics that relate to each other and this photo in interesting ways. I’m inspired.

But now I’m scared! I don’t generally start a new work inspired by the fabric. Well, I try not to do it. When I begin with love for the fabric, I find myself midway through the work saying “What in the world was I thinking? Where is this going? What is it about?” For me, fabulous surface design on fabric is not usually enough to hold a work together.

I do much better when I start with the idea. I know what I want to communicate. Then I create all the parts I’ll need, then I put it together.

But here I am staring at an easel full of really interesting images, plus a photo I’ve liked for a long time, and I think there’s something going on here,  but I didn’t get here intentionally.

I looked at this a long time.

And then the how-it-happens—happened. I realized that the aesthetics of this photo are not all that I like. It speaks to me of ideas I’ve been working through in another part of my brain, stirred by what I’m reading and what I’m writing and what I’m thinking about. Secrets. Finding your way. Barriers to going forward. Discovering a path.

The grungy, “tough” fabrics I’ve been throwing in the pile all connote a tough environment. They are interesting, but not pretty or soft.

NOW I have a reason to create the artwork. And the parts I’ve been accumulating will come together, maybe with some new ones I’ll discover I need.

The story was already there. Waiting for me.

I look forward to bringing this to life.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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