What Artist Do All Day Long

When I am thinking about my art and what I am going to do, I think about what do other artists do.  How do they approach their art, what do they think about all day long, how do they think,what kind of decisions are they making consciously and unconsciously and are they more planners or thinkers. As I listened to this video about his stream of thought, it sounded so familiar to me.  We, as artists, can ask a million times where do our ideas come from and perhaps not know?  We can attribute our ideas to ourselves, our education, our brilliant minds, and many other things, but I think there is one thing common for all artists whether they be visual artists, writers or musicians so much of what we do is intuitive. Most of us are highly intuitive beings and the more we trust that process the more successful we are. I certainly know that is true for me.  

I literally turn my mind over to the intuitive self and I follow the thoughts as they come. It is a journey and I may think I am going in one direction and it can lead to quite another.  Now, you may say this doesn't seem rational if you are a concrete thinker, a planner, or a person who must know the direction they take.  I will tell you it is as miraculous as a runners high, you enter another realm where time stands still, hours go by as minutes and it is a very special place to be.  What it takes to get there is different for different artists, some must suffer, some must escape to themselves, and others drown themselves out with music or drink.  For me it is just waiting until this certain place in my mind opens up, and then I start thinking, and planning a bit, once I have all my materials around me, I start.  It is series of experiments, put this together, move this, put this on top of that, add this, no take it all away…now try this…and it is a dance with creativity and until the stream leads into the river and into the ocean.  Then click, all is right and it is done.  

I will post several of these for you to look at and we can look at how different artists approach their work.  Many of you may be more craft oriented, folk art, abstract, surrealist, or bend toward another style, but I think it is incumbent upon us to consider all, to view all, and learn from all.  So lets begin our journey with Norman Ackroyd's video below…click on arrow to begin.