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November 17, 2003
creative flux and fridges
Momentary creativity washes over me as I work. But, like a wave, it is gone again as soon as it has washed over me. I can feel it, for a fleeting second. I can recognise it now, when it happens. I can feel the IT, the Va-Va-Voom [as M.Renault would say]. But I can't catch it - if I chase it, it runs away like my shadow.
And like my shadow it is ill defined, fuzzy, insubstantial, constantly in flux. The more you chase it, the more you try to define it, to hold it, to have it, to keep it, the more you'll never find it. You have to sneak up on it.
You have to try to make things easy for it to appear, get the conditions right, arrange the paper, the pencils, the light, the paint; start work in a casual carefree, listen to the radio talk about your new fridge, sort of way. Then, if the creative flux appears: ignore it, turn your back on it, let it go, appear un-concerned, buy another fridge and talk about it ever more enthusiastically.
With luck the flux will remain and the creative moments will wash up and over you like the slowly incoming sea at, say, Weston-super-Mare.
I think I need to get out more
Posted by john at November 17, 2003 05:46 PM
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