About thirty years ago, I went to a retreat and took a creative process test, I can’t remember the name of the questionnaire/test, but my score for visual art and writing were equal. There you go, “the fork in the road,” if you missed my blog. I did not think of it then as a fork in the road. For one thing, I was busy raising children, so my fork would have looked like a real fork with three or four prongs instead of two, symbolized in my logo with a paintbrush and pencil.
Older-Present Me:
“What do you do?” “I’m an artist and writer,” I answer. Followed by: “Have you published anything?” (Yes, but one is still a writer even they aren’t published.) “What do you write?” Historical fiction and nonfiction picture books. Art and writing are part of the creative process. They both start with pencil and paper.
Being a creative also means a continual process of learning, researching and practicing new techniques and skills to find a better way, to see the project through. Especially with today’s technology this is constant and ever-present in my daily life. The computer has made definite changes in my work. It is an excellent tool for research and brings a community of artists together. The flip side it requires frustrating hours to figure things out, which is not intuitive. If there is one emoji that describes my brain most days is “mind-blowing,” when I would rather be working in my studio.
I realized I needed to educate myself on making a picture book dummy in a pdf just recently. It took me four long days teaching myself, starting over, and redoing the project when I found mistakes and could not edit. In the “old days,” I constructed a dummy from mat board, paper, and color prints and bound them with string sewn through holes hammered through the thickness. Truthfully, they were both time-consuming ways of making a dummy. I must admit, the computer version was visually more satisfying and saved trees.
My youngest son, an artist, reminded me, ”Art is all about the trials and tribulations.” It is all part of progression working towards one goal creating art and writing. This year I created a new website, opened a store, learned to blog, set up a mailer list service, and designed a monthly newsletter for Art and Books Studio. I google for help constantly and give a huge thank you to bloggers and you-tubers who share their time and expertise with me.
Time factor and deadlines add to my stress about getting it done. When my sister heard my frustration, she asked, “Is this a self-inflicted project?” I laughed, “As a creative, my whole life is self-inflicted!” It’s part of the process.
If you ever ask an artist, “What do you do?” There is a multifaceted answer you never know about or can fully appreciate when you see the final product.
