The process

In college, I took a beginner Industrial Design course to explore my options and see what was out there as far as education and job opportunities. At the time, I was a biology major (and eventually graduated as one) but I wanted to make sure the sciences was where I wanted to stay. This art class was new to me because we didn’t just jump into creating something like I’d done in the past. Instead we talked about the artists, what inspired them, what motivated them, what they were trying to communicate, what kind of process it took to create a piece weeks before we even started our own stuff. We discussed huge art pieces like the Typewriter Eraser, Scale X by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Brugge, the balancing mobiles of Calder, and the metal works around the campus. To make these creations there was a process. A big one. Artists had to really figure out how to obtain the goods, master the material, balance the form, and at the same time capture a look, a feeling, a thought and communicate something. This was work! It took time. And this time and learning and figuring it all out was the process. The process, I was taught, was as important as the completed piece itself. 

When I sit down to draw something or set pastels to paper, it is a process. However, there is always something inside of me that wants to hurry and finish. I am a completion person. An individual who wants to check off the figurative box and move onto the next thing. Still, I’ve learned over the years that when I get into creating something, it’s therapeutic. I get lost in the process and all my worry, my “what’s next” mentality tends to subside for a bit. It’s the process that is good for my soul. 

Life is all about the process. Sometimes we want to get to the end of the list and complete this or that (big or small), to say “done!” But if we could remember that it is in the process that we complete ourselves or our lives, the day in and day out become better. 

bird art above courtesy of Oliver