Daily I pine that I have to go play in my shop….where the sculpture toys and projects live. When I do make it to the barn, around the room I saunter looking for an inspiration to jump out and say “use me! Pick me up and make something!” So, round and round I go, looking for that spark to show itself. Some days nothing calls forth and then on others, well let’s say it is intoxicating to be part of the process that springs forth.
I live for creativity, it is one of the better blessings in life. I used to take creativity for granted because it was always there at the snap of my fingers. As a younger man, I was quite the braggart how easily new ideas, music or art sprang forth, yet now decades later, with life’s scars and lessons etched into the psyche, creativity doesn’t come as quickly, yet the wisdom of life whispers that a new idea is around the corner, just be patient.
I love hanging out on the creative cliff edge, not being able to see the bottom in the chasm below yet knowing I have to take a leap of faith and jump (cue drum roll and scary 1950’s movie music please) over the edge into THE CHASM OF CREATIVITY.
The Chasm of Creativity is a mindset that at times can be a delightfully fun environment to hang in, full of fire flies, glow worms, phantasmic images just begging to be explored. At other times The Chasm is a glorious peak experience that few things in life can compare with because I wake up and go to sleep thinking of the new creation 24/7….it becomes all encompassing. And then, there are those moments when The Chasm is a darkroom of doubts, misfires and mumblings ‘they’re coming to take me away ha-ha, they’re coming to take me away ho-ho, he-he, ha-ha.” Why doubts you ask? Because the (whisper please) Overlord of Creativity may not anoint me that day with an idea, a creative spark, a glimmer of new thought. “But wait a minute”, I cry… “I am here, accounted for and willing to partake of the sweet juju fruit of ideas, so where is the spark, the juice?” Like it was a command.
After no ideas arise, I eventually shift into another gear and look around the studio, pick an object I was jazzed about when it came in, looking at it long enough, willing some idea to spring forth. If an idea doesn’t pop forth while sitting on the table, I move it to the floor. Shit, nothing springs forth there, then hey, what about we hang it up and see what that looks like and BOOM the synapsis’ fire, an adrenaline mainline drip begins, a spark lights and a freight train of an idea comes barreling on down. When the spark happens, pom-poms and streamers are in order for a new piece of art is about to be born. It is a high that no drug, food or fine wine can compete with. “Strap in kids because we are in for a ride!
In a lifetime of conjuring up new ideas, compositions, companies, marketing strategies, art or ways of looking at an issue…sometimes just the act of just sitting and staring at a blank page, a keyboard, a puzzle is enough to get started. Other times, well I just have to begin with something small whether it yields anything or not.
The dance for me in the end is not the finished work, it is the act of being in the Chasm of Creativity, locked in there with no way out and eventually magic will occur, passion bubbles up and an idea comes forth. The air in this moment is cool, clean and crisp out on the edge and that is what it is all about.
:Written by the artist, Spencer Brewer: