Creative Labyrinths
Creative Labyrinths
Risk
This months episode revolves around the practice of risk taking and discovering our self imposed limitations that exist in our creative process.
Welcome to Creative Labyrinths. This is the second Full Moon episode where I speak about a topic or a concept that I've been sitting with for the last month. Kind of an audio journal meditation. And this month I've chosen to talk about risk. because I've noticed in my work a sense of stagnation or plateauing of development. A development in output and a development in approach to whatever project it is that I'm working on. And Because of this stagnation, everything that I was creating wasn't striking a chord with me. And I was starting to find each piece being lifeless and something that I didn't believe in. And this really bothered me. And I started to be concerned that maybe in a neurotic sense that my kind of creative spell had run dry and i didn't necessarily believe in that but that was just a series of thoughts that i was wrestling with and i found that i was swimming in an area of safety in the things that i was creating and this safety that i had felt in I suppose having work released into the public and I guess the reception and the feedback had in some way validated the value or the worth of that output and it started to play with my mind a little bit and I discovered that I was creating these artificial limits on what it was that I was creating and I was less likely to take risks in my paintings or my writing or my music or even this podcast as an example. And one self-benefiting reason of doing these Full Moon episodes every month is that it's like a catalyst for change for me. It's confronting. I can't rely on a guest to bounce off over a long format episode It's just me in my studio with my mind and my voice and my experience, I suppose. And so this element of risk was something that I was noticing was lacking. And I began to approach my creations and my creative process by taking chances, by Trying to discover the ways that I was playing it safe. And it was really scary on some level because part of the fears that were grumbling underneath was if I take all these risks and start creating artworks, let's talk about that for the time being because that's where my center of gravity is at the moment in painting. If I start creating these paintings that... don't really strike a chord with anybody, and I've taken all of these risks, then my artistic integrity is going to be affected. Now, when I talk about the thoughts that I'm having in my mind, I am not saying that I completely identify with all of them. These are just like bubbles from the subconscious coming to the conscious mind that I'm becoming aware of. And it's in those moments that they're brought to the light that I can see that they were affecting my process and when they brought to the light then i can work through them and dissolve them into knowledge into fuel for the creative process itself and so then approaching each new creative work when i sit down to paint or if i sit down to write or start composing then I had to change my attitude and my perception of what it was that I was doing it because quite easily the approach that we take towards a creative project will determine a lot of times how it unfolds and there was some subtle changes that were happening in that and I had realized that at the beginning When I was writing music or when I was painting, there was so much more of a carefree attitude because I felt like I didn't have anything to lose. And then when you establish yourself over some time, I was noticing that there was a grasping to maintain that integrity. And it's such a paradox because it's actually in embracing the chaos and taking risks that That is the vivifying element inside of the artworks that I create, inside of the creative things that I do. And yet I was trying to replicate that. And that's just not going to work. It's a foot on the accelerator and a foot on the brake at the same time. And so I realize now every time that I sit down to paint, for instance, is a completely fresh and brand new experience for me. In the Zen school of Japan or the Chan school of China, they have something called the beginner's mind, which is to approach each thing as though you are fresh. And I was realizing that I was getting stuck in a rut, I suppose. And that's where that stagnation and that plateauing was happening. And by approaching this... now with a beginner's mindset like I had nothing to lose and each artwork that I was creating was me sitting down in a type of self-examination self-inquiry session and as the artwork begins I'm literally being moved by pure creative impulse and trying to remove or it's not really about trying to remove but it's about being as passive with the mind as possible and removing the self from the equation of the artwork and just allowing that impulse to move through and it was tremendously liberating and surprisingly i discovered that the artwork came alive in this beautiful, unique and life-filled way. And there was nothing that I could do to bring that about through planning. And one of the challenges of this is that when I'm trying to create a body of work, for instance, with painting and visual art, when I'm trying to create a body of work, it's very hard to tie all of the pieces together when each thing is approached with this aspect of chaos and risk-taking. And that alone is a concept, what it means to have a body of work. And I've created all of these concepts over time about what a good collection of art should be. And all of these concepts that are learnt from past experience and have been taught to me from school and from other creative peers and mentors, etc., etc., bit by bit, I'm breaking them down and dissolving them one by one so that the creative output can be as pure and as authentic and unadulterated as possible. And it is truly liberating and I must confess that it is an emotionally laborious task for me to engage in because I take... the dynamic of stagnation in my creative work as an indicator that I am I suppose being lazy and not challenging myself and so by talking about risks we talk about challenging and we talk about limits and how all of these things combine themselves into the micro psychological dynamics of the creative process itself so I urge you if you are willing to reflect on your own creative process even whilst in the face of creating to see the elements of your process where you play it safe because i truly believe that even the impulse to take a risk is creativity in itself because it's brand new brand new in relation to what we've been doing before and by suppressing that by muting that it's removing one of the purest forms of creation and creating in the creative process itself and it kind of seems antithetical so I don't challenge you, but I invite you to reflect in your own work any of the areas where you feel like you play it safe. And then I also invite you to experiment and maybe even to set as a task or as a goal to do at least one or two creative projects that is just pure spontaneity, pure chaos projects. just to see what springs forth from you without any constraint or control. And I would be tremendously curious to hear your feedback and your reflections on that process if you choose to do that. And I will also pledge side by side that that is something that I will keep in the center of my practices day in and day out. So that's all I had to say for this month's Full Moon episode. In the name of risk-taking and challenging yourself, my name is Cameron and this is Creative Labyrinths.
