An Insightful (and Fun) Way to Evaluate Your Creative Process
Have you ever thought about how your time in the kitchen relates to your professional work, to your creative process?
THINK ABOUT IT FOR A SECOND…
Do you:
Follow recipes?
Cross reference recipes for inspiration?
Ditch recipes all together?
Delegate the cooking to someone else entirely?
All or some of the above?
Take a few moments to consider this. Are there any correlations that you can draw?
For me, I am ‘all or some of the above.”
In the kitchen:
Sometimes, I want a recipe to follow so that I can be guided. So that I can learn something new and not have to use my creative energy coming up with what would be tasty with the ingredients I have.
Sometimes, I look in the refrigerator and pantry, scan the contents and have ideas for dinner. I dive right in, welcoming the unknown and letting the process unfold as I go along.
Sometimes, I am somewhere in-between. I scan my contents, know what is most intriguing to me, but look to a cookbook for some inspiration (often not fully following any given recipe.)
The same creative process goes for when I am in the jewelry studio.
Sometimes, the most productive way for me to spend my time is to produce pieces from my collections. These are pieces where the road map or ‘recipe’ has already been created. My job is to go through the motions, use all of my fabrication skills and execute. Here’s an example of this kind of piece:
Sometimes, I start with materials that are drawing my attention. I then move them around, ‘three dimensionally sketching,’ taking snapshots as I go. I have no idea what the outcome will be, just know that the materials are inspiring and I can manipulate them, add to or subtract from them until I land on a finished piece that sings. (Accepting the fact that there inevitably will be flops along the way.) An example below:
Sometimes, that in-between state is where my creative state is. I find a material that sparks my curiosity, then reference a piece that I already made, using it as a guide for another iteration. Here is an example of a piece like the following:
What kind of chef are you and how does it relate to your creative process in all the things that you do? Leave a comment below.