Creativity doesn't look like I wish it did

When it comes to making art, making no art is the utmost efficiency.

It will save so much time.

And allow me to finish quickly and move on to my next idea.

So I give myself chores.

Chief among them is putting everything away, so I can practice getting everything out as a way of beginning. When a creative spark hits my tinder, the chores of unpacking the paints and brushes or untangling patch cables from their drawer gives me space to build up to the moment of my first mark of my mark making.

I give myself an easy problem to solve. Easy because I know how to solve it. Easy because everything is at hand.

Except when it isn't, of course. So there's an inefficiency worth a little effort. Worth it because it is one I experienced, not one I imagined, and little effort because the thing was nearly enough at hand that I treated it as if it was.

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Creative process looks like a commercial recording studio.

Assistant engineers running back and forth to the microphone locker, running cables, lowering boom stands, and taking lunch orders day in and day out.

Plans come and go. Momentum turns to inertia.

So the microphones go back to the locker. Booms get put away. Leftovers go into the fridge.

Tomorrow we do it again.