The Creative Process..

Here's an excerpt from a book I've been reading as part of my dream research. It's called Writer's Dreaming and was compiled by Naomi Epel. Essentially it's an entire book of writers talking about how dreams have affected their writing or their creative process. There's one writer near the end of the book named Robert Stone that has a really interesting way of talking about the practice of making work. He's talking about writing, but it feels pretty bang-on for visual art as well. Definitely comforting, especially when one is in the midst of trying to make 'stuff' in solitude in one's apartment...Anyway, here it goes:

The practice of art, the practice of writing fiction is an act against solitude. It's ironic because one of the great difficulties of the writing life is its solitude. You do so much alone. You end up being much more autonomous than you want to be because, not only have you got to start yourself, but you end up having tremendously strong experience in solitude. Anyone who's ever written anything he cares about has found himself in a deeply emotional state and all alone. All by yourself. You get yourself worked up into states that are quite intense. I think this is necessary and it's not a bad thing. it's tough on the psyche to have to be enduring all that emotion with no one else to take it to, but there's something about the way the  emotional buildup progresses and resolves itself that makes me think there's a really primary need being served in this process. That this is a response that is necessary. And that I might be in real trouble if I wasn't able to do it. Because the drive to do it, if it's not satisfied, becomes eventually destructive, something that turns against itself.....

And later:

You've got to get into the process. The process is liberating. The process is good. You have to take it by the day. You just can't find yourself sitting there saying, What am I going to write next? Ultimately that is what you're saying but you just can't obsess over that. You take it day by day. And you have to not worry too much..

It's all about letting the story take over. It's surrendering to the process, letting yourself become involved in the process, that is necessary. You can't be outside your own story, as it were. You can't be just constructing it consciously, self-consciously, moment by moment. You've got to let your imagination go. And begin to hear voices, figuratively speaking. Get into it and do it. Beguile yourself. Entertain yourself. And keep yourself inside it.

Hm.

One More Cup of Coffee

I couldn't resist stopping at this sign on the way back from Vancouver yesterday. I accidently shot a pos/neg  polaroid so I already  have an negative which is kind of neat. The colour version will be processed shortly. I love this stretch of highway for some reason. It's Canada's answer to the desert and the desert is an ongoing muse of mine. I'm not sure if it's the connection to the broad skies of the prairies or the seemingly vast desolation of the landscape. Plants, signs, and buildings desperately holding on  to their place in the sandy dirt, anxious to stand upright, yet continually worn down with wind and time. This sign seems almost chipper amongst the straggley bushes. Only 400 metres and you can have a coffee. That seems like solace to me!

Photo Fun in Banff

If anyone is in the neighbourhood..I'm doing a Truck workshop in Banff tomorrow, August 9th right beside the Banff square (which is actually a circle) from 11am- 3pm, weather permitting. The workshop is part of an ongoing project hosted by Truck Gallery called the Camper Patch Project. Artists create a one day workshop that can be facilitated from inside the Truck Gallery's camper van. My workshop is about a historical photo process called The Cyanotype and at the completion of the workshop, participants get a nifty patch (similar to a Brownie patch) that show they have successful done the process. Plus you get to keep whatever you make. Fun all around. For more information regarding Truck Gallery or the Camper Patch Project, visit: www.truck.ca

Dream Conference and Lab

Here's some images I took while in Montreal last month for the International Association for the Study of Dreams conference. It was quite an interesting mix of people and I learned a lot about dream research. Particularly interesting to me were studies about dream narrative.  A little too much material to write into the blog.. Still processing the whole event which was quite intense! Enjoyed the little bit of Montreal I was able to see in between seminars. It was also very exciting to check out the Lab at the Sacred Heart hospital where I will be working with Tore and his crew in September.