Flying Girl is Backwards, or Struggle and Process

Flying Girl Pendant, in progress.

Here's another paperclay experiment.

I don't know how I feel about it. I used the handmade stamp I carved to make the impression in the clay. But I forgot about the reversal. So she's flying backwards. Oh well. It was practice.

I have been seeing so many porcelain, sculpee, paperclay and paper mache things out there that make me swoon, but when it comes to making my own... I am left wondering what to do. Rather aimless and confused.

OH!

I forgot.

This is the creative process.

The beginning steps of any creative endeavor are almost always bumpy and confused. Well... maybe you are swept away in inspiration and flow and have no bumps at all. That is one way to go, but sooner or later, that inspiration ends and you get back to the bumpy.

But that's what I'm saying. Bumpy is the creative process. It's part of discovering new things and pushing your boundaries.

If I want to discover a sculpture form of my own that makes me swoon the way I swoon when I see other people's art, then I have to do the work.

The hard work. The not fun work. The struggle that goes on behind the scene to make the beautiful end point.

We all need this struggle, whether we are a beginning artist, a lifelong hobbyist or Kiki Smith.

And as in art, so in life.

Those dreams? They take quite a bit of bumpy road to reach. Quite a bit of hard work.

That, for me, is a comfort. If I have to struggle, it helps to know that there is a purpose to it. That I am not the only one. That so many things are hard, before you come to know them and get comfortable with them. It helps to know that this is the process. And all is right with the world.

Even if it's really hard sometimes.