Studio Notes: Creativity

Tamlin Blake - Rivers Turn Red (Detail - in process)

I have been thinking of the next phase of my project and after the initial overwhelming "what now?" I have been designing, playing, planing and feeling that creative flutter. I read a quote recently that goes "After the first brush stroke, the canvas assumes a life of its own; at this point you become both governor and spectator to your own event" (Quote from Robert & Sara Genn Twice-Weekly Letter). 

The tapestries themselves are a bit like that. The decisions of what thread and what stitch to use is an ongoing process though it is more like watching, or directing, a dance in slow motion. If you take a coffee break you really aren't going to miss much. 

Working on the tapestries has a few distinct phases however. The slow hour after hour dance might be the most time consuming and backbreaking, but before that there is the speedier and more spontaneous process of conceptualising each individual work.

This is a fun, exciting, even at times distressing phenomenon and I find myself in this interesting place of watching what develops, watching what I get up to. After weeks of obsessive weaving I can now wander off into another space, float away and loose track of conversations. I observe a process that seems only partly my own and which is entirely entertaining. What a thrill and what a privilege. 

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