Flow

Julie Holmes

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about creativity and how it arises.  I said that for me, my best work isn't created by me so much as "through" me.  I trust the wire to know where to bend, I trust the scissors to know where to cut, I trust the enamels to go where they need to go, and I get to watch in amazement as something beautiful emerges into the world through my hands.  He said that he had long believed that great work is created when the ego is let go....when we get "out of our own way".

"Exactly" I said.  So then, he asked me; if I was teaching others...how would I teach that concept to them?

It's a tough question.  The best I could do was this:

"I would tell them to follow the path of least resistance, whatever that meant for them"

I tried at first to emulate my cloisonné "idols" by using a prepared design and carefully bending my wires to match it.  I've felt guilty that I've never made a test sample...not one....  It's just not me.  I'm impatient, spontaneous, impulsive.  Drawing a design, for me, is getting in my own way.  What aspect of your art do you resist, postpone, hurry through?  I suggest you try just letting it go.