Driving Creativity

You may believe that to create a new piece I would think to myself something like the following:

      “How could I create a unique flower inspired piece?”

      

“I think a sun shape would be nice to make out of this yellow paper.”

     

“Today I feel like making a cool looking star.”

NO! None of that ever happens. Unlike a painter who typically has a general idea of what they want to paint I do not have a finished piece in mind. So how does my process work? 

Rejected and/or Potential Ideas

Recently I was analyzing my creative process and realized that no matter what I work on I always start with the same fundamental idea. This idea is the very reason I want to create. It is why I want to create. It has nothing to do with what you may think. I am not trying to make a pretty flower or represent a particular thing in a new way. I am motivated by the challenge of using paper in a way that no one has thought of before.  I see that as my purpose. Often, there is a moment during my artistic process when I will say to myself, “I bet no one in the world is doing this right now.” That is a satisfying thought to me especially if I feel confident of completing what I am working on. I am not interested in following an origami diagram or recreating someone else’s idea. I want whatever I do to stem from my own creativity. These ideas come from explorations of paper that often do not result in a finished piece. In fact, I have bags full of these potential ideas to prove it. Of course, by the end of the process I hope to make something beautiful but that is not the only driving force as one may suspect.