Some of you may already know that once upon a time I was an author of fiction – domestic noir as it became known – with to date a total of four novels in the bag, and one more now sadly languishing in a drawer. Indeed it was writing that eventually led me to sculpture and I may yet return to finish number five, but that’s another story for another time.
I guess it was inevitable that this previous life would eventually leak into my present as the urge to consolidate my thoughts by transferring them to the page would become overwhelming. As I’ve reiterated to many a friend in crisis in my feeble attempt to help, the best way I’ve found to make sense of the garbled nonsense that occupies my brain is to write it all down in an attempt to bring order to creative chaos. The process forces the mind to slow down, creating a space between thought and action in which you can clarify ideas, prioritise them, get to the crux of the matter, sort the wheat from the chaff as it were.
The process of creating something tangible out of virtually nothing is what links many of the creative arts. Whether it’s a book or script that starts with a blank page, a featureless canvas to be daubed with paint, or a sculpture made from little more than a lump of clay, what connects them all is the power of human imagination. It can be hard to access at times but, for me, this is where the joy is ultimately found. Translating those murky, unformed ideas into something that might speak to others in a silent language can be frustrating and challenging at times but is also thoroughly absorbing, removing you from the here and now so you become engrossed in your own private world for as long or as short a time as you desire. What happens after that is the real test, but we will get to that in my next instalment. For now, I’m keeping this brief whilst I work out what it is you as an audience might want to hear and what it is I’m really trying to say. If you have any questions you’d like ask in the meantime or a subject you’d like me to address, please do leave a comment.