Process Notes

Dear Reader,

(party of 1?)

I, as executor, publisher, and creative disc jockey of this blog have elected to use this as a virtual documentation of my artistic creative process, in the hopes that when it comes time to unleash my manifesto on the world, I will have plenty of text and evidence to draw from my blogged toils, trials, tribulations, and triumphs.

Interested, you are? On the edge of your seat? Is it because you have to pee? Well then go!

Okay, now you're back. So it's time to start the revelations.

Step 1: Despite a life of living out my perfectionist tendencies, my yard has taught me that I make zillions of mistakes all the time. My healthy art process in fact revolves around this very fact that I have made beauty and capitalized on the genius of my mistakes throughout my entire existence. Every slip of a finger leads to something wonderful...every clunker note and voice crack expands into new growth and territory. How have I been so stubborn in accepting myself all these long years? Alas, the time vanishes in the "Aha!" of the transcendental moment.

Step 2: I work well with others, so long as I am allowed plenty of time to myself. However, my struggle with co-dependence in friendships and relationships must be wrestled with and settled if I am to avoid the see-saw of emotions and social acceptance that are also a struggle. I cannot make art for others without first being true to myself. The art comes from that place of somatic self which I then share with others. In the truthful representation and sharing of my experience, I unearth commonalities of that process in others. The personal details are not the focus, but rather the process. Hence, the need to clear up the workings of my own process.

Step 3: I do not need the validation and love of my fellow artists -- particularly those of the opposite sex -- in order to feel personal achievement and a sense of meaningful purpose in an artistic existence. In fact, this leads to pleasing others before being true to self. Back to Step 2!

Step 4: I do not have to do anything. I choose to do things. Money may be a motivator, but it is no longer my personal artistic scapegoat for making poor and/or fearful decisions.

Step 5: I must must MUST leave Charleston or wherever "home" is for personal, artistic, and world perspective. Cultural identity cannot be escaped so much as expanded. Stamp that passport sister!

Step 6: I am my greatest enemy. If I do not treat myself with great love, understanding and compassion, I will not mirror those traits to the world.

Step 7: How I live is my art. We are all artists. I can learn as much from my garbage man as the next Van Gogh or John Cage. (see Plato and Heraclitus if you don't believe me)

Step 8: I like transcendentalism, metaphor, and existentialism. You don't have to like them too.

Step 9: Having fun is essential to making art.

Step 10: Sleep. Get enough.

Step 11: Because nobody stops at 11 -- so why not!? And that's the last step. Nobody, Nothing stops. Even silence is a continuation. Mountain pose is the opposite of stillness. Do not be deceived: all pauses, all waiting, all stillness, all silence -- it is active and motive.

Over and ...Over,

MB Disco