Creative Process Meditations
Body-Based Explorations into the Creative Process
As a visual artist, educator, researcher and movement practitioner with a specialism in the environmental sciences, I felt that something was missing from much of my traditional photography and mixed media art work. I was frustrated with my creative process, and struggling to find a way to air these frustrations, I started to scribble a creative conversation with myself on top of one of my archive images. Not only did I find this very cathartic, but I also liked what I had created. Each of these pieces includes a visual image I produced, superimposed with writing that reflects my 'internal self-talk' on an issue. The series has since expanded to 'meditate' on broader topics associated with ethics and social and environmental issues in art: the Creative Process Meditations were born.
Of course, something was still missing: the body. I have been a movement practitioner throughout my life, and integrating the body into areas of art, education and research is increasingly acknowledged as an important aspect to fully embody concepts, theories and developing practice. Creative and embodied approaches in art, education and research also challenge the traditional knowledge hierarchies in these areas, offering an alternative 'way of knowing' to the Westernised default of 'mind-over-body'. Seeking a way to incorporate the body into my own visual work, and drawing inspiration from various practitioners that also span the art-education-research continuum, I developed body-based practices to accompany the 'Meditations'.
