The Creative Process: Building Layers
One of our family’s favorite musicians released new music last week. The new track is pretty awesome, and we’ve been listening to it almost on repeat. It’s been a few days and we have become pretty familiar with the melody and lyrics so we’re starting to enjoy the finer sounds. With each listen I’ve found myself thinking about how music is a great example of the creative process.
In music, you can start with a simple melody, a beat, or a lyric. With painting you begin with the first marks on your substrate. Cooking starts with single ingredients. No matter what your creative discipline is, anything you create starts from a single fragment. From that foundation, new ideas and inspiration emerge and each layer builds upon the ones before it. Some parts work while some don’t, so you move back and forth between the different elements to make changes, remove things you don’t like, and keep adjusting until you have a finished piece. Each piece may not be immediately identifiable, but they all play a part in the greater story being told.
Whether you are a musician, an artist, a writer, or choreographer, there is no one right way to combine these fragments. Even with the same starting point, each person will come up with a different results. We are all influenced by our own experiences and preferences and no two people will produce quite the same thing.
And as an observer, as you spend time with that piece, your senses become accustomed to the more noticeable elements. You begin to explore the deeper parts of it and become aware of the nuances that truly add dimension and character. Here is where you really get a glimpse into the heart of the piece, where you get to know the creator. You get to see what gives them their authentic voice – their instruments of choice, the kind of marks an artist gravitates to, the words they use, the flavors they combine.
It is this combination of elements that makes each creation special. With these thoughts in my head over the last several days, I have gained a new appreciation for my own creative process. The beauty is that it’s up to me to discover the finer things that make my soul and my art sing. Nobody else can tell my story.
I want to know: What is your favorite part of the creative process? What do you find yourself coming back to again and again?
