M Y M E T H O D O L O G Y
The
Creative
Lifecycle
A journey of transformation
Would you set out
on a journey
without a map?
Or at least coordinates?
Or your destination plugged into Waze or Google maps?
Of course not.
So why would you embark upon creating something new without understanding the journey ahead of you?
After 17 years of studying my own creative process, I have developed a roadmap to chart the path and help me navigate the process of making a painting.
Knowing how the process is going to unfold helps me overcome the challenges I may face along the way.
Why bother to understand The Creative Lifecycle?
First, you’ll know where you are in the Lifecycle and where you need to go next. This is important so you don’t skip or backtrack, or lose yourself — or even exit (give up) too early.
Second, it will help you make stronger art because you’ll know what’s coming and what (inner) resources you’ll need to get there.
Third, recognising the stages gives you waypoints as you progress —helpful markers on your way to help you see how far you’ve come and got yet to go.
Fourth, understanding the many levels this works on - macro to micro - gives you a framework for understanding why the CREATIVE endeavour is so important. You are co-creating with the Divine after all. And in journeying, you yourself undergo a transformation. YOU are the hero walking the Creative Journey.
Lastly, it’s only through actually taking the journey that you can collect the treasure. (However, this is not Monopoly and there is no way to ‘Pass Go And Collect £200’ without doing the work!)
A Journey of Transformation
Each time I travel The Creative Lifecycle, I am transformed.
As I walk this path, it’s as if I re-enter The Creative Lifecycle at a higher point, following a spiral that opens and expands further each time…
You discover who you truly are and what you’re capable of. It’s no less than a path to ascension.
It’s only in walking this path, one step at a time, and through encountering all the tests, trials and breakdowns that you get to know who you truly are - and that the gift — the GOLD - was inside you all along.
I’ve come to see painting as a spiritual journey
We are spiritual beings co-creating with the Divine. We do it all the time - we manifest what we focus on - even unconsciously, hence the saying, ‘Be careful what you wish for’!
When we understand The Creative Lifecycle, and walk the creative path with consciousness, magic starts to unfold.
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls”
In his book, The Hero with A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell presents a theory that the great myths and legends of ancient Greece and other civilisations all share a fundamental structure.
The Hero’s Journey involves sequential steps that begin with the hero leaving the ordinary world to follow a call to adventure. Initially, the hero refuses this call, but upon meeting a mentor, he crosses a threshold into the special or magical world.
This maps of course to the Grecian myths of Jason and Ulysses, but still has great relevance today. The Hero’s Journey is used to underpin the storylines of many modern day movies, from Harry Potter and Neo in The Matrix.
Tests, enemies and allies appear and the hero is led towards certain death; often to retrieve some sort of treasure in a cave full of dragons or demons, which can be literal or spiritual in nature. The conquering of the dragon leads to finding the reward (think Jason and the Golden Fleece) or seizing the sword from the stone; and the hero sets out on the road back—often with the help of the gift of the Goddess and the miracle of resurrection.
The hero is successful only when he brings back and shares his new-found treasure for the benefit of those at home, returning, transformed, to the ordinary world with the knowing that what he was looking for was inside him all along.
So how does this relate to the Creative Lifecycle?
I have observed, over many years of making abstract paintings, that even though each painting turns out differently, every single one goes through the same creative process.
It’s a journey that asks me to dig deep into my intuition, to trust myself, to release control and tolerate chaos before I can break through to find a new level in the work — and create something truly new and exciting.
And so traveling The Creative Lifecycle as akin to taking an inner journey of transformation —one that echoes the Hero’s Journey.
