The Power of Deconstruction: Giving the Muses Time to Think

I've been desconstructing my art these past few weeks. I didn't realize I was doing this at first. I was just deep in my thoughts. This is slowly becoming an accepted part of my creative process. My muses and I have agreed to disagree on it. I would rather we just create happily all the time. They need periods of introspection. They seem to be rather cyclical. Of course, I am fully aware that my muses and I are not separate entities. It's just a nice way of saying different parts of my psyche. Anyway, there are periods where I am churning out more art than I ever dreamed possible. And then, just as suddenly, there are the periods of thought.

They are no less important, these periods. In fact, I would say they are the most important part of the creative process. But, it's taken me some time to recognize that the thinking is just as important as the doing and not just something to place in the category of one more example of my procrastination. No, there actually does have to be some directed thought processes, some contemplation of the actual art projects, and sometimes even some serious deconstruction of things.

Organic Deconstruction #1 by Amanda Corlies SandosSo, what got me thinking about all this process of the process junk you ask? Well, a very overt act of deconstruction happened and I found myself mulling over what I was doing and what it all meant. I was in my studio, feeling very frustrated, once again, over the lack of doing, creating, producing. I get into these, "I'm not being productive," modes where I feel bad about my lack of productivity. And this makes me want to create something even less, and, well, you get the idea. It's a vicious circle. So, in this frustrated state, I pulled out some of my abstract paintings, the ones that I had stopped creating in various stages because they just weren't working. Two of them, in particular, were pissing me off. I guess browns were just the thing to push my buttons. Who knows. So, I took scissors to them. But, as I was cutting these funky shapes, I found myself rebuilding the two paintings that didn't work, putting them back together, and coming up with a collage that rocks. The photos really don't do it justice.

Organic Deconstruction #2 by Amanda Corlies SandosSuddenly, I was productive again. Suddenly, I had something worth looking at from the ruins of two paintings that were making me want to rip my hair out because I couldn't figure out how to fix them. So, high on the success of the first, I took four more failed paintings and turned them into a second, larger collage. I'm calling them Organic Deconstruction #1 and #2. I'm sure there will be more where these came from.

Anyway, I started thinking about this kind of deconstruction process in my writing, as well. And I realized I do this all the time. A story gets to a certain point, and I begin to tear it down. Sometimes only a little, and other times I shred it. But, always, I put it back together into something much stronger than I started out with. And this takes periods of thought. So, now to the part where I allow my muses their time to think without nagging at them to get busy and be more productive. When I have that nailed, I'll get back to you.