In the last post I showed the “Table of Creation” below which reflects prompts from my 47+ years of experience practicing the arts. I have found that the concepts it represents can be applied to almost any field of creation. You can review what I said about it by clicking HERE.
In this series I will delve into each stage and, at the end of each post, suggest prompts and questions which the Table raises. An art journal/adult coloring book of this whole blog series including a set of handy cards, each displaying one prompt, will soon be available to download. To be the first to hear about the release, add your name and e-mail to the form labeled “Get Announcements about Your Table of Creation” at right.
Discover the Fourth Level
As I said in the last post, I found those three stages of creation in other contexts besides my own art making, such as Jesus’ saying in Luke 11:9. That fourth level, “Ask, Seek, Knock,” in the Table helps me collaborate with the unknown, reach beyond boundaries, and overcome opposition. In another place Jesus also says “Everything is possible to the one who believes.” (Mark 9:23) To get past what may seem trite in this old saying, apply the three actions to your creating process.
1. Ask – the inspiration
The imagination time before anyone else knows about the idea forming within me, is a time of asking: What is the need? What will it take? How is this going to look? What is the combination? Sweet inspiration, I ask you to please come to me!
2. Seek – the execution
My asking begins to overflow into the material world when I begin seeking for words, actors, paint, dancers, paper and pencil. Then I put things together in various combinations on the “drawing board” and gradually into production, the actual, physical making of the product. Often the seeking takes a long time, but, behind it all is the prospect that I am producing something to be experienced by others. So, the engagement to come after my seeking even affects how I produce.
3. Knock – the exhibition
Finally when the original idea has become a material form, accessible as a vehicle to interact with people, it is time to knock on the door, to engage with my audience. The engagement is what the once intangible idea ignited to finally affect the world.
Your Possible and Impossible
Laying it out like that, the progression almost seems tame. But what you witness by creating could be called “miraculous.” A human being asked for something that did not exist, then sought out ways, means and materials to combine into that thing, then took it to other human beings who engaged with it for hitherto unknown results. Think about what is called “impossible” and “possible.”
What we create could be like a seed for someone else’s inspirational stage and that could make a viral chain of creation with exponential affect on reality to come. How well, or thoroughly we live out those three stages will determine the authenticity, or richness of our creations and their effectiveness in the world.
Please join me in this series digging into these three aspects of creating. In whatever you have to make, if you will take the time to think about the process and use the prompts from the Table, progress yet unknown will happen.
Our first deeper look will dig into the often neglected stage — Inspiration.
Questions for your consideration before we continue:
- In what other contexts can you see the three stages of creation?
- Had you considered asking for the impossible as a starting point?
- Are you seeking and not finding?
- Is knocking something you avoid, or has it been your starting point rather than the outcome of the process?
Be one of the community building around this series. I invite you to get your copy of the art journal/adult coloring book version which I have created for this series. To get your copy click on the “Buy Now” button at right. Then go to our Facebook group page HERE, ask to join and share your experience of the book.
Click HERE to read the next post in the series.
