It is not only making something pretty in my creative work. It is a little pool in the world where I have the freedom to think, make some mistakes, and redo and redo until I have something that seems to be me. To be quite frank, I do not adhere to any rules in this case, though; there are these times when I wake up at 2 AM and a brilliant idea comes to my mind, and then there are moments when I sit in front of the screen and think, "Why is nothing so beautiful?" But that is the fun of it, is it not?
There are occasions that I create something because I feel like it. It is other times that I am inspired by any given moment that I find interesting, e.g., a color that I see in the sky or a sentence someone throws away carelessly. And then there are days when I just literally have to challenge myself to be creative, even when I am not even feeling creative.
It is my little notebook, comprising all the things I have tried, all my designs and ideas, my drafts, things that have worked, things that have not, and things that have made me say, "Ok, this actually looks nice." It’s not perfect, but it’s real. And I think that matters more.
Working, I am gradually getting to know that creativity is not a talent but a kind of patience, curiosity, and allowing yourself permission to fail a bit. All ideas have teachings. Each experiment is a slight addition of a skill. And all completed works, including the coarse ones, leave me yearning to make the next one.
This is my journey. My experiments. My imaginative work is increasing by inches.