My Creative Process

Hi there! Thank you for visiting this page. I'm excited you're here because I love to talk about the creative process. You're welcome to read further or simply click on one of the pictures below to see my creative process unfold. 

While I was in graduate school at LSU I took a class in the Anthropology department on ritual theory. I noticed there was an overlap between what happens during a ritual and what happens during my creative process. Put simply, rituals consist of three parts, structure, anti-structure and restructure. The initiate enters into the ritual the context, undergoes some kind of transformation, then exits the ritual space a different person to such a degree that they cannot undo what has occurred. In my experience, making a painting shares this three-part structure. I begin a painting with some initial ideas, I inevitably have to let go of those ideas and get lost in the process of making, then something entirely new and unexpected comes into form. What's so amazing and crucial to understand is that during that middle, "anti-structure" stage, what Victor Turner calls the liminal stage, the initiate or artist experiences a dissolution of the self, a kind of "returning to the source" experience. This experience becomes woven into the DNA of the person and the artwork, and is then visible in the artwork. I just love that! 

If you'd like to read my master's thesis which explains my process in great detail please click on this link and download the document.