I. Discovery & Encounter
What one needs to do / one's deepest responses or heartfelt questions
The search for what is one's own / what one really cares about
Art grows out of inner necessity
Overcoming of fear, doubt, and insecurity
Receptive discovery of subject / theme / concept
Provides a working question; a working framework
Provides a means to work and make discoveries
It gets one "out the door"
Necessity of engagement / encounter with process
Invites full and enveloping quality of concentration
II. Passion & Commitment
Passion encourages growing commitment to process
Necessity to fully engage / the intensity of the encounter
Energizing reciprocal process / joy of creation
Neurological changes / heightened awareness
Entering the flow
Expression of purpose and sustained intent
Risk taking / innovation / creative discoveries
Rapid and smooth progress / gifts are many
A deepening relationship with the work is experienced
Committed interaction
III. Crisis & Creative frustration
Initial stages of process complete. Process hits the wall
Reached the limits of one's own skills and conscious initiative
Review of works reveals limitations and frustrations
One's will and intent is exhausted, challenged
Tendency to give up
Many stop at this stage
Need for new discoveries / fresh energy / new direction
Need for inspiration / intuition / something beyond one's own skills
One's understanding and the work itself is incomplete / something missing
IV. Retreat & Withdrawal
Voluntary withdrawal of forces / stepping back
Impartial review of ongoing works and efforts: effort to see "what is"
Open to incompleteness and questions
Embrace frustration; take time away
Necessity for inner quiet and search for inspiration
Aware of one's own limitations
Search for new energy / new understanding
Put question in back of mind / allow to percolate
Allow unconscious to operate / search for insights
Put will and intention / conscious purpose on hold
- V. Epiphany & Insight
- Open to unconscious / to deeper layers of response beyond conscious mind
Partnership between conscious purpose and insights from within
Potential for inspiration can be encouraged, cannot be forced / comes from depth consciousness
Breakthrough of understanding / new insights / fresh response
Insights often shift direction / gives new understandings / need to be open and flexible
- Heightened consciousness and awareness
Process has its own integrity / work gains its own momentum
Artists become the vehicle for the work / insights pass through
Alternating work and relaxation
Freedom comes through disciplined work to this point
New direction brings energy to continue and deepening insights
VI. Discipline & Completion
Merging of conscious action with new awareness
New awareness put into form and structure
See what is needed with work as a whole / receive feedback from others
Completion phase / disciplined work with craft / techniques
Craft at service of new vision
Necessity for follow-through
Attention and concentration given to works
Following the process to natural conclusion
Finish work according to new understandings and insights
Conscious efforts to express / embody new understandings / to give them shape
VII. Release & Responsibility
One's work and understandings are not for oneself alone
Artists are only the vehicle for work / understandings to be born
Creative children must be released into world
Let go of work / put it out there
Preparation for new cycle of work
Release the work / give of one's understandings and insights/ let the energy go forth
Indigestion without this stage
Communication phase / taking one's place within the world / one's contribution
Dialogue and response generated
Help / inspire / nourish others and move on to new endeavors