The Experience of Artmaking

This book came from a belief that an inquiry into the creative process would provide me a different perspective from aesthetics, which was familiar to me as an artist. The idea of creativity is shrouded in mystery. I have often wondered whether my brain functions in the same way when I am painting as when I am solving a mathematical problem. The purpose of this book is to look into the nature of creativity to better understand what it is to be an artist. I know that all of my senses are implicated in my art making process. Paintings come from deep inside and materialise before me on the surface of a canvas. Experience and time are visible in the brush marks. My creative process is phenomenological when I consider the things that I perceive while focusing on my senses. I can decide whether or not I am open to awareness of my organism and as I focus on my physical state, metaphors emerge. The bridge that I cross from inside to the outside of my body when making art is not the same as the bridge I cross when I speak and write. I wrote this book for artists, teachers and all who might be interested in a discussion of art making as qualitative research.