A rollercoaster of a process

Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts and keep all hands and feet inside of the vehicle at all times. Please be aware that during this ride you will experience flips, turns, epiphany moments, self-doubt, discovery and high speeds. Should you feel anguish at any time during the ride, remember that it's just your imagination. Now sit back and enjoy the ride.

If my artistic process had a disclaimer, that's what it would be. As an artist, the ideas are usually the beginning of my process. I'm constantly asking "what if?" My mind bounces back and forth between ideas, and often times the ideas aren't even connected or if they are, they cover a broad span. I visualize my ideas as flying around above me; there are tons of them jetting around my imagination sometimes bumping into one another and creating new ideas. It's my job to reach up and grab one, to pin it down so I can move forward with it.

Once this is done, or at least I've pinned down a few, I tend to stock up on new imagery for my "inspiration board." This is usually done through an extensive Google image search. At this point, I'm grabbing visual inspiration: figures, stories, concepts, colors, forms, compositions, etc. This is a crucial process for me. It allows me to visualize my ideas and synthesize preexisting images of my ideas so that I can appropriate or create something new.

After the research aspect of my process, it's time to create. Depending on my concept and my media, I usually have to play with the materials. This is especially true when I'm working with collage. Often I spread everything out in my work space, which is usually my coffee table, and just look. In the array of magazine ads, scrapbooking paper, typography stencils, ransom note-style letters and embellishments, my idea comes to life. I layer one composition, add to it, take away from it, decide I don't like the whole thing and start completely over. It is a bumpy ride of twists and turns. Just as amusement park goers are at the mercy of the rollercoaster's crazy ride, I am at the mercy of my artistic process. I don't fight it. I hang on tight and enjoy the ride.