Connecting

This was my contribution to Convergence on Tuesday.  As I walked around speaking with the students, the ideas of puzzles, shapes, and nature kept coming up so I decided to work on a piece that resembled a puzzle.  Using 9-4x4 inch gallery canvas I began by adding a variety of colours and shapes (circles, triangles, rectangles, lines) and then decided to incorporate a crow as they were circling around outside the windows of the lab where we worked.  It still didn't feel complete to me, but this morning when I awoke at 6am I knew exactly what I needed to add...more patterns.  Using white brightened up the background which I initially found to be a little less of a contrast than I had originally wanted (the challenge of working fast, wet on wet) but adding white at this stage was the perfect solution.  Plus, as I worked with the students I kept thinking back to the Volunteer Appreciation week at the library and how the symbol of ripples in water reflects the impact each person makes in the world around them and so I decided that adding these patterns was the final logical/creative step.  As I work, I often find I do it so  intuitively that I don't consciously think about my choices and selections and how they work together as a whole while I'm working but rather respond to the environment around me.  And yet, in the end, it all connects, like a fascinating puzzle.  This, I think, is the key to creativity...to allow experimentation and flow.  I really need to apply this removal of over-thinking things to my entire life.