Embracing creative uncertainty
I’ve recently finished a series of paintings and have also completed a few creative projects I’ve been working on. Everything has come to a culmination. There’s always a strange, spacious stretch after that. The work is complete, the decisions are made and the energy that carried it all to completion has dissipated. And I’m left in the liminal space between projects…
Finished painting and sketchbook page
Finished painting and sketchbook page
I used to find this ‘uncertain and undecided’ gap in my creative flow deeply uncomfortable. I like clarity. I relish a clear direction of travel, something to pursue with the same focus and vigour as the work I’ve just completed.
But over the years, I’ve learned that this in-between phase isn’t actually a gap in my creativity at all. It’s simply the beginning of the next creative cycle. This is the fertile void.
It’s the phase where I gather and seek, where I spend more time in my sketchbook. I try small experiments without expecting them to become anything significant, I let ideas percolate rather than forcing them into shape.
In my creative practice, I move between what’s often called divergent and convergent thinking and making.
Divergent thinking is expansive. It’s idea generation. It’s broad, its mixing, experimenting, widening the scope. It’s allowing disparate threads to unfurl without rushing to connect them.
Convergent thinking is focused. It’s narrowing in, choosing, it’s pursuing an idea and developing it into a body of work.
Right now, I’m in divergence. And I’m learning not to rush this phase. It’s at this stage that I build visual ideas, where I test without consequence, where I make small decisions that don’t feel important until they are. The ideas for my next painting series or creative project won’t arrive fully formed. They will grow out of this time of creative exploration, this time where I’ve given myself permission to ponder.
So the advice I am giving myself at the moment and which perhaps may be useful for you too is to ensure the gap is fertile and nourishing, rather than just empty. Seek out the things that fill your creative well. Don’t abandon your creative self, feed her what she needs. Keep noticing. Let your next thing grow at its own pace.