The idea for the exhibit, The Year of the Super Kitchen, came to me one day in my own kitchen. While I was changing the papers on the bottom of my parrot's cage, I came across a newspaper article from the Home and Garden section entitled, Super Kitchens. It was so captivating, this idea of a Super Kitchen, that I literally became transfixed. Super Kitchens! What is a Super Kitchen? Immediately, I knew that Super Kitchen for me, metaphorically represents the place in the subconscious where creativity happens. A space of spontaneous ideas and synchronicity. The beginning of an exhibit was in the works. It would be all about articulating and making visual the most fleeting and illusive parts of the creative process. What happens in an instant of insight can color the direction of an artist's work for months, years or even a lifetime.
Feeding the Soul (2016)
Beyond the birdcage on a patio is a table with remnants of a lunch just eaten. Sitting on the chairs are the purses belonging to myself and my close artistic friends, Debbie Wagner and Peggy Medina. The three of us were in the throes of planning a group exhibit for the fall of 2017. As I was talking about the newspaper article I recently discovered, we unanimously agreed, the name of our exhibit would be called The Year of the Super Kitchen. We would each produce 12 works while continuing to meet for lunch once a month and sharing our ideas.
It was not until the final month that I became aware of how the work within our exhibit had evolved. I could see how each of us highlighted a different aspect of the creative process. For Debbie, both a painter and a fiber artist, it is about an openness to possibility and finding inspiration in the seemingly mundane. She worked quickly and spontaneously. Peggy, a ceramics artist, decided to experiment with assemblages that incorporated her ceramic pieces. Her work was about a willingness to explore and to think intuitively. After a period of gathering materials and incubation, her 12 works came together quickly. For me, when building my sculptures and miniature constructions, the creative process is about a kind of documentation and reflection on my own life through the use of metaphors. It begins in the mind before starting the actual work. In this exhibit, I tried to illustrate how transformation happens within the context of the creative process.
The insights that propel creativity, no matter when or how they come about, tend to feel like gifts. So, in a way, the creative process is also a spiritual journey where grace is found in fleeting moments.