A Spark Is the Beginning, Not the Whole Fire

 

An essay by Sukia

I wish I could say the Spark process is easy for me, but I am always challenged by the process. As a visual artist passionate about the creative process my inspiration comes from my internal life. Only on a rare occasion do I plan a painting and even then it’s planning in the sense that I know the subject and not the direction. Rather, I like the painting to inform me along the way which keeps me present and the painting alive. I recognize what occurs in my internal world is intimately connected to what I see, feel, and do. However the bidirectional influencing flow between internal and external worlds is often unconscious.

Participating in a Spark round removes unconscious inspiration by providing an inspiration piece created by someone else. It’s from this piece I must harvest creative inspiration. A piece of poetry is always welcomed because it is easier to grab nuance and work my way through to a finished product. Contrastingly, prose with its clear boundaries forces me into a mulling struggle until I break through to my nuance or spark.

Thus a Spark round always finds me in turmoil as I struggle with the demons of my creative process. I believe the creative process reflects my life. The demon voices of “I’m not good enough” or “what if my partner doesn’t like what I create?” or “how can I be inspired by this?” are mirrored elsewhere in my life. I’ve grown and become gentler with myself over the years of participating in Spark.  I used to be very literal with the process; now I am better able to honor the intent of Spark and use another’s “spark” to start my creative fire.

I believe creating will always show me new ways of surrendering; perhaps this is what I like most about the project. Founder Amy Souza’s forum provides a safe place to work this edge. I am grateful to her and my creative partners for inspiring works that only their “spark” could have produced.

See Sukia’s SPARK work