I have been living in Naples Florida these past 3 months. Often I would wonder why I did not feel my usual passion to be in my studio painting. Instead, my “Creative Spirit” preferred to walk quietly alongside the ocean, or sit mindlessly watching and listening to the gentle lapping of the water. I relished spending time floating in the turquoise water of the Gulf of Mexico, or staring in awe and wonder at the ever-changing after glow colours of the sunset, marvelling at the brilliant magenta Bougainvillea and effortless soaring of the resident ospreys and seagulls.

Today as I was packing up my studio space and looked at the uncluttered table top, the answer to my wondering came to me in a flash of insight.

I realized that there are stages and requirements for the creative process.

One of these is being able to clear the clutter from ones physical space and one’s psychic space, so that ideas have room to incubate and percolate.

This is so important and often in the busyness of life one does not take the time to do this.

So what I was doing while walking on the beach, wasn’t avoidance, or procrastination. It was an important time of preparation, and incubation and decluttering

Once I get back to my studio in Toronto I’m hoping the next stages of creativity will bless me with “illumination, and then implementation”. I’ll keep you posted.