process of creating art. Most of the poetry was written while creating art in bursts of inspiration. One participant, Hannah, directly wrote her poetry on the back of the canvas as she was painting. She would further develop the poetry in her sketchbook, that she carried everywhere. From interview series #2, Hannah shared,
Well, I think for me I just know I want to do a portrait and then I start doing research or reading or just sketching out ideas. Then I work with the face, the background, then back to the face. The proportions are much better on this one. But you know I would never go back and change this painting when it is done. The Enlightened One is what I call or titled this painting. It has a certain African influence but it really comes from my poetry. I write poetry on the back of my paintings because they are declarations of my realization or maybe it is the oil paint smell in my studio at home (laughter). My poems are really just a continuous stream of thought. I keep a sketchbook
with me at all times and it is filled with poetry and sketches. I write a lot of poetry like about 10 a month. It is inspirational, it fuels my artistic work.
Phenomena provided a differentiated path toward intentionality, and
although creativity became a shared experience in this study, participants remembered events as opposed to actively living with the phenomenon in consciousness, thus
producing variations on the concept of intentionality. However, one variation to this was the interviews with Hannah. She found it essential to share the actual artwork during every interview as she was describing the creative process. The process and product became a unified whole for Hannah (the person). Hannah’s experience supported
previous research by Marshall (2010) by contextualizing process, product, and person as a way to reflect on creativity. The artwork took on a life of its own and became a
reflection of Hannah’s inner world of conflict. It might be easy to say that the production of art became therapeutic for her, but it was more than just therapeutic.
Hannah had the need to bring forth the presence of the objects (artworks) through digital media. In this case, it was necessary for Hannah to intend the painting to give it an identity. Hannah brought forth an objective side of the painting’s identity through a “correlation between the conscious subject and the object” (Sokolowski 2008, p. 38). This sharing of the painting fulfilled the intention, providing what Sokolowski suggested as “an act of recognition, an act of identification” (p.38). To know Hannah’s creative experience could not be separated from knowing her identity. This was true for Hannah throughout the interview series.
poetry and artistic creations. Although the basic structure of poetry was different than the actual canvas painting, they had the same importance or essence. Just as a reader can examine and identify a certain pattern within the poetry, the same sensation was achieved when viewing the painting. This pattern and rhythm become a stylistic device and
demonstrated a temporal quality that unified the aesthetic features. This aesthetic awareness maintained the artist’s attention and intention. Both art forms, poetry and painting, operated through a spatial-temporal dynamic. Poetry and painting allowed for meaning to be constructed through a cognitive ability that transcended the production of both and thus maintained the identity of both. The benefit of incorporating poetry within the visual arts expanded how the audience perceived the meaning and existence of the two while transforming the conception of both. The transformation can be guided through new ways of perceiving either the painting or the poem. This dynamic alerted visual attention and engaged cognitive processing. This cognitive structure had the potential to create limitless expressions of aesthetic awareness as well as providing a gateway into a flow state.
Claire’s creative process and inspirations were similar to Hannah’s in the
sense that knowing her creative work entitled the viewer to know her on a personal level. Both participants studied and were inspired by other artist’s work; Hannah was more fascinated with and influenced by art history where Claire was influenced by
contemporary digital artists. Claire shared the following in interview series #2:
Vignette 2. Inspirations comes from things in my life. I love to go to the beach and look at the water and I am really fascinated with how things look in the water. I look
at a lot of artists. They are not so well-known, but I go to their websites and explore how they are creating art. I love to research other artists but my art is really within me and that is how it comes into being.
A sense of personal identity was mentioned in several interviews while participants were describing their creative experiences as well as defining their
inspirations. Similar to Hannah and Claire’s comments, Fiona described during interview series #1, that her own thoughts about creativity become part of her artwork in a very personal and private way. Kara described a very similar process while working on her art. It became a certain mental process that produced a personally satisfying result. The artwork became a reflection of the student’s identity.
Art created identity. Art connected the viewer to the creative experience resulting in new ideas about identity. According to McPhillips, Mudge, & Johnston (2007), “identity is a struggle and not a given, and that multiple perspectives of self in the development of identity is experienced as a positive embodied value” (p. 233). The participants in this study perceived their own identity through the process of creating art and understood the relationship between the viewer, artist, and art work. Lola and Iris both described the importance of the audience’s reaction toward their artwork. This concern led both participants toward a creative pathway that limited their private emotional feelings to be evident in their artwork. However, they still wanted to create work that was “outside of the box”. Lola stated that “you do care what people think, but then you don’t”. She continued by sharing that “although you are always thinking about
the audience, and that you still want them to ask questions about your work, you don’t have to answer through language”.
Iris stated that it had taken her a few years to realize that her work was being interpreted differently by her audience. Her intended ideas were not coming through effectively because she was putting in so many ideas into one piece. All of these ideas were taken from research on other artist’s work. She shared, “I try to keep my work lighthearted now, and sometimes less is more”. Iris used her research as just a starting point instead of trying to include all aspects of a piece of art that was personally
inspirational. By limiting her work to just one idea and one source of inspiration helped her understand the compositional strength of her own creative production. It provided Iris with a sense of personal freedom through an emerging identity.