The Amazing Benefits of Completing the Creative Circle

It’s more than a year and a half since I’ve been at my house in Spain.

​And twice as long since I began work on my first Artist’s Book.

My first Artist’s Book

The working title of the book is 'Beewings' - because of a comment my other half made when he saw the central pop-up figure.

I began it way back in 2015 when I gave up my studio in order to downsize and regain the freedom to move around.

First Beewings sketch (dirty thumbprints and all!) © Cherry Jeffs 2013
from the original series of drawings that resulted in the Grow Wings and Fly series.

This figure dates back to a sketch I made at the end of 2013 as part of what became known as the ‘Grow Wings and Fly’ series.

The series of sketches spawned a body of work which includes The Ladder and the Lost Palace. 

Out of the Box was part of that body of work too - the moment which I decided to leap out of the frame -and the piece that immediately preceded this one. 

So Beewings is the culminating piece of that previous series, yet it is also the first of a new series. As the first Artist’s Book I attempted, it represents the transition from my old work to the new. 

It straddles worlds. 

Yet it is very much a book based in Spain, with multiple references to the landscape here. 

Beewings also embodies my transition from teaching Yoga to creative coaching - with the central figure emerging from a Yoga posture: Child's Pose.

So on an even deeper level, the piece is about finally growing up. The figure - with her big yellow wings - is transforming into an adult artist, ready to take her rightful place in the world.  
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Wisdom of hindsight

Of course, I wasn’t conscious of all of this when I started making the piece. It just grew naturally out of my constant need to push my own boundaries in an attempt to release my unique creative voice.

I’m amazed once again at how when we look back at our creative trajectory it seems to make so much sense in hindsight whereas at the time it just felt like stumbling around in the dark.

It’s a salutary reminder that if we can only trust the process, it has the wisdom to take us just where where we need to go.

It’s also a reminder of the importance of taking time to review our work on a regular basis.

Freedom to experiment

Unlike my later pieces, I began this book without much of a plan. I had never made an Artist’s Book before and I really had no idea how to proceed.

Artist’s Books come in all shapes and formats and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what mine might look like.

Instead I conceived it as a 
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“​...slow project...{for}...familiarising myself with book-making techniques and paper engineering...and discovering how I can integrate them into my own mixed-media process to create artist’s books.”

Learning Paper Engineering

It’s been a long time since I worked in such a free way. The work I’ve made over the last few years has been more directed, so it’s interesting to return now to something more experimental. 

I’m taking it as a kind of creative rest. A form of journalling almost. (Rather like my ongoing altered book which I also left here in Spain.) 

I’m clearing out old drawings, papers and general ‘stuff’ still left from the downsize, so I’m including some scraps of these into the book as well.

It’s a chance for my subconscious to take stock; to mull over where I’ve been and where I’m going next.
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What have I let go of? Should I have?
What have I learned that I want to embrace more?
Where am I drawn to go with my work in 2019?
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Reviewing where you’ve been

• ​Is there a piece of work you’ve done - or need to return to - that completes a circle? 
• What have you learned? 
• How have you grown? 
• Can you see why you needed to take that direction, although you might not have known it at the time?

​Share your thoughts in the comments!

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