A love story

I’m not sentimental and generally hold few superstitions. But there’s always the exception.

I believe in love at first sight.

Way back in 1997 I was sitting under a tree at university, in a general bad mood. When a friend came to talk to me. Shortly afterwards one of her friends came to join us.

I thought he was pretty hot and we started talking about science-fiction. Turns out we liked the same authors and he mentioned The Excession, by Iain M. Banks. A book I had not read before (it was published the year before).

I don’t remember many other details except for the general fuzzy happy feeling. Mostly because I had that

feeling. I was in love.

Even though he’s even more cynical and less superstitious than I am, we agree,  the universe did us a favour that day.

We still talk about science fiction a lot. (It’s also the reason why Banks will always have a special place on my bookshelf. )

People are important influencers

There’s a reason why I brought up this sentimental little story.We, as artists, need that support in our lives.

The creative process is a wonderful thing. But there are many pitfalls – to name a few common ones.

• Depression because no one likes your work
• Your work isn’t selling
• You feel your work is getting stale
• Lack of recognition

We all have our own insecurities hitting at inopportune moments.

That’s when the support is needed and it’s also the point when I appreciate the other intelligence in my collective (as we jokingly call our relationship).

Stimulate personal growth

For me, this is the most important one.

My other half is an aspiring author and he’s working on his third manuscript. He does a lot of research in oh, so many varied fields, and we’re always on the lookout for interesting ideas. Reading similar works and then talking about it has resulted in some of my best ideas.

Getting out of your creative bubble

We’ve travelled quite a bit and share a few hobbies.

Most prominently fossil hunting and macro photography. The fresh air and research we need to do for these is a big influence in my creative work. These outings turn me into a creative machine.

Challenge ideas

We need someone we trust to talk to. Those half-formed ideas need some coaxing to mature.

Criticism

I know a lot of people find criticism to be negative to the creative process. But criticism is an important factor for me because:

• It gives you confidence to ignore people’s comments some time
• Makes you realise that you were wrong and you need to tweak a bit more
• Helps you prune ideas

Who are the people that help you through the difficult times? Friends, family or just a circle of people you met on the art scene?

People who know me understand what a grade-A geek I am (the rest of you will just have to take my word). I found this etched copper cuff on Karla Wheeler Design’s Etsy shop today and just love it.

In addition to it’s beautiful geekiness I had to smile at this part of the description as well: ‘This cuff bracelet has the first 500 numbers of Pi, Well 480 to be exact’ – how could my pedantic heart not love that.

Credits: Photo by Karla Wheeler Designs