My creative process is more internal than it is external. I tend to brainstorm in my head first and try to think things through what direction I want to go in before I even write anything out or start drawing. I will visualize my piece before it hits the paper. I find most of my inspiration from everyday life, whether it be something ordinary I saw earlier in the week that stuck with me or a phrase I heard in a song. Once I land on an idea, I take it further through thumbnails and try different iterations. Sometimes, I’ll find a different idea along the way.
To be a Public Artist means to be creating art with the intent of being shared or on display. I would consider myself a Public Artist now because I am creating work to be displayed on campus and critiqued by my peers. It is intended to be experienced by others. This also plays a role in my creative process because the audience for whom my piece is intended for can influence the direction my iterations will take. I also think that there are varying degrees of being a Public Artist depending on how widely and/or willingly the piece is shared with the public.
Social media takes the idea of being the Public Artist and pushes it a little further. My relationship with social media differs depending on what platform I am using. I use Facebook primarily to contact others and rarely post. I use Instagram the most because it is also where I personally post the most. I wouldn’t necessarily give it a major role in my creative process because I think of it as separate from my work; I mostly post pictures of my personal life rather than the work I am creating. However, I want to begin to increase my presence as a Public Artist on social media in the future because I think it can be a really useful tool in generating inspirations and bouncing ideas off fellow artists and the works that they post.
