In what seems to have become my process, I manipulate my images usually by magnifying, cropping, messing around with photo programs that I don't really know how to use...then I paint a ground on the canvas and set out a multicolor pastel map. When at last I get to the paint, I begin with a tentative search for form and balance in a first cautious layer, establishing shadows and what I like to call "a river of light".
Then I abandon, I have to let it "gel" in my mind, awaiting clarity, the right brain wave, whatever. Sometimes I look at it online, or through the eyes of someone else. I might take a photo and look through the viewer, or hang it over my bed... I have to wait until I can see the image with my new empty eyes, something that already exists on it's own, that I can see whole, not as an assembly of all of my bit and pieces. At this point, if all goes well, with my compass set in a clear direction, I can go on.
Finally I begin over painting a bit, establishing a more valiant gesture in my second layer and yet respecting the initial economy, as if I meant it all along, more decisive now, flick of the wrist over well-known territories.
i will deepen all with a bit of glazing...
I have a feeling that creativity might have common grounds in other media...