Artistic Process and Change

by Elyssa Berg

Are you a very organized person? Are you spontaneous? Maybe you really like structure or details. Whatever your personality may be, this can greatly effect your artistic process. Finding the process in which you are most successful when creating takes a long time, and it constantly changes. 

Your artistic process is your own form of research or self study that you use to create a new piece. This could be in any art form or medium; dance, music, ceramics, writing, anything and everything! More established artists may have a very specific way in which they create work that they have been developing for many many years, but the most exciting thing is that even for them it is always constantly developing, no matter who you are. 

Personally, I have found my artistic process has greatly shifted in the past few years, especially from my time in college. Looking at the four years that I was at Virginia Commonwealth University studying dance and choreography, my creative process was dramatically changing all the time. Since i was in school, many times i have been asked to create work in a way that I wouldn't have otherwise. That was the greatest thing that I could have experienced!

Being asked to try on different processes and see what comes out of them is an exciting and scary thing. It can push you to create wonderful things that you may never have expected yourself to create. But with that also comes the flip side. At times when you're asked to create in a different way than what your aesthetic may have led you, it can also be a disaster. And thats okay! I have created many things that I didn't necessarily feel were as successful as they could be, or that really spoke to who I am as an artist, but that's all a part of the process. 

The best thing that you can do for yourself is try anything and everything. Don't be afraid to do something that doesn't work. If you do, you know that you were curious and brave enough to give it a go, and now you know that you might not necessarily ever do again. Asking yourself to step outside of your comfort zone and challenge yourself is a difficult thing. I have found that I have easily been able to do that through  Monkeyhouse's. 

Musings are a chance for you to bring any and every idea you have to a room of artists willing to try what you are offering. With such a supportive community you have the chance to try things that you have never tried before, and you have a chance to observe what the other artists add to your ideas. This has been a new part of my artistic process that has really helped to elevate my artistic process.

I have gotten to try out a lot of ideas during musings, some that I have decided to continue studying and trying for a longer period of time. One of these ideas has been the use of light in connection with dance. I have been able to play with different forms of light such as; lamps, handheld lights, natural light, light that peeks through doors, pretty much any form of light that I could find at the moment. This has led to a lot of magical moments in the studio. Trying out new situations that have really planted a seed for my newest artistic endeavor. I plan to continue to grow this idea as I work with monkeyhouse in creating new work. 

Like all ever changing artistic processes, each moment is exciting and different. My greatest hope is that my search within this process is that it is filled with many trial and error moments that continue to help me establish what works for me.  I am still on that journey of constant change and exploration within my artistic process and I will always be, which is a really exciting thing. 

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