I stumbled upon a Tweet I wrote at the end of 2014.

I recall something took me away from my normal pattern - and I recorded the epiphany in 140 words.

A floating thought solidified into something tangible.

If I did not express, I wouldn't have been able to return to this moment of revelation:

“Creativity is giving yourself permission to suffer until something gives out through expression.”

Recently, I've been pondering about the relationship between creative production and self contentment.

As a creative being, I find myself in a constant cycle of up's and down's. There are days when my creative flow feels inactive. There are other days when I produce like crazy, usually without the plan or intention of doing so. By crazy, I'm talking about explosive amounts of expression colliding with adrenaline, energy, and joy. These are moments when I feel like I'm flying even though my feet are still. After a long thread of mundane, I find myself in my prime element.

Like that Katy Perry moment when she rises from fear and roars the whole forest to silence.

If I don't act on the rising sparks of creativity, the potential for something remains stagnant and collects dust in an enclosed box. As long I try to ignore its existence, the creative juices hidden somewhere beneath the box beckons me to take a look.

I woke up that afternoon feeling nothing less or more than normal. I had some flowers lying around. Next thing I know I'm standing by a window in a million poses to get the perfect lighting. Three hours later, I have 500 pictures. Exhausted and overwhelmed, I leave the images - until they haunt me back to themselves. Again, the beckoning of something - the responsibility of an artist, my perfectionist mindset, OCD?! - that tells me to take a peek and while I am at it, maybe share it with the world.

Regardless of the what, I produced and now I present.

These images are not trying to say something or hold a deeper meaning beneath the surface. They are simply a reflection of who I am and where I am as a person and an artist. They are a process, not a completion. They are steps towards a destination, but not the destination itself.

I realize this process applies to every aspect of life.

Thoughts pass by and realizations evoke us constantly. But only an active choice to sit, reflect, and apply the passing moment provides the opportunity for growth. When we lose focus from daily distractions, the to-be revelation will return over and over again - until we give it the time and attention it needs to soak and absorb into our being.

Into a better, maturing version of you, renewing day by day, unseen now, but to be seen in the near future.

To solidify a thought, I must act on it.

As an artist, my action for the passing realizations manifests through creative expression.

Dainty and Lovely Things (And Creative Process)