Intermission

And a penny for your thoughts

I’ve been working long days in the studio, preparing the groundwork for a new artist book I plan on crowdfunding. This particular work requires such intense and hypnotic focus I’ve been incapable of focusing on anything else. So today, instead of the usual kind of post, I’m sharing a few sneak peeks of the work in progress.

This is also an opportunity for me to ask for your thoughts on creativity. Note I’m not using the word “art”, which has rather lost its meaning and isn’t really useful unless we start by defining what we mean by it, which is in itself a whole can of worms. But I think we all understand what creativity refers to, although the process itself remains mysterious and undeniably, satisfyingly, completely human. From the reactions to my article on Zafimaniry geometry, I can tell quite a few of you are creators, or appreciate creativity, and have your own thoughts and experiences on the matter. I’m really interested in hearing from you. I feel nowadays creatives are gaslit and forcefully reeducated by an “art world” that can’t handle creativity unless it’s been standardised for the sake of monetisation. Those who don’t conform are left on the fringe where we continue with our work feeling subpar, or like a voice in the wilderness. But as I mentioned in that post, creativity is a living force that doesn’t give a hoot about any gatekeeping structures that may be in place, and it will come out through whoever embraces it for its own sake. If you’re one of these people, tell me about your process! How is it for you? How do you feel about the above, and how do you deal with it?

And here are the sneak peeks. I haven’t yet explained the project anywhere, so they’re not captioned, but it has to do with the Arabic alphabet. I’ll be able to launch and reveal it fairly soon at this pace.