This is a difficult general topic to approach, as everyone is different and you change in the course of your career.
In the case of Ina, the person behind this website was, I think it is fair to say, repressed. My mother in particular, who latterly admitted that I was ‘a bit too sexy’ wanted to dissuade me from getting into terrible trouble. I managed to get into some anyway, but probably not enough.
So, my artistic process usually arises from emotion. I don’t really have a normal way of dealing with lust, love in a romantic sense, so my approach is to find a way of intellectualising or analysing it with a view to killing it dead as being undesirable.
Feelings are very inconvenient things really, especially when they are unrequited so I have often been glad of the outlet, but I see from the difference between my work and the work emerging from art schools that I have an unusually childlike and robust approach.
The pieces are very rarely designed, as such. It is more of a process of gathering some random bits in a pile and then something emerges. The writing is very similar. I have a bundle of ideas which I reassemble into something coherent.
Some things, like my mother’s children, render me incoherent, so the quality tends to be more erratic. Romance, however, seems to benefit from delays, problems and distance, so it is ideal for this emotional form of creativity. The motion of making a carpet or sewing also emulates penetration, so it is quite a barbaric way of expressing myself.
Hence, it does not matter what happens, it is all useful. I can see from the last two posts, for example, that despite my fury I am extremely fond of the IBM, to the point that I don’t really want to touch him in case he breaks.
Creativity does give you a method of stepping back from things. Things that upset you directly are often funny or extremely helpful in the bigger picture. I had no idea I was so seasoned in people management until very recently. I knew I was a decent boss, but I had no idea how finely tuned that is.
I also understand the safety of the Glass Wall, which is what my current project for Boris is all about. It is not useful safety however, and I will not be retreating to suit anybody. It is, sadly, a no compromise situation.