For many years now I have focused on writing and editing as my creative and professional pass times. Painting is something that was a part of my creative past, but years has passed since I last picked up a brush. However, in 2017 while on a retreat in Finland at the incredible Arteles Creative Center (https://www.arteles.org/). At the retreat, I worked along side other artists from all disciplines: composers, film makers, sculptors, graphic artists and painters. While on an outing to the art supply store, I picked up a small set of watercolours and some 5 x 7 watercolour paper. I had no particular plan for these items, but was caught up in my painter friends’ excitement as they picked up their materials. However, very soon after returning to my little work area, I found myself painting small watercolours as I worked on my poetry manuscript. During that month, I would write and complete the watercolour sketches that sometimes reflected the subject of a poem, and sometimes my surroundings at the retreat center. Switching from one medium to the other whenever the mood struck me became a valuable tool for me to beat creative blocks during that month.
Since that time I have been playing with visual mediums such as alcohol inks, acrylics, collage, and found objects. I haven’t yet combined my visual work with my writing and may never work in that direction. What is most valuable about these two mediums is they way they inform and energize each other: an important lesson in my creative process. I’ve also learned that sometimes our labels, like “writer” and “painter”, narrow our visions of our own creative breadth.
Inky Sisu 