Thoughts

Incubation Time

in ,

earlier this week i read this post (thanks for sharing this with me dear Brian!) and i really really loved it.

it's an interview with Raf Simmons -the previous creative director at Christian Dior- and in part of the article he talks about the sacredness of having allowance and space for ideas to have incubation time.
and that's definitely an idea that tapped me on the shoulder and got me thinking.

especially because slowing down my life has been such a theme for me in recent years (read about some of the creative aspects of those excursions into this here and here and here and here).
but in relation to giving that slowness to ideas specifically, (especially to my constant idea-producing-big-dreaming mind) is somewhat revolutionary to me.
not necessarily in the practice of it but in the naming of it in recognizing that that is what i'm doing.

but at the same time, it's something i have subconsciously always sort of done.
to the point of it being a fault (mostly because of my over analytic i-don't-want-to-make-a-mistake tendencies).
this is definitely seen in my writing and photo work that i share publicly. i am not one to post in the moment, rashly, or without thinking about it for an extended amount of time. 
i tend to let things it sit for a few days.
however there are dangers with this sort of methodology. 
such as: losing momentum and passion for an idea (on your part, or on that of the short-attention-spanned viewer), having a message come across too premeditated, and the one i think i most often might be guilty of: forcing an idea out that isn't meant to be out there because of guilt you feel in having spent so much time on it... because surely it's meant to be, simply because of all the time and thought you've already spent on it. 
such tends to be my thought process.

which is somewhat reflected in the article from this quote: 

"Technically speaking, it works. Does it work for me emotionally? No, because I’m not the kind of person who likes to do things so fast. I think if I had more time, I would reject more things, and bring other ideas or concepts in. But that’s also not necessarily better. Sometimes you can work things to death when you take too much time."

and so there's a balance to be sought.
as with all things.
i just hope i can stick with the pursuit of that and not embody this overwhelming issue that i am also so familiar with...

"Everything is so easily accessible, and because of that you don’t make a lot of effort anymore. When we were young, you had to make up your mind to investigate something — because it took time. You really had to search and dig deep. Now if something interests you, one second later, you can have it. And also one second later you also drop it."

a few more thoughts i had on these words can be found here.