The Idea Takes Shape as I Go

Walkers are your footprints
the way and nothing more ;
Walker, there is no path,
is made by walking.
By walking the path becomes,
and looking back one sees the path
one would never walked again.
Walker, there is no path,
but wakes in the sea.

– Antonio Machado –

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.

The sculpting process is often for me like the words of this poem. I might have a vague idea of the direction where I’m going but I let the idea guide me. I just need to start sculpting. Each steps reveals the path to follow. It makes sculpting more fun while turning a project into a learning and discovery process. The sculpture becomes what it wants to become. The idea takes shape as I go.

The most important decision to make when we allow the process to guide us is to begin. If we don’t start it is not going to happen. As I learned from one of my professors, “Art doesn’t happen. You have to make it happen”. By walking, or in this case sculpting, painting or drawing (or whatever applies) a path opens to receive us into that new adventure in creativity. This week I received several messages from different individuals who have a desire to begin sculpting. My advice for them, as for you, is to start doing it. Don’t worry about the destination. Just walk and by walking the path becomes.