Keith Morant (1944-2022) was an internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning artist who created expressive oil and mixed media abstract paintings. He received innumerable distinguished awards including the ‘Lifetime Achievement In Art’ award at the Florence Biennale, the ‘Palm International Art’ award, Leipzig, Germany and the “Peoples Choice Award” at an International exhibition in Bologna, Italy. He was also a member of Manhattan Arts International. In this insightful essay written in 2018, Keith Morant offers a solution to the artist’s creative challenge.
Incubation
By Keith Morant
Many artists, writers and composers experience great difficulties in the initial stages of developing a new work or project. Indecision and frustration beset their efforts more at the outset of the commitment of their ideas to paper or canvas than at any other time. Plagued by apprehension and an inner necessity to alter ideas they tend to procrastinate through a long period of anxiety before an eventual beginning may be established.
This is a problem which is inherent to the impulsive nature of the creative urge and emanates from the conflict between the practical and logistical dominance of the left brain and the intuitive and emotive forces of the right brain.
Through my own experiences as a creator I have found that the best method of coping with such irresolution is deliberate psycho-logical incubation; that is – an allowance of time for deeper mental maturation.
Following the initial conception of an idea and its conscious consideration there should be a period before any physical action takes place when further conscious deliberation should be abandoned. This means that the conscious mind, with its tendency to intellectualize on the idea, is checked and any conflicting elements are sublimated. The period of time for such incubation will be dependant on two factors; the cognitive powers of the creator and the true strength and importance of the idea itself.
My own experience has been that, no matter how strong or vital an idea has seemed at its inception, if the initial abandonment is carried out with full intention of incubation then the rest will follow its natural course. After my idea has ‘arrived’ and is being consciously considered, uncertainties and negations begin to rise up against it and the ensuing anxiety signals to me that it is time for its burial. My conscious internment of the idea forces it into the crowded wilderness of the unconscious, where all thought-patterns are vastly superior and, owing to their highly evolved intuitional selectivity, my idea is forced to either grow or die.
As a creator I have learned to trust the deeper and more analytical powers of my unconscious and consequently often tend to regard such incubation as obligatory. It is an approach through which I often arrive at a stronger and more honest conclusion.
On the other hand, it is equally possible that after its submergence into the unconscious the idea may never surface again. This is because it has proved a bad concept, or at least, inadequate against others. If I am lucky though, it may well germinate into a much richer and comprehensive whole and re-emerge (often quite suddenly) as its own solution from beginning to end.
Of course, as history has shown in many instances of both scientific and artistic achievement, such psychological processes have often been performed seemingly by accident. The general term for this hitherto strange phenomenon has always been that mystical word, ‘inspiration’.
The many words equals writing in a book. My thoughts are more loose and bubble. He conveys the thoughts of creativity and science. I am having a challenge to say and seize his words as describing my ways.
I have been reading this with great joy for I recognize this. Never called it incubation but always thought I was lazy. I even get bored when I have fully researched my idea and I just have to finish the painting. Because I want to incubate a new idea.
I love your word creator.
Yesterday in the initial stages of a new painting. As is my custom between paintings, I jot down trigger words collect up visual snippets that excite me etc…this process sometimes continues for weeks or just days. Occasionally a lot longer, sometimes the ideas shelved and picked up years later and either discarded or completed,differently than otherwise may have been.
Yesterday I wrote one word . ‘Incubation’. Today I read Keith’s article. How’s that for subconscious connectivity. I am growing to understand that what I had called procrastination is in fact an essential positive part of the process…good things take time…..think about planting seeds or slow cooking…..
Thank you very much Angela!
Over the years I have recorded many such insights which are termed my ‘Art Notes’.
When all is said and done, the most important thing is the work itself. I am continually giving birth to material objects called paintings, and like any caring parent, must give them the best start before letting them live their own lives. In this context then, these notes may be likened to a obstetrician’s progress report.
If you would like to read more just let me know.
Thanks again….K
One of the most elegant and concise descriptions of the process of inspiration I have ever read. Keith, you have great gifts, and I am so very glad you choose to create and share them with us all. Blessings in abundance to you.
Thank you so much Teri!
Over the years I have naturally made notes about my work. These notes are not about my own paintings, (that would only render the artwork superfluous) they are more a record of certain discoveries and insights that have come about through my personal immersion in creativity. What begins as a quick pencilled sentence in the studio, may grow into a paragraph and survive for deeper consideration in
a later notebook entry. I have been a painter for most of my life and these jottings have emerged as a natural result of my aesthetic quest. Through my experiences of creative expression the search for new meaning has always been the most compelling force. When I say ‘new meaning’, I refer to that which so far, remains undefined and therefore beyond current recognition as meaning – that metaphysical edge – where existence itself must be questioned through its own principle – creativity.
Thanks again…..K