Sculpture VS. Spice Rack: When to give your creative partner advice...

I'm someone who loves working with other people, even when it drives me crazy. I love the give and take of collaboration--and even a creative tug of war now and then. Apparently, word has gotten out about this, and I was interviewed on the collaborative process, and most specifically, on how in the world can I create a piece of artwork with my husband and actually stay married at the same time?

Beth Messina, of Artbox, an online art community, asked me some thought-provoking (& laughter-inducing) questions, including this one:

What's it like to have a deeper personal relationship with your collaborator - like a spouse? This is rife with risk as art is so personal, too. 

 a pause in the creative process...Photo by Angela Swan

It helps to ask permission to give feedback and find out if the other person is ready first. Even with my solo work, sometimes I tell Joe I’m not ready for that yet. I remember one time I was 99% done with a large painting and he walked through the room as I put my brush to the canvas. “Don’t blow it,” was all he said, but I couldn’t work on the painting for a few days after that—it froze me up. Likewise, on one of his recent 3-D pieces, I’ve waited for what might be the right time to tell him that if he wasn’t careful, his work-in-progress was destined to look like a spice rack.

 Beth also asked me to explain more about my thoughts on the creative process, with great questions like:

How does a great creative collaboration come together? What does it feel like?
 
See the whole interview at:  http://blog.artbox.com/ 

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