Daily Inspiration: Francis Bacon on the Cocktail of Creativity
"The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness. It is not like a drug; it is a particular state when everything happens very quickly, a mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness, of fear and pleasure; it's a little like making love, the physical act of love."
Francis Bacon knew a thing or two about instinct and skill as one of the best painters of the 20th century. His disturbing and twisted ape-men-popes canonized him as a leading painter, distancing himself from realist representation and into a world of distorted figures and haunted portraits. He’s famous for the organized chaos inside his London studio which, as you can see below, looks like the results of the explosions of many, many crazy-bombs. No surface has been left undisturbed, even the walls are used as testing grounds for his oil paints.
His thoughts above on the cocktail of the creative process still rings true today. He said how creating new artwork can feel like something is happening to us, that it can feel like an overwhelming “mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness” that pours out of us like a flowing faucet, dumping brilliance in its uncensored, organic glory.
"Inside Francis Bacon's studio Image Credit: Graphic Tide Blog
"Oil on canvas ~ Yellow Ochre" by April Jarocka
