I always think of the way I work as similar to making a soup.
You have vegetables and then you put them in the water and then
the vegetables stay vegetables for a while. You just allow them
to be separate — the carrots are carrots, the peas are peas and
everything is just simmering. You're working very slowly, and little
by little the vegetables start boiling down, and then little by little
the soup becomes absolutely essentialized.
That's what I really think the process is about.
And that takes some time and patience.
_____________________________* Quoted from "Authentic Voice: An Interview with Meredith Monk" in Authenticity, Vol. XXII, No. 4, Summer 2004 (The entire interview is a very good read. My thanks to the OnBeing blog for the interview link.)
"Meredith Monk: Of Posterity and 'Impermanence'", NPR, May 13, 2008
Meredith Monk: Inner Voice, 2009 Documentary by Babeth M. VanLoo, Filmmaker and Director, Buddhist Broadcasting Foundation (Monk discusses her work with the filmmaker here.)
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3 comments:
I like the soup analogy -- essentially that is what it feels like to create something -- and if you cook like me, you never know what the end product will taste like because I'm always experimenting.
Nice one.
Thanks.
The interview with Meredith Monk was a very interesting one. I especially liked her comment that "one of the problems in art is that people are too easily satisfied." I think this is very true of our times.
She also spoke about the "critical mind" and "discriminating intelligence" ( or the "inner voice")--- which were two very useful concepts. I liked very much --her saying that to get down to real--you have to go right to "the honesty, and the inevitability of something."
When a poem works--it does feel inevitable --both for the poet and the reader.
So true, great analogy and adding all the necessary ingredients and tossing some new one into the soup, adds to the creative mind and the beauty one can creates. Love it!
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