How Artists Describe their Creative Processes, By Matt Kase

Paul Simon

There is a thick parallel between the processes involved in writing and those that spark the creation of music. Paul Simon focuses much of his description of songwriting on the relationship that develops through the symbiotic association between melody and lyrics. He starts by sitting with a guitar and letting his musical imagination take the melody where it feels right, and sometimes assigns arbitrary or cliché words to the music in order to see if the idea unfolds fluently. In writing, the thoughts that the author wants to express are like a melodic idea, and in both art forms the original concept usually originates as fragmentary or undeveloped. As Paul Simon used his lyrics to fill a melody, I will use sentence structure and carefully chosen diction in order to illustrate my thesis.

Tim Burton

Although the text was sparse, Burton’s description of his creative process could be useful to me. He mentions always having liked big eyes or heads and exaggerated facial features, so he implemented that theme as much as possible in his character designs for Alice in Wonderland. While I write my paper, I would really like to think of what I like to analyze, but not regarding the subject matter. Like Tim Burton, my analysis will focus on a perspective of the subject that especially excites or challenges me.

Frank Gehry

Gehry’s explanation of creative architecture was actually fairly applicable to my writing assignment. One of the aspects of academic writing that I have always struggled with is the restriction on form and content that a prompt will often impose. The equivalent to prompts in Gehry’s art is a city’s budget and general concerns for what the building is expected to be. He describes the futility, to an extent, in attempting to go against those guidelines. Instead, Gehry works with the restrictions in hopes of creating art through his desired perspective lens while still maintaining a lucrative creative environment built around cooperation.