First, A Vision

What struck me about the day today?

That artists and writers spend a lot of time retrieving the tangible from a fuzzy nothingness, a place that's not visible to anyone but themselves.  That they see what's there so vividly the act of creating is more one of pushing away the material from around the envisioned piece in order to reveal it than it is an act of producing it one stroke or one letter at a time.  

Michelangelo saw his statues that way, already standing there, perfectly formed.  He knew his work was to remove unneeded marble encasing the figure.  Creation of the statue at hand had occurred in full long before the first hammer clanged against the chisel.  

That visualizing a scene, a pot, an image or a house vividly enough to know that it believably exists is the gift.  The work is to take the necessary time to pull it into the three-dimensional world where everyone else can see it, too.  

That what I see in my mind's eye will stay there unless I decide to do the work to bring it out into the open.  

Each thing that is done is visualized first; everything is a re-enactment of a creative thought.  Imagine a place, a story, a world, a table or a cake because that's where it has to exist first.  Then, be the technician who uses tools and time to help it emerge.  Right before our very eyes.