Three New Inspirations

Waking up this morning on the mainland, three new ideas for woven projects were drifting around in my consciousness.  They were still a bit illusive and half-formed, but I got up, grabbed my studio book, came back to bed, and tried to capture them on paper before they melted away. Sorry, can't share them yet, they are still maturing, but one is a coiled piece and two are wall sculptures.  Potentially, anyway.  Things always work well in my head, but getting them into reality is totally another animal.

So why now, when I'm not on the island?  Perhaps the relaxed island time let them gestate and it was coincidence that they surfaced now?

And really, just what is it about creativity and new ideas in that half-dreaming state before getting up?  I've mentioned it before, but it still puzzles me.

One article seems to have part of the answer:
Simply Waking Up With the AnswerEasiest methods for solving problems,
and for ingeniously creating

by Win Wenger, Ph.D. http://www.winwenger.com/wakeup.htm

"Early Bird Gets That....Wriggle of Creativity"

A number of individual writers, artists and other high-level creators have found their best time for creative work to be first thing in the morning, before the distractions of the day set in to disturb the order and arrangements their mind had settled into through sleep and dreaming. This still remains very much the case, though some of us aren't "morning people." Those of us who can somehow function before normal people start putting in their work hours, continue to find and will always find this first-thing-of-the-day approach to be an easy, productive strategy and practice.

Another article goes on:

While you are asleep, your brain is busy processing the day’s information, according to sleep and cognition researchers Robert Stickgold and Jeffrey Ellenbogen. "It combs through recently formed memories, stabilizing, copying, and filing them, so that they will be more useful the next day," they wrote in Scientific American.

WHEN WE'RE ASLEEP, OUR THINKING ISN'T INHIBITED, AND THAT'S A CRUCIAL PART OF CREATIVE THOUGHT.

Areas of the brain that restrict our thinking to the logical and familiar are significantly less active during REM sleep, according to Harvard psychologist, Deirdre Barrett. In other words, when we're experiencing the Rapid Eye Movement stage of sleep, our way of thinking is less inhibited. "Such disinhibition is a crucial part of creative thought," Barrett also wrote inScientific American.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3024816/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/how-waking-up-half-an-hour-early-can-help-you-solve-more-p

Whatever the reason, it continually works for me.  I don't take it for granted, and I do try to jot down the ideas or sketch the image.  It may take years for them to come to fruition.  Creativity is such a strange and wonderful thing, but unfortunately life with it's appointments and schedules will not let me have studio time to play with these new ideas right now.  Thankfully they are preserved for their "moment".