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February 8, 1964 four young lads from Liverpool, England opened up a new era of music the likes which had never been seen before. I along with millions of others watched that Sunday evening as The Beatles performed for the first time in America on that historic episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. They were young, energetic and innovative with the sound they made, the music they played, and the way they looked. They took us by storm. The interesting thing about The Beatles is how they never stopped inventing and incorporating new sounds into their music no matter how well their previous hit song had done.  They kept pushing and trying new things that worked......or didn't.

Long after The Beatles broke up, John deceased and the others making their own music, Apple Ltd. produced the Anthology of The Beatles for television in 1995. It was basically a history of The Beatles as told by each of them personally. Along with that television series, they also produced The Beatles Anthology soundtrack which came in three separate two-CD packages that held the chronology of their music from beginning to end. The Anthology includes many out-takes of the songs they wrote and played at various stages of their development. We heard completely different versions, tempos and compositions of those songs we were so familiar with and grew to know and love. As I listened to these out-takes and hear Strawberry Fields Forever as John originally wrote and sung his unfinished lyrics on a demo tape with just him and a Mellotron along with the rest of the songs in the various stages of development really made an impression upon me as an artist. I heard in these out-takes the different directions some of these very familiar songs went through unbeknownst to us and how they sculpted and formed music with lyrics, tempos, rhythms and harmonies that finally ended up being what they came to be......Beatle classics. It revealed the process and development that was The Beatles. These out-takes gave witness about how they arrived at what became those great familiar tunes we danced to, tapped our feet to, sang along with and became the background music that defined an era.

I used to think that The Beatles just sat down and wrote those songs right out of their heads. Poof! Being young and naïve, it didn't occur to me the creative process they went through to get the sound they wanted or ended up with. The innovation, the experimentation, the creative use of new instruments and sounds they discovered or were discovering were all used in the development of their music. They never gave up searching for the sound they were looking for and they never relied on what worked before just to be safe.

Those out-takes also revealed one other important fact about The Beatles. That was the fun they had and how much they loved what they did. You can hear in these gems the laughing, the joking, the bantering, the pure enjoyment they had as they worked and played together. As bad as things may have gotten for them near the end and as serious as they took their music and their art, it is quite obvious they still enjoyed playing music, writing music, and creating music very much. They sometimes sound like little kids just having a blast in that studio.

I became enraptured by the creative process and I still do. I find this true in all the arts....acting, writing, plays, sculpting.......and painting. I love watching how some creative piece of work goes through the development stages and become a finished product that makes us laugh and cry and feel alive. When I studied illustration I was very intrigued by the development of going from the original concept to the finished painting and everything that happened in between. From those little thumbnails quickly sketched out to those compositional studies showing the different angles and perspectives. I explored those processes of different illustrators and artists, so I could, ironically enough, develop my own creative process of going from one idea to the next. I learned to ask myself "What if I did this instead?" "What would happen if I put this here instead of there?" How would it look from this perspective?"  "What can I use to make my point but still make them look just a little harder?"

There has been many times I have noticed other artists, and I might add this is very common with students I have taught over the years, the hurry to get to the finish. They want to get from start to finish with the snap of their fingers. They want to side-step the process and just get to the end.....right now! Or they want to be very good right now! They can't understand why they can't draw like Michelangelo in the first try. They don't want to take the time to learn how to draw or learn how to see or take the time to let it develop. Boom! Let's just get to the finished painting as soon as we can get there. Isn't it a pity? They are missing out on all the fun. Growth is a process. 

Something else I find interesting are those little studies, those idea sketches and raw spontaneous sketchy little paintings that artists do up as they explore the possibilities for the main painting. Not taking away from the major piece on the easel, but sometimes it's those nice little diddies that is a part of the whole that are just as enjoyable as the finished piece. It's the spontaneity in them that makes them so attractive. It's what I enjoy doing in my process. Especially those outdoor field studies we refer to these days as plein air paintings.

I know. I get discouraged when things aren't turning out the way I would like or I just can't seem to make something happen. We all do. I feel like breaking my brushes in two sometimes. It's part of the process. Suck it up and keep working. Keep playing. You'll get there. I think that it's within those stages of development as we craft our ideas into living breathing pieces of art that the magic happens. Our play. Our muse. Our joy. As serious as I take my art and my work, I still love feeling like a little kid just having a blast. That ability to maintain a childlike attitude and amazement and at the same time as our craft matures, that springs forth a new way of seeing something that we have seen a thousand times before like we have never seen it before. What fun!! Enjoy getting there! Enjoy the process of learning! Enjoy the process of growing! Enjoy the process of creating!