It starts with a glimpse. You see something, maybe a seashell or the reflection of a stoplight in a puddle of water. Sometimes you won't recognize it. The idea flashes over your eyes for such a small instant that you have nothing to grab hold of. Ever elusive, the thought will hide for a time always just past the edge of your vision. It may take a few seconds, or even weeks before you ever see the idea again, a picture superimposed under your eyelids, flitting away whenever you make an attempt to focus on it. You capture what pieces of it you can and tie them to the real world on paper. Then the excitement comes. It turns into a game- always on the edge of your seat, you snatch parts of the thought until you have enough to start creating something. Nothing else seems to matter, only the transformation from thought to reality. But this phase of frenzied activity is short-lived. Roadblocks emerge everywhere. Perhaps you hadn't realized that glue always takes longer than you hope it will, or that although thinner wire is easier to manipulate, it cannot maintain its carefully constructed shape when heavier objects are added. You may decided that everything is, was, a stupid, idiotic, idea that never should have left your head. But you don't give up, and you don't throw out your work and forget the idea, no matter how enticing it seems.

Once you work past the kinks, you feel like you are close to finishing. You want to rush, to finish this project that has caused you so much lost sleep. But again you remember that it is not a race, where runners will sprint ahead when the end is in sight. Creating art is a delicate procedure, and rushing could cause the entire structure to come crashing down around your ears-literally. So you take your time and stick through it until the very end, where you find there is ample reward to make up for all your time and energy. At last, the end. An immense joy and relief come to you. It is finished! Finally, the idea is alive. It may not be exactly what you had in mind to begin with, but the product is still satisfying. The fact that it was you who put yourself through the process and you who who could finally drop the weight of expectation gives you the pride and privilege to say, “I made that”.