I watched a video of an artist describing her painting process and one comment she made stuck with me. She said that her paintings start off emotionally and then become about problem solving. At the beginning, she would put paint down in an instinctual manner and then start scraping some of it away, adding more back in, etc. A push and pull type of process. What I liked about her statement was the combination of emotion and intellect. I've never thought about the creative process in those terms before, but it resonated with me. When I think about my own process, I tend to follow a similar pattern. Initial ideas usually spring from emotion and instinct, but as I go along, I run into "problems" and need to take a more critical thinking path to solve them and help the piece resolve. I like that the art process requires both these facets of the brain and isn't just some wild, emotional extremism that is so often the stereotypical view of "artists."
I like that the artist you read was brave enough to admit that. I feel like there's so much rapture placed on working "intuitively" or "organically". But art-making, I think, HAS to be both about the rapture AND about problem-solving. Most artists won't admit to the latter - like by doing so they might be pulling back the curtain to reveal the fact that the Great OZ isn't all he purported to be. Love that you brought this to light, Karen.