Process as the Real Artwork
Thinking with Cindy Foley
One of the most empowering ideas I’ve embraced from Cindy Foley is her reminder that the journey itself is the true masterpiece. It’s not just about the final product or the perfectly polished deliverable—it’s about enjoying and learning from the process along the way.
This idea really captures the spirit of The Artist’s Journal, and honestly, it resonates a lot with my own independent projects. The journal aims to highlight what often goes unnoticed: the false starts, abandoned paths, half-formed questions, moments of doubt, and internal chats happening long before anything even begins to look like art. It’s all about embracing the messy, imperfect parts of the creative journey and understanding that they are just as valuable as the finished work.
In traditional creative culture, the process is often seen as a messy backstage area—something you tidy up before inviting others in. Foley challenges this idea. She views artistic practice as a way of thinking, where exploration, uncertainty, and iteration are not obstacles to overcome but the heart of the work itself.
From this perspective, The Artist’s Journal isn’t just a diary; it’s a helpful cognitive tool. Think of it as a thinking space—a welcoming place where you can externalize your mind and observe how your ideas grow, bump into each other, pause, and shift. It’s like a personal laboratory where your thoughts are tested out rather than judged, making the process of creativity more open and inviting.
What I really appreciate about Foley’s idea of “thinking like an artist” is her welcoming attitude towards uncertainty. While many professional settings see uncertainty as something to fix quickly, in creative work, it’s the driving force. The journal becomes a safe space where ideas can be incomplete, contradictory, and tentative—without any rush to resolve them too soon.
This shift may seem subtle, but it’s truly transformative. It gently shifts the value of art from just the final product to the importance of practice, from focusing solely on outcomes to paying closer attention, and from mere performance to genuine presence. This new perspective invites us to appreciate art in a more meaningful and personal way.
That’s when meaningful work really starts to come alive—not necessarily when everything is completely clear, but when you’re open to staying in the fog a bit longer to see what might be trying to emerge.
In that sense, the real artwork isn’t just what hangs on the wall.
It’s the creative thinking and effort that made it all possible and inevitable.
Hands to clay, eyes to the future.
