An acting professor once described the artistic process in terms of knowledge. She drew a circle on a page. She said “everything we know is inside the circle. and it’s the artist’s job to step outside the circle to discover. Once a discovery is made, it’s the artist’s job to drag that discovery back into the circle and as a result, the circle expands.”

You’re out there trying to figure things out. Trying to understand what you’re doing, but you don’t really know what you’re looking at when something comes out of you. Maybe it starts with a feeling, or maybe something external. How do you know you’ve found something? How do you drag it back into the circle?  But then again, these questions aren’t supposed to be answered.

Please leave comments about your own artistic processes.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values is the first of Robert M. Pirsig’s texts in which he explores his Metaphysics of Quality. The 1974 book describes, in first person, a 17-day motorcycle journey across the United States by the author (though he is not identified in the book) and his son Chris, joined for the first nine days by close friends John and Sylvia Sutherland. The trip is punctuated by numerous philosophical discussions, referred to as Chautauquas by the author, on topics including epistemology, ethical emotivism and the philosophy of science.

The book sold over 4 million copies in twenty-seven languages and was described by the press as “the most widely read philosophy book, ever.” It was originally rejected by 121 publishers, more than any other bestselling book, according to the Guinness Book of Records.