2 Quotes by David Esterly

Trying to express the leaf, the carvers inadvertently had expressed themselves. But it was a superior kind of self-expression, coming not from narcissism or exhibitionism, but from a union with their subject. It was unconscious, unintended: an unimportant side effect....If you want to express yourself, stop expressing yourself. Better yet, stop wanting to express yourself....Forget yourself. It will improve your work. Let the things you make proceed by their own design.

There is no waiting then, for the muse to descend. You take up where you left off the night before. You come to the workbench every morning and ask yourself, "Where was I?" Inspiration is for amateurs, somebody once said. The creativity is incremental, not divorced from the making. You invent while you make. You work in the churn of the moment, and the forms seem to determine their own shape. You think with your hands. The carving thinks with your hands.