Editorial: The Creative Process

December 2002 - January 2003

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Alan Wilson

Cover Photo: Bathjing beauties by Rod Tait, Orca Boats

Building a kayak is a bit like building an issue of our magazine. It all starts with a plan - in our case a feature topic like 'kayak construction'. Then we proceed to gather the raw materials (articles and photos) from far and wide.

Eventually we're ready to begin, surrounded by all our tools and materials. We start to shape the pieces to our needs and gradually fit them into the template, one by one, until we've got a rough draft. It's a matter of trimming and fitting, trimming and fitting, until we've got something that hangs together and has a pleasing form.

Then it's time to do a test paddle to see how it performs - as you might with the prototype of a new design. We run it by our editors who judge the strengths and weaknesses, offer comments and suggestions. Then it's back to the shop for another round of modifications, more proofing, more editing... until we finally arrive at a finished product.

Of course there's a lot more to boat building and publishing than that, but you can see the similarities. We work with the materials at hand and to a certain extent we make it up as we go along, with choices and trade-offs. At the end of the day, we hope it floats!

If you think such a comparison is totally fanciful, consider the fact that the printed version of this magazine and a wooden kayak are both wood products - which shows what a marvelously diverse material wood is.* And this underlines just how our modern world, for all our technological advances, ultimately derives from nature.

Waters Dancing's Lightning 14 (14'; long, 24.5" beam, 35 lbs, approx. 85 hours)

So we must also ask ourselves - are our materials the product of ravaged rainforests? Is their production toxifying our air and waters?

We need to choose carefully, assuring ourselves the suppliers are responsible. We need to use our power as conscientious consumers to purchase wisely, and our active citizenship to push for public policies which ensure optimum ecological values.

Once reassured we're doing the best we can, we return to our workshop to engage in the creative process, to transform our chosen materials with care, energy and passion, into a thing of beauty, a vessel to carry us off into future adventures.

Happy paddling!