Category: Creativity

The most important thing is not get sidetracked. There is no such thing as multitasking  Everyone in the world does one thing at a time. If you know this you will do one thing at a time. It is a freeing thing to not try and do two things at once which is really doing two things not very well.

Plus our world is so full of distractions now that you cannot get really focused unless you unplug your life while you are doing something. Constant barrage of talk  radio or Facebook or texting( Lord why did they invent that) makes our lives worse.

The funny thing about being still is that it forces you to reset your brain so you can focus. I often wonder if the number of ADHD cases are indeed exacerbated by these constant distractions.

Cable Tv is also a horrible source of a million commercials blinking in front of your eyes. It is a wonder we can focus on anything at all in this society.

How can you manage your limited time , your precious time, your only available time, with dozens of distractions constantly assaulting your mind. Our minds must be lit up like a switchboard  and not in a good way.

More on this tomorrow.

 

Being the kind of person who loves to be in groups and do something new , I sign up for jobs like that. I love making it up and having a body of people around me to make it happen. What was once a dream , a whim, a desire, a hope is now an full blown into reality event. Events for me are intoxicating. I love the panic and the work and the meetings and the planning and the execution and the cleaning up the mess after. The reason I love it instead of dread it is one thing I realized one day.

The best part of life is problem solving. We get bored with everything going perfectly well and safe and tidy.

the wild love is in the chaos of problem solving.

Painters are problem solving all day long.What is the next brush stroke going to be. What color. How thick or thin, Where is this thing going.

A real artist does this . I don’t care who you are. If you are an artist you don’t have a clue what you are going to do till  you do it. That is EXCITING!

Events or Poems or Paintings are all driven by the same thing. Courage to just move your body in the direction of what you want. You don’t have to know anything first. In fact knowing nothing is sometimes best as you might come up with a new way to do something and not just rely on what worked before. Not just doing what worked before is the most challenging and scary and fulfilling and necessary thing in any creative endeavor.

 

 

 

 

When you encounter a really good painting it will sit with you and make its mark. That mark is its weight.

Every masterpiece has this weight  and that is why you may feel so tired when you have seen a lot of them in a short amount of time. It is not a bad weight that will be sad and tired but instead the kind of tired when you are exhausted from running a long way. A good full satisfied feeling.

Our souls yearn for beauty and meaning and understanding .

I am pretty sure that is why God made us with the ability to make art.

When we are in the presence of a really great design or dance or music it does leave a mark.

On your soul

It is a thumbprint

And you will never be the same.

 

I used to read Gertrude Stein Books. I love how written is written. She must have been the original stream of consciousness writer. The title of this blog is from one of her books.

I love how she mixes up the words and repeats them and doesn’t make sense sometimes in the literal understanding but her writing spoke to me on another level. She was a painter brain who used words to paint with.

What we respond to in this life is the only way we know what to do with out our time. A dentist is a dentist because he loves teeth and little tiny movements. A writer loves to look at words and make them grow into stories, A builder loves to watch skylines evolve.

We all respond to something and it feels good and we pick it and it becomes our life and our identity and our destiny forever,

Everybody picks something.

We pick  something then we give it away to anyone who will take it. We need someone to take it, see it , read  it buy it need it. We need someone to need us to be alive.

 

I think when you know what you have is not about keeping but about giving it makes it easier to  pick the right thing,

Sometimes it is easy to get frustrated with the quality of work you are doing and feel like you have done this same painting too many times and your begin to not see it anymore. Numbness sets in and you cannot hear what to do next.

That is a perfect time to do something completely different to wake up your brain and relax it at the same time,

When you depend on a constant source of ideas to keep streaming because that is your job in life, and those ideas seem to choke… you have to have a plan, a habit. a go to place where you can get going again. Freaking out and getting depressed and afraid that you have lost your mojo is a normal reaction. Even when you know this fact, I think you can still slip into the panic stage . It is sort of like a car wreck. It catches you by surprise and you are dazed for a little while.

So that was happening to me this month. This is the pattern. First the chocking, then the self talk about what a scary thing it is to choke then the self talk about why are you even calling yourself an artist then the depression then the withdrawal and more depression then the deep sadness then the anger then the more freaking out then the starving then the panic. Oh it goes on but you get the idea.

Even though I know all these tricks to keep going there was one missing element. i needed someone to remind me that I have been here before.

That is why creativity groups are invaluable . They can keep you from drowning.