My friend The Purple Owl says:
Getting creative ideas is not something you do.
It’s something you allow to happen.
My best ideas for solutions often come with time; they rarely present themselves immediately.
For instance, in Chris Price’s Painter Lab at the Digital Art Academy, the first week’s assignment this fall was to paint bold.
What is my bold? I asked me…
- In Pilates, bold means reaching further, standing taller, stretching beyond myself.
- Bold is drama, strong color, size of brush stroke on canvas…
- It’s running ahead on the trail to be first to discover what’s around the bend…
- It’s publicly declaring my intentions, my goals, my purpose, holding myself accountable to all who hear…
- And sometimes, for me, it’s as simple as exploring something different.
So, a week later in The Lab, I picked up the brushes (translate that Painter X and Wacom Tablet brushes), opened a canvas and started painting. This day my bold turned out to be not colors or large brush strokes, but the doing something different, with perhaps a bit of drama.
What took form was a box. A small one, the kind our grandmothers might have kept on the dresser top for little things. My grandmother’s held brooches, and matched her hair brush set.
I don’t know if the face is a reflection or part of a memory. I think it’s a memory, because even though I haven’t finished the painting, my mind sees a woman’s partial profile to the left and just above the box. Perhaps she is also a reflection — from the mirror above the dresser…
Okay — it’s weird, but there you have it. We were in Chris’ Lab after all… and he throws out ideas that take some brewing time before pouring out.
What is your bold? 
Barb
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Glad my post got you thinking. Yes, ‘stewing’ as you say is a good way to get ideas rising to the surface. (I did have the idea of calling my site ‘Purple Owl’s Idea Kitchen’ at one time!! )
Your ‘bold’ painting I find atmospheric and eerily evocative with the reflected eyes. That certainly bubbled up from your subconscious!
I do find ‘sleeping on it’ particularly effective, not only for dreaming up ideas but for finding practical solutions. Once upon a time in the dawn of the net, I had a go at writing Basic code. One night I got in a frightful tangle, with nested ‘if, then, else’ commands all hopelessly jumbled together. I wrestled with the problem until about 2.30 am and in the end just had to go to bed from exhaustion, even more muddled than when I started.
In the morning I woke with everything neatly arranged, the code about a quarter the length and complexity of the night before.
That painting is well, what Valerie said, I can’t say it better
My bold is putting my life out there on my blog I guess and sometimes that scares the heck out of me.
Anita
Hahaha! It is eerie, I know. That’s what happens when you doodle-sketch. See how bold I am putting it here for you all to see?
I’m right with you, Anita… I’ve read much of your blog(s) and you’re more than bold. You’re courageous. And a beautiful serendipity of your courage is how many people you help.
Valerie, I love your story. I feel that I’m back in math or science labs with your if… then… statements. Or figuring out how, a few years ago, to do anything with the formulas in Lotus. Never mind how to write the program! I bow to you…
Umm, will have to sleep on that for a while! But I was also considering a post on ideas: seems to be in the cyber-air
Lets see when mine materializes – today, or later.
I like how your box looks at once curved, showing the outer surface, and flat – as if its been cut open to show the inside.
Now that’s interesting, Sonya — I hadn’t seen it both ways, but I do now. I’ll watch for your post on ideas taking form…
Barb – I love that weird, bold, interesting painting. I love anything transparent – symbolically and literally – and also things inside of things – if that makes sense.
You do make sense, Adele, because I know you a bit from your own blog. Life has substance beyond any surface… and it’s open to exploring if we only will.
That’s why I love poetry and literature… I often write out a paragraph or a just a line or two in my journal because they take my mind on a little hike. Paintings and drawings do the same…
Thanks for your comment.
{ 1 trackback }