Writing is taking off

I'm still painting, and working on woodcuts, but my writing, especially poetry, is taking off like a rocket. I've been able to write so much (several poems each week), that I've had two poems accepted for publication, One to Aunt Chloe, and one to Wolf Moon Journal. I have hopes that even more will get published, this year.

I cannot, and I will not, quiet the creative voice inside my head. It cries out to be heard. Sometimes it screams so loud it's frightening, though it shouldn't scare me. I mean, it's just me after all.

I need to make stuff!

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.
- Ray Bradbury

I think, for me, I'd rewrite the end of this quote to read, "You simply must make things." That's what I feel like, most days, wanting to create, create, create. Take a whole bunch of stuff and turn it into something ... new. That's not to say that it will always be unique, I wouldn't go that far. No, just to make new stuff, new for me, is fine enough.

One of my favorite ways to pass the time is to create abstract doodles. I pick up a pad of watercolor paper, a good black pen, fine point, and start. The first shape is always the key. It's the one that will guide me through the rest of the drawing. Do I want to draw rectangular shapes? Ribbons? Triangles? Circles? Or some mix of all of the above? Where is the muse telling to begin?

Once this first shape is drawn, then I'm committed. I begin to add smaller, similar or contrasting shapes, till I have a skeleton. At this point it's not necessary to fill every nook and cranny of the page, leaving not a single bit of negative space. As long as there's a balance and a focal point to the drawing, that's all that matters.

The last step is to add the flesh to these bones, little doodles that fill in the design, bringing it fully to life. A few rectangles here, a spray of triangles there. Maybe even tiny circles that grow like bubbles in water. Of course, I could go on, adding details and details, but at some stage I have to say, "Stop! I've done enough!" And then I put it away for awhile.

Some of these doodles I leave as is, just pen and ink. Others I color in, using either brush pens or actual watercolors. I'm even thinking of trying my hand at collaging a few.

I've truly begun to assemble a nice portfolio of these doodles, and I'll no doubt be adding to it over time. It's a never ending process, art, which is just like life.

Why do I create stuff?

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
(Scott Adams, American Cartoonist, b1957)

I'm always making mistakes. But that's okay, because we learn from mistakes. We learn what works and what doesn't. It's this learning that's a part pf being human.

Still, it's hard to admit that we make mistakes. To do so is to lose face with others. Yet, that's not so big a deal in the end. If we allow oursleves to both make mistakes, and admit to them, we free ourselves to try. And trying is one of the first steps towards growth.