It seems to me I’ve become a hoarder of ideas – stacking them up in precarious piles. They are almost pretty to look at – lots of color, texture, tone and contrast. I have stacks of papers, notebooks, sketchbooks, photographs and file folders (real and virtual) full of ideas, notes and lessons learned in various areas of art and writing.
There is a comfort in having all those things waiting for me. The stacks of books and notes make me feel I have potential and am productive and creative but there is a shadow side – they also represent what I haven’t done, broken promises, faded ideas…
I can see now that I have not been doing much with all my knowledge other than creating something occasionally and admiring those stacks for their potential.
It would be more rewarding and fulfilling to translate and transform those ideas into “things”
To give them life.
To take a few lines scribbled on a piece of paper and manifest a poem.
To take a sketch and some idea fragments and translate them into a mixed media piece.
To gather my story ideas and transform them into a book .
And so on.
It is about translation and transmutation. Alchemy. Magic. Turning thoughts into objects.
This week (maybe for the rest of this year) it is about lost and found ideas and putting some of them into action and form.
And just maybe
about practicing magic.
Oh Deb, how well I can relate! I’ve binders and scribblers and journals and napkins and index cards and so seldom a finished piece. It all sits on a shelf and beats me up.
But just now it occurs to me I should create a shelf of finished work–my own, work I’ve helped others complete, pieces unpublished but completed.
How about a challenge? I’ll send a photo of my completed works to post and you can post yours.
Anyone else up to the challenge?
Your clay piece is amazing–
Fenna – thanks for your supportive comments.
I’m thinking about what that shelf could look like – the “shelf of accomplishment”.
It might take a while to get it looking good. More magic.
Over the next few weeks I will report in on my progress with the transformation of thoughts into objects.
I look forward to seeing your acts of transformation.