In Search of the Very
Just searching for the good stuff .
Whimsical Wednesday
I have found that doing these daily drawings of mine is both blessing and curse. The discipline of it is so good as a practice. It helps me connect with art, pen and paper, building muscle memory to tap those creative impulses regularly. But I’m also running out of good ideas. Rather than finding my mind to be an expansive inner space, I find instead, that it is shrinking. My mind keeps falling to the same visual patterns instead of reaching for the untried. I’ve hit a proverbial wall.
But what if that wall is a door? A locked door isn’t a dead end. It doesn’t have to be anyway. A locked door is full of possibility. There is something about being denied access that gets the creativity flowing. Imagination goes wild! So onward I go … through hallways and doors into the bright corners of my mind.
Today was 166 consecutive days.
The key is to keep going.
Suggestions welcome!
Below is a small compilation.
Thank you for all the ❤️ and encouragement
16 Comments on “Whimsical Wednesday”
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Where I’ve Been
Thanks! That was one of those drawings that got more involved as the morning went on. I love when it happens organically like that.
Very nice, Bonnie! I especially liked the one with the windows opening.
I honestly have only praise for your drawings and your determination. It is true that we do what we love to do most easily. Keep developing a love affair with your impressive and varied skills. And thank you for sharing. Ann
Thank you so much, Ann. And I must say that it’s nice that you remind me to keep developing my love affair with life. Life is so … big, so full sometimes.
They changed something about leaving comments on here. I have just a little square to write in. So weird.
Anyway, your project deserves the highest praise. It will continue as long as it lasts. You will know. I love it that you find a door to compare your situation to. Maybe an idea is to expand your quotes to bloggers – use sentences from blog posts that you read and like. All well.
Thanks, Manja* I’m hoping for a full year. Inspired by you, I may have to look for some more doors!
You keep coming to the page… your Muse will do the rest…*
My muse has never let me down. Thanks for the reminder *
I think you’re amazing. It’s very hard to keep to a discipline—any discipline. And daily comes around really fast! If I were doing it, I would probably do it like I do Wordless Wednesday: what is the single thing that struck me this week? Or when I was doing a daily walk in the woods: watching for one standout. The quote thing is hard though! Because you have to match the standout with a quote and then with the art, or vice-versa; both/and! Hence, you are amaZing. (This week’s Wordle answers might make a good visual!)
Thank you. The discipline of it has been really good for me. The results aren’t always great, but the “doing it” is what matters. I like the idea of one standout thing. Maybe I should draw my crazy dreams!
I love these so much, as you know. I can imagine the blank wall is daunting, but also just a little quiet sitting will bring more ideas – especially near a mountain or waterfall or refuge. I have a file full of quotes. I assume they need to be short. Not sure if these are visual enough. Some you may have used already.
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn Sylvia Plath: “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” “…I will grab myself and hurl onward through life, blind as a bat, but on I go! – Elizabeth Strout, My Name is Lucy Barton Sometimes it take you a long time sound like yourself. – Miles Davis “…let me think clearly and brightly; let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences…” ~Sylvia Plath. Everything will be okay but you have to be okay with everything – Black Bach “That heartbreaking moment when you finish an amazing book, and you are forced to return to reality.” Grace Paley “You have all the time in the world, but don’t waste a moment.” Ram Dass, Grist for the Mill: Awakening to Oneness Paul Klee “a drawing is simply a line going for a walk” “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” ~Desmond Tutu “The earth has music for those who listen.” Santayana Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. -John Muir Improvement makes straight, straight roads, but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius. William Blake “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”—Lao Tzu We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. MLK
Thanks for continuing on!!!!!!!
These are great, Nancy. Thanks for sharing some ideas. So many good quotes and possibilities. Some mornings I’m stumped … just like Miles Davis says!
These would all be wonderful as cards!
What a great idea! (At least some of them). Hard to imagine an occasion for most 😊
I think you are already doing great. I look forward to them every day but realize how difficult it must be on some mornings with a blank sheet in front of you. I always admired those writers with a daily beat or the political cartoonists that are so amazing at setting the tone politically like Mike Luckovich, Barry Blitt, and others.
What a monumental task. I know you try to avoid political news because it is something worth avoiding for sure, but maybe a couple days a week you can provide us with the results of your talent and inspiration by visually expressing the absurdities of the day.
Thanks so much! I have dipped into the political events a little, but politics aren’t the only current events. I need to remember that. That said, there are always plenty of absurdities to respond to! Thanks for being such a loyal reader!