Next blog topic on the list?
That is actually a list that I set myself ages ago, in January 2016
The list has 449 blog-post topics and titles that came from a couple of brain-storm sessions when I felt creative.
I had just wondered what sort of things I could write blogs about. No particular order or reason for the sequencing. It was my brain quickly moving from one possible subject to the next. And 449 titles came out.
Of course, since January 2016 I have also written extra posts about topics that were not in the original sequence. They came up as news subjects and were included as and when something inspired them. But I revert to my 449 list whenever I sit down to write the next blog. So far I have written about the first 105 topics on the list.
The list was not worked out in any logical sequence.
I made it much too quickly. Just subject after subject with no idea what the content would be. But when I look carefully I can see a bit of sequential logic after all. It was unconscious at the time. If such a thing as unconscious logic exists!
And today the list says that the next topic is ‘Door to Door’.
Selling art by knocking on people’s front doors. Does that work?
However I have already written a blog post about this nearly a couple of years ago.
See the link here… https://www.artpublish.com/door-to-door/
So I can ignore that today. Because instead …..
This brings up the whole question of creativity again.
I recently wrote about that in the blog called ‘Right Brain Left Brain – creativity v logic’. Did you read that? Or did you read my earlier post just called ‘Right Brain Left Brain’?
In both of these blog-posts the question was whether we humans are two people at once.
This is not the famous ‘Men from Mars and Women from Venus’ dichotomy. It is more ‘Creativity versus Logic’. And what my list shows me is that creativity and logic are both part of my own mental process.
What I am doing here is constraining the creative process by using a list.
By setting myself the topic I can avoid the very big problem of ‘what to write about’. I am narrowing down the options. Instead I can just get on and write about whatever the subject, that has already been set, actually is. I can let my creative mind loose within the constraints of the subject.
Oh! But today maybe not that.
Here I am writing about the list and not about ‘Door to Door’.
The list issue started a different train of thought and creative outflow followed.
Creative outflow.
And is that how I paint pictures as well?
If I go out to my studio now to paint a new picture this is probably what would happen.
I would stand in front of a blank canvas and all I would have is a vague subject in mind. Then I just let my hands and eyes do what they like. Make some marks using up any old paint lying around. Get the abstract basics down. Explore the size of the canvas. Establish a horizon maybe. Is it green or is it red? Maybe 80 to 90% of the painting could be done before I say to myself…’Hey this looks like ….’ or whatever.
You can see a couple of videos of my painting technique here.
That is a creative process without much in the way of a logical set plan. It works by harnessing those ‘happy accidents’ that always occur. Creativity is inspired.
However, writing these blogs is usually a bit more like sketching plein-air outdoors. Here I would have deliberately gone outdoors to somewhere specific. The subject is already established.
Plus the size of the product is the same each time. It is within the limits of a sketch book page. It is a logical discipline imposed by the preset constraints.
Conclusion.
In blogs my self-imposed aim is 800 words give or take on a preset topic.
Today I have written just about 700 so far. But they were not about ‘door to door’. Today is rather similar to the plein-air sketcher who turns round and paints something in the opposite direction. And so they create something different to the obvious reason why they went to that spot to paint.
Did you see my blog post about outdoor painting? Click here.
I have written 105 blogs at a rate of about one a week. That leaves 344 titles to go. It this rate it will take six and a half years before I need think up a new subject. I will be 85 years old.
And I have just shown myself that I can ramble on about anything. It has been very interesting for me writing these 825 words because I didn’t know what todays blog was going to be about either.
