“You have two brains: a left and a right. Modern brain scientists now know that your left brain is your verbal and rational brain; it thinks serially and reduces its thoughts to numbers, letters and words… Your right brain is your nonverbal and intuitive brain; it thinks in patterns, or pictures, composed of ‘whole things,’ and does not comprehend reductions, either numbers, letters, or words.”
— "The Fabric of Mind" by Richard Bergland
It is a hot and sunny day. I take 2 steps forward and 1 step back - or so it appears, but I am right where I want to be (and it's further along than I anticipated).
I have a long rectangular drawing to use horizontally and/or vertically. If you know me, you know, this appeals to my love for multi-faceted design solutions.
Yes, I forgot my drawing board and had to improvise using my Art Kit Box Top.
And yes, I'm still learning to capture and edit footage and have to remember to hold my iPhone horizontally. I have decided I am not letting 'perfection' be the enemy of progress nor the thief of joy.
Please bear with me.
I am working my way through what Betty Edwards refers to as the Initial Insight Stage of the Creative Process. I hear former students groan when I bring up her name, yet again, but I've yet to find anyone else describe the process any better. She uses Roger Sperry's 1981 Nobel Prize-winning right/left brain principles and Graham Wallas' Creative Process Model to illustrate behaviours of successful creatives to explain the back and forth dance that occurs between these two lobes of the brain.
1. Initial Insight (right brain dominates) ... We Are Here!
Wallas refers to it as the Preparation Stage but I prefer to ear mark what comes before this, as Betty does, where the spark of initial insight is acknowledged and referred to as something that when properly protected can later light up an entirely new entity and bring it into being ... that moment when our mind takes the leap forward with a new idea and we want to know if it's actually worth pursuing.
We need to withhold judgment if we're to check out every angle. It's still in an infant stage wandering aimlessly without motor muscle memory and seemingly without direction but there is a lot going on as the idea begins to take shape and we realize there are many directions to explore before knowing which is the one to move forward along.
AGAIN. We. Are. Here.
And things are messy ... intriguing but messy.
It's time to move forward in all the directions so we can see where they lead ... and we're brought down the proverbial 'rabbit hole'.
2. Saturation (left brain dominates)
we dive in and do our research ... and we are thorough
and exploring each and every corner, crevice and ... well you get the picture AND
once exhausted, we begin the next stage,
3. Incubation ... EUREKA / AHA Moment (right brain dominates) and we then have to do the hard work to put all the parts fit together
4. Verification (left brain dominates). Doing the Work!
If you've read this far, toss a bee into the comments.
So far, it's a thoroughly Right Brain experience without rules nor concern for any particular outcome. Right now, I'm happy to have a visual on the page I believe I can work with and I've happily headed home to work further on it using roof deck tomatoes and online resources as reference material.
I will soon be diving down the Saturation rabbit holes and learning how to use the proper apps and adding better sound effects and text that makes more sense ... oh - and proper lighting.
Thanks for coming along with me on my YouTube 'show' with a bit of 'tell' on the blog.
I'm happy. I have a composition that I can use right-side up, upside down and sideways. That's enough, for me, for now.
Dizzying. I know.
But fun - right!
Verification to Come: I will eventually do a painting of the tomatoes using this composition. I still need to test out my new watercolours and do some colour studies and decide on a light source. For those who've made it this far - let's see 2 bees (or not) ...