Bees and Brains

There is something intriguing about a woman looking down in a painting.  When I see one I wonder, “What is she thinking?  Where is she at?  Is she sad?  Is she peaceful, accepting, submissive, just daydreaming?  What is going on in this picture?”  These questions are a very important part of the creative process, as well as the viewing process.  When we look at something we cannot appreciate it without questioning it.  Otherwise, we’re just glancing and making snap judgements.  This is what our brains do, if we don’t ask them to do something else. 

We’re categorizers by nature.  We see something and immediately our brain says, “Oh, pretty woman.  Put that in the pretty woman box.  Lovely flower.  Smells good.  Put that in the flower box and the good smell box.  There’s a bee.  Run!”  Asking questions forces our brains to stop and play.  And brains really do like to play!  Maybe not when they see a bee, because they’ve already seen bees and they’ve got the memory of the stinger stored, not in a box, but hung in a glass case on a front brain wall with a little silver hammer hanging next to it.  When brains see bees, red lights flash and sirens scream and if we don’t do anything to calm our brains down, they will break the glass on the bee case and before we know it, we’re halfway down the block. 

That’s how brains work.  It’s what they do day in, day out.  Judge, categorize and sort.  Nice, pretty things get stored in nice pretty boxes in the back of the brain closet.  Ugly, smelly things go in front of those.  And scary, hurtful things?  We put those right out front in glass cases, each with their own hammer, color-coded light, and siren.  It gets rather tedious, really.  So, give your brain a little break from the monotony and ask it some questions. 

Artists, writers, musicians, actors, architects, inventors all must ask questions.  It is the essence of the creative process.  Questions can drill holes in writer’s block.  Questions can inspire and motivate.  Are you a procrastinator?  If you’re like me you’ve had the same goals on the stove for years, but haven’t really moved any towards realizing them.  They’re there.  You see them.  Maybe they even hurt your stomach a little because you really want to achieve them, but you haven’t.  Why not?  We don’t know why.  I don’t.  Time goes by and it gets used up, or I just waste it.  

Sometimes, the goals seem so overwhelming that we really don’t believe we can achieve them.  Yet, we see others with less “talent” doing the things we have always dreamed of.  How can this be?  What have they got, that we haven’t?  These are questions we could ask, but they don’t really move us towards our goals.  The most important question I’ve ever asked myself is, “What one thing can I do today to move me towards my goal?”  What ONE thing?  What one thing can you do today to move towards your goals?  Buy a paintbrush?  Sweep the garage?  

I’ll tell you some of my one thing answers next time.  I’m going to go back to the “woman looking down” thing, too.  Today, I just wanted to show you a sketch I did for my upcoming painting.  I used a number 2 pencil on a piece of computer paper.  I haven’t decided on the dimensions of the painting yet.  I usually try to keep my heads life-sized, or smaller, but we’ll see.  I’m still asking myself a lot of question about this painting and what I want it to say.  We’ll go into this next time, too. 

In the meantime, read Lucianno Passuelo’s “Ten Best Ways to Harness the Power of Questions” for excellent insight on how to play your brain. 

Till then! 

Kim

Kimber Scott Fine art and Graphics

http://kimberscott.blogspot.com/