Connections

After my last blog post, I had an email from a lovely lady who came on many of the painting holidays I used to tutor for Malta Art. She has since become a good friend and it's always good to hear from her. She overflows with creativity and bright ideas. She is commenting on the Quintessence series that I described last week....

"Such vitality expressed in your paintings, emanating from your zest for life.
This is you as I see you. In your paintings I see the expression of your love for life.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3521889/True-secret-success-Make-LOTS-mistakes-sounds-totally-crazy-uplifting-new-book-MATTHEW-SYED-argues-embracing-failure-improve-life.html

As I was reading the article above, I thought of what you said in your last blog;

I just sit and look at them for a while, until I see what they need. I sort them into three piles; one to throw away, one to work on a little and one that needs a lot of adjusting. Some get overworked or just messed up while I'm working on them. Some just sing right from the start.

Your blogs always inspire me and at the moment I need a kick in the proverbial to get me started. It's good to know that you need to fail to kick start."

I agree we often set the bar so high that we stifle ourselves before we begin - and we do it to ourselves, which really is a little crazy when you think about it. 

Carp

This brings me to the recent craze for adult colouring books, which is a very interesting phenomenon, isn’t it? Hundreds of (I wonder if it’s mainly women?) are carefully keeping inside the lines, filling in the colours and loving the calming effect it has on their senses.
It’s obviously a soothing reminds-me-of-childhood thing. And the results look quite professional because someone else drew the lines. The only personal choice is which colour to put where. It’s a good-enough method of switching off the hyperactive left brain and zoning out for a while. Time slips peacefully by, worries are diminished and there’s even a decent result to show for it.
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I did think of illustrating a saucy version myself, but – like most of my Bright Ideas – I was distracted by something else and somebody else did it instead. And made a packet, no doubt!

There is a theory that our consciousness changes and develops as we foster creativity. The more open we are to creative thoughts and activities, the more they flow into our lives. This puts us in touch with flashes of inspiration and insight that seems to come from nowhere.
Perhaps we really are all connected in a very subtle and natural way, much like the www. We are, after all, made from the same Stuff; recycled stardust that forms itself into humans or rocks or television sets. All mixed with the same water that has existed since the beginning of time. All breathing the same air.  How big an idea is that?

"Life's Rich Tapestry" mixed media 80 x 97 framed 750 euro

So, much like the Web, once we tune in to creativity we can pick up whatever we choose to resonate with. Insights flash out of that mass concentration like bolts of lightning. Whoever catches them has the chance to make them manifest in the world. Edison and Tesla were ‘warring geniuses’ who changed the world with their inventions, but in the article “Nikola Tesla vs. Thomas Edison: Who Was the Better Inventor?” DeGraaf told Live Science "If Edison hadn't invented those things, other people would have,"
 
Their inventions alone opened the door to the amazing innovations we have today.
 
The moral is  - If you don’t manifest your Bright Ideas, someone else will!
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Each manifested idea sparks another and another, not only for the creator, but for those who are touched and inspired by it. Creative thought is like lighting candles; if you keep it to yourself eventually it will burn itself out, but if you share it freely and light as many other flames as you can, the light spreads and grows brighter, even re-lighting your own spark if it begins to dim.