Y’know when you hear about a new thing, then you hear about it again within a really short time, and you think:
Hey, Universe, are you trying to tell me something here?
Well, this week I’ve read in more than 2 places the suggestion of freeing up your creative mojo by drawing freestyle, playing about at mark making, with your non dominant hand. It kicks the brain into action in a way doing the usual things in the usual way just can’t.
So with some degree of awkwardness I set about some cack-handed doodles. Scribbles. Scraping of pencil across page.
Not pretty, not descriptive, but after a bit of warming up the eye-brain-hand coordination came together a little better and it did at least begin to look and feel a bit more deliberate. And it’s only a first layer. With some more colour it’s already becoming much more backgroundier.
There it goes, merging behind, blending away.
Some collaged layers begin to add structure and I’m back to my usual right-fisted chaos. But…….
The other reason I’m posting these stages is to make the point that pages can go through really ugly phases; totally scrappy and uncohesive. I mean really, really URGH. Really WTF is going on, ‘I honestly thought I could make pretty, creative, loveliness…. then I go n do this thing and it’s just so… just so… I can’t even look at it….’ <sob>
The key to getting through this is to keep on going! Don’t stop here!! It’s just a phase. It’s easy to get despondent looking at such an incoherent ugliness. It’s a shambles. But it’s only a shambles at the moment.
It’s a very rare art that can’t be pulled back from the edge of ugly in some fashion or other.
I’ll be back tomorrow with how this got saved, there is ART after URGH.
Mixy's Art Blog 
ha, yes, non-dominant hand means the neurons take over and they know a lot…sometimes i take photos of un-finished paintings as they go thru stages…but i never wind up keeping the whole set..too much confusion later
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ah that universe, now it speaks to me…I had just attempted the “art journal”/sketchbook thing again after pushing it away for ages/years…and managed to produce nothing but URGHH…which immediately caused the “why T.F. am I bothering with this, it never works for me” flinging in disgust across the room (er, table…) reaction. Guess I should find it and some patience and try, try, again!
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Totally! Keep on going, paint over it, collage on it, cut bits out…. Have fun playing! Or put it aside and come back I a few days and see how it looks then. I’ve found some beauty in the ugliest messes after they’ve been left alone a while.
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I love this post. I’m not an artist, but I am a struggling writer. Your words about how the ugliness is just a phase rang so true to me. I often find that in my writing, too. I will end up somewhere I didn’t expect to be and discover all in my story or essay is ugliness. And I have to remind myself: “No. Keep going. It’ll get better.”
Thanks for sharing this!
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Thank you too…. I hadn’t thought of it in terms of writing too, but of course you are right now I think about it. I’m more of a visual creator, but when I use words to express myself I often have to lay them out then hack away to ‘pretty it up’ or make myself more clear to understand.
There’s such cross over in all these mediums.
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