I
often worry that children whose lives are filled with television, computer
games and extracurricular activities don’t have time to be bored. Without boredom, can they be creative?
My
friend, Laurie, told me of an idea that she heard on the radio. When you want to be creative but
pressure is blocking ideas, you start reading a page of the telephone book. After reading some of the names, one’s
brain relaxes and creative ideas happen.
The
other night, my daughter called on the phone after I was in bed. I got up and stumbled into the studio
to talk to her. While I was
talking and trying to stay awake, I spied some photos that I had taken in South
America. In this relaxed state,
the image just worked. By the time
I hung up the phone, I was filled with ideas enough to keep me working for the
next week. After I did a sketch of
my woman with vegetables, I started on a half sheet painting. It was progressing beautifully. Suddenly I knew I wanted to try it
again as a full sheet, with a simplified larger figure and fewer
vegetables. Here are the results.