March 10, 2008

OK, so here’s how my creativity works: I get an idea in my head (could be very vague) and I let it rattle around a bit, either befriending it or kicking it to the curb… If I judge it to be a good idea, I pop it into my creativity funnel. (figuratively speaking, of course) As it gets more detailed and more precise, it moves down towards the neck of the funnel and readies itself for tangible expression. Generally there are several ideas traveling through the funnel at the same time… they are patient and wait for for their turn and don’t cause a bit of trouble. But if too many ideas enter the funnel or if I’m lax about expressing them, they cause a traffic jam of sorts and their trip to the neck of the funnel is slowed down… they get impatient and start bumping into each other and before I can turn around there’s a clump in my funnel.
And then nothing comes out.
The remedy? I have to do something so non-creative, so mind-numbingly boring, that the ideas have a chance to relax and stop struggling to get out. It’s as though they realize that there’s no chance they’ll make it out of the funnel anytime soon so they just back off. (sadly, some float backwards out of the funnel entirely and are lost forever) And so I better get started on some intense housework… cleaning the baseboards, dusting off the top of the kitchen cabinets, vacuuming lint from the refrigerator grate, and so on. The boring stuff :)
Here’s hoping I’m unclumped soon.


At the time, I didn’t intend to convert it into cross stitch; in fact, it wasn’t until about 6 months after I painted it that I began to think of it in terms of a potential chart.
So how’d the “me” wind up a “be”? Well, the original design was highly personal, and one I felt represented “me” at a particular point in time. I thought that in order to increase universal appeal, the “me” should be left off. However, I did want a single word that summed up the mood of the design, and I chose “be”. The title reflects the feeling and original intent of the piece (”it’s nice to be me”) and the statement on the back cover helps to tie it all together:








