I have always loved the idea of being a writer…a romanticism which I am sure is the result of some old black and white movie I watched when I was a kid. I can easily picture myself drinking rum in Cuba with Papa or in a jazz club in Harlem pondering the mortal coil with Kerouac; unfortunately I like the idea of being a writer much more than the actual practice and craft. If you have read my previous blog posts you will know that I had a rough time in school as a kid and was forever traumatized to hate writing in general and especially writing for public dissemination. Writing these blog posts sends my anxiety to 11 but, I have to admit that I have been enjoying the different ways that these writings, and particularly writing for a broad audience, forces me to use a completely different part of my brain and thus consider my work differently.
I have found that the exercise of writing these posts has carried over from when I leave my computer to when I return to the studio. I find myself trying to articulate my decisions and processes as I am working in a voice more tuned to a general audience; this in turn has lead me to have a deeper and more critical dialog with myself as I am working. I even have found myself thinking about how I approach my work with the quip, repeated by writing teachers since time, “write – edit – revise” but in my case it is, paint – edit – revise – edit – revise – edit – revise – project deadline: stop.
It is one thing to know something; it is completely different to explain it to someone else, particularly to someone outside of one’s discipline. For me, even when trying to communicate colloquially, it still takes a lot to try and slow down focus my ADHD to produce some form of cogent writing. As I go forward with these posts I hope that they are both clear and interesting posts that inform and entertain. If my posts stir ideas for readers, then that is success in my book…or blog in this case 🙂
-d
