This “Women can multi-task” thing… is it a myth?
This week, having at last got the leak and the re-plastering done, we are decorating the sitting room. I’d quite like to sit and do a lot of thinking about this art stuff really instead. In the olden days, my husband and I used to be able to paint a room in a day – or so it seemed. These days it seems to take weeks. My mind wanders in a satisfactory manner while I’m doing it though. I’m revelling in the intrinsic haptic response, and revelling in the fact I can still remember what that means.
But it’s not proper thinking. I’m sure there’s an element of sifting, sorting and filing going on up there while I grin like an idiot and paint. (Actually, that’s another thing… why is a 4” paintbrush SO much more pleasing to wield than a roller, which is my husband’s preferred method?) I can’t seem to do the proper thinking while I’m painting the wall.
For the proper thinking, I’m going to need to absent myself from distractions for a good stretch of time, much like I did with the songwriting. Find a cafe WITHOUT wifi and get on with stuff. I want to draw diagrams. I like diagrams. I am quite partial to the Venn diagram and the flow chart. They help me make connections, and interestingly, they help dispel myths.. The connections that I thought were there that turn out not to be at all! Another case of the Sketchbook Lie! I might make myself a different sketchbook out of tracing paper and layout paper. See what seeps through the layers. I might get out some graph paper… (just to colour in the squares probably, so don’t get all excited).
I think, what I REALLY need to do (as well as not keep using CAPS) is get all this bloody work up onto a wall somewhere. A big wall. So I can space it out and look at it properly. I want to sneak up on it unawares and go “Aha!”
I’d quite like some other people to take a look at it too. There are a lot of bits and pieces, little elements. I need someone to tell me that it all hangs together and makes some sort of sense. Or not.
Scary thought eh?
