Where Do (Good) Ideas Come From?
Where Do (Good) Ideas Come From?
At my last open studios I had a table covered in drafts, sketches, doodles, and scribblings. It was called 'Where Do Good Ideas Come From?' and it proved very popular - I think partly because people enjoy seeing what goes on ‘behind the scenes’.
The smaller image seen below is a print taken from a small linocut - an early attempt at visualising a leaf as some kind of map, or a series of pathways?
It’s a simple design, nothing special on its own, yet it led me to the larger drawing - which is loosely based on the furrows in the fields, and rows of veggies at Sutton Community Farm. I imagined this map to have magical properties, and if you could figure out how to trace the lines on the land, something spectacular would reveal itself (whuh...?).
A version of the larger drawing appeared in the centre of my SpellBound book, a 20 page concertina fold out, full of patterns and more imagined magic, based on local woods, parks, and farmland. The contents of the book emerged from a series of experiments, playing with patterns, and seeing how different tools and materials interact with one another. Curiosity at work.
The finished article took many hours to make - and the cutting room floor was littered, both with failures and successes. Many of the sweepings from the floor went on to feature in the work I’m doing now. Persistence in practice.
Where do (good) ideas come from? I think they come from simply doing the work.
In conversation with Sharon Green about getting started, I noted:
It often feels tricky to find time, to start, but five minutes here and there, and we're off. I read elsewhere about someone struggling to begin an important project. The importance seemed to be acting as a drag weight - inhibiting the start, the commencement. Two quotes were offered into the mix as potential ways to lessen that weight...
“Nothing happens until something moves” A.Einstein
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" P. Picasso
I notice I am capable of coming up with a million thoughts and reasons why something else needs to get in the way, yet the feeling of just sitting down and doing the work, can be very freeing. This little doodle, which emerged as I idly waited for something to start on the telly last night - is already generating ideas for a workshop happening tomorrow.
Be curious, start something, keep going.
An extract from SpellBound: Slight Return, published by Colossive Cartographies