i used to have a complete neurotic thing about the fact that i tend to get bored more than most people. thankfully, i’m over that, although i’m still quite neurotic. then my friend told me that whenever she was bored as a kid, her dad used to tell her, ‘if you’re bored, you’re boring.’ this didn’t help me.
but the way i broke out of that cycle was by forcing myself to complete projects. and i began to realize that whenever i finished that sweater or embroidery that had been sitting in my room for months, i was filled with new ideas and projects. suddenly, i was filling up notepads with little scribbles and doodles that were just popping into my head.
most of my projects went unfinished because the boring and repetitive bits remained, and i didn’t want to do them. the thought of sewing up that whole sweater i just finished knitting seemed horrifyingly dull, so i just let it set and collect dust on my desk.
in The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron writes, “Remember, art is an artist-brain pursuit. This brain is reached through rhythm- through rhyme, not reason. Scraping a carrot, peeling an apple- these actions are quite literally food for thought. Any regular action primes the well… needlework, by definition regular and repetitive, both soothes and stimulates the artist within. Whole plots can be stitched up while we sew. As artists, we can very literally reap what we sew.” (p. 22)
it’s amazing, because it does work!
i spent about an hour today untangling a huge knot in a huge pile of mixed-up yarn, and as my hands were busy working on something that my brain didn’t really have to think about, i was suddenly inspired and crafty projects kept cropping up in my head.
if only i had realized this earlier, i could have spent more time finishing unfinished things and embracing those repetitive tasks i hate, and less time worried about frequent boredom.
no more sitting in front of the telly doing nothing, as there are so many things around my flat to be conquered! i love those little bits of time where i’m bored and have to go searching around my stuff looking for things that need to be completed or untangled or tidied. because it’s when my brain turns off that the craft turns on.
today i’ve been listening to al green and lionel ritchie. these two fine gentlemen have greatly helped the creative process even further.