“And now let us welcome the New Year. Full of things that have never been.” Rainer Maria Rilke
I’ve decided to sign up for the WordPress Post a week challenge. Those of you who have been following my posts are already aware that my writing is rusty. I’m going to approach this the way I begin a new sculpture. I start with a formless mass of clay. It’s ugly at first, then with focused shaping, something wonderful begins to emerge. Let us hope that’s what happens here.
Modeling the clay I use the the same fingers that are now moving across the keyboard. I’m even using some of the same muscles, connected to the same brain. The big difference here may be the origin of my writing. It doesn’t flow in the same way my sculpting does.
There has been quite a bit researched and written regarding our right and left brain function. A popular book with some artists for years has been “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: How to unlock your hidden artistic talents” by Betty Edwards. Of course the theory of brain lateralization is not that simple. I have neither the time nor the expertise to delve to deeply here.
I do believe my figurative art relies more on my emotional, intuitive “Right Brain,” and my writing is processed through my more logical, rational “Left Brain.” These two brain hemispheres do connect and we all use both sides. I have both a B.A. and B.S., however, I consider myself “Right Dominant.” And that is not to say that there is not creativity utilized in writing. At the moment, for me, that creative link to writing seems to be blocked. Unfortunately, today we are relying solely on my logical brain, the metaphorical equivalent of the clay lump.
I’ll be posting both my writing, and a sculpture taking shape for the next few weeks. Mastery takes practice, right? Can just the act of writing a weekly blog entry improve my writing? Do you think writing is a more logical or more creative process? Can making visual art and writing become synergistic? Will my sculpture change?
Barbara Melnik Carson 