Tag Archives: ideas

The Doodleslice Doodle Manifesto

Stultorum Calami Carbones 2014-01-22

I wrote this about a month ago originally thinking that it might be about four or five items in length. It’s now up to 37 and counting.

The Doodleslice Doodle Art Manifesto

1) Lines are movements, let them dance.
2) Accidents are beautiful.
3) Overworked is the enemy.
4) Over-thought is the enemy.
5) Smiles and laughter are not just important, they are noble, elevating, aesthetic experiences.
6) Respect the integrity of your chosen media, embrace the quirks of your chosen media.
7) Experiment!
8) Practice acceptance.
9) Respond!
10) Improvise!
11) Let people see what you make especially the pieces that make you nervous.
12) Art is Love for everybody.
13) We make art on Earth. We are Earthlings one and all and only one planet is open for business.
14) Choose Mudita over Schadenfreude.
15) Glory in color.
16) Strive to bring the feeling of color even when using only a black pen on white paper.
17) Even a single line can be beautiful.
18) Even a single line can be profound.
19) Your hand knows its business – don’t be too swift to judge it when it surprises you.
20) Doodling is openness to the essential.
21) When in doubt, draw a bird.
22) When in doubt, draw a bunny.
23) When in doubt, write a word in the middle of the page. Love is a great word to choose.
24) Believe in every line you draw.
25) When in doubt, be simple and spare.
26) When in doubt, be complex and turbulent.
27) When in doubt about starting, make a single random mark on the canvas or page.
28) When in doubt about finishing, stop and walk away. If you’re not finished you’ll know it when you come back.
29) Poems love doodles and doodles love poems.
30) Grownups deserve art that is joyful without being jaded, mawkish, ironic or saccharine. They need it at least as much as kids do.
31) Give yourself permission to put your whole heart into what you do.
32) Give yourself permission to love the silly, the whimsical, the absurd.
33) Hug unreservedly.
34) When in doubt, draw!
35) When certain, draw!
36) Draw! Draw! Draw!
37) And don’t forget to post.

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The wrong post – I made myself write

I came, I saw, I doodled
Ok, I admit it, this one is a force. A bit of sheer will applied to the keyboard. It’s been almost a month since my last post and that’s just not how long I want to go between posts so I’m giving myself a guilt trip.

Or maybe it’s an ego trip.

You see I have this thing. I like to feel clever – it feels good to write a post where you feel you shared a great idea or pointed out some cool observation. I try not to be smarmy about it… or falsely modest either: I believe that on my good days I’ve got something worthwhile to say, don’t we all? But that’s the trap isn’t it? That sneaky bit of self-indulgence wrapped up in the word worthwhile, that’s what gives me these frustrated moments sitting and staring at the screen, trying to come up with something that’s blog-worthy. Yeah, really, “blog-worthy” – like that’s even a thing. Yecch.

Usually this is where the browser opens up and I let the web distract me away into oblivion – excusing myself for not writing with a shrugging “at least I tried.” But really, I gave up – I let the words get too hard, put too much pressure on them, got caught up in importance and meaning. I lost touch with the idea that these words can be playthings. Oh just give me a limerick! A bit of badinage, a freeform stream-of-conscious romp through alleys of artful, alliteration. Give me a stumper – any old excuse to run to the dictionary. Give me a crossword, an acrostic, challenge me to Scrabble! Those are words having fun!

So why do all the cool, fun, tongue-in-cheeky bits of language evaporate into thin air when it’s time to write the blog? Are they sucked into the cooling fan of the computer? Are they secretly meeting behind my desk plotting to dangle a participle? These words that could be here doing their job, are they experimenting with some exotic punctuation? “…but Dad all the cool vowels are getting umlauts this year…” Are they in the closet trying on fonts to see which ones make their ligatures look fat? Why do the words abandon me just when I need them most?

Because they’re hanging out with all my ideas.

Seriously, it’s past curfew – time for at least one idea to come home and shout “I’m here!” and then eagerly pop out on the screen and say “I’m sorry I kept you waiting, let’s get to work now.” It doesn’t even need to be a good idea. Rejoice! The prodigal idea returneth!

But I guess it’s just going to be one of those nights where the ideas stay out until dawn drinking with their no-good buddies, the concepts. No doubt, tomorrow I’ll think of a bunch of great posts. Posts ideas that are really worth your time, filled with sage advice and clever quotable passages. Inspired concepts for life changing posts that could solve the energy crisis and bring species back from the brink of extinction. But I’ll probably forget to jot those down.

So for tonight all I’ve got to say is that I stepped up to bat and took a swing. I saw it through. I checked in. I did the writing. 583 words to say I was here. I think tonight that will just have to be enough.

Veni, Vidi, Scripsi.
(I came, I saw, I wrote)

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