Life in Neutral
I have not mentioned this concept in a long time, but it is still ever-present—I am a major metacogitator. Metacognition is a big word for a simple thing—thinking about how you think. The fact is that I also do a lot of thinking about how other people think, too. I did go ahead and squirt out dabs of paint onto a palette last week and made a start on the floral alphabet tutorial videos.
Painting and drawing are prime time for metacogitating for me, but painting, especially so. Swishing brushes around in the water, dabbing them in the paint, mixing them on the palette, smearing or dabbing paint on the paper, watching the colors form an image—I would describe it as a very engaged meditative state. It is very calming in one way, but very brain-active in another. One layer of my thoughts is analyzing the materials and my hands, trying to figure out how to recreate what I am seeing on the video, while other layers are wandering off into thinking about how the creative urge seems to be hard-wired into humans.
The more you pay attention, the more you see that humans want to leave a mark, whether it is to decorate or embellish the world around them or simply to leave something of themselves— like all the writing that appears on bathroom walls. Historically, people have gone to great lengths to add color to their lives and to create things around them that not only serve basic functions, but do so in an expressive or decorative way. Not surprisingly, much of the ornamentation was related to religious or spiritual aspects of life. I read a quote recently about creativity coming from the Creator, and it rang true to me.
I have also read several things recently about how dull and homogenized our world is becoming. I have seen illustrations of how we used to have very colorful cars and now the palette is very limited. Look around the next parking lot you find yourself in, and you will see this is true. Then there are the neutral interiors we have all been pushed toward for many years. Whether it is in our homes or in public spaces, variations on white, brown, and black—that would include beige and grey, are everywhere now. Last week, I saw a post on Instagram of a woman’s kitchen where she had painted her cabinets royal blue and had papered one wall in a huge-scale, colorful floral. You could say people were freaking out in a very negative way over her design choices. Why?
I have only painted the one flower in two weeks, and I am acutely aware of this. My metacogitation says it is because time spent on screens could use for being creative. Oh, there is also work, home maintenance, tending to animals, and other valid uses of time, but to be honest, dead-heading with a phone in my hand or in front of a TV are definitely time-sucks, and life-sucks if I am honest. I am thinking maybe screens are why we are becoming shades of beige and grey. The screens are distracting us to the point that our urge to be creative and expressive are withering. Maybe our spirits are withering, too. It sure feels that way sometimes when I find myself dully staring at my phone.