🛑🅵🅾🅲🆄🆂🛑 and The Confusionally Overwhelmed!
Confusion cancels clarity. Confusion cancels creativity. Contemplation cancels confusion. Clarity creates creativity!
Before we commence the post, here’s a quick shoutout to my top 5 subscriber countries!
(It goes without saying, a huge thank you to everyone across the 35 countries!)
🇺🇸 United States: 94 readers.
Cream of The Crop is read across 31 US states. Thank you! I’ve been to Chicago and NYC and thoroughly enjoyed both visits. I look forward to exploring your country more, I’ve applied to an exhibition in Athens, GA, so let’s see if that works out! 🤞
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: 30 readers.
My home country, I thank you! 🎩 ☕
🇮🇳 India: 9 readers.
I’m yet to visit your vast and beautiful country. I shall do some day. I have contacted The National Gallery of Modern Art about an educational collaboration, so maybe this will be the opportunity?!
🇦🇺 Australia: 7 readers.
I went to Perth, WA back in 2002 to visit my uncle Alan with my mum (Cannington, WA was where he lived). What a beautiful city Perth is! Naively, I said to my mum I’d drive her across to Sydney one of the weekends we were there, only to find out that it would be a 40+ hour drive! I could drive from Swindon to Edinburgh and back about 4 times!
🇳🇬 Nigeria: 5 readers.
I’ve heard many wonderful things about your country. I will be sure to visit someday. I would like my daughter to visit many different countries with us, gaining new perspectives and learning about other cultures.
On to the post…
I was listening to Rick Ruben’s podcast and came across this methodology called “Gene Keys” which has some link to the ancient Chinese divination text, the I Ching. I'm not going to delve into it in this post, but what I will say is, my shadow was revealed as 'Confusion'.
What is a Shadow?
A challenge to surmount.
We’re all confused, aren’t we? Or is it just me?
Confusion leads to self-doubt.
Confusion leads to inaction.
Confusion leads to overwhelm.
Confusion leads to inertia.
Confusion leads to turning to comforting habitual behaviours.
I’m so confused I don’t know how to articulate what I want to say.
Access to ‘always on internet’ through our magic phone device has fried our brains, we don’t know which way to turn.
David Foster Wallace explained how we have become unable to consume any art slowly in this fast-paced world (or anything for that matter). This was pre-2008, before the mass adoption of smartphones! He knew!
Confusion. Distraction. Confusion. Distraction. Confusion. Distraction. Confusion. Distraction. Confusion. Distraction.
Practically the same thing in terms of not knowing where to lay the power of your focus.
There’s so much I have inside me that I want to articulate. It’s like a feeling of confusion in different areas from so many angles, intertwined with heavy self-doubt in many areas too. Confusional overwhelm is what I shall name it.
In terms of my art career, I must confess that I am quite confused about how to establish a professional livelihood. However, through my weekly art practice, you can see that I am progressively learning and taking steps towards this goal. Well, it feels that way at least.
I am still excited about my idea of creating an art exhibition whereby you are ‘forced’ to view the art for a sustained period of time. By forced, I mean permitting the viewer to slowly enjoy the art, by creating a space where longer viewing of art is accepted and encouraged. It will be in the whole context of the exhibition itself. I like to sit down and stare at a painting that I like but I see many people ‘skim reading’ the art, not really taking it in, or just taking photos to say they’ve been there.
What are your thoughts? Comment below.
So, my Shadow of confusion…
We are bombarded by so many messages nowadays, so much so, that it has become normal. What we don’t realise (well a lot of smart folks, like you, do) is that we take in every-single-thing we see and hear. This causes confusion via information overload. It might not be conscious, but it goes in somewhere. For example, I am so confused about going to the gym. It’s not that I don’t know how to use a gym, it’s more the conflicting messages I am bombarded with. I see muscly guys online and could either be motivated by them or deeply unmotivated within the same day. Then I read articles on how best to lift weights, and think I ‘should’ be doing this. Then I see yoga adverts and think “I should be doing that” as it’s better for my joints. Not to mention the minefield that is diet and supplementation, I won’t go there! All of these conflicting messages stop me from doing anything.
“Brain overload stems from a variety of factors, each of which arises from taking in new information. The mind has a limited capacity for attending to information at any given time and is inclined toward novelty in its environment.“
lesley.edu article
Last Thursday, I had 10-15 minutes spare between leaving work and picking up my daughter from nursery. So I pulled over in my car, set a 10-minute timer, closed my eyes and let the dust settle. It’s the best thing I could have done, as we had the best evening together. I was clear-headed and more present for her. So many of us are put off by ‘meditation’ as it’s just another thing we must try and ram into the schedule of our busy lives. What I am espousing is to do nothing, you don’t need any equipment, but you are responsible for uncovering the pockets of time for yourself so you can do nothing.
I think the moral of this story is twofold:
Consume less random crap.
Create contemplation time.
and remember…
Confusion cancels clarity.
Confusion cancels creativity.
Contemplation cancels confusion.
Clarity creates creativity!
Bye-bye for now!
This is so true Slart! I have found myself speeding up more and more. I need to make an intentional effort to slow down my reading and consumption.
I just read an essay by Sarah Fay about an art installation, I think it was a couple years ago perhaps at MOMA but not sure, where the artist sat at a table on a gorgeous red dress and didn’t move for 8 hours and people would go sit across from her and look into her eyes. Gorgeous! It was lined up out the door.
Very intresting and inspiring article. Thanks for sharing.
Regards
Uma