Abraq ad Habra!

08.11.16

I particularly appreciate the results I get from blending the practices of wordcraft and image generation. Each aspect is given periods of "rest" while I activate the other and I find that my creative ingenuity is fully engaged unconsciously with the resting aspect even as my attention is focused on the active one. There seems to be an agreement between them to share my vesselhood.

I also find that individual concepts can flow with fluidity between the two languages. The alternating rhythm of engagement/disengagement is like the beating of my creative heart. Words and pictures together become a flow of sustaining energy, a source of new ideas based on the pairing of the two.

Such a pairing could as well be forged for other languages, and indeed it has: dance & music, music & lyrics, narrative & drama. For now, I choose a joining of visual & verbal, as the Internet is so well suited to the transmission of both. It offers a vehicle through which both are given equal weight; one is not subordinate to the other, like a caption subordinate to a picture or an illustration as secondary to a story. As a medium that carries both (as well as sounds, animations and videos), I would argue that each is enhanced, rather than suborned, by the other.

If you aren't familiar with and haven't already Googled the title phrase, I invite you to do so now and enjoy what you learn. If you are familiar with the phrase, I hope you share my delight in the ways it has been used. I employ it as an over-arching statement of what I do and I celebrate the wisdom of our ancestors that brought this understanding to us.

I'm finding that when images get stuck for me, I can often loosen them up by using words to bridge those troublesome gaps that refuse to pass the flow of visuals, and, as well, when verbal concepts become disjunct and unconnected, spending time on some imagery can span similar obstacles to the stream of understanding.

Doing this work uses the left half, then the right half of my brain, always opting for the least resistant avenue. This must be beneficial for integrating my thought processes, and it leaves a satisfied residue after "unsticking" a mental construct. When I find a relationship between thoughts and images it validates my search for their connection. It reinforces a faith in the Universe as a place of infinite relatedness. It satisfies my need to see an order that binds a chaotic world into recognizable patterns.

I was shown the concept of raindancing years ago as a means to get creativity moving again when stalled. When rain isn't falling, one can dance, which at least gives one something to do in the meantime, but I now realize that the dance serves this most crucial function: it forces one to focus on the dance rather than the absence of rain. In practical terms, it meant draw! or paint! or sculpt! anything! and don't try to evaluate the result. Allow the activity to spawn the creative "rain" being sought - it eventually arrives.

But the important part, as I now understand it, is to release the demand for rain, and attend to the dance. Rain will come in its proper time.

So when I allow myself to write, I relieve myself of the need to pump out another image, and when I craft pictures, I am similarly freed of the need to employ verbal means to speak on some subject. This allows my inner knowing some room to expand, after which my consciousness is made aware of the expanded knowledge and then finds appropriate verbal or visual expression.

I find joy in both activities, so when it's time to set one aside for awhile, I can become happily engrossed in the other, and I know that neither is ever in danger of being forgotten. This practice that I now undertake promises so much as it unfolds. The list of possible enhancements to the site is long, and many of the items on that list hold as yet unseen opportunities to explore my world & reflect it back.