You were going to do some sketching today. Nothing big, just a few lines and a couple of experiments. But something else needed doing first. Tomorrow would be better.
I watch faces transfixed by scrolling screens in public spaces and think how strange it is — then realise I’m doing exactly the same. My use feels somehow more necessary, of course. It always does.
We watch other people make things. We save images of things we’d like to make. We buy the sketchbook.
We don’t open it.
From total beginners to artists with years of training — the pattern is the same. And it feels horrible. But this isn’t laziness. It isn’t lack of time or talent. The brain has learned that making things is risky — that putting a mark on paper means exposing something about who you are and what you’re capable of.
So it constructs reasons not to. Convincing ones. Every time, I fall for it and believe that tomorrow really will be different.
We need a fresh way of looking at things.
The @AnalogueProject exists for this exact moment. Not to inspire you. Not to teach you to draw. To create the conditions where making something becomes possible despite that voice.
#analogue #creativity #neuroscience #makingthings #LisaFeldmanBarrett
