A 5x3 Inch Slice of Heaven

A notebook?

Starting on a habit, or a hobby, or a blog post, or a school year: or an anything, is hard for me.

Beginning on anything that I haven’t proficient skill at is personally difficult.

Yet, watching productivity videos on ways to enhance your life with ‘one simple action’ is much, much easier—and, rather than watching these videos to apply their content to my life, deep down I know I watch them more for enjoyment of their glossy colors and high production value compared to any practical lesson.

After trying and (in my mind¹) immediately failing at many tactics akin to keeping a tiny notebook to jot down wandering thoughts, my brain built a disconnect between me and ‘Atomic Habits’ and productivity/focus hacks—this dissonance grew so large, in my head, to the point where I regarded myself subconsciously as totally non-changing in the sense of how well I can keep at something.²

Yet, with all this being said, I decided, a few weeks ago, directly opposite of what I would normally do, to finally pick up that fabled 5x3 inch ‘lil’ notebook.

And, even though I’ve barely made a dent in its pages, the notebook has been a true game-changer: before, I would have spontaneous ideas, whether it be for the blog, art, or anything else, then think about them for a while but never actually get to writing the ideas down because I simply forgot.

But after getting into the habit of writing down all those important, sudden thoughts that might lead to the creation of a new project, or post, or painting, I do not forget anymore.

The worst feeling in the world is forgetting what you were just thinking on, so, even if you felt as I did, I challenge you to understand your character is inherently fluid and thus always open to attempts to change it for the better.

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I was going to have a clever, intellectual-like lead-in to the section where I show all my journal entries as to not make it seem like I’m being vulnerable and sharing things just to share, but, what the hell, it’s show-and-tell now and I want my drifting thoughts and questions to be viewed by my readers. :)

(I’m only using the entries focusing on art because everything else is much less interesting.)

Journal Entries:

1. A painting could be composed of multiple, distinct styles of projecting an idea/image in the world.—Fauvism + Orphism, Dadaism + Impressionism, etc.

   Revolutionary music today is often an amalgamation of different genres to create one new, challenging style. Could the same apply for visual art?

2. A mockery of capitalist imagery: elongated smiles and contorted yellow faces surrounded by a supposedly picturesque scene in a picture frame.—spray paint?

   (Basically mocking the photos preset in picture frames at Homegoods—they’re nauseatingly happy.)

3. An impressionist/expressionist is constantly seeing what they can get away with next.

   

   La Mariée by Marc Chagall, 1912.

4. Sculpture of a melting canvas.

5. What is the color synthesis of emotions?

6. What is the most unrepresentative way to represent something in art?

   A certain apple may have an impressionist nature, so how do we represent that apple most unnaturally?

7. What is the simplest way to represent a person?

8. A portrait of someone using almost only fragments of their signature.

9. Franz Marc asked how does a horse see the world; so I ask how does a small child see the world?

   

   Two Horses by Franz Marc, 1913.

10. Ask people their biggest fear: make that the painting’s title and paint them based solely on that information.

Anyway, sharing time is over but get the notebook!

1. This means that I didn’t instantly pick up the habit—which is obviously a terrible, self-destructive mindset that I’m working on rejecting.

2. This is one of the steps to achieve depression in my mind: “You are and have always been the same, exact person.”