"Artistic" Strengths

This morning I dreamed I was given a writing assignment. It's hard to remember all the different parts, but there were certain elements that, as per the assignment, had to be included in this work. Like, this one dwarfen race... that's all I can remember.

Rising to the dream challenge, I constructed a perfectly good story (emphasis on 'constructed'), and I was pleased with the result. Then, my brother old Jordan told his version. What appeared/was told was an elegent rhyming number, all the required elements beautifully incorporated, and I sat stunned. I looked around to see where his notes were, but there was nothing, no process involved, just a fully formed masterpiece.

Waking up I was glad to know it was all just a dream- however the lesson I choose to take from this is a reminder of my creative limitations. I tend to look at things as a problem to be taken down to its component parts, figured out piece by piece, then put together again. Let's say Jordan's approach is more holistic. Like say if I were tasked to draw a brick wall- I'd be forced to draw every single rectangle in there, whereas Jordan can get away with drawing a few bricks and evoking a fully bricked building... and there's no doubt that latter drawing would seem more real to you (and I mean that in addition to the natural end result of Jordan being a far better drawing-artist than myself).

A similar example of our differences- though with a much happier ending on my part- is that time back in grade 6 or 7 when our class was tasked with making some clay-to-be-fired-in-a-kiln fish. My fish, a cartoonish figure taking the barest elements of what could allowably be called "fish parts", gills, some scales, fins. Much like the example of Jordan drawing those few bricks to evoke a wall, I evoke a fish. Jordan, perhaps more ambitious, did... something. I don't even know. The result was an anchovy shaped monstrosity. Mine coulda been the fish on the Mr. Sparkle laundry box.

That example is rather confusing, as it attributes the skills of older Jordan to my younger self. Well let me make this clear. I made the job simple, broke it down, and created a fine bit of art. All that happened with Jordan's fish is, I suggest, that he tried to create Fish-Athena fully formed out of his brow... but it's a tricky thing to do, and it just won't work out every time.

I've still got MY fish thing in one piece somewheres. I really did do a good job on it.