“It’s impossible to hold two opposite thoughts in your head at the same time,” my philosophy professor said all those years ago in college. Maybe it was then, but it’s not now.
The spare house with clean lines.
Example 1:
I want to live simply, with few possessions, in a house with clean tile floors and no curtains.
I want a studio that isn’t also the guest room. A studio that is wonderfully stocked with books and paints, papers and tools.
You can see the difference–a spare, sparsely furnished house and a fully stocked studio are at opposite ends of the possessions spectrum. And yet I can easily want both, no discomfort to think about them both.
Example 2:
I want to wear only black, gray, and neutrals. Tailored and easy.
Simple and lovely.
I want to wear bright colors in soft draped shapes.
No worries that they are both opposites. Both ideas are equally pleasing. But I do not want tailored outfits in colors, or draped black clothing. No. It’s the opposites that appeal.
Example 3:
I’d like to work only with black ink and pens. Do simple-line drawings that are unambiguous.
I’d like to work in watercolors. Complicated washes, wet-in-wet techniques that are meaningful, but not hard-edged.
So what does all this mean? I don’t know. I think we can hold opposite thoughts in our heads that are more complicated than just what we want. We can love and hate the same person at the same time. We can be strong and needy at the same time. We can be profoundly spiritual and still yearn for material things.
I think this is not only possible, I think it makes us interesting and flexible, as well as confusing and frustrating. The whole idea of opposites is fascinating. It’s not always possible to blend or have both. Sometimes we have to choose. But meanwhile, we can love opposites.
Tell me about yours–what’s confusing and impossible and wonderful for you?
Quinn McDonald is a writer and artist, a trainer and creativity coach. She’s not confused by any of them.
Image sources: Japanese house–http://cruises.about.com/library/pictures/japan/blshimonoseki05.htm
I feel like I am a bunch of opposites, tugging and pulling at each other.
I love living in a bustling city. No, I love living in the middle of the desert.
I love being with people, talking about important things. No, I like my solitude, I like quiet. On and on and on.
But it all makes me, just sometimes a confused me.
It’s all interesting, though! And now you, too, are a versatile blogger!
I was thinking about this very thing on my walk this morning as it relates to what appeals to me in artwork that I see on the web. I find that I am drawn to art by artists like Sarah Ahearn Bellmare that is collage and uses bits of this and that with paint, pastels etc. (love Lynne Perrella, Leah Virsik, Nichole, Roben-Marie Smith too among others). And I also like art by artists such as Dawn Sokol who is a “doodler” which is totally different art from the ones I mentioned. But somehow doodling and creating zentangles also appeals to me. So it is possible to be drawn to very different things but it also makes it more difficult for me a mixed media book artist/art journaler to “find” my voice and what I’d like to create. My solution is to just keep creating and I am sure that the patterns will emerge and I’ll find my way so to speak. Thanks for your thought provoking posts. Have read your articles in Somerset Studio each issue but had not looked for you on the web until recently. I’m glad that I’ve started to follow your blog. I’m enjoying it! PS I had to list my blog URL to sign in but have not kept up with it so please ignore! Thanks!
You are right, Barbara–you create by creating. You’ll make things that are fun, things that are dumb, and things that are wonderful–for you. That’s what meaning making is about. You can check out T.J. Goerlitz’s article on creality. That’s an important concept. Oh, and welcome back!
Making a tool simple and easy often grates with capabilities and power. A 4-function calculator is easy. Excel is not as immediately easy, but can do a lot more. One approach is to focus on different audiences and make a simple and easy tool for some people and a powerful and complex tool for others. A better, but much harder approach is to create something that’s easy to use productively right away and reveals new depths and complexity as it’s used more. That’s what I keep trying to do; make digital tools that are like, say, a guitar. Pretty easy to get started with and rewarding if you want to explore it more deeply. Easy and difficult at the same time.
Yeah, Pete, my book works the same way–read it and do some exercises, easy enough. Read it and start making meaning in your life, much harder.
I’ve been pondering opposites lately too. Well, perhaps not really opposites, but more the justaposition of things that seem to be opposite. Things like a shiny new cadillac parked in front of an old run-down farm house. Been working on some art that hopefully expresses it too.
Love that visual. . . .
I’d love to be a free spirit, with no attachments, be able to make my own decisions without having to take into account opinions and feelings of those I share my life with … but I could not envision living without those I love, they are the reason of my life
It’s somehow wonderful to see those opposites in our life. Something life affirming knowing we choose, and can choose again.