Two Ideas
“Have more than one idea on the go at any given time. If it’s a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It’s only if I have an idea for two books that I can choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something.”- Geoff Dyer
I read Geoff Dyer's book "Paris, Trance" over the weekend, and came away with a great deal of respect for his writing. Some books you pick up and read a few pages of and think they aren't going to be great, then 24 hours later you turn the last page and realize you haven't put the thing down since you started and it's over. The effect is all the more pronounced when you took a chance on a low Amazon rating (I really can't comprehend why it only has 2.5 stars on Amazon - the Goodreads aggregate of 3.65 is much more reasonable.)The suggestion to carry two ideas all the time is interesting and I can relate to it. I can also relate to having too many damn ideas to do anything about any of them. This blog is an example.Most people with any sense come up with a theme for their blog, market it to an appropriate audience, and make some money. Or, if they're photographers, they focus on their photography and don't spend time writing book reviews or literary weather reports.I've historically been torn between visual art or writing as a creative outlet, but the last few days I've been trying to paint with one hand and to take photographs with the other. Thankfully, painting and photography are two things I can deal with more ambidextrously than painting and writing, or photography and writing. The answer is just to paint from photographs.Here's a photograph I took in Paris, in 2011:
Here's a painting I made of that photograph, in 2017:
There's a party scene in "Paris, Trance" where a character is introduced as a "writer and a painter," and another character retorts that nobody can be any good at both. "What about Van Gogh, haven't you read his letters?" the writer/painter asks in his own defense..."Sure, they're great, but have you seen his paintings?"