Still Life, 7.5" x 11", charcoal/acrylic on gessoed watercolor paper

I finally got around to doing a drawing like I vowed yesterday. I tried everything under the sun to avoid it, including working out in the sun for over two hours pulling weeds and attempting to tame the jungle in the back yard. After taking a nap, fiddling around with magazines, laundry, books, trying different still life arrangements, I forced myself into a commitment with this set up. It's no Picasso, like I hoped for, but at least I kept my promise! Hoorah! I hope to remember to start carrying my camera around to snap some ideas for later. And, oh yes, I need to carry my sketch book for sure. It's frustrating that there are so many ideas/colors/patterns for paintings floating around in my head when I'm almost asleep, but they somehow evaporate when I'm in front of a canvas.

More interminable photoshopped drawings/scans/whatever. I swear I'm becoming addicted to my scanner and Photoshop. It can compensate for a world of sins with one's artwork (I think!?)

Anyway, my eyes perked up when I saw Rachel's latest blog and her link to Barbara Sher's interview on "scanners." I thought, wow, someone is going to validate my obsessive feelings toward my scanner. But, it was even better than that. Sher has a thesis that many of us are "scanners" in the way we approach the world. We scan for things that interest us and move on when they no longer do, sometimes to an obsessive degree. I always thought I had attention deficit disorder, as do many others like me. But rather than being marginalized, as society tends to do with people who find it difficult to concentrate upon one specialized business field, a style of art, etc., she puts scanners into the category of the "Renaissance person." Look what scanners like Leonardo Da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin, whose minds were open and inquiring throughout their lives to various and sundry things, contributed to society. Thank goodness Benjamin Franklin didn't put on the blinders and decide early on, once and for all, that he was going to be a tax accountant and that was that. Rather than feeling guilty about not being able to focus on one's so-called chosen path in life, scanners would do well to go with the flow and enjoy their distinguished company. I certainly would never kid myself that I'm anywhere near Da Vinci/Franklin calibre, but I'm not going to beat myself up anymore about not being able to concentrate upon one style of art. I'm also going to go back and listen to the rest of Sher's radio interview later (a casualty of this scanner being called to another area of interest today!)