diversity of opinions

sometimes when i think about other people, particularly what decisions they made (or what decisions were made for them) and how they come into this incarnation of themselves, it is inevitable for me to come to this conclusion that because they experienced XYZ or that they were brought up in ABC family or background that they did this, particularly if that was what i would have deliberately chose not to do.

this is probably going to be a long post.

i wonder how at a micro level that we are able to coexist with people fundamentally different from us and come away from such an experience as a better person, WITHOUT thinking that this person I'm conflicting with is a bad person in some respect. let me explain, it's quite rare to argue or come into bad terms with people we think are correct. Usually we disagree when we think we are right and they are wrong. Case in point, opposition presence and how Singaporeans feel about it. We disagree when we think that their point is either wrong or somehow "less correct" than ours. It's hard to walk away from this thinking "hm, he's correct but yet I can't help but not agree with what he said, DESPITE HIM BEING RIGHT."

when both parties have sound arguments and logic, any compromise they make will definitely result in at least one side at a disadvantage. The only way for a compromise to work into a win-win situation is if one or both parties have made mistakes and rectified through said compromise.

So when things like this pop up in our daily lives, one side will usually relent because it's a small enough issue that he wouldn't be bothered, simply because it's easier that way and it's not worth the trouble.

we celebrate diversity in backgrounds and heritage and yet we are unable to progress forward in public decision making because of these often times conflicting opinions.

TBC, because i can't gather most of my thoughts and they are all over the place right now

Artistic Ability

I like to think of analogies quite often, many of which don't make sense.
this is one of them.

I liken my ability to create anything of any vague artistic value to my simple inability to draw a perfect circle. Case in point.

So here you have this imperfect circle. The curious thing about art is that people can see , as imperfection and embrace for all its' worth, as something else other than a circle. Take for example, most comic artists use circles as their characters' heads, and yet they are never perfect circles. But nobody complains and they never seem to mull over the fact that they can't draw circles for shits. Their disproportionate circles become a unique part of their drawing style and they become recognizable for their artwork, not just as individual components but as a whole.

My problem, therefore arises not because of my inability to draw a perfect circle, which as artists before me and many more after will attest that it is simply impossible, by any reasonable standards. It is my inability to accept what is impossible and move on from there.

Many times throughout my life, I would try to draw or doodle. And every single time, i get so worked up over small insignificant details which even if it were to "be perfect", it would in fact worsen and ruin the artwork as a whole. Over time, I have taken this into consideration and then something weird happens, the mindset that i go into anytime i try to "create art" becomes one of "hope everything works out for the best". Every line I draw would be like buying 4D and hoping luck will carry you forward. I'm not sure how many of you would know this, but there are a lot more elements that go into drawing a line that the simple action would suggest. Sometimes i would draw one line over a major section of the paper for a body, therefore it would need a bit of curves, but for some reason if the curves were slightly off and at a wrong direction, the work itself would seem off because of it.

So stupid things like that happen and ensure that I never stay interested in art for long, or at least in creating it.

Maybe that's why i've always been more interested in using digital tools. That way, the Undo button won't leave marks on my paper like an eraser does.

I have always been more of an "idea guy". It's always easy to see something in my head than it would be to translate that onto paper. My creative process is a simple matter of looking at my surroundings, focus on one detail and think about what it is related to and what that is related to and so on until i get a pretty awesome idea. Much like Wikipedia.

Let me show you how it works:

On my table is an empty can of Coke, then i focus on the fine print, then i think about an old article about cheating where the guy prints answers in fine print and puts on his coke bottle, then i think about the hoody i imagine the guy to be wearing, and that he seems to be putting his hands into his pocket very often and him walking through an empty hallway and then i think about the scenery outside.

and now i would create 2 art pieces. One with more subdued colours, probably water colours because that's how i envision the strokes, of that boy with the dark coloured hoody walking along the hallway with lockers to his right and a giant wall window to his left with the sun shining in. the boy is of course looking down.

And the other piece of him, viewed over his shoulder of him looking to his left in mid-stride looking at the inviting scenery outside.

Its' pretty easy to think up of all the metaphorical representations you could do with just this 2 pieces. Its' not even challenging or funny for that matter.

I have a friend in camp who is basically the opposite of me. He is pretty talented, drawing wise, or "creating" wise, but he once shared that he had this problem of not being able to come up with ideas simply because he could not catch on to the "logic" of whatever he seems to be doing or what his teacher is suggesting, i should say. I should say that he takes both art and physics at H2 level, which pretty much qualifies him as a weird person, but he does have a girlfriend so maybe he isn't really so. But then again weirder people have proven themselves not lacking in that area, time and time again. But i digress.

I never would have imagined someone with such an ability to ever have problems like this because i always thought them to be interconnected. I do know of "writers' block" which does strike most creative people at least once, but it somehow seemed strange that he would have this problem of asking why is this done like this and for what literal and figurative reason. I think my mind is just incapable of processing how that would work and still have a killer arm for drawing. Coming up with metaphorical reasons for pretty much any art piece is, from what i understand is stupid. because anything and everything can have a metaphorical reason for being. The Coke can can be red to symbolize passion, the laptop is rigid and solid to represent cold, hard, unrelenting productivity and my socks are made of wool because they are all snuggly and creates a warm homely feel. And i can't be wrong because symbolism is subjective.

and to think i sought out to write a short blog post this time.