Just add water
March 12, 2004
My shower pressure is fairly powerful for a New York apartment and it generally hits me right at the base of the skull, stimulating the blood flow. But it’s only my medulla and my cerebellum lying right beneath and they are almost certainly not the source of the ideas that pop up. I tend to keep my frontal lobes away from the jets, except for the few seconds when I am washing my face or shampooing my few hairs. The only thoughts that cross my mind then relate to conditioner.
The sound of the water drumming on my skin and the acoustics of the tiles are fairly easy to reproduce outside the bathroom. But when I listen to the sound of falling water anywhere else it generally just makes me want to pee.
Maybe the water returns me to some primeval state; I read somewhere that the pattern of our hair growth indicates that humans went through some extended aquatic stage, living entirely in the sea. This hypothesis seems improbable and in any case I doubt that it was a particularly fecund stage of our history. Seals, whales, and mermaids, all live fairly banal sorts of lives and rarely win Nobel Prizes or have gallery openings.
Most of the things I do in the shower are mindless. That’s not entirely accurate: my mind is present but my judgment is suspended. I can hardly see, I can only hear white noise, I am all alone, and while I am doing things — working up lather, washing between each toes, getting as far down my back as I can reach — I’ve done them more than 14,000 times before and they are automatic.
The afternoon is generally when I give myself challenges and problems to solve. I do research, and kick around a few preliminary ideas. I may have taped up some ideas on the wall from the morning and I’ll look them over and try to push further. Half formed notions will rattle around my skull for the rest of the day, getting a polish in the cerebral rock tumbler before bed.
Then at eleven or so, I’ll hit the hay, hopefully for the whole night. (Sometimes ideas will wake me up at four, jolted to the surface by a passing fire or garbage truck. These ideas, while insistent in the dark, tend to look fairly ugly by the light of day, like half cooked pork.) By morning, my brain has been well- marinated and is ready to serve. I tend to take a shower 15 or so minutes after I wake up, and in that calm, consistent, non judgmental environment, the ideas feel safe to poke their heads out of my head and present themselves.
So the trick is not a matter of soap and water. It’s slowing down, clearing the mind, letting go, giving myself a few minutes of nothingness. And yet in that relaxed nothingness, there is bubbling activity. The only other place I’ve found such a paradoxical blend of tranquility and creativity is between the covers of my drawing journal.
Maybe I should get a waterproof pen and start drawing on the tiles.
A record of my exploration into all aspects of drawing, illustrated journaling, creativity, and the inspiring aspects of art. By the author of "Everyday Matters," "The Creative License", and "An Illustrated Life" and other books.
Comments
Dude! I was laying with my head partially submerged in the bathtub today, contemplating the perspective of the top of my shower and the accent of the circle of the showerhead, and thinking next time I need to bring my sketchbook and draw from that angle. What a coinkidinkie!
Okay, I don't normally say things like "Dude" or "coinkidinkie" but when one is posting on the Gregory comments board, one feels that one must make one's posting stand out...
Posted by: Camilla | March 12, 2004 10:09 AM
Babe!
I'm all over it. What could be more far out than, like, total mind meld?
Your pal in Serendipity City,
D.Obadiah Gregory
Posted by: Danny | March 12, 2004 10:12 AM
rite-in-the-rain notebooks! I love em.
Posted by: Ana | March 12, 2004 11:05 AM
How about those crayons made of soap, so you can draw on the tub, yourself, etc.....?
Posted by: sarah | March 12, 2004 11:35 AM
I think I was some sorta fish in a previous life.
I love to be underwater or hold my face under the shower and let the water spray me.
Then again it may be that I am just strange.
I always won the staying underwater contests.
Posted by: Lori | March 12, 2004 12:36 PM
So rad!!! Seriously, I heard that the negative ions in running water are conducive to creativity!! That's diggity dank! Or is it diggyity shwag?
I'm outtie!
AmesyFace
Posted by: Amy | March 12, 2004 12:43 PM
diggyity?
Posted by: Amy | March 12, 2004 12:44 PM
ha! excellent post!!
i'm sitting here at the computer (where i should be entering the bills payable *blechie*) and reading bits of your entry (and great first comments ;) ) aloud to my friend (and happenstnace coworker), Glo (she waves hi)
we are constantly amazed, amused and inspired by how you manage to so eloquently, lightheartedly and yet heartfully express, well, duh - everyday matters which we all think and encounter.
heh. i don't suppose you caught the interview on npr this morning with the english professor from the university of delaware who collects examples of adjective overusage? (he's suddenly cringing in his seat and wondering why ;) )
oh! and happy day!! - not just any friday, i got my amazon goodie box from the p.o. this morning!! got your book annnd, thanks to wonderful (tho evil-wallet-sucking) amazon recommends, i also discovered dan price's little gem of a book and website too!! (unfortunately, the mailperson did not leave them at my door for me, or we could've devoured them for our art night last nite. but then we wouldn't have gotten art done, so all is good.)
anyway, i have rambled not too terribly tangentially away from the original point (i wonder how Professor Adjective feels about alliteration): now, when i shower and wonder where all these ideas pop from, i will inevitably think of this post and wonder when a mermaid will have her first gallery opening.
ever clean,
your fan club in florida,
vicki (and glo who's too shy to post) ;)
Posted by: pixie | March 12, 2004 01:38 PM
I look at my flesh when in the shower. I can do that then and not feel self conscious, as showering is an intimate occasion with one's physical self. I also invent clever ways to get the water to cascade down my body, touching wherever,... now that's creativity!
Posted by: doug | March 12, 2004 06:53 PM
Ah, just what I needed! Grins on you
Posted by: Cheryl | March 13, 2004 12:57 AM
Good post, I love a shower.
Posted by: Joej | March 13, 2004 10:47 AM
Danny, thats great. When I was at university I was always mulling stuff around in the shower. A few times I'd even holler for my husband to bring me pen and paper so I could write down the really good stuff. Often, I'd end up working with these slightly soggy pieces of paper. Its something that I still do, now that I've graduated, its my place to do any major planning and figuring. Its amazing the clarity of thoughts that come to me while I'm in there. Maybe, I'm washing the dirt from my head as well as my body!
Posted by: Allyson | March 15, 2004 09:53 AM