Artists work in many modes. A lot has been written about how to find the “sweet spot” or attain the “flow state” that puts the brain into an ideal space for creation.
I work through phases of effectivity. I’ve come to recognise that practices that might be highly effective at one point will become stale before I recognize the tipping point, and need to move on.
BUT–right now, setting some brain time to do some puzzle-work in the morning is really helping me.
The “Two Not Touch” puzzle in the NYT was, is my understanding, invented by Jim Bumgardner. If you want to play it yourself, online, try it here.
Online, it’s a game I like enjoy during deadtime travel. Online, it’s a puzzle that’s good for interrupted attention.
On paper, gameplay is very different, and if you choose to fill your squares in with ink–or something more complicated than ink, letting your attention wander in no way is rewarded.
Over months, my practice playing Two Not Touch has evolved into… a back and forth mental exercise of “focus and diffusion.” I’ve worked out a number of themes to approach my squares: lilypads, from an old math riddle, constellations, from the TNT original theme, and… fruit.
The fruit box idea is the one I’ve stuck to–it mirrors the puzzle idea that each box has a binary yes/no answer. On the days when I get the puzzle solved, it’s when I’ve been able to hold that idea in my head.
But there are a lot of days when I can’t get the puzzle finished. My conceit of intersteller dotted waves, or leafy clusters that defy the one-to-one box/object ratio, lead me astray. I’ve “gone beyond the box.” It’s time to set the morning paper aside, and get down to my day, creating art (I hope) that goes beyond the lines.
Either that, or I have a completed mini-graphic, that sets me already forward into my day.
For now, I’m finding this a productive practice for my mornings.