monday studio tip of the week

images, the selby

this exercise comes from twyla tharp's book the creative habit.

before beginning a topic, write down twenty interesting things that you want to know or study about that topic. the example tharp uses is leonardo davinci's fascination with water and in one of his notebooks was a comprehensive list of aspects of water that he intended to study. by doing this, tharp contends, he fully understood water and was better able to make creative use of that topic. some examples from leonardo's poetic list:

of the different depths of the rivers.
of the different shapes of the hills covered by the waters.
where the water is swift at the bottom and not above.
where it bends and where it straightens itself.
where it is low in the middle and high at the sides.
of the different slants in the descents of the water.

the list goes on..stay tuned for my list in the coming week....try it yourself in the meantime and have fun!