NO BAD IDEAS 01
ON HOUSEFLIES AND THE DYNAMIC ECOSYSTEM OF THE IMAGINATION
If the imagination is truly the source of magic, which I believe it is, then it is a place that should be treated with far more reverence than I have given it over the years. I'm starting to think my job as an artist is to be something akin to a nature photographer. I want to go into the imaginal environment, try to record what I see without interfering with the natural order, and do it all without leaving a trace behind. The denizens of that place deserve that at the very least.
I wrote these words just over a year ago, in the second installment of the original run of No Gods But My Own, and it illustrates something that’s been rolling around in my head a lot recently. I’ve been thinking about it so much because I’m starting to feel that I may have been wrong about the fragility of the imaginal and that the only way to preserve that zone is a sort of creative conservationism that prevents overstressing this mysterious ecosystem.
The year since I wrote that article has been filled with a great deal of personal drama (my father developing ongoing life threatening respiratory health issues, my family receiving a grant to buy our first home, my wife changing careers, my son starting Kindergarten) that has inspired some of the most potent work I’ve ever done. This all culminated in the most spiritually satisfying creative experience I’ve had in the creation of An Assemblage of Disparate Parts.
It was in that book that I hit upon a new creative ethos that has been informing my process as of late. That ethos?
NO BAD IDEAS.
This all goes back to the ecosystem of the imagination that I referenced earlier. After the catharsis of An Assemblage of Disparate Parts I began to reevaluate my relationship with the flora and fauna of the imaginal place and realized that what these ideatic entities need isn’t the conservationism that I was practicing. The distance I had been trying to cultivate was harming them instead of protecting them.
They didn’t need to be left alone. Instead I discovered that they craved engagement. They let me know with no uncertain terms that they didn’t need to be saved. What they needed was to be FED.
How does one feed imaginal entities? How do they find nourishment and flourish?
They find the sustenance they need in the expenditure of my energy and my time. I have to make those ideas real HERE and NOW.
It’s that thought that brings me to NO BAD IDEAS.
NO BAD IDEAS is how I pay respect to the workhorses of the imaginal space that have served me so well over the years. Those beings have more than earned my respect and service from all that they’ve given me so I’ll try my best to repay that boon.
In the pursuit of that the NO BAD IDEAS ideal I have started to bring back a practice of absurdist mark making and embracing projects that embody creative novelty over commercial potential.
My first step in this process was to start what I’m calling The Asemic Notebook.
Asemic writing is a hybrid artform that removes meaning and definition from the act of writing and turns it into an act of artistic mark-making.
I’ve always loved this art form and have used it in previous projects to varying effect. It’s most prominent in my book Otherworld, which can be found in the collection OUTLET OMNIBUS.
The other thing I’m doing to fully embrace the core of NO BAD IDEAS is a comic that’s been on my mind for nearly a decade. It’s called FLIGHT INTERPRETATIONS and can be found every Wednesday on the homepage for We The Hallowed.
There have only been two installments released as of this writing but I plan on doing at least ten or fifteen of them.
Where does all of that leave NO GODS BUT MY OWN? My plan, as of right now, is to utilize this platform as a sort of digest of all the work I’m doing currently. Expect a newsletter at the end of every month that collects asemic writing, the absurd adventures of houseflies, and whatever other ideatic beasties I can coax into the tangible world with this philosophy of NO BAD IDEAS.
Until next month,
EJM