Doodley Challenged

For as long as I can remember - which takes me well back over half a century. Good lord, I'm old. I have 'doodled' the same exact thing. Over and over and over. It has never gotten fancier, more detailed or more artistic - it has never evolved.

Most people would doodle something that is on their mind. Some might doodle a fantasy world. Some might start with something totally simple like a circle and build out and up and around and turn it into a wonderful piece of art. The beginning of Zentangles no doubt.

Nope. Not me. If I have pen and paper at hand, I will absent-mindedly do my doodle in any space that exists on the page. It's a tiny little house with a door and three windows, smoke rising from a center chimney, a path leading up the doorway, a deciduous tree on one side and an evergreen on the other. If I have time to get into a second, third or fourth doodle, they will be all exactly the same - no variance whatsoever. I have never even added a second story to the house or put on an addition.

If someone was doing a psychological assessment of my doodles and my lack of evolution with them, I wonder if they brand me sadly uncreative or just content.

I was thinking about my singular lifelong doodle and noticed two things. One is that it is like the cabin on my arks. So I don't only draw them, I build them. And the other is that I do in fact have a great draw (no pun intended) to small buildings, to tiny houses.

In being aware of my narrow scope of doodleness, I am working towards thinking of something else to doodle. Well, I was thinking about thinking about it. Maybe. Or maybe not. It's not really that important to me to stretch my doodle, I was just observing it.

The thing I noticed last night though, is that it does go beyond doodling. So maybe my creativity does need to be stretched somewhat. I have decided I want to paint - which is something I have never had a talent nor a penchant for. I decided that it's time.  I painted three pictures when I was out in Newfoundland last fall. Every single one has a small building as a focus.  I painted a floor cloth. What is it? All our little buildings out East.

Currently I'm taking a water colour class. What did I paint last night when we were supposed to be doing trees?  I even specifically tried not to when I noticed that a cabin had snuck into my forest. The next one I was determined to leave uninhabited. Didn't happen. Couldn't happen. Apparently the challenge for me is beyond doodling.