Driving Busses in Finland

 

The Helsinki Bus Station

Arno Minkkinen is a Finnish photographer who uses an illustration called The Helsinki Bus Station to describe the creative process over time. The way someone finds distinctiveness in their art form is much like buses leaving a station.

When the buses initially embark, they all follow the same route and it’s likely that some even make the same stops. After several stops the buses then begin to diverge as they follow different roads the further away they get from the departure point.

Stay on the Bus

A creative person who may be pursuing an endeavor like drawing, may initially determine his work is rather common and unoriginal, so he may decide to return to the “bus station” and start all over again only to discover the process repeats itself. The solution is to stay on the bus. It eventually follows a different course from the others.

Pursue an art that looks much the same as everyone else’s initially but, soon, you’ll develop your own style.

Something Good to Read

Nothing New

 Now-a-days many profess to have discovered journaling; a "new" trend, a vouge way of "manifesting" and it's the rage of news segments, talk shows, books, memes, social media personalities and self-improvement gurus. The fact is journaling or keeping a diary has been a common practice of people for thousands of years by the famous, infamous, successful and the not-so-successful.

• People have documented their lives on clay tablets in the bronze age.
• Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in 167 A.D. wrote his thoughts in a 12-book journal collection called Things to One's Self. 
• One of the most famous and widely Read diaries was kept by Ann Frank and became a famous work of literature.

I not only keep a journal myself (actually several) but have been doing so since I was in my 20's.  As a Marine I found it quite useful as a way to record the many adventures I experienced on deployments and a few other escapades were thrown in as well. My first go at it was written on a paper plate in the high desert of California while training for desert warfare and the practice stuck with me for the last 40 or so years. There is hardly a period in my life when I didn’t keep a diary.

An alter ego

One reason is because it’s intensely therapeutic. It’s like talking not to myself but to someone who really listens and understands what I’m going through whether good or bad. Often, I have a tangle of ideas and thoughts in my head, much like a cluttered desk, and getting those deliberations out of my head and onto paper cleans things up and helps organize my notions. It’s as if while I’m writing, a second, unseen person appears and joins in to respond in the discussion and helps me determine if what I’m thinking is suitable and if not, I find other solutions.

Crystal Clear

Whenever I write it helps me clarify my thinking or emotions and crystallizes my imagination. They become no longer just a vague impulse but genuine visuals I can see in the form of words.

Writing helps me to reason my way through decision making by allowing me to see more clearly the possible results of my actions.

Of course, keeping a journal is good practice as a writer as long as I seek to improve and be better at it.

                           I Can’t Write Just One

I have several journals of all kinds and sizes, each for a different application including handwritten ones, a digital journal, a bullet journal and of course a slew of sketch journals. Each one of my drawings has the date on them and they help remind me about the time I drew, why and what I was thinking. It’s a funny thing about a sketch or drawing; it helps me remember the smallest details of an event and can take me on a voyage revisiting the experience. Remember the old saying, "one picture is worth a thousand words".

I have a small pocket size notebook and pen I almost always have in my possession for those unexpected moments of inspiration. I also have a very large journal I use for long term drawing and writing.

Know Me Better, Boy!

Another important reason for journaling, at least important to me, is for posterity; a legacy. I have members of my family who are today very young and may not have a chance to know me well and if they are so inclined in the future, they can get to know me better even if I'm not around.

I Write Because I always want something good to read

I sometimes, well, often, I find conversations with others regularly leave me aloof and sometimes outright bored, but the journal is always stimulating and thought-provoking. It hearkens back to the feeling of having a conversation with a second person. I talk about what’s on my mind and the listening page always answers back.

I'm Not Deranged. I'm an Introvert.

 

I don't need to see a psychiatrist to cure my introversion. People tend to say to introverts, 

      "Why don't you talk more? Why are you so quiet?" 

and many times, I hear,

                      "You need to come out of your shell."

I find those remarks rather off-putting and even insulting because it's an indirect way of saying, "your personality sucks and you need to change". 

It would be no different than me telling an extrovert "Why don't you shut up? You talk too much." and- 

"You need to crawl into a shell".

The fact is, being an introvert isn't a personality flaw for which I need to seek therapy any more than an extrovert needs to seek mental treatment for his or her personality (though sometimes I think some should). 

Extroverts talk to think, and introverts think to talk. 

I've always been a reflective person and most often through my life, from childhood till now, I've been the quietest one in the room. I tend more to listen to the others in the group and get amused about how so many think their input is more valuable than anyone else's. People often say dumb things, and it makes great material for my cartoons. 

A better question might be, are cartoonists great introverts or are introverts great cartoonists?