Some time in June, I drew this flamingo. And for reasons that were undoubtedly good at the time, I didn't post him on the blog. This was even though (apart from his legs and feet, which needed a surprising amount of thought) he was quick and easy to draw. Instead, I decided he wasn't "good enough", and needed "a purpose". (Am wondering now exactly why I thought that. He's a flamingo drawing...Which is probably purpose enough, in the circumstances...:-)). Anyway, I then set about attempting to "improve" him. At one stage I even sent him to the carnival, metaphorically speaking...
And yet, still nothing seemed right for him.
Then, out of the blue, there was a weekly challenge at Spoonflower, the theme of which was to be "vintage flamingos". And suddenly, he had found his niche. As a vintage 1950's lawn flamingo, he didn't even need those rather troublesome legs (sorry, Mr Flamingo) but just a simple pole.
And voila, this design was borne, almost as quickly as most of the original drawing.
The Spoonflower challenge was just for fun. But it does make a nice, fun fabric, both at Spoonflower and Zazzle.
Every Flamingo Has His Day...
So I don't know about you, but what I took from this is that every flamingo has his day. There I'd been, trying to turn him into the "perfect" flamingo, when he was destined to be an intentionally-fun lawn flamingo all along.
In other words, perhaps every idea that comes to any of us in a clear form, is worthy of shaping, however bizarre it seems at first. More than that, is likely to have a purpose down the line, without excessive stressing out on the part of the artist/writer/musician/thinker/insert your preferred means of carrying out ideas here, on the part of any of us.
What do you think? Have you ever had an idea that seemed strange at the time, but later slotted in mysteriously perfectly into your life or work, in a way you couldn't have predicted at first? Do please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
