I think one of the most fun things in life is to find a problem. I look at my paintings for days knowing there’s something wrong but not knowing what. So when I do find an art problem it’s a treasure and I know it can be solved some way. I look forward to the surprise.
As look at my painting, I change one color in my mind then imagine it six other color possibilities. I wonder what five clouds would do to the composition, or perhaps just two, or I take out the mountain or add three larger ones with snow.
My mind zips around having fun but some times my zippy mind is a plague on John. He hears of a political or science problem or experiences one in traffic so of course verbalizes it. That’s what married best friends do. They use each other as “sounding boards.” I try to bite my lips but it’s so much fun to ‘sound board’ back!
“Maybe that guy cut you off because he had an embryo implanted and he’s giving birth a month early, or maybe his pet opossum is rolling around in pain on his back seat with a bloody stump where his tail had been and the poor driver yanked the tail out of the dog’s mouth and the tail is sitting on the front seat in a plastic bag and now they’re rushing to the vet!”
All John wants and expects is, “Yea, that guy is wrong.”
Traffic problems are so limited in scope, I’d much prefer to play with politics and science. I love to read about history and the various sciences. These give me hundreds of facts and variables to play with. I remind him of a fact here and its implications and a fact there that hints at a different direction.
Poor John, hears, evaluates, decides, and verbalizes. It doesn’t take forever. He’s been known to say, “There you go, destroying my scientific mind again, confusing me with facts.”  nancymauerman.com