Creative highs and lows (365 Creative, January 23)
One of my essays was accepted for publication in the Santa Fe Literary Review today!
And….
This broke:
I don’t make bracelets ever. The last time I did, it broke all to pieces. PMC is very brittle. This time I thought I’d aced it, and this one isn’t designed to go all the way around the wrist. Rather, I’ll make a nice leather piece for it with a lobster clasp or snap closure.
But I didn’t reinforce the back of this one in two key places, and it snapped in my hands when I was trying to adjust its shape very, very gently.
Grrr….
So I quick made another one, and put the broke down version in my scrap bag.
You win some, you lose some. Such is the creative life.
I made this today.
It’s the silver band for a bracelet that I’ll finish with a leather strap before I pass it along to a client. Here it is as it looked going into the kiln!
Tomorrow I hope to have time to make more pieces. My jewelry Zen time…but there’s much more to be done too. Two articles to write, and I’m gearing for my regular quarterly design project–Tumbleweeds, The Newspaper for Santa Fe Families.
But for now, I have to go down to the chicken coop to check and see which chicken earns what we’ve taken to calling the “Dumbshit Award.” This is awarded to the one dang chicken who doesn’t go in the coop for the night. Apparently, sitting on the coop ladder just outside the door and shivering in single-digit temps is preferable to huddling with your coop sisters….
My money’s on Titania. She’s the usual suspect. 
EDITED TO ADD A PICTURE OF TONIGHT’S AWARD-WINNING CHICKEN:
TITANIA!
We are a vampire species…. (365 creative January 21)
It was an errand sort of day, complete with flat tire, and a dinner party sort of night…with great company, excellent food, and a delightful creme brulee made by my older daughter.
So there wasn’t much time for creativity.
Before the stroke of midnight, I decided to take a moment, and dip into the pictures I took on our trip to Arizona last month.
The one above was shot outside Joseph City. I believe this is the Cholla power plant, puffing big fake clouds into a cerulean sky. And I was struck by the juxtaposition of the smoke stacks and the sunbeams….we are such a vampire species, sucking the life out of the earth while mostly ignoring the tremendous amount of energy shining down upon us day in and day out.
I work for a solar company, and I wonder when the day will come when the fossilized, vampire paradigm passes into history. Hopefully in my children’s lifetimes.
For today, a creative moment with a photo, and a thought. And now, bed.
More than 24 hours later…. 365 Creative January 18-20
A silent, internetless Wednesday turned into a quiet Thursday AND a fantastically (mostly) unplugged Friday!
And so much time for creative ventures! I did a lot of writing and a lot of editing. I also finished up the benefit pendant I wrote about earlier, and am very excited about getting this set up as a listed item on my website with profits to benefit baby Liam! I hope to have that all set up by early next week. Above is a rough shot of the pendant.
Better pics will come soon.
All in all, a break from being plugged in is such a necessity for creativity. I didn’t just learn or decide this, but sometimes I forget.
During my quiet time I sat down to read a magazine–Poets & Writers, my personal fave. An article in last month’s issue offered up the scoop about some software designed to help support creativity by blocking internet temptation. Either the entire net or just social sites. It’s called Freedom, and as it turns out, Freedom is cheap. Check it out: http://macfreedom.com/download/
Essentially, you decide how much internet-free time you need to do your creative project (like, an hour of writing time untainted by the temptation to check in with Facebook), enter the time in minutes in a dropdown box, and voila. Apparently, there is little hope of getting past the blockade.
You must, of course, be on the honor system with your smartphone (or the desktop in your husband’s office!).
Anyway, it was nice to be away, and wonderful to hear that SOPA has been shelved. Hopefully killed.
And…it’s also nice to be back.
Going dark for 24 hours
Wikipedia has inspired me to go without internet for 24 hours in protest of SOPA. (Stop Online Piracy Act.)
Without internet for a day, I’ll have all sorts of time to pursue lots of creative ventures, like:
1. Making cool stuff with my new silver clay and my new stamps (that I designed myself)!!
2. Going for a walk….maybe a short hike, if it isn’t too windy.
3. Writing.
4. Drawing with the kids after school. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a new profile picture out of it. (Does drinking beer count as a creative pursuit?)
5. Reading.
6. Shooting things!
7. Tackling a crafty new project. (I have resin! Too bad I lack such painting talent…)
How about you? Can you go dark for 24 hours? What will you choose to do with your internet-free time?
Dreaming of spring. (365 Creative, January 17)
I just happened across this video, and now I’m wishing that spring was here already!
Talk about creative….this is easy, super easy, and wow, look at all the room for plants! Time to start planning this year’s garden, I think!
A trip down memory lane, and thoughts about creative organization for creatives (365 Creative January 16)
I decided to tackle a massive project today.
I pulled out my zippered book filled with CD and DVD archives and started transferring everything over to my back up hard drive. Being a photographer who’s been shooting digital since about 2005, this is no small feat. I will definitely not finish this project tonight. Not even close.
Of course, this is partly due to the fact that I can’t help but scroll through the past. Can’t help but revisit moments earlier in my photography career. Moments earlier in the life of my family.
Moments like this one:
As a friend of mine said tonight, Gray looks too small to be upright!
Or this one, which I don’t recall taking but really love:
My archives are filled with snapshots. Some are blurry:
Or cropped/shot differently than I might shoot them now.
But none of that matters. What does matter is that I have a record of the years.
I can look back and see how they used to be:
Then flash forward, and compare:
Going through the vault, as it were, also gives me the opportunity to see how much my technique as a photographer has changed too, not to mention how much better my pictures are now that I have a much better camera! Yes….that does make a difference. I still like this:
And this:
But the color and clarity in these are light years better, I think. Look at the difference in the sky from then to now!
Hee hee, can you tell that last one’s a screenshot?
So it’s been fun, today, to sift through the past AND insure that my old files are safe. CDs and DVDs don’t last forever, as you know. That’s the thing about living a creative life–you always have to have one eye on the future. You have to think about nurturing your creative process, yes, but also about protecting that which you create from the ravages of time. As best you can.
I’m not under any illusions that anything is permanent, but I want to hold on to moments like this–despite how non compos mentis moments like this made me feel(!!)–for just as long as I can.
Writer’s Reading List: 10 short pieces (365 Creative, January 15)
I think it goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway: if you write, you must read.
I am a big fan of reading lists. One of my fave books, in fact, is Clifton Fadiman’s The Lifetime Reading Plan, which I see has been updated since I got my copy.
Stories connect us, whether or not we’re writers. Whether or not we’re even readers. Stories thread through us, helping us make sense of the world and ourselves. Stories help beget new stories.
When I’m stuck, I read. I pull up a favorite writer and refuel. I look for lyrical language, amazing characterization, keen insight. Inspiration.
Following is a list of 10 of these. They’re in no particular order and they’re all short–stories and essays.
I think they should be required reading for everybody. Especially writers.
Enjoy, and please share your thoughts! Is there a pivotal short story or essay that every writer should read?
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1. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, by James Thurber
“We’re going through!” The Commander’s voice was like thin ice breaking.
2. Interview with a Lemming, by James Thurber (Yes. I love Thurber so much I had to list him twice.)
The weary scientist, tramping through the mountains of northern Europe in the winter weather dropped his knapsack and prepared to sit on a rock.
“Careful, brother,” said a voice.
3. Sweat, by Zora Neale Hurston
It was eleven o’clock of a Spring night in Florida. It was Sunday.
4. A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor
The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida.
5. High Tide in Tucson, by Barbara Kingsolver
A hermit crab lives in my house. Here in the desert he’s hiding out from local animal ordinances, at minimum, and maybe even the international laws of native-species transport.
6. Let there be High Water, by Hampton Sides
Thirty-three years after Glen Canyon Dam strangled the West’s most celebrated river, the Grand Canyon gets its first regularly scheduled flood. Only Jehovah could have done it better.
7. Havasu, by Edward Abbey
One summer I started off to visit for the first time the city of Los Angeles. I was riding with some friends from the University of New Mexico. On the way, we stopped off briefly to roll an old tire into the Grand Canyon.
8. This is the Life, by Annie Dillard
Any culture tells you how to live your one and only life: to wit as everyone else does.
9. The Clan of One-Breasted Women, by Terry Tempest Williams
I belong to a Clan of One-Breasted Women. My mother, my grandmothers, and six aunts have all had mastectomies. Seven are dead.
10. The Ranson of Red Chief, by O. Henry
It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you.
Writers: You need this. 365 Creative: January 14
If you’re a writer you need Scrivener. (Click the photos below to see them more clearly.)
No, I’m not being paid to say this. I’m saying it because it’s true. I used Word for ages. Years, really (and before Word, Word Perfect!). And it was always basically reliable, perfectly vanilla, did what I needed which wasn’t much aside from collect my words and organize them all pretty in 12 pt. Times New Roman.
But then my fabulous friend Lizzie Foley, who has one very Remarkable book coming out in April, told me about Scrivener. I checked it out, downloaded the trial, and was absolutely blown away.
Finally! A word processing program for ADD creatives like moi who have files upon files upon files in duplicate and quadruplicate on all manner of hard drive and CD and DVD….finally! A way to organize years of verbiage into not a bazillion but a manageable handful of files!
Scrivener is THE WAY to organize your book, your essays, your recipes…whatever. With it I can make one file, and then within that file make chapters and character sketches and all sorts of notes. There’s even a kickass corkboard view to look over all your virtual Post-Its.
Yes. It really is that cool. And yes. I’m saying this all for free (in fact, I paid [the 45 bucks it cost to download the full version of Scrivener] for the privilege of saying this).
You really have to check it out, and it appears that it’s not just for Mac anymore!
Have fun, and be creative!
Creativity & Patience 365 Creative: January 12 & 13
I took this picture yesterday, after I pulled the benefit pendants out of the kiln.
See those kiln pegs to the right? They’re so hot they’re glowing! Hard to tell with B&W, I know.
The word of the day for yesterday and today is PATIENCE. This particular project, into which I’m pouring not only my heart and soul but also my time and money, has been dragging. I wasn’t sure what sort of design to do that would be fitting for the project at hand (Baby Liam!) and then when I did design something, I felt clumsy…kept dropping my tools, the clay kept misbehaving. Finally, when I pulled this out of the kiln last night I decided I wasn’t terribly happy with it. Now, it’s awaiting a design tweak, which has also been a clumsy, frustrating process.
Sigh.
So this is 48 hours in 365 creative days.
Best get back to it now. More photos when it’s all said and done and I have my camera back! (It’s been in the shop, thus the crappy cell phone pics!)
