Make Meatballs Sing

 

 

 This is a picture of the artist Corita Kent which I drew a grid of lines over. 

It's one of many images I had around while creating the picture book.

This image reminded me to take in small bits of this project at a time. 

To look closely but with a certain lightness.

Draw. Learn. Play. Work.

PLORK!

and somehow the book is here!

Out in the world.

 

 

                                                       beginning sketches and manuscript

 

 3 things

1. Discovered this Alan Watts Being in the Way podcast. While listening I picked up on the saying      Ji-Ji-Mu-Ge. What it means I can't actually articulate quite yet, still learning that. But I do like saying it

2. The Japanese art movement Gutai begun by artist Jiro Yoshihara. It means concrete or embodiment and was focused on breaking boundaries, experimenting with materials, and doing what no one has done before.  Below is an image of Jiro Yoshihara's Please Draw Freely piece from 1956 which this month was recreated at the Tate.

3. After reading this article I decided to try it myself, read one poem every day for a month. I chose this Emily Dickinson poem kind of randomly. Took book off shelf and flipped to any page. Next time I may take some more time to consciously choose. But for now, I read this when I wake up.

Its a continual forgetting and remembering

 Going through some images on my computer and found this ink drawing from a bit ago.

It reminds me that I will forget, this way of being, this creative place. And also I will remember. For me this is a constant pattern. Some days months hours are more consistent and fruitful and feel I am living and being in the creative space I love to be. But then others well, it seems it is gone or vanished and I am floating in  this space between where I am and where I prefer to be. Where I prefer to be is in this elusive here- fully present, engaged, heart committed, connected to some energy and way that knows more then me and yet includes me in the process. This creative process where I am always learning.

"When I forgot: this time could have been days even weeks ago. All I can see has shifted to include more luminous delight more space with feeling without need to change, check, complete, grasp, gasp i can breath what i don't know again, there is a patient self on inside between within and she connects mountains with breeze and i thank her for showing up here on after many rain bare clinging hours. I wish I knew exactly  how she, i , we arrived. Could be lucky apron, soup, yoga from yesterday, new paint, walk,..something returned me to this trust open free. Maybe it was the music. But now i remember."

3 things- which all happen to be videos

  

1.Remy Charlip  this whole video  and when he says,  "sometimes I would only dance in my head...."

2. Laurie Anderson advice: "Whatever makes you feel free, that's what to do. It's really simple."

from this video. Love her!

https://channel.louisiana.dk/video/laurie-anderson-advice-young

 3. Ashley Brown, this video, 

and this one 

 

Notes from Being in the Making

 I have a few boxes of notes that i jot scribble mark down while I'm making something else. Over the years these notes have developed some patterns, repeats, themes. One of them is this, that my process knows more then I do. It has a way and it also has needs. Some days it needs more room and time to let loose and go without ANY idea or constraint as to WHAT it is creating. This is full out play mode which can get messy and wild. And then some days the process wants a smaller path, wants to have an aim wants some limits and guidelines with it's direction. Both of these approaches to sitting down and creating are necessary atleast for me. And I'm learning to experience them both which is always a practice.

3 things

 3 things- a practice in taking notice and time to share any three things that inspired me recently

1. This Book by M.C. Richards. To learn a bit more about her start here.

“The creative spirit creates with whatever materials are present, with an umbrella, or a wineglass, or a torch. We are not craftsmen only during studio hours. Any more than a man is wise only in his library. Or devout only in church. The material is not the sign of the creative feeling for life: of the warmth and sympathy and reverence which foster being; techniques are not the sign; “art” is not the sign. The sign is the light that dwells within the act, whatever its nature or its medium.” - M. C. Richards

There is so much within these pages to underline. It's about more then pottery and poetry for sure.  For anyone living and wanting to live more from and into their creative life.

 

2. This Documentary- A Life on our Planet

Favorite quote from the film "We must re-wild the world."- David Attenborough

3. Always something from On Being Podcast- this episode, Violinist Gaelynn Lea

 

Begin

 And so we go into a new year!

Connect with your joy, what makes time open up and feel infinite. Go there. Go there more. That is a healing place. A place to renew, nourish, discover, and create.

a whole year and only one post and NOW a new year to awaken a new WOW.

 

 

 This past year I have neglected or let this blog practice slide off. And what a year to do so. Wasn't that I didn't have time, yet all the time felt occupied by either things that needed to be done or concern for family, friends, the world. Also filled way too many hours watching netflix or news or scrolling aimlessly.  I missed those in between moments, like walking to and from places where my mind could daydream a bit more. Allowing my pencil to wander and discover. Even my so called creative time was very tightly held within things that needed to be done for projects for others, more specifically paid illustration work. And some of it was amazing but I do feel a bit burned out in terms of needing to replenish my own well of creative being. Even this sitting here to write and ponder feels a bit rusty. But I am here and today I am giving myself this time to sit and write and stare out these tall windows facing a mountain.

Time to move through the day with more openness to allow the air around me and within to expand and breathe and go as it goes. Less directing the direction and more discovering the direction from the inside out. 

My usual inclination is dive in without much plan or thought just go. And usually that has worked for me in terms of creative process. But today as the new year approaches I am wondering what if I choose a different route. One with similar trust and gust and delight but one also embedded with a clearer intention. I want to go deep into the creative process of making something, for that is where I love to be and thrive. Yet the question now is WHAT do I want that thing to be, WHAT do i want to be in the making of? 

Time and focus twirled into experience can take the form and shape of endless possibilities. And oh how I love so many of them. Drawing, collage, poems, prints, picture books are some. To choose only one....I don't know if I can do that. So it is more WHAT wants to be expressed. And that is a feeling. One I have circled the perimeter to for years. Sometimes have brushed shoulders with or even an afternoon but never fully voiced. I want to tap fully into that this here feeling.The one that knows much more then I do. The one that is a bit raw at times yet shakes and makes me go aaaaaaah thank you.

This year may my actions, Know the WHY, Guide the HOW. Awaken the WOW. Grow the WHAT!

 And when I forget or get distracted or go off on some tangent which will most likely occur often, may I have the strength to realign and choose the actions which nourish me fully. So I can create, discover, receive the work that are the gift(s) I love to give.

 

How

                        This morning I return to a few morning practices that some how over the past few months got neglected. One of them is morning pages.  I sit down to write. Just get my hand writing and moving across the page. and through this process allow the morning to evolve into what it wants. This is what I tell myself. Dust off. It's movement really, all in different forms. I write for 3 pages, it feels good, an old friend. I don't clean my desk, there are markers and pens and remnants of collage pieces. I pick up this little circle of a rower with a pink head.  I want to use it. To place it somewhere, to glue it down. So I open to any page and glue it in the center. There is a yellow oil pastel also on my desk. Spiral. My hand wants to spiral out, So I spiral out from rower with yellow oil pastel. I want to write something, there is a message from me to me,  I think what is it, keep going, Instead ...I write keep growing, for the process knows more then me. And then i see . looky here, row is in grow,,,, its all connected. And if I had stopped to think this morning, do I feel like sitting down to practice or not, then I wouldn't have had that little moment of discovering delight. So Keep going towards GROWing sometimes without KNOWing what it is you are going towards. Move to be moved!

what are you after?

When I was in art school many years ago, a painter professor came into my studio, looked at my pile of drawings and asked, "What are you after?"
Quickly I said "I'm after not being after." He thought that was a good response and told me to write it down. I noted it in my brain. I've thought about that conversation often and over the years it has  found its way into bits of writings or scribblings or notes to self like this one I found today.
I suppose that the initial response "I'm after not being after." is partially true sometimes.  But there is more I surely seek through continuing the art practice. Much more. And sometimes I know what that is and sometimes mostly I am bouncin' swirlin' not quite driftin' in the wind working to clarify, discover, forget, then remember and forget again what it is I AM indeed after. The most common element I seek through the creative process is the barely one second surprise when I feel something else has joined the reins to the making and I'm connected to an energy that knows more then me. It is a dance. Truly. And that moment when I feel it is enough to say yes thank you, and yet it fuels me to want more. That more changes each day and sometimes is clear strong and guiding and sometimes is murky with thought confusion or doubt.  Still I continue with whatever my hands are into at the moment. You can't discover much by thought alone, the making, the full on here I am lets get messy is where the magic happens.

Dive into whatever it is you are playing with today. And be open to SURPRISE!