Influence Pt. 2

I mentioned that people outside our particular area of interest can often influence our development in that area. I like that because comparing our work to that of the great masters is often challenging. I admire the work of CS Lewis, but I could never compare my writing to his. Monet is my favorite painter, but I haven't painted a work of art since the stuff that was on the fridge when I was in second grade. So does Monet influence my art?
I'd rather say that Monet influences my writing and Lewis influences my art. Not only does it get me out of that sticky comparison thing, it opens up new ways to look at what I do. I love the juxtaposition of one form of art studied in light of another form of art. Try using musical metaphors to describe a painting, or the language of 2-D art to describe a piece of writing. This approach leads to some serendipitous results. I especially like it because it treats the artist holistically, rather than stuff him or her into one category. As a writer, I'm always looking for new sources of inspiration. As I said before, influence is different than inspiration. But perhaps inspiration can come from contemplating influence.

The Little Things

I've been thinking more about influence and I will probably have a follow up post on the subject in the near future. In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy. I've made an attempt at collaging some bookmarks. I'm not quite done with them, but when I am, I might post a picture. I'm also hoping to finish a couple of handmade books this weekend. It amazes me how little time I actually have for this sort of thing. It would probably take a couple of weeks of vacation for me to get done all the art things I want to get done.
More importantly, I actually submitted not one, but two articles to magazines this past week. I've been anxiously checking my mail ever since. Silly. I know.
Over at Little Nuances, Lee has had some interesting posts lately. I loved seeing his junk drawer. It reminded me of the junk drawer we had when I was growing up. Now my junk drawer is pretty much scattered throughout my house.
A few days ago, Lee also commented about phone numbers. This resonated with me because I hardly ever use my cell phone. Consequently, I have no digital phone book and I have to remember the numbers that are important to me. I guess I must know a dozen or so by heart. If I remember your phone number, you're in my inner circle.

Influence

You have to love zeitgeist. Last night I was reading Alphabetica, which has a great section on the creative process of the artists in the book. One of the categories is "influence." As in, who influences your art? I love that question. I think it carries more weight than asking who inspires your work. Influence puts action behind the inspiration. So I started chewing on the question.
Then Crystal had this post on mentoring. I love that we can be mentored by people we've never met. And I love how the book she refers to says that the mentee has responsibilities as well. We need to allow people to influence us. It's how our work is shaped, given depth and texture.
The artists in the book I was reading listed all kinds of people as influencers. Musicians are influenced by more than just other musicians, and writers are influenced by more than just other writers. Talk about layers of depth and texture! Just think about what can happen to the creative process if we open ourselves to the possibility of being mentored and influenced by people outside our own areas of interest and expertise.

If You Want To Write

It's no secret that I've struggled with writing for publication for some time now. I don't have any definitive solutions, but I have been musing on a few ingredients that contribute to that motivation to write.
If you want to write:

• Be poor. Now, this is relatively speaking here. I'm not saying you need to be a starving artist. But if writing helps you make ends meet, then maybe needing to make ends meet can help you write.
• Be busy. If you don't have a lot of time to write, your cup will surely overflowth with ideas. It's frustrating, but it works.
• Be lonely. Frankly, when my social calendar is full, my energy is drained and my needs are met. If I've got just a little more solitude than is comfortable, I start writing just to simply communicate. And face it, if I'm bored enough, I'll eventually write something. (On second thought, maybe I don't want to claim boredom as a reason for writing. I've not really been bored in a while and I've got plenty to handle at the moment, thank you).
• Be accountable. Talking with fellow writers who are a step or two ahead of you in their careers is an important reality check. They provide encouragement, brainstorming, and good old fashioned peer pressure.

There are many other ingredients in the formula for writing. These are just a few that seem to be most important to me at the moment.

What's Your Art?

I was fortunate to spend the last couple of days with two very dear friends who are also writers. We did many things & had many conversations that will provide great material for blogging over the next few weeks. We spent a lot of time discussing art and writing. In one of the handmade books I showed them I had used a favorite quote from Madeline L'Engle in her book Walking on Water.
"Until I have worked through self, I will not be enabled to get out of the way."
In this quote, she is explaining what happens in the creative process when the artist gets into what we call "flow." You know, that experience when time & space disappear and you're no longer conscious of what you are doing, where it's no longer you doing the work, it's the work being done through you.
When I write, I acknowledge that as my art. But I am intimidated by other forms of art such as drawing and painting. I do not feel like an artist in that context. So, having visited the Art Institute with my friends, I thought about my perspective on that quote. I'd originally used it in reference to doing therapy with a client of mine. Therapists work to get out of the way so we can be available to work more authentically and thoughtfully with our clients. When I'm at my best as a therapist, I get out of the way. If I can set aside my own concerns, tiredness, and assumptions, I don't have to worry about finding empathy. It just shows up.
Writing is a form of art. Therapy is also a form of art. Whatever you do that makes you who you are, when you get out of the way, that is art. What's your art?

Star Book Pt. 2

I'm going to be out of town for a couple of days. Actually, that might be better stated "in town." Or perhaps "on the town." A couple friends are coming in from decidedly out of town to visit. We'll be staying in the city, so I'll be away from my computer. I figured I'd better blog now so I don't get any further behind.
Here is the second part of the star book video that I promised. Star books are a lot of work, but they are also a lot of fun. When I get back, I expect you all to have left comments with links to pictures of your own star books.

Relax!

Back in December I got sick & I was out of commission for a while. Since I've been back to the computer, I've not paid much attention to my SiteMeter stats. I kind of assumed that aside from friends and family, I might get the occasional random net surfer and that's about it.
Well, I was wrong about that. I am getting hits from all over the world, including Australia, England, and Canada. One thing all these people have in common is that they seach for "relaxing activities." Apparently, I have a few posts on the subject. Apparently, this subject is googled quite frequently. Apparently, y'all need to relax:)
Side note: Blogger needs to add real smilies like Yahoo! has. That would be quite a bit of fun. Perhaps a bit excessive, but fun.
Anyway, I did do quite a bit of relaxing myself over the weekend. One thing I noticed is that when I least want to do things like journal or make art is when I most need to. So, even if you don't feel like it, maybe you need to go relax.

Mayor Daley

File this in the "I never knew that before" category. I just learned that the mayor of the fair city of which I am a suburbanite, Richard M. Daley, had a son who died of spina bifida. For those of you who don't know, this is a disability I was also born with.
His official bio gives a brief mention, indicating his son was only three years old when he died in 1981. However, there is no reference to the cause of death being spina bifida.
As far as I know, spina bifida doesn't have the same kind of spokesperson power behind its fundraising and research as many other illnesses and diseases. I wonder what a little political muscle could accomplish if it were used for such a purpose.

The Star Book

I've been a bit busy working on some book art. I've got a couple of books in process. One of them is a star book. It's a little hard to just describe, so I thought this video might be useful in giving the basic idea of how the book is constructed.
Stay tuned for part two of how to make a star book. I've got to get back to my kitchen come art studio.

Creativity

Are you a creative person? Sometimes I feel like a creative person, and other times I feel like my muse has run away from home. There are those really creative types who are talented in any artistic effort they endeavor. Most of us though, I think, tend to have a main creative outlet we treat as a hobby. So when it's not working; when your guitar won't tune, your paints won't blend, or your sauce won't simmer, does that mean you aren't creative? More importantly, how do you manage when the thing you do to unwind & feel good about yourself has become a source of frustration?
Well, maybe your muse needs to be let out to wander for a bit. Perhaps our creativity can benefit from having more than one outlet. Instead of leaving the picture or the poem to go pay the bills or do the dishes, walk away and do something else. Something else creative. In the rest of our lives, we get bored doing just one thing. The same exercise routine, the same place for dinner, the same conversations with the same people. No, we need variety. New subjects to explore, new ways to stretch our bodies, new ways to nourish our souls.
Maybe the care & feeding of the muse works the same way.

Holy Week

Holy Week started with Palm Sunday a few days ago and will soon culminate with Easter. This year, our church did something different for Palm Sunday. Usually this particular day is all about celebrating and honoring Christ as our true King. Last Sunday we did that, but it was in the context of what's in store for the rest of the week. Our liturgy was an overview of the coming week.
I often find Holy Week a reflective, somewhat emotional time. So I was a little unprepared to dive right in like we did on Sunday. I'm not sure what I think of it. Jesus' contemporaries did not have the same context in which to place the events of that first Holy Week. We know the rest of the story. Like I said, I'm not sure what I think about celebrating within that context, but it sure does have me thinking.

Hope Is The Thing

I have often struggled with the concept of hope. I'm not saying I feel hopeless, it's just that as a concept hope seems like a contradiction to me. First of all, wanting or having hope implies there is a less than positive circumstance one is struggling against. In the face of a discouraging reality hope may seem irrationally optimistic. It can occupy the same connotation as gossamer wishes and dreams that have no substance, no foundation to hold them together.
Then I found this quote by Emily Dickinson. I like that it highlights the persistent, tenacious quality of hope. Persistence is something I can relate to.

"Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all."

Puppy!

Here she is. Yeah, I know you can't see much of her in this picture. But I'm telling you, this is my favorite puppy part. I love that little white bit at the end of her tail.

It's nice to be able to post pictures without turning blogging into an all night project. I'm just beginning to discover the kind of power my new computer has & I'm quite happy with it. Once I get new speakers, I'll be absolutely thrilled. Isn't it weird how sometimes we think we need certain forms of technology to survive, and find we don't need them at all? Then other times we find a new level of technology and it improves life to such a degree that we don't know how we ever managed without it. Like anything, we can end up abusing that technology and allowing it to become destructive. The important thing is to use our resources to focus on well-being and productivity.

How To Learn Empathy

Do not assume that she who seeks to comfort you now lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. Her life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, she would never have been able to find these words.
Rainer Maria Rilke

Untitled Randomness

• The other day I was eating a salad that included bagged spinach. In and amongst my spinach salad was a three leaf clover. Would have been cooler if it was a four leaf, but it was still pretty amusing to find it in my salad.
• Disrespect annoys me. Really. Really really. Nothing can turn my day south faster than people who demand respect for themselves in a way that steals it from others. Guess what kind of day I had today?
• I have a new computer. In theory, I will be able to post pictures and other multimedia things onto my blog now. I just haven't found the perfect Youtube thing yet. Soon I'll post a picture or two of my brother's new puppy. Her tail is the cutest thing ever.
• I want to watch a movie tonight. I have standing rule that I save my Netflix movies for the weekend so I can be productive during the week. I think guidelines like this are good because they lend me some structure. I also think guidelines like this are arbitrary & should be flexed once in a while because, well, because I want to watch a movie tonight.

A Book Meme

Cris is at it again. She tagged me with a neat meme about books. And as far as I can tell, LeAnne started it, so I won't be able to tag her either. Anyway, here are the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I'm reading Searching For God Knows What, by Donald Miller. Here's the quoted text.
"In the Gospels, Jesus is always surrounded by the poor, by the marginalized. And adversely, he is often opposed by the powerful. Not all the powerful, but those who oppose him are almost always the people who are ahead in the lifeboat."

Ok, so I'm tagging Teena. I would have tagged Old Fashioned Girl, but sadly, her blog has disappeared. This was thought provoking, even if I don't have 5 people to tag.

A Few Things

• I added a couple more links to my blog list. My friend LeAnne now has two blogs and a website. You really need to check out all three; they are beautiful and inspiring.
• I just ordered a new computer. I'm so excited. This old thing has really worn out its welcome.
• My family, specifically my brother, just got a new puppy. I'll post a picture once I get my new PC all set up. See above.
• I really, really want spring. I am having to save up my time off from work, so I can't take a day to go to the local conservatory like I usually do each winter. We're supposed to get more snow tomorrow.
• Putting together a list of 101 goals is much harder than I thought it would be. My brain is locked. This could take a while.
• I know this is a boring post, but at least I posted something. Go check out the new links I added. I bet those folks have something more interesting to say.

101 Goals

This morning an author was on TV promoting his latest book on success. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the so-called laws of attraction. To a certain extent, I think what you focus on contributes to the outcomes in your life. If I believe I'm going to be miserable at the Christmas party & no one will talk to me, I will probably act accordingly. If I believe I will meet some interesting new people & have fun, I will behave differently and have a different party experience. However, I don't buy the whole magical thinking concept of wishing what you want into existence.
That being said, this guy mentioned setting 101 goals as a technique for accomplishing what you want. Traditional wisdom says if you keep your goals few & managable, you have better chances of success. This approach is quite the opposite. I think one of the potential benefits is that with so many goals to work on, every year you will likely have accomplished at least a few of them.
Besides, I like lists of 100 things. It just sounds like fun to come up with that many goals. Some things I've already accomplished may even be on the list. Anyway, there will probably be a new list under my 100's at some point in the near furture.

Tacking

If my computer cooperates, there should be some new links on my blog tonight. I'm in a "getting organized" phase. If you're anything like me, you've already fallen down on your New Year's Resolutions at least once this year. I'm in the process of trying to get back into the healthier, more productive routines I'd planned for this year. It seems like I'm in this space a lot. I identify with Paul, doing what I don't want to do, and not doing what I really do want to do.
A friend of mine used a sailing analogy to describe this phenomenon. He said sailboats can't stay in the middle of the river as they travel. The currents are constantly driving them towards shore. The best you can do is weave to the right a bit, and then even it out by going back to the left a bit. It's a little less discouraging to know that the repetitive motion of getting organized is fairly normal. It's nice to know that if you went a little to the left today, you can get back on course by going to the right tomorrow.
Ummm, what I just said was not intended as a political commentary in any way. But it was pretty punny, wasn't it?

Snow Day

Once every ten years or so, the powers that be at my place of employment decide we here in Chicago have gotten enough snow to warrant a snow day. That once in a decade event took place today. What to do with an entire day off? The choices are overwhelming. Today, I couldn't even decide between doing "want to do" things and "need to do" things.
At least I'm blogging. If I didn't have the day off, who knows if I would have made the time to get around to it? Now that I'm back to blogging, I'd intended to do it 1-2 times a week. I figured that was a small enough goal as to be quite managable.
The good news is that I've been doing other kinds of writing. Blogging is still important to me, but I really want to get back to submiting articles for publication. So I'm in the midst of a transition with juggling how I spend my writing time.
One thing I might write next is a list of things I want to do next time I have an unexpected gift of free time. What would be on your list?