Retirement Whether You Want It Or Not

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Within a couple of months I will officially be retired.

No more worrying about driving to work in snow and slop. No more worrying about punching in late because I cant get my tired butt moving fast enough in the morning. No more scraping off my windows or driving to and from work in the dark. No more getting up at 6 a.m. and force-feeding a shower whether I need it or not.

I should be ecstatic. But somehow, I’m not 100% with that yet.

For there will also be no more beautiful sunrises to see on my way to work. I don’t usually come to my work town, so no more slow rides through the beautiful countryside that inspired two novels and a short story. No more pot lucks and sharing moaning groaning work stories with co-workers. No more chances to actually turn my job into something I love.

Of course, this transition comes to us all. I have worked 50 years to get to this point in my life. It should be — and will be — another turning point. A chance to do the things I really have wanted to do but have never had time to do.

Time to start making Angel Tears™ for art fairs. (more about that another day). More time to write. More time to see my grandkids. More time to actually organize my home. I want to start taking free classes at the University in my hometown. I also want to start freelancing proofreading and editing on the side.  I want to sleep in, stay up until 2 am, and not fear turning off the alarm and falling back asleep.

Yet I can’t help look back at all the years I’ve spent working for someone else. Except for a 7 year stint as a B&B owner, I’ve owed my soul — and paycheck — to the “man.” I try not to look back too much, for it’s easy to see the trials and fails I’ve had. The steps backwards I took to get where I am today.

It’s easy to see the dreams I once had of having a successful career. The steps I took and the steps I should have taken.

But there is no going back. No chance to change decisions, directions, or choices. That’s the payment for a life well lived.

The good thing is that I really believe I have another 20-30-40 years to make a difference. That’s a lot of time. I can encourage my grandkids to be proud of who they are and the contributions they will make to making the world a better place. I can make sparkly things that make people smile when they look out the window. I can contribute to the world in a different way than filing and updating computer records and making beds for visitors.

I can finally find out who I am.

There will be an adjustment period, no doubt. But that is something worth wading through — something worth dancing through.

For there is always a party on the other side.

 

My Creative Muse Is At It Again

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nikitaliskov

Happy Monday creative muses!

Last week I told you that, for various reasons, I will not be going to Paris next fall to write. Which is just fine.

Just as I accepted that fact,  my creative muse swooped in and brought me an idea a new book (which I’ve  told you about). Her chatter, at first, is confusing and mind blowing. So much information, so many ideas, and with her Irish brogue it’s sometimes hard to understand everything.

But she also brought a new awareness to my aura’s circle. I believe that, of all of things I’ve written, this upcoming book will be the one that really works.

Do you ever feel that way with your latest creation? That of all of the things you have worked on, all the things you’ve made, that this is the one that is going to take you to that next level?

Do you listen to yourself when you hear that?

Now, “the next level” can be different things to different people. It could be the start of a whole new art collection. A whole new style or technique or genre.  It is usually something you’ve been working towards for some time. A contest entry, an art competition, being published. The next level is something every artist strives for.

I finished my blogs about How To Write Your First/Second/Third Book which I will be posting soon. And I am happy to say I am following my own advice.

I have a story line kinda worked out. When I solidify it I will write my synopsis. I think I’ve decided which point of view I’m writing as. And I have a lot of research to do on characters and settings, for that’s the kind of book I now want to write. I am missing one character I know I need but have drawn a blank on who it is. This is common, too. You don’t always have to have all the details, all the Ps and Qs before you start. Your creative muse will sooner or later bring you the piece you need to finish your puzzle.

When you get your idea and really begin to work on it, you can’t help but get excited about it. Excited about the research, excited about its development, excited about how you will start it and how you will finish it. All mediums are the same when it comes to that tingling feeling that “this is IT.” 

So what are you working on/researching this marvelous Monday?

And I’m talking to you silent readers in the background who are  starting something and finally are ready to talk about it….

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Sharon Weiser

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Sharon Weiser, who grew up in Wisconsin, began painting as a child and went on to receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts and K-12 teaching certificate from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire.

After living for twenty years in Phoenix, Arizona, Weiser returned to the Midwest where she currently teaches painting and drawing at her studio.Clearly, the time Weiser spent in Arizona left its mark artistically as she continues to create her joyfully close-up cactus compositions.Painting in either oils or acrylics, Weiser works primarily from her own photos – cropping, replacing, re-positioning or enlarging forms to expertly compose her dynamic light-filled canvases.It is bold colors, a remarkable attention to detail and a singular sense of design that makes her paintings stand apart.Her artwork also continues to evolve as her curiosity compels her to keep experimenting with different color palettes, subjects and ideas.Her choice of southern colors reflects the beauty of her surroundings, adding depth and almost a fluorescence to desert life.More of Sharon Weiser‘s beautiful paintings can be found at http://www.sharonweiser.com/.

Faerie Paths — Laughter

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When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.
~ J.M. Barrie

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Dew Drops

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The world globes itself in a drop of dew.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We All See Something Different

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 14 Comments

What do you see when you look at this picture?Or this one?

How about this one?

The world is not always what we think at first glance.

We trust our senses to get us through life. One wrong move and we will be trying out wings on the other side. Our common sense usually is our guide through the world.

But common sense goes deeper than just what we can see and smell. What about our inner sense? The one that wants to make nonsense out of common sense?

We want to take a chance now and then, but years of upbringing advise against change. We are warned to keep both feet in this world. Heaven forbid we go somewhere by ourselves and get lost. Or create a masterpiece and have too much of one color. Or go to school and flunk the class. Everyone will laugh at you and you’ll be a loser forever.

As you get older you find out that that’s really all bull#*$t.

Life isn’t really like that. That rarely do people laugh at you, and if they do, it’s because you’ve touched a nerve in their own insecurities. That you have missed opportunities to be your own person just because your chatty mind told you something off the top of your head and never really took time to check it out.

And one day you turn around and see all the floors you could have stepped on but didn’t because you never took the time to check out if they were legit or not.  Floors that just might have been real, but after checking them out decided not to try them out.

Let your common sense connect with your inner sense. You want to dress differently? Go buy a wrap and go for it. Want to create an art or scrap booking group? Start getting people together today. Want to paint a wall black? (Do you really want to do that??) If it’s part of a color scheme, a bigger picture, makes you happy, then try it.

Don’t let your five senses rule everything. Learn the truth then take a chance. And don’t look back.

Think of the adventures you will miss!

https://gph.is/g/4gDJ2L9

I AM My Character … and That’s Okay

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 9 Comments

I had an epiphany earlier this evening. 

I find that if  I let my mind spew then wander, I answer my own questions, find my own direction again. 

The other day I was sooo concerned about writing stories that sounded like me but weren’t me but were me but not really. At first thought, that bothered me. I didn’t want every character to be me. That’s a legitimate concern of most writers.

But, in my case, I see now I wanted these stories to BE me. 

I wanted to be the one who traveled back in time, the one who was taken to another planet to take the place of a dead queen. This common-sense-that-I-don’t-always-have made me realize that, in this case, I might be making a mountain out of the proverbial mole hill. 

The reason for this epiphany was that on my drive home today I started thinking about going to Paris for a week next year, and how I doubt that I will go. There are a number of reasons for this pre-decision, and nothing is set in stone yet, but you kinda know if you’ve got a chance or not.

I was going to write of my adventures, my visits to cafes and libraries and shops and bridges. What a wonderful journal it was going to be.

So does that mean that if I can’t go I can’t go?

Does that mean that just because I can’t walk the streets myself and eat the croissants and touch the gargoyles I can’t walk the streets and eat the croissants and touch the gargoyles anyway?

Since it seems I’ve already traveled through time and space, why can’t I take this trip, too? Maybe cut my hair, make myself a little thinner, but be the same person exploring new worlds?

Maybe when I sit and look at the glass pyramid at the Louvre I can sit and talk with a young funny Parisian, or fall in love for a couple of evenings with a roguish French man or watch Hemingway drink at a back table at Café du Dôme. I can slip a Hermes scarf into my purse and not get caught, or have dinner at Seb’on without having to pay.

Who will know that lead character is me besides you and me and my friends and family?

You see — I can do all that. Without guilt, without explanation. I can be me and not be me. I can research and look at pictures and watch old movies and visit Paris on my own terms. I can get lost without getting lost. Talk to strangers without talking to strangers.

Being myself in my story is actually a win/win situation.

I am starting to think about starting a new book. A book with a little adventure, a little flirting, and a little café au lait.

Don’t let your inability to go somewhere, to attend something, stop you from doing research and doing it through your art. Through your painting, your writing, your sketching. Whatever world you create for yourself. There is always a way through the clouds.

Artists always find a way.

 

Sonnet: Powerful Spirits Speak (Reprise)

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A poem for my poet friends this fine Monday morning….is this you?

Ana Daksina's avatarTimeless Classics

*****

A poet is the strangest sort of soul
You in this life may e’er expect to meet
More broken, even while more truly whole,
Innocently intending well, more sweet

Than any but a five year old should be
Unfit to meet a callused world’s demand
Or to behave aught expediently
All grace in flight; an albatross on land

But don’t the all too common error make
Do not fall into the too easy trap
Avoid the fatal egoic mistake
Imagining that poet as a sap

Powerful spirits, classic and antique
Give voice when poets ope their lips to speak

*****
The poet/editor of this website is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level. Contributions may be made at:

https://www.gofundme.com/are-you-a-patron-of-the-arts

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Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Ronnie Hughes

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Ronnie Hughes was born in 1954 and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

He learned glassblowing with the help of a friend after graduating from Wake Forest University in 1976..In 1980, after hiking on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Hughes came upon a field of hundreds of breathtaking Pink Lady Slipper orchids, which inspired him to change his subject matter completely.Using both clear and colored glasses, Hughes create his wildflowers and then integrates them with his free-formed, solid glass bases. His sculptures stand entirely on their own in continuous glass, a more challenging and time-consuming process.Hughes believe that the purity of clear glass lends a mystical feel to the flowers, emphasizing the delicacy and fragility of our natural world.The colored blossoms provide a vibrant focal point while the clear glass challenges the observer to look more closely and to use their imagination to complete his vision.More of Ronnie Hughes‘ delicate, beautiful work can be found at https://hughesglass.net/

Are You Your Character?

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 17 Comments

An interesting turn of thoughts this evening. Maybe upon sharing and reflection you can give me your thoughts.

As I have blah blah-ed many times, I have written several novels. One set of three, and another set of two. I have finally polished the first one enough to say it is done. Now I am giving it to my family and friends to read.

They are what I call female fantasy fiction books. They all have something to do with a middle-aged woman finding her way through a totally “alien” surrounding.

Is this character me? 

I believe we put a little of ourselves in everything we write. Either we are that main character or the exact opposite of that character. Or a combination of that character and someone else. Or that character is a combination of people we know. No character is 100% made up.

My husband is not taken by my stories and novels, mostly because every chapter he reads he says, “that’s so you!” He likes the writing and the places and the ideas, but he sees me on every page. A friend of mine who is reading it also teases of an early chapter relationship reflecting his own family. They see “me” and “us” instead of “just some couple.”

Do you think these reactions are because these people are too close to me to be unbiased readers? Do you think the things you write can be taken at plain face value rather than linked in one form or another to the author?

When I read poetry from those blogs I follow, although I don’t know the author personally, I can tell when they are writing about themselves. I believe that is on purpose.(Ivor? Walt? Dwight?) Their writing is an extension of who they are, what they are feeling. And I love that.

On the other hand, I want my stories to be about “some” middle-aged woman. A woman who makes decisions I wouldn’t make, does things I wouldn’t do. ~I~ know this character is, in some ways, a form of me, but I don’t want my reader to see me when reading.

Writing is a different art from painting or sculpture. In many other forms of art your goal is to express yourself. To give your version of a thought, an idea. Your interpretation. Your story. In writing, it may be your idea, but it’s really supposed to be someone else’s story. Not yours.

Maybe I should try writing a story with a main character that’s a man. Or a child. Or a foreigner. Or a dog. Using their difference to become a different person. Maybe that’s what’s needed to really be a good writer. To totally abandon who you are and become someone else.

Any thoughts on my direction?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expanding Your Horizons

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments

The last few evenings I have been working on my New Year’s blogs about how to write your first (or third) book. I find I am overwhelmed with the amount of information I think is important — things I have heard, things I have learned.

I suppose this is like writing a book.

Who is your audience? How much do they know? How much do they want to know?

Not everyone is going to need or heed your advice. Some are way past you on the writing highway. Others are going to do things their way, no matter what you suggest. Some will read your book/blog like an astrology forecast; they will skim through, take what they believe is meant for them and skip the rest. Others will read what you write with a depth and desire matched only by connoisseurs of fine chocolates.

I suppose all artists experience this range of wondering. Will the viewer like this new shade of blue/green? Do they prefer landscapes to abstract designs? Are potential fans encouraged or discouraged by alien worlds? Would they rather read about their own neighborhood?

Fortunately the world is as diverse as the universe. Some will take heed on what you say; some will reject every point you make. Some people know it all; some know nothing.

You just have to find a comfortable point and go with it.

Now, of course,  artists have to please themselves first. What good is a “calling” when you’re doing everything but what your soul wants you to do?

But in order to be appreciated, to be understood, in order to share your vision, you have to kind of cater to the masses too. An all-black painting with a white dot might not stir much reaction; an all-black painting with blue and green stipples might stir a darker soul.

Of course, I only have a writing frame of reference to work from. Many of you have been lost in your art for a long time. So who should know more about what works in the world in your field than you?

Should you want to sell your wares or get a major reaction down the line, you need to focus in on those who appreciate your particular style.

Who would that be?

Research is next to godliness (and cleanliness). There will always be a hundred other people who make pottery like you or needlepoint like you, but there is only one you. You  have to research people and websites and craft groups and writers groups and art fairs and work with them to spread the word.

Your website, your business card, your postings, all have to be different from everyone else’s. You have to appeal to the masses while keeping that smaller niche all to yourself.

Don’t downplay yourself, don’t undersell yourself. Don’t be who you are not. There is a market for everyone. Even if that market is your friends and kids. That’s not a bad market, either.

You will find that if you reach out and make others feel good about their art, that’s just a bonus for moving forward.

Tomorrow…(or more likely over the weekend)… some bloggers and their artwork and their wares.

Faerie Paths — Beauty

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The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.

― Frank Lloyd Wright

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Juan Gris

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José Victoriano (Carmelo Carlos) González-Pérez, better known as Juan Gris (1887-1927) built upon the foundations of early Cubism and steered the movement in new directions.

Gris was a Spanish painter and sculptor born in Madrid who lived and worked in France most of his life.

Cubism is an early 20th-century style and movement in art, especially painting, in which perspective with a single viewpoint was abandoned and use was made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and, later, collage.

Unlike Picasso and Braque, whose Cubist works were monochromatic, Gris’s chief aim was to please the eye through color.

Often he incorporated newsprint and advertisements into his work, leaving more of the original pieces of ads and newsprint intact, as if to preserve the integrity of the originals. 

Gris’s later works exhibited a greater simplification of geometric structure, a blurring of the distinction between objects and setting, between subject matter and background. 

The clear-cut underlying geometric framework of his work  controls the finer elements of his paintings and their composition, including the small planes of the faces, become part of the unified whole. 

More of Juan Gris‘s wonderful cubism art can be found at http://www.juangris.org/.

 

 

Borrowing From Famous Artists

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments

Where do you get your inspiration from? Not just for your stories, but for your paintings, sketches, for your photography?

I love it that inspiration can hit from any direction at any time.

The other night I watched the excellent 2000 movie Shadow of a Vampire with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe, about the making of Nosferatu in 1922 (with a twist). At the beginning of the movie there was a collage of drawings, haunting in nature, perhaps from Nosferatu’s castle or medieval tapestries or whatever.

But these images are wonderfully unique. They would make great stories, great watercolors, great backgrounds for other worlds, other ideas. I see some unique inspiration coming from these. Just because they showed up in a horror movie doesn’t mean they have to stay there. I see abstract sketches coming from these; I see a story about an alien or elf magically appearing right in his horse’s path; I see a cross stitch in muted colors and poem about finding the light.

It’s easy to get inspired by walking through the woods, or watching a sunset. But what about an old movie script? Can you paint a picture based on someone else’s idea? Write a story based on someone else’s story line?

I say — why not?

Start with a Monet and end up with a modern lithograph. Start with an old Twilight Zone episode and ended up with a short story. Make a quilt based on  designs from Picasso or Juan Gris. Make a needlepoint based off a Medieval tapestry. Design an outfit that reflects the architecture of the Eiffel Tower. Use a photograph of a city skyline to make a paper cutting.

We are not stealing someone else’s ideas — we are taking their idea, a creation, and putting our own mark on it. Our own version of it. A pen and ink drawing can come from a passage in your favorite book; a sculpture can be inspired by a child’s painting on a school wall.

One of the creative paths I want to re-explore once I retire is painting. I enjoyed it so much so long ago…who knows what ideas will come to mind once I put brush to canvas? I can see me trying out these designs I saw on a vampire movie one night. I can try colorful drips and drops and splatters like the ones I watched Ed Harris, aka Jackson Pollock, made in the movie of the painter’s name.

I have so many things I want to try it makes my head spin.

That’s what I want you to feel. Take a design, a photo, a paragraph from a book and turn it into something of your own. It doesn’t matter if it turns out like you thought — that’s why we experiment. To see what spin we can put on someone else’s reality.

Have you taken other artist’s creations and turned them into  your own? Have you ever watched a movie or a TV show and thought “that’s really unique — I can do something with that….”? Share with us. Give us ideas!

And anyway — it’s not really “borrowing.” You don’t need to give it back.

Maybe I should have said — TRANSFORMING.

Isn’t that much more fun?

6 Ways To Bring Readers To Your Blog/Site/Life

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 2 Comments

Accurate and proven six ways to hook your readers

 

1.  Animals

2.  Bright Colors

3.  Laughing Babies or Little Kids

4.  Scenery

5.  Memories

6.  Food

What do you think? What would YOU add?

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery on Wednesday — Teri Greeves

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Teri Greeves was born and raised on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming among the Shoshone and Northern Arapaho .

Teri’s mother, Jeri Ah-be-hill, owned a trading post on the reservation while Greeves was growing up. “By repeating to customers what I heard her saying when she was selling to and educating the public,” Teri says, “I unknowingly gained a broad knowledge of different beadwork from tribes around the US.”

Blending the abstract, geometric tradition of Kiowa beadwork with the more pictorial style of the Shoshone, Greeves has developed her own visual language.

Greeves has become an award-winning beadwork artist, mostly known for her fully-beaded tennis shoes, which feature Indian pictorial elements.“I must express myself and my experience as a 21st century Kiowa and I do it, like all those unknown artists before me, through beadwork,” Greeves says.

“And though my medium may be considered ‘craft’ or ‘traditional’, my stories are from the same source as the voice running through that first Kiowa beadworker’s needles. It is the voice of my grandmothers.”

Her work is fun and amazing, pulling on the tradition of her ancestors to keep her flowing through modern times.

More of Teri Greeves‘ unique beadwork can be found at https://www.terigreevesbeadwork.com.

It’s a Little Shadowy Out There

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 11 Comments

Have you noticed?

There’s been an odd, fairly strange vibration swirling around these past couple of days.

For myself, I’ve started my retirement plans, and none too soon. The company is changing, the people, the direction. It’s what every company does. Out with the old, in with the new. The old may have experience but the young have the moxy. I am the old.

And that’s okay. Us ‘tiques have other dreams to pursue, other places to visit, other friends to make.

But it’s been strange vibrations all around me, too.

Some of the blogs I’ve been reading lately have been tinged with melancholy, with sadness, with memories and lost loves and buckets of missed memories.

The news has been depressing and frustrating, even with the occasional stories on Facebook of people and the dogs they rescued and cats finding their forever homes.

I don’t know if it’s pre-Mercury retrograde or the discovery of 20 new moons around Saturn, but the universe is undulating in unsettling ways. I find I cannot listen to the news much anymore, or sad stories about animals and kids. I want to help heal the world, but I can’t.

Lots of violent, sadistic movies and TV shows out there lately, too. Lots of deaths mixed in with good looking heroes. Went to the movies the other nite; the Joker was packed, yet there were only six of us watching Downton Abbey.

How boring I must be.

People are posting and reposting stories about missing long-gone pets, family members, and lifestyles. A lot of sentimental sweet things, too, stories that pull your heart strings as you watch a moment in time disappear, reminding you how short life really is.

It’s probably my hormones again; my body and mind adjusting to getting older. But if you notice the world around you is unsettling as the days go by, perhaps its time to take a break from all of it.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Devote your time to people, places, and things that reinforce your faith in humanity.

For me that’s family and friends. My love of art. It’s writing and having coffee with friends and cleaning out my old clothes that don’t fit right anymore. Its eating my favorite foods and going for a walk and finding a good book to read.

I’m sure you can find a dozen things, too, that take your mind off the melancholy.

We must learn to leave the chaos behind now and then. The things we can do nothing about. Otherwise we will swirl down the hole of no return, alone and wandering.

Stay away from the swirling universe for a while.  It will still be swirling when you get back. Don’t let your sad or wonderful memories be all you see, all you are. Feel the melancholy, the dreams of the past, the vibrations of worlds gone by. But don’t let it own you.

Bake some cookies. Explore the worlds of artists you enjoy. Play Barbies or trucks with little kids or wear something you always wanted to but never did. Try a new hobby, a new restaurant, a new direction.

Don’t let the world take over. You’ve still got so much more to do and be.

And that is a happy thing!

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Cindy Kang

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Born and raised in Seoul, along with a couple of other stints living in New Zealand, Australia and the US growing up, Cindy Kang eventually moved to the big apple with hopes and dreams of becoming an illustrator.

She studied illustration at New York’s School of Visual Arts, pursuing an interest in storytelling through heartwarming atmospheric drawings.With a number of commissions under her belt, Cindy’s American dream is gradually being realized; one painterly illustration at a time.“I was always interested in storytelling,” explains Cindy, “whether it’s in the form of written language or visual language.”

“However, being from the other side of the world and living as a ‘foreigner’ for more than half of my life meant that it was inevitable for me to face some language and cultural barriers.”

Taking up drawing as a way to loosen anxiety during those “new girl experiences”, illustration became a release for Cindy, as well as a way to let go from the pressures of communicating perfectly in English.

Her art seems to be a more personal reflection of inner female thoughts and dreams of the feminine world. 

By paying close attention to the emotion of her illustrated figures, Cindy continues to depict a breathing space for her drawn characters while revealing her wild imagination at the same time.

More of Cindy Kang‘s work can be found at http://www.cindysykang.com

 

 

Faerie Paths – Purplerays — When mother takes the Fairy Book

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A faerie quote, poem, and idea ……

via #PoeticThursday . . . When mother takes the Fairy Book — Purplerays

Write Em Cowboy

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I am starting to work in earnest on my upcoming blog series “So You Want To Write A Book.”  (or some other wonderfully colorful fictitious title).  I think it will be informative and helpful to readers at every stage of their writing.

It will be free, a part of my blog. I may put together a package of worksheets and references and samples and offer that for purchase. Still working on that.

As I put together this series I also did the final read through of my first book. I said final — I HAVE to say final — or I will be nip and tucking this thing for the next 10 years.

This last nip and tuck a few days ago yielded a cut of 243 words. And those were just the same words I used too many times.

You see? We all have positive and negative writing habits that we cannot see. We read and reread and proofread and still miss the bigger picture; a smooth reading ride on the Writing Railroad.

The advice I will share is good for all lengths of writing: novels, novellas, short stories, magazine articles. Memoirs and science fiction. Romance and mystery. It doesn’t matter what you write — you have to proof it with a fine tooth comb.

My comb is always full of hair. Pity.

But that’s what makes the final work worthy. Worthy of publication, of entering into contests, into being a story in a magazine or a column in a newspaper. Clean, entertaining writing.

I am living proof you have to put in the work.

Some may toss off stories like trick-or-treat candy. Maybe they’re that good. If you are that good, I envy you. For it’s not easy to get exactly what you want to say out and down on paper the first time around. The first ten times around.

Practice, practice, practice. Edit and change and stand back and do it again. That’s one of the tips I’m going to share in my blog come Christmas time.

One of my favorite movies is Tombstone. I love Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp. And he has the best line about cleaning up your writing.

“The Cowboys are finished, you understand me?! I see a red sash, I kill the man wearin’ it! So run, you cur… RUN! Tell all the other curs the LAW’S coming! You tell ’em I’M coming… and Hell’s coming with me, you hear?! Hell’s coming with me!“

Hehe….bring the brimstone down on your writing. You won’t be sorry.

Just don’t set your computer on fire…..

Faerie Paths — Let Go

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments
Luncheon of the Boating Party, Renoir

 

We must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. – Joseph Campbell

 

 

Mirrored Reality

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Life is kinda funny.

Of course, you already know that. Where else could you start traveling north and eventually wind up in the south?

Your mind loves playing tricks on you. Now, most of us don’t mind being fooled now and then, especially if the outcome is not dramatic or traumatic.  I think it worsens as you get older, too.

Be that as it may….

When you are one way, you wonder what it would be like to be another way. Your mind gets used to what ‘is’, yet hopes to get you pumped about what ‘could be’. Most times that’s okay. It encourages us to look for new jobs, new places to walk, new books to read and such.

Sometimes change is important. Getting out of an abusive relationship, a dead end job, or a poisonous atmosphere are changes definitely worth making. The future has to be better than where you are.

But the mind loves messing around with you. Teases you that maybe what you initially thought as rough really isn’t that rough.

The thought of retirement is like that.

You’ve worked all your life. Answered to countless bosses, co-workers, and job descriptions. You spend a few extra days at home and think “this is the life. I could do this forever.”

And, indeed, cleaning house or changing kitty litter or grocery shopping are even trade offs for sleeping in an hour later or eating breakfast at 1 p.m. After all, you have to do those jobs anyway. But you don’t have to sell things or stand in an assembly line or input data or punch a time clock.

Then your mind starts to trick you. Oh, maybe work isn’t really that bad. After all, I still get to be with my kids in the evening, go to soccer and basketball games, go out to dinner on weekends. I can take vacation when I want and still get paid for it; I can hang with my work friends and maybe even work my way up the corporate ladder.

So you put off thoughts of leaving.

Then you get back to work Monday morning and it’s still the frustrating mess you left behind last week. There are no new jobs to apply for; your co-workers and you still complain and get up too early and are never understood. You once again realize that retirement looks like the way out.

Why does our mind only care about where we are at the time?

You can think through anything and come out with the opinion you were looking for. Logic kinda sidesteps and all these reasons to come or go pop up. Reasons you weren’t looking for in the first place. Reasons to stay. Reasons to go.

Retirement is my mental bag at the moment; yours may be a dream vacation, taking a class, or having dinner with your family. The point is — don’t be afraid of change.

Beware of the alternative universe. Don’t talk yourself out of doing what you really want to do. The opportunity may come again, but it will be different. YOU will be different. But your alternate reality won’t be.

And your mind will have fooled you again.

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Zdzislaw Beksinski

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Zdzislaw Beksinski (1929-2005) was a was a renowned Polish painter, photographer, and fantasy artist.

His work reflected his preference for the obscure.His paintings concocted up odd images in the mind, and were a true step into absurdity in the field of dystopian surrealism.Beksinski was a very innovative artist, especially for one working in a Communist country. In the 1970s he entered what he himself called his “fantastic period”, which lasted up to the late 1980s. This is his best known period, during which he created very disturbing images, showing a surrealistic, post-apocalyptic environment with very detailed scenes of death, decay, landscapes filled with skeletons, deformed figures, deserts, all very detailed, painted with his trademark precision, particularly when it came to rough, bumpy surfaces.  Beksinski’s later years were ones filled with tragedy.  His wife, Zofia, died in 1998, and a year later, on Christmas Eve 1999, his son Tomasz (a popular radio presenter, music journalist and movie translator) committed suicide. Beksiński’s life reached a most brutal and melancholy end in 2005, when he was stabbed to death at his Warsaw apartment by a 19-year-old acquaintance from Wołomin, reportedly because he refused to lend the teenager money.Perhaps his art had always reflected the darkness that one day would reflect the end of his life.More of Zdzislaw Beksinski‘s haunting work can be found at https://www.shopbeksinski.com/

Henry the Search Cat — Katzenworld

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Did you know? Me neither! Fun on a Thursday!

The post Henry the Search Cat appeared first on Katzenworld – Welcome to the world of cats!. The cat who finds lost cats Hello, humans. My name is Henry. I’m a Search & Rescue cat. Well, actually I’m in charge of the Search part. The Rescue bit is up to my partner, the Lost Cat…

via Henry the Search Cat — Katzenworld

Faerie Paths — Layers

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Yunnan Rice Terraces, China

 

… as we travel again between life and death,
Waking and dream, blinking, while layers within layers,
None better, none worse, unravel and knit up before us …
― Jay Woodman

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Raja Ravi Varma

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Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) was an Indian painter and artist, considered as one of the greatest painters in the history of Indian art.

Ravi Varma is one of the few painters who managed to accomplish a beautiful union of Indian tradition with the techniques of European academic art.

His paintings can be classified into three categories – portraits, portrait-based compositions and theatrical compositions based on myths and legends. It is the third category of paintings for which Raja Ravi Varma is most renowned.

Raja Ravi Varma is known for his amazing paintings, which revolve mainly around the Puranas (ancient mythological stories) and the great Indian epics – Mahabharata and Ramayana.

 He is sometimes regarded as the first modern Indian artist due to his ability to reconcile Western aesthetics with Indian iconography.

This is one of the reasons why he is considered as one of the most, if not the most prominent Indian painters.

His paintings are full of color and life, sprung from a world most of us are not familiar with.

Hopefully sharing this beautiful art will change all of that.

More of Raja Ravi Varma‘s marvelous paintings can be found at  https://ravivarma.org/  or https://tinyurl.com/y4s79c54. 

Show Me Those Aliens!

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Well, the Day of Invasion of Area 51 is finally over.

Out of the one (or two, depending on which news report you read) million people who threatened to show up and storm our not-so-secret military base in Groom Lake, Nevada, only a mere 100 (or couple dozen or handful, depending on which news report you read) showed up. 

There was reportedly one die hard explorer who ran behind a reporter in the “Naruto run”, a weird run inspired by Naruto Uzumaki, a Japanese manga character who runs with his head down and arms stretched behind him.

There was AlienStock in downtown Las Vegas and, at this posting, an alternative — the original — Alienstock in Rachel, NV. There was no invasion of Area 51, a couple of arrests, and relieved maintenance workers, secretaries, and Air Force generals standing guard inside the compound itself.

All the hoopla because of the search for alien life.

I cannot help but be amused at the explosion of interest about just what’s being hidden at a secured site way out in the desert. It sounded like a blast — people dressed up as aliens, tin foil hats, signs and spaceships and, I’m sure, plenty of alcohol and other “enhancements.”

I can just imagine what would have happened if the visitors DID find a few aliens buried behind the barbed wire.

Personally, I don’t think human beings can comprehend what an alien would really look like. Be like.

Some one — some thing — travels millions of miles just to check us out — what for? Any life that has developed outside our solar system would be based on a totally different cosmic scale. We can only imagine alien life based on our own interpretation of life. Our own carbon-based DNA. Their makeup, their world, their philosophies would be so different to us as to not be understood.

Maybe that’s why some think there are beings being hidden in the depths and darkness of Area 51. 

We are all fascinated by things we don’t understand. Face it. Don’t you love wondering how magicians do what they do? How lightning happens? How every snowflake can be different? How the human body really works?

We all know there are real physical explanations for most everything. That everything magical has its mundane side. We are fascinated by things we can’t see, things we will never see. Ghosts, galaxies, the inside of an atom. It’s just not possible. Not in this lifetime.

But we can dream. We can imagine. We can pretend. And we can believe.

We can wear tin foil hats and demand the government tell us all its secrets. We can dream of aliens visiting us or dinosaurs roaming through our backyards. 

That’s what’s beautiful about being human. That’s the blessing, the gift, of our humanness. To imagine there will always be more to learn. To see. To experience.

And how lucky we are to have a video of dozens of people practicing the Naruto Run just in case they decide to break down the fence at Area 51 and dodge the bullets and machine gun fire and bust down doors and run down ten flights of stairs just to see those aliens.

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery on Friday — Valerio D’Ospina

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There is something surrealistic about Valerio D’Ospina’s dramatic artwork.

Looking at the city scapes, one feels as if they are moving forward in time, glimpsing life as it blurs past the window.

D’Ospina was born in Italy, but now lives and works in Pennsylvania.

The artist paints gritty scenes from industry including ship yards, trains, and urbanscapes.

D’Ospina also finds beauty in industrial transportation, specifically oil tankers and old locomotives that lumber into rail yards or sit docked in harbors with a captivating sense of dignity.

His perspective has an edge of starkness to them, as his brush strokes streak across the canvas.

It is a sharp, beautiful, unique way to view the world.

More of Valerio D’Ospina‘s work can be found at https://www.valeriodospina.com/.

 

 

Faerie Paths — Beyond

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Mono Lake, California

 

Some people meet the way the sky meets the earth, inevitably, and there is no stopping or holding back their love. It exists in a finished world, beyond the reach of common sense.  ~ Louise Erdrich

 

 

I Forgot — Again

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After work this evening I went shopping at Walmart and wound up locking my keys in the car. I had to call my hubby from work 30 miles away and have him come unlock the car.

That in itself doesn’t sound so bad. Everyone forgets something. Locks themselves out of something.

Not me.

To me this is the first sign of dementia. Or Alzheimer’s. Or something just as tragic.

I just know it.

I’m not making fun of those who have it. I have always had this feeling that this will be my path somewhere down the line. No one in my family has it, but my mom passed away at 54 so who knows what her fate would have been.

Locking myself out of my car does not bode well for my wanting to go to Paris for a week by myself, either.

I’m already nervous about the thought of taking a trip like this by myself. I am at the fantasy stage, the imagine-it-all stage. The pre-research stage. My family doesn’t know my desire — even my husband is pre-iffy. So convincing everyone that I can handle life alone in the city of Love for a week by myself is going to be a real hurdle.

I already am a fraidy cat when it comes to strangers and finding my way around new places. The thought of boarding a plane and going to a country where I don’t speak the language nor know the landscape is not just a case of turning left instead of right.

But I’m still up for it. My writing is still up for it.

I’m getting afraid my memory is following way far behind.

What if I lose my hotel key? What if I take the wrong bus and get dumped in a small French village where no one speaks English and I become the town buffoon?

I can just see this feeble old lady wandering around aimlessly saying “Parles-tu Anglais?“

I know this is overreaction at the highest level.

But when you’ve been forgetting things lately like locking the bottom lock on the door or locking your keys in the car or wondering where the scratches on your shoulder came from (the cat, probably), traveling by yourself becomes secondary.

The Paris trip thing is the least of my worries. I forget this thing or that thing now, and before I know it I’ll be forgetting to put on underwear. You know what I mean.

Fear is like a multiplication table. At the beginning, the numbers are small. Easy to remember. But as you age, the multiplication table gets bigger and bigger. You try and keep up — you study, you make notes, you talk outloud to yourself. 

Yet you forget one thing and it’s back to the beginning of the multiplication table, with a few more people watching you perform. 

I know I have a long way to go before the mind disappears into that sweet fog of NaNaLand. But every time I slip, every time I mess up, it makes me — and others — take notice.

I’d rather take notice of cafes in Paris that serve a mean Coq au Vin….

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Matt Molloy

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Living on the shore of Lake Ontario, just east of Toronto, 29-year-old photographer Matt Molloy has daily encounters with brilliant sunsets and cloudscapes that he’s been photographing for over three years.

One day he began experimenting with time-lapse sequences by taking hundreds of images as the sun set and the clouds moved through the sky.

Molloy had always loved  “star trail” photos. They’re most commonly made from multiple photos of stars shot from a fixed position and later merged into one image. 

Applying this technique to his own photography, Molloy then digitally took and and stacked numerous photos to reveal shifts in color and shape reminiscent of painterly brush strokes that smeared the sky.

There is something about Molloy’s timelapse photography that makes you feel as if you were watching time spread and stop at the same time.

It’s a point of view that is as colorful and transient as life itself.

More of Matt Molloy‘s amazing photography can be found at https://matt-molloy.pixels.com/ and https://www.dpmag.com/how-to/shooting/the-art-of-time-lapse-photography/.

 

 

Painting Is Easy…Not

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I was reading posts I follow, and came across  Carsten Wieland’s watercolor paintings. I have highlighted his work here on Humoring the Goddess and on my Sunday Evening Art Gallery blog before, so you are kind of familiar with his work.

But I have to repost this here this afternoon. If you have three minutes, watch the video of him painting the ship. He makes the creative process look so easy, so simple.

That is what real artists do.

I am speechless. For I know that’s not true.

 

WATERCOLOR ON INGRES PAPER 2

https://brushparkwatercolors.wordpress.com/2019/09/11/watercolor-on-ingres-paper-2/

 

We Will Never Forget…

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I posted this two years ago — it still hurts my heart. So I wanted to post it again. God bless everyone affected.

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The Masters of Art Never Go Far

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Every day is a new chance to start over. To clean the slate. To move towards what we really want out of life.

But sometimes we don’t want to change. Maybe we like where we are. What we’ve discovered. Maybe we’ve found what we want to be.

That’s good too. As long as you’re somehow, someway, still growing.

I found myself going through some older art galleries, and am amazed at the creativity I’ve found. I love these images, I love the intricacies of their art. So I thought I’d bring a couple to tonight’s gathering to remind you to look through my galleries, or other galleries, and allow yourself to be amazed.

Google “Paris Art Galleries” or “San Francisco Art Galleries”  or “Modern Art Galleries” and just take a look at what’s around you. Take a few minutes and wander through one person’s art. One person’s mind and soul.

Let me know what you find. Let me know how it feels.

 

Jose Vergara

 

Luke Jerram

 

Bisa Butler

 

Elizabeth Berrien

 

Mosaic Art Buildings

 

Eric Standley

 

Fabergé

 

Michael Parkes

 

Pysanky Ukrainian Easter Eggs

 

Louise Bourgeois

 

Minerals

 

H.R. Giger

 

Liu Bolon

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Anthony Grootelaar

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One of the things about Anthony Grootelaar‘s artwork that I immediately was drawn to was his attention to texture.

Texture can come in many forms, including depth, repetitiveness, and colors.

That is why every picture is so very different. So hard to choose which ones to showcase.

Grootelaar is a self-taught artist, well into the generative- and integrity-based decades of his life.

He strives to make art that is both “interesting” and “practical”, interesting as in arresting, and practical in that it can hung on any wall without any other intent than  to be a dynamic and positive element.

His work can be any mix of pen, paper, paint and brush, high definition photography, digital processing,  and ink jet printing,

Grootelaar says, “Art, as I see it, always starts out as a problem I try to move in a aesthetic  direction. Future directions will include large scale works to maximize the impact of color and composition.”Even if the design or color is not to your palate, the combinations shine together, bringing texture and aesthetics for the forefront.

More of Anthony Grootelaar‘s imaginative work on his website, My Monkey Mind. Be sure to look him up and follow his amazing art journey.

Faerie Paths — Search

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Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace.  ~Eugene O’Neill

 

 

You Texted What?!?

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Well, now that I’m far enough away from white wind turbines not to be haunted by them, I have been hit by the writing bug again.

Creative artists are a curious bunch. You say you’re not, but of course you are.

Anyway…

I already have too much on my plate, and not a big enough plate to hold it all.

Last week when I was camping with my family I couldn’t sleep. I’m in a tent with my hubby. The wind is howling and so is his snores. Mine will accompany his if I ever get to sleep. So wandering as my mind often does, I get this idea for a story.

I’ve been wanting to write something about my dreams and connecting them to real life for some time now, but never could get a feasible idea going.

Until 1 a.m. in the tent.

No paper, no pencil, no computer to record my thoughts. Great. You know me — I’m afraid I’ll forget tomorrow’s grocery list if I don’t write it down.

So I get this great idea.

Type my idea into a draft into my email from my phone. Sounds simple, right?

Nothing is ever simple for me.

So here I am, under the covers in my dark tent, trying not to wake up hubby who is delightfully snoring away, trying to write down my idea with my two thumbs.

Here are part of my notes. No lie.

She is terrifird. Hm. Dreans start to get weied. Still knonve but dreans like dinner in lasr samari or talk through glllass wall. They funalky meet. In dream workd reality of work does  nt exist. Reakirmty knows intensiry of dream wirld but not vuce versan what to do.

Uh huh. I understand that.

Good thing I’m not in a typing bee, though.

The point is that you can get inspired any time, any where. On walks. At work. In a sleeping bag. Walking to the bus. You can see a color for a design that is so cool in nature you want to reproduce it. You hear a chit of conversation and think it would make a great screenplay. You see a sunset and wonder if you could needlepoint it.

But you have no way of recording these outstanding, blast open ideas.

Or do you?

Do what you have to. Write on toilet paper, take a leaf with you. Write code words in ketchup. Take a picture. Write on your arm with an ink pen. Draft an email.

Just get your thoughts DOWN.

Inspiration will come and go, but you will never have that exact idea or moment again. And who knows — that could be THE ONE.

Hexxv goes on teip, dreans geeet better.

Good thing I speak thumb text…..

 

Freaking Out

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Are there things in the world that kinda freak you out? Make you uncomfortable?

I don’t mean things that make you go running in the opposite direction like spiders or the crud that accumulates behind your refrigerator.

I mean things that kinda give you the heebee jeebees and you’re not sure why. Eerie, strange, everyday things that just kinda make you think twice about them.

I feel that way about the new wind turbines.

For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are usually these thin, tall, white windmills standing in the middle of fields for miles with their three blades slowly turning in the breeze. Majestic things, really, that help make energy, usually for the electric company. They are usually white and have three arms, or blades.

There are a couple of fields on my way home from my yearly camping trip that are filled with these slow turning beauties. I’ve been told you either love them or hate them: love them for their architecture and purpose, hate them because they are a sore spot in your back yard.

Well, I don’t know what it is, but seeing them in the close distance kinda freaks me out.You have to see them in person to properly feel the freak. There’s something about their 3D-ish nature that can make you uncomfortable.

Here are these thin white towers that tower over you (pun pun), their giant arms spread wide out on either side like arms, looming over the houses and trees, all three dimensional and moving and all.

Yesterday one was not moving with the wind and its arms were wide open like a monster coming to get you. The tall blade on top had some dirt/debris on it and from a ways away it looked like a face. It stood behind a small white house, looming, leering, really showing the contrast in size with its surroundings.

Now, I’ve played “What If” before. I wrote a blog called “Let “What If” Guide Your Story” where you ask yourself (or others) things like…What if you were driving home from work one afternoon and in the distance, over the tops of the trees, you see a giant ant ripping off tops of houses? Or … What if you were relaxing one night, watching TV, and you say something to your dog, and he answers you in English?

These were meant to be taken seriously, as answering these questions helps you be creative in your writing.

Well, I was hit with that “What If” scenario yesterday, and it kinda freaked me out. These tall thin turbines looked like alien sentinels waiting for night to move forward and chop us all to pieces with their white blades. Some arms were moving veerrrryyyy slowly around in a circle, like they were building up energy to pull feet from inside the ground and walk around.

Now, there is nothing wrong with windmills. Or wind turbines. They are just machines like bulldozers.

But sometimes when you least expect it they take a life of their own. You see something out of the corner of your eye and are not sure of what you saw, and the emotion that is leftover is creepy. It doesn’t make sense, nor is it supposed to.

Makes for a good short story thought, don’t you think?

Are there things in the world that kinda freak you out?

 

Faerie Paths — Rain

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The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.
― Sherwood Smith

 

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery on Wednesday — Crystal

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In a crystal we have clear evidence of the existence of a formative life principle, and though we cannot understand the life of a crystal, it is nonetheless a living being.    ~Nikola Tesla

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If You Can Do It I Can Do It

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Been away for a weekend, loving every minute of it, now needing a vacation from my vacation.

But once reality sets in, when the kids go back to school and the weather starts to change, I start to think about my own dreams and desires and how time flies before you get a start on any of them.

Do you have dreams and desires and goals you have set for yourself that you haven’t quite reached yet? Are you doing anything about them? Are you saying “Mmmyeh…what comes comes…” and half way giving up since you believe they weren’t meant to come true anyway?

Or are you working on those dreams, manifesting your inside outside and really going for the gusto?

A friend of mine in here is a wonderful abstract artist, Anthony Grootelaar (MyMonkey Mind). I’m going to feature him in the Gallery soon. He has so much art created I’m sure he could wallpaper a mansion. I love his colors and his approach and his experiments and his plans. Here I am, telling him he should have art shows and go to art fairs with his wares and all these other extra-curricular things that he probably already has done.

I get pumped up when I see other’s successes.

I know a few other poets through this blog that are marvelous writers. I’m always telling them to publish a book of poetry or offer it on their blog or at book fairs. I’m all for the excitement and sharing of their talent with others.

I know painters, furniture makers, writers. They all are extremely creative and moving forward with their Art.

Yet where am I on my own cosmic sharing scale?

I would like to think that I, too, have a special talent that’s worth sharing beyond my personal computer or now and then on my blog. Yet I cringe when I think about sharing my talent.

For what if it’s not talent?

Why is it so much easier to be enthusiastic about someone else’s work?

There is so much beauty out there — so much creativity. So many new ideas. Forms of expression. Shining stars. I am all for others sharing their souls with the the world. After all, ~I~ am in love with their work — why wouldn’t others be?

But when it comes to our own work, we are our own worse critics.
I’ve been both ways. I’ve thought something was fantastic and it was terrible; I’ve thought something not that great and it was well received.

We will never know the extent of our greatness until we put it out there. And keep it out there.

We have to develop a thicker skin, that’s for sure. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and all. But more than that, we have to be willing to learn. from our creativity. To correct, to erase, admit we made a wrong choice, and start again differently. Better. Smoother.

I have so many plans for my future creative self. Things I want to write, art I want to make. And I want to share it with others. Maybe even sell some of it.

I know I can do it. I just don’t know if I have the patience to see it through.

But you all have taught me something. If you  can do it — I can do it. If you are thinking about it and working on it, I can be thinking and working on it too.

Let’s say together it in Morgan Freeman’s voice!

I think you can do anything you want!

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Pegi Smith

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Pegi Smith paints in acrylics on canvas from her home studio in the mountains near Ashland, Oregon.

Smith’s art immerses the viewer into her very compelling dream world.

From these dreams, Smith paints abstracts using rich colors to evoke and uplift the viewer.

Smith is a self-taught artist, therefore she uses her paints in an innovative manner exclusive to herself.

Her use of color, which changes with each collection, makes her work perfect for nearly any interior decor scheme.

She aims to summarize her own life perspectives in her paintings and hopes that her work will cause the viewer to immerse and then emerge with the intent of the design.

More of Pegi Smith’s innovative artwork can be found at http://www.pegsmith.com

Do It Today!

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Working till noon today, then off we go to the North woods with the grand kids for a couple of days. Grandpa already has plans for the four of us to camp out in the living room and  play games and eat popcorn and watch dumb movies and stay up past 10:00 pm and sleep on whatever couch we find. There is fishing to do, grilled cheese to make, take the dog fetching in the lake — a full schedule before the parents get there.

It’s great life… One that is moving way too fast for me. I’m trying to take life one day at a time, But as you get older, one day feels like 12 hours, Not 24.

I try not to let that part get to me. But it always does.

I day dream a lot of things when I get away from my responsibilities. My day writing job has not turned out like I thought, some family and friends around me are not doing well, and I feel like it’s only a matter of time before a shoe drops on my head.

I have great plans for once I retire which is only a 112 days away. But you know Sagittarians…  we plan big and carry out average and end up small.

I still have the dream of Paris or Ireland. But that dreams on hold until I get this writing thing together. And as I work on starting a proof reading/editor business, my grand kids are starting soccer. One is 4, the other is 9, so that works out to 2 games every Saturday.

These games bring me back to when my own kids played soccer. Was it really so long ago? 10-15 years ago I sat on the sidelines watching the loves of my life run up-and-down the field. No matter what the weather, we were there. There was really no time to write back  then. Life was too busy being a mom.

But I wouldn’t trade that time for anything.

Now their kids are starting out running across those same fields and no matter what the weather, there I am, sitting on the sideline, watching the loves of my life run up-and-down the field.

There’s not much time for writing these days either.

So what you must do — what we all must do — is take each day as it comes. Period. Plan if you can, laugh if you can’t.

For everything you do can bring you joy.

Get out of your mindset that it has to be this or that that makes your full heart beat. Do what you need to do, find time to do what you love to do, and hope that everything eventually comes out stuck together in one big happy giant ball.

I probably won’t see you till Sunday night in the gallery. But do me a favor.

Do something fun this weekend. Do something magical this weekend. Just reach out and grab that magic that’s right in front of you and make it yours.

Always drive home down A, B, C, D? Try driving home A, B, K, R, D. Take a view of your world you don’t often see. Always look at that same tree driving somewhere? Stop for a minute an take its picture. Write about it. Paint it. Pretend there’s a swing on it. Connect with it. Always eyeball that ice cream stand in the next town? Stop there! Get some ice cream! Big deal!

Do it alone, do it with someone. Put your face in the sunlight or the wind or the rain and just be there. Let go of self repercussions and self hated or frustrations and just go wherever the moment takes you. Forget about housework, looking for a new job, loosing those extra pounds.

Just take the moment and see what you see.

I know I’m going to.

Pillow fight in the living room!

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Susanna Bauer

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Susanna Bauer uses the beauty of nature around her to express what is universal and enduring in our world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She works with the everyday, inconspicuous details of our natural surroundings, fallen leaves, tiny branches, often edged with amazing cotton yarn.

Intimate marks add detail to small patches or the complete outline of browned leaves, drawing our attention the natural growth patterns found in their interior.

The artist tries to pay  homage to nature as well as showing the detail and beauty of the world that surrounds us.

“As you can imagine, working with fragile leaves requires a lot of patience and a steady hand, but the focus of my work for me lies on the effect it has on the viewer, on the ideas that flow into the compositions and the thoughts the pieces can evoke,” she noted.

More of Susanna Bauer’s delicate, amazing work can be found at www.susannabauer.com.

Decisions … Decisions

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This weekend is my annual pilgrimage to Irishfest, a four-day festival of Irish music, American beer, and Irish hearts.

I love to say that my mother was Irish — which she was — although she was of the Heinz 57 variety. I so identify with their culture, their music, and their cosmic presence that it’s really a part of me, no matter what percentage my mother was.

Irish music is either incredibly happy or incredibly sad. The song “Wild Mountain Thyme” makes me cry every time I hear it, making me think of my mother whom I lost 40 years ago. And my favorite Gaelic band Gaelic Storm makes me clap and sing and dance around the place (hence, I don’t play their music at work).

My husband and I have gotten into semi-discussions lately, though, on why would I want to spend my money going to Paris for a week when I’ve talked about going to Ireland half of my life?

Good question.

Us folks in the states don’t get a chance to go across the sea very often, so when we do, we like to make it a “key destination.” And what better place to spend my hard-earned money than the home of my ancestors?

Yet when I think of going to Paris for a week, I get a different emotion running through me. Instead of looking off the Cliffs of Moher and connecting to my heritage and soul, I think about sitting in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower, sipping wine, eating a croissant, and writing about my journey.

Two totally different worlds.

Two totally different emotions.

Or are they?

I’ve had this tugging in my heart to go on my own adventure for a long time, now. Bringing someone to France with me who isn’t into what I want to do would be more of a burden than an escape, as I’d be worrying if they were bored or hungry or brooding.

Touring Ireland is something I’d do with my partner. We’d explore and tour and have a beer together at a local pub. I doubt if he would want to sit in the plaza of the Louvre for three hours while I nosh and write my book.

And who would want to spend time walking across a historic bridge inspecting every gargoyle and plaque or sitting in an old library or sitting at a cafe during the late evening? How boring to those who don’t walk the same path as you do.

At this point I’m not sure if I’ll ever go across the sea to see anything new and historical and exciting.  Technically there should be enough history and excitement right here where I live. If I need the music, I’ll go to Irishfest. If I need a croissant, I’ll go to the bakery.

But still….

Where would you like to visit if you could?

Sunday Evening Art Gallery on Thursday — Vanessa Davis

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Vanessa Davis is known for her elaborate, theatrical, detailed and highly creative makeup designs and looks she creates on herself and others. The self-described “makeup and mixed media face-artist”  is known for her skull-inspired designs that exceed every day and trendy skeletal face paint.

Davis creatively and continuously finds ways to create her unique looks. Colorful koi fish, a rising phoenix, a butterfly’s wing, and even a sleek, neon hologram are just some of the many ways the artist has brought nature and color into her skull motif.

So, why the skull? For Davis, the decision was a personal one.

“I am fascinated how skulls are portrayed in fashion, art and tattoo art. I noticed that the successful makeup accounts specialized in either a particular style or subject, so I chose skulls, which also works, as my heritage is Mexican and English.”

Vanessa transitioned to a full time designer and influencer on social media and has partnered and collaborated with brands such as 20 Century Fox, Disney, Warner, MAC, Makeup Forever, and others.

More of Vanessa Davis‘ amazing makeup can be found on https://www.facebook.com/skulltress/ and her Instagram account. 

 

Art Is Everywhere

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They say art is a waste of time.

That young minds and old should be focused on more important things like finance and politics and how to earn a living.

Well, art is a miracle of the mind, heart, and soul, too.

I’ve been finding a lot of new and unique artists to share in future Sunday Evening Art Gallery blogs. And with each piece of art comes an overwhelming sense of self. Of accomplishment. Of caring and sharing.

Here are a few of the artist I’ve already featured. Take a look at the thought, the fine detail, the foresight these people had in just creating something:

 

 

Willard Wigan

 

Ana Teresa Baraboza

 

Riusuke Fukahori

 

 

Dale Chihuly

 

Here is a sampling of some of the artists to come:

 

Pegi Smith

 

Matt Molloy

 

Vanessa Davis

 

Just think for a moment all the work that went into each creation. All the thought, emotion, and precise movements it took to get their art just right..

Art is all around you.

If ever in doubt, just open your eyes. Here are a few views of art made by a more “cosmic” artist … be sure to take in this sort of art when you can …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Has To Be Right

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I want everything to be right. Perfect.

I’m not a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination. Sagittarians are pretty scattered to begin with, and I take the swirly path a lot further than most.

But I want my blogs on Writing Your First Book to work for both the reader and the writer. For us both to get something out of it. Especially because these days my FB account is flooded with people who have the “free” answer to your writing dreams. And I know I can do better.

Sometimes I wish I had grown up more confident. More self-assured. You know what I mean. I’ve had enough moxy to make it through 66 years of ups and downs, including writing. Yet  I don’t always have the push to “go for it”, because my worksheet is incomplete.

But I’m going to do it this time.

I’ll be retired by January, and that is when my career with change. No more writing (or more like not writing) things I’m not interested in, and lots more of what I do like. I can get a job as a freelance writer or freelance proofreader.

And finish a product to boot.

My consulting friends say there is such a thing as 10,000 hours of experience that counts just as much as a college degree.

I have that.

If they need 10,000 hours of heart, I have that, too.

So it is with blushing regret that I have put my tutoring skills on the back burner until the New Year. By then I will have a whole curriculum of tips and advice that I can share. I will have advice to give away for free and books and information to sell.

A win/win for everyone, I hope.

In the meantime, let’s learn more about unique artists, about getting older, writing mistakes to avoid, and writing successes to boast about.

Boast to me. I can take it.

For I want everything to be right. Perfect.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Anne Vallayer-Coster

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Anne Vallayer-Coster has been called the second-greatest French still-life painter of the 18th century after Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.

Vallayer-Coster was born into an artistic family; her mother painted miniatures and her father was a master goldsmith. 

Her father’s elevated status and aristocratic patronage may have helped the young Vallayer-Coster overcome some of the restraints that hindered many women artists.

She achieved fame and recognition very early in her career, being admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1770, at the age of twenty-six.

In 1780 she was named Painter to Queen Marie Antoinette. She continued painting a broad range of subjects and themes including animals, trompe-l’oeil bas reliefs, miniatures, and full-sized portraits, which mirrored the opulence of French aristocracy before the Revolution.

In addition to still life, she painted portraits and genre paintings, but because of the restrictions placed on women at the time her success at figure painting was limited.

Vallayer-Coster’s life was determinedly private, dignified and hard-working. She survived the bloodshed of the French Revolution, but the fall of the French monarchy, who were her primary patrons, caused her reputation to decline.

Due to her close association with Marie Antoinette, her career suffered during the French Revolution. She continued exhibiting at the Salon, however, until the year before her death.

Anne Vallayer-Coster‘s marvelous paintings can be found at museums and galleries and on the Internet.

Take A Break From Yourself

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I’ve been keeping under the radar lately, nursing sinuses, body aches, and job pressures. I’ve been entertaining starting my own copywriting and editing business, wondering what to get two grandkids for their birthdays who have everything (a donation to a kid’s charity seems likely), and just mentally blowing out.

So yesterday I took the day off from work and did nothing.

Yep — nothing.

Now many of you know the guilt that creeps up whenever we are home for a whole day and night and don’t do something — dishes, vacuum, even writing. I have a few more new artists to research, my first book I HAVE to finish editing, and nothing new on the writing horizon, as I am shopping around for ideas.

Well, yesterday was the first day in a long time where I didn’t feel guilty about sleeping in, napping, watching TV, and sleeping some more. (That messed up my night’s rest, but that’s another story.)

Why do we feel guilty when we do something for ourselves that involves nothing?

It’s like every moment counts and you shouldn’t let your life pass you by without attempting to do something positive every day.

Alas, most of us believe that taking care of ourselves by not thinking or performing is not positive.

When the world was silent around me, and I hung up my guilt in the closet, my mind became silent as well. I didn’t angst over news stories or bombings or nut cases or deadlines. I didn’t feel overwhelmed about anything.

It shouldn’t take a sinus headache from hell to make me take a day off and just take care of ME. I really liked doing nothing. Feeling nothing. Thinking about nothing. If only for the day.

Do you find yourself pushing yourself to the limit all the time? Or do you take a day now and then to just do nothing?

You owe it to yourself to take a break from yourself.

 

Faerie Paths — Choice

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There are thousands of directions you can go every day —

Why settle for just one?     ~Dream Regret

 

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Johnson Tsang

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Sculptor Johnson Tsang pushes realism’s boundaries in his sculptures of faces that are stretched and opened up in surreal ways.

The Hong Kong-based artist’s work features surreal contortions that squish, wring, melt, and stretch.

His creativeness suggests an exploration of the limited space between the conscious and subconscious.

Between the self and other.

Tsang uses plain, unglazed clay, letting go of such typical details such as hair and skin color to focus the viewer’s attention on the expressions of his imagined subjects.

Although Tsang grew up poor and worked both in the trades and as a policeman, he says he has always been in love with art.

“The clay seemed so friendly to me, it listened to every single word in my mind and did exactly I was expecting. Every touch was so soothing. I feel like I was touching human skin.”

More of Johnson Tsang‘s wonderfully imaginative art can be found across the Internet including Instagram and Red Seas Gallery.    

 

Sunday Evening Art Gallery on Friday — Amy Casey

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Amy Casey is fascinated by cityscapes.

Her paintings of growing cities reflect her love of the urban landscape and with the ongoing resilience and growth of civilization.

Her cityscapes hum and sing with ribbons of roads and highways energetically wrapped around growing heaps of buildings.

Her artwork showcases her curiosity of how much time and work it takes for a society to function and grow in spite of all the problems of natural and man made disasters.

Casey has exhibited her work regionally and nationally with solo shows in Cleveland, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Provincetown and Los Angeles.

More of Amy Casey‘s  creative cityscapes can be found at https://www.amycaseypainting.com/

Chatting With Spirit Guides

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I have a few spirit guides I call on now and then for advice.

Usually it’s for writing. Sometimes it’s to talk out ideas about travel or how to gather information or how to process something artsy.

I had a younger male slave dude from ancient Greece for my first novel. For the second and third in the series I’ve been consulting with a rather large, carefree woman from France. I’ve also mused with an Italian Renaissance gentleman when working with erotica, (someone I haven’t seen in quite some time, I confess), a dime novel writer from the ’30s for a shorter novel, and a Chinese philosopher who nudges me to watch Chinese and Japanese movies about ancient warriors with English subtitles to get ideas of other worlds, other cultures.

Sometimes we have great conversations driving home from work or walking around the back yard. When I get stuck on how to approach a certain time period or way of thinking,  they’re there to bounce ideas off of.

Sometimes they’re off helping someone else and tell me they’ll be right there. As if spirit guides aren’t omnipotent.

They are spirits from the past, from past generations, past dynasties, past worlds. Important people and simple people. You would think the airwaves would be jammed with spirit guides filling every possible frequency, trying to communicate with willing human beings. But as I have discovered, this world and other worlds are not jammed at all. You call, they’re there, often with fresh ideas and lots of idle chatter.

Of course, common sense tells us when I’m talking to spirit guides I’m really talking to myself. Making up another personality to converse with. Perhaps that’s where split personalities or multiple personalities come from.

But I’m content to name my “common sense” side with a personality that I can learn from. Someone who “gets” me. Someone to help me through rough transition passages and quirky personalities that are not my own.

Putting a personality to a spirit guide helps me get through the rough patches of my writing life. They tell me things I already know but don’t always know I know. And when they really want me to figure something out they have me do research.

I don’t have anyone to really bounce writing problems off of. Sure, I have friends and family whom I can dump on for personal stuff, but no one that gets how important my work is to me. Writing may seem like a solitary experience, and to most it is. But when I get stuck, when I wonder why someone did what they did, they are there to give me an answer. To make sense of what I’m confused about. And it does help.

Too bad they don’t have an answer for the madness of the world today, too.

 

 

Faerie Paths — Synchronicity

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Claude Monet

 

 

I do believe in an everyday sort of magic — the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and the like; the eerie appropriateness of moments of synchronicity; the whispered voice, the hidden presence, when we think we’re alone.
― Charles de Lint

 

 

 

Proofreed Everything!

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I got soooo ticked off the other day.

I want to finish proofing/editing my first book so I can:

  • make it into an e-book
  • try a publisher
  • sell it through my website
  • throw it in the garbage

So I’m going through it ONE LAST TIME, and I keep coming across all these  ; ‘s  and — and … and overusing first names in conversation.

And THIS is one reason why you shouldn’t be the only editor of your publication.

I will cover this in my series “How To Write That Book”, but being as ticked off as I am I need to share this life lesson NOW.

You can be as meticulous as you can be; you can read and reread and spell check and go through each sentence 10,000 times and you will still miss something that an outsider would see.

This has happened to me throughout my writing career. That’s why I don’t hit “send” or “publish” right away.

You never know what will pop up.

Most of us cannot afford an editor to look over our book/magazine article/term paper. If you CAN spend a few bucks on any part of your writing, this is where to spend it.

If you just can’t, and still want/need/should look professional, have someone else read your paper for grammar, punctuation, and repetitiveness. They don’t have to get into the “flow” of the story (although that helps, too).

But an outside eye can catch things your mind cannot.

To prove my point, this came through on my Facebook feed yesterday:

Now. What did you just read?

Maybe you read it right the first time. Most likely you did not.

Neither will your readers.

If you edit your own pages, no matter what they are, either read them out loud, take note of punctuation, sentence structure, think of how people speak. We write faster than we think — we also read faster than we think.

Hope you got a chuckle out of my post.

Thank goodness it was proofread first.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Howie Green

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Howie Green is a renowned painter whose artistic works are characterized with bright combination of colors.

He uses a variety of geometric shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, among others, in creating his artistic works.

Green has a unique artist’s eye for the colorful fun that springs out of our popular culture.

He is a multi-talented artist who’s also involved in creating murals and pop art as well as being actively involved in the implementation of diverse public art projects.

His work is the inspiration for today’s adult coloring books, doodle art — anything that brings love and light and color into the world.

The creation of the Jazz Fish and working with Peter Max began a very fertile period for Howie during which he produce hundreds of paintings centering around the Jazz Fish and Mamboland, the fanciful world he inhabits.

Howie Green‘s work can be found all over the Internet, including at http://howiegreen.com.

The “How To Write Your First Book” Series Is Coming!

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COMING SOON!

I’ve been asked now and then for advice on how to write a book. How to get started, how to know what to write about, how to edit.

I am not published, but I am a writer.

In my 9 to 5 job, I’m also a proofreader. Catching the slips of others makes me triple conscious of my own writing faux pas.

But I digress.

COMING SOON!

So I have decided to write a series of blogs giving my humble opinion, along with tried-and-true recipes for getting that first book written, or finding inspiration to get that  second one started.

You can choose to pass over these blogs for a week — but you might pick up a tip or two for your own creative outlet.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!

This five-day blog series will start Monday, August 12th. And at the end of the series I will have my blogs all in one pdf that you can download at any time that will also include helpful links for further research. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at dreamregret@yahoo.com.

I hope to share my experience as a writer, proofreader, editor, and lover of the written word. To help you find that spark of inspiration that gets you finally moving forward.

PASS THE WORD ALONG!!

It’s free, it’s fun, it’s things you never thought of before. And with so many wonderful followers, I hope there’s someone out there I can help.

I think that’s enough self-promotion for one blog. Come along and have some fun … and learn to

WRITE AWAY!!

 

 

 

Faerie Paths — Beauty

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I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful — an endless prospect of magic and wonder. –Ansel Adams

 

 

 

 

 

Today I Want to Be a Poet

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I’d like to be a poet today.

I’d like to put my angst, my wonder, my emotions in a small, precise package.

 

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
And so are you.

Scratch…scratch…cross out…

No, that’s not exactly what I’m looking for. I’ve heard Bob Dylan is a poet — won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016:

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

Bob Dylan, 1962

That’s pretty heavy. It rhymes, but I don’t think I could sound as lyrical.

Scratch scratch…cross out…scratch scratch….

Maybe I should write something in the vein of Percy and Byron:

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron,  1813

Dear me…how could I ever match that tenor? That creative creation?

Scratch…scratch…cross out….scratch…scratch…cross out….

My Internet friends Ivor, Walt, Dwight, Brenda, Ana, Maxima, and others seem to have a knack for putting emotions with words. Some are more like half thoughts magically strung together; other offer haikus, sonnets, couplets, and other forms I have to look up to know.

They  make it seem so easy.

My very good friend Jane from my Writer’s Association aches and pains over the shortest of poems. She writes, lets it sit, revises, thinks about it. I am amazed there is so much to five or ten lines. But they always sound like music to my ears.

For writing poetry is so much more than writing five or ten lines.

I used to think writing poetry was a breeze. Just find a topic, shorten some sentences, throw in some imagery, and you’re set.

It’s also like thinking you are born a basketball player like Michael Jordan or an artist like Vincent van Gogh — that anyone create a masterpiece.

There is a lot of banter around these days saying “Just Be You.” You already are an artist/poet/soccer player. Just dig deep and connect and “be” that person.

Got news for you. No famous basketball player or artist or singer just woke up one day and had gobs of talent. Talent may lay dormant in your genes, but you have to work at it to get it out. Michael J. didn’t even make his varsity high school basketball team on his first try.  VanGogh only sold one painting in his lifetime.

Yes, Mozart was a prodigy at 7. Picasso made his first oil painting when he was 9 years old. There are always exceptions to the rule. But the rule normally is: you are indeed what you want to be. You have the heart, you have the goal — just do it.

But practice first. Whether it’s basketball or writing, don’t expect a hole-in-one your first time out. You have to learn first. Practice first. Fail first.

And keep on going.

So later this evening I will try writing a real poem. Then I will let it sit. Then I will change a word or two and look at it again.

Then I will get some ice cream, watch NYPD Blue, edit my novel, check Facebook, take a nap, then get back around to look at it again. Make it a part of who else I am.

Only then can I start to be a poet.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Luycho

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Luycho Inc., a Korean company, is revolutionizing the design and manufacture of cups and saucers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The company offers ‘a new world on mirrors’ and uses various applied technologies in the cup and saucer designing.

The end result is a mirror cup with a design that is realistically refleted on the saucer it’s kept on, in the same proportions as a real curved mirror would reflect.

Most of the cup designs include endangered animals with the aim to make the user aware of their plight.

This technique of accurate reflection has been perfected by Cho Yul, a Korean professor, who has mastered the science of reflection, refraction and shadow for over three decades.

His son, Cho Sang Ha, realized the potential of his father’s expertise and convinced him to evolve a new product concept for designing his cup and saucer merchandise.

More of Luycho Inc.’s creations can be found at https://luycho.en.ecplaza.net/ or https://www.notagshop.com/luycho.

The Towers Are Still in the Background

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A strange thought hit me this evening as I was watching a few episodes of NYPD Blue from 1995……kids who start college this year were not alive when the Twin Towers were destroyed. 

I see the Towers in the background of various movies and TV shows, and every time I see them standing tall and proud, stars in the New York background, I feel that pang of pain. In my mind’s eye I still see that airplane headed to the side of the building, knowing what happens in just a few more seconds.

I don’t know anyone who died during that disaster. I don’t know any first responders, rescuers, rescue dogs, or families who lost a loved one. I don’t know anyone from Flight 93, nor anyone from the Pentagon. 

But I remember where I was when I heard the news.

Today isn’t an anniversary or anything; it’s merely a panning of the 1995 New York skyline I never paid attention to the first time around. And now I can’t help but pay attention every time I see it.

It’s just another haunting moment and memory in my life. Something those under 19 will never remember. Never experience. And maybe that’s a good thing. 

Of course, I was never a part World War II either. I watched ‘The Sands of Iwo Jima’ the other day. The movie was spliced with film from the actual landing. And watching the real troops pile off the boats and onto the exploding shoreline was painful, too. My dad was headed towards that island when the first line landed.  And it effected him in ways I will never know. Never understand.

And I will never forget that, either.

There are so many of us that are affected by things we never directly experienced. Someone who knows someone who knows someone. And we will forever be affected by that.

Never forget the pain that got us here. Don’t focus on it, obsess on it, don’t let it consume you. Living is for today. For now. For the friends and family you have around you this moment.

But never forget, either. Because sooner or later you’ll see it on TV or in a movie somewhere.

The skyline that used to be but is no more.

Faerie Paths — Growth

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To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.  ~ Kurt Vonnegut

 

Finding Artists in the Most Unusual Places

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I find artists in the most unusual places.

Some, I admit, are just my favorites. The classics. Degas. Cartier. M.C. Escher.

Others I have found watching TV and movies. Pollock. Paris at Night. Ron Ben-Israel. Face Off.

Some are from blogs I follow. Carsten Wieland. Rita Faes. Craig Haupt. Dawn Whitehand.

Some I have found in other’s blogs. Mézesmanna — Judit Czinkné Poór. Svetlana Bobrova. Tal Peleg.

Some have been recommended to me. Wolf Kahn. Dale Chihuly. Luke Jerram. Georgia O’ Keeffe.

Some I’ve found at local art fairs.  Don Esser  Natalya Sots. John Lemke.

And some I go searching for. Mirrors. Stilettos. Hair. Ice Sculptures. Aquariums. Water Drops.

But every unique art or artist I come across are amazing in their own way.

Some are famous; some are local. Some are friends. But they all have broken through the barriers of fear and competition and put their work, their soul, out there.

Note I said “broken through” … not “conquered.”

I don’t think any artist totally gets passed their fear of rejection. No one will like my writing. My quilt. My painting.

Yes, they follow their muse, their inspiration, their dreams. They are the best they can be. Yet they are always wondering. Questioning. Checking and double checking. Improving what, to our average eye, does not need improvement.

Let their inspiration be your inspiration. Let whatever creative outlet you have set you free. Go for it. Let it go.

Know you won’t fly away to another universe, for we are all tethered to Mother Earth in the most affectionate of ways.

Yet She never prevents us from flying high.

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Betty Woodman

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Betty Woodman (1930-2018) is internationally recognized as one of the most important ceramic artists working today.
Through her inventive use of color and form and her expert blend of a wide range of influences, Woodman created exuberant and captivating ceramic sculptures.

A leading ceramist whose inventive forms and painterly use of color won her international renown, Woodman began her career making simple functional pottery.During the Pattern and Decoration movement in the ’70s, her career gained the momentum it has had ever since.

Collaborating with important figures in the Pattern and Decoration movement, she began producing colorful, witty — and nonfunctional — vessels decorated with scenes from the Italian Renaissance or slathered with landscape clouds. 
Woodman’s most famous works include her Pillow Pitchers, in which she crafted a vessel out of a bulbous shape pinched at both ends like a pillow. 
Betty Woodman‘s works can be found across the Internet and at such refined places as the Smithsonian and the Frank Lloyd Wright Gallery.

Create your own secret place

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A beautiful, relaxing, magical reminder today. I know I need to make my own secret, magical place. No sharing….

purpleraysblog's avatarPurplerays

Source: Contemplative Monk https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeMonk/

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Faerie Paths — Cherry Faeries

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When I sound the fairy call,
Gather here in silent meeting,
Chin to knee on the orchard wall,
Cooled with dew and cherries eating.
Merry, merry, Take a cherry
Mine are sounder, Mine are rounder
Mine are sweeter, For the eater
When the dews fall.  And you’ll be fairies all.

~Robert Graves, “Cherry-Time,” Fairies and Fusiliers, 1918

 

 

Keeping On Point When You Blog

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Even though I’m not much of a writer on the day-job side of my life, I do try and keep up with advice, thoughts, and suggestions from professionals across the board.

Today I received a newsletter from Hubspot, a great newsletter geared towards the marketing/blogging worlds. They published an article called 13 Blogging Mistakes Most Beginners Make.

Now I’m not new at blogging — heck — I’ve been doing it for years. Ha.

But the article made me really think about how I have been writing blogs, how they have changed through the years, and wishing I knew then what I knew now. So I thought I’d share their basic suggestions.

The main article had 13 faux paux’s for beginners, although us “seasoned veterans” could use a look too:

  1. Create blog posts that serve your larger company goals.
  2. Write like you talk.
  3. Show your personality; don’t tell it.
  4. Make your point again and again.
  5. Start with a very specific working title.
  6. Use a specific post type, create an outline, and use headers.
  7. Use data and research to back up the claims you make in your posts.
  8. When drawing from others’ ideas, cite them.
  9. Take 30 minutes to edit your post.
  10. At a certain point, just publish it.
  11. Blog consistently with the help of an editorial calendar.
  12. Focus on the long-term benefits of organic traffic.
  13. Add a subscription CTA to your blog and set up an email newsletter.

Now, granted, these tips are for those writing blogs for their companies. But the tips are golden for us social bloggers as well.

The one that grabbed my attention the most was:

  1. Use a specific post type, create an outline, and use headers.

Mistake: Your writing is a brain dump.

Sometimes when I get a great idea I’m excited about, it’s really tempting to just sit down and let it flow out of me. But what I get is usually a sub-par blog post.

Why? The stream-of-consciousness style of writing isn’t really a good style for blog posts. Most people are going to scan your blog posts, not read them, so it needs to be organized really well for that to happen.

I look back on my beginning blogs and that point is soooo me. Thinking I have something of value to share, but doing nothing more than “let it flow” until the blog was more of a sharing of the moment’s emotions than helping someone else through their journey.

That is all good and well if you are writing for a philosophy class, but if you want your readers to really get something out of your writing, you need to narrow it down to something specific.

We all want people to read our blogs, to get something out of them. Otherwise they will just check you off the inquiry list and move onto the next person. 

I’m not saying you need to write an instruction manual. But even poets need to reread, rewrite, and reconsider — have they put what they wanted to get across down succinctly enough? Are people really getting where you’re coming from? Art, poetry, and sometimes even plain writing is always in one’s point of view.  That’s okay.

But when you are blogging emotions, you need to have an outcome. A finishing point. A reason for the emote in the first place. Using your blog as a brain dump, as Hubspot says, isn’t really a good style for blog posts. Most people are going to scan your blog posts, not read them, so it needs to be organized really well for them to take their time and digest what you’re saying. Organized so it clicks with the reader and they come back to see what else you have to say.

If you want a little writer’s boost (and who doesn’t?). check out Hubspot or other professional marketing or writing newsletters. If you glean ONE point from an article, you’ve learned something.

And who doesn’t want to keep on learning?

Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Edward Hopper

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 8 Comments

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is widely acknowledged as one of the most important realist painters of twentieth-century America.

His vision of reality reflected his own temperament in the empty landscapes and city neighborhoods and single figures he chose to paint.

Hopper’s work demonstrates that realism is not merely a literal or photographic copying of what we see, but up to the artist’s interpretation.

His intense yet intimate interpretations of American life, shown in darkness or bright light, are minimal dramas threaded with maximum power.Hopper had a remarkable ability to invest the most ordinary scene — whether at a roadside gas pump, a nondescript diner or a bleak hotel room — with intense mystery, creating narratives that no viewer can ever quite unravel.

He was able to tap into the loneliness of the human condition through his art, something we all can identify with.

More of Edward Hopper‘s amazing work can be found at https://www.edwardhopper.net/. 

New Blog and Friend — Cloutier Art

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments
  1. This evening I am going through my Reader and reading all the blogs I have missed in the past few weeks. And I am having a wonderful time. I have made a number of friends both reading and responding to others in this vast world of online.

I have just read a background from a new friend of mine, Francois Cloutier, who has this new and wonderful art website called Cloutier Art.

He says, “I have been creating uninterruptedly for more than 40 years without showing much to anyone, I still own almost everything I ever created in a span of four decades….” His blog is new, although his creativity is ageless.

Here is his art…

 

and here is is website: Cloutier Art.

Do drop by when you get a chance and take a look at his art, read his thoughts, and welcome him into this blogging world!