[art, virtual worlds]

Winter Lights, an art and photography exhibit, has just opened in the Gallerie Octaviana. The show features work from Mad Swiss Cow, Marcel Moré, Sume, Marjie Kennedy, Pirate Johnny, Smiling da Vinci, and Nancy Waldman on the first floor of the expansive gallery space. Upstairs are two new installations of a Circleworks box and a hued light environment.

The owner and artistic curator of the gallery is Annie Octavia.

What you may now be realizing is that Annie and her gallery are located in the magical space of a virtual world called Second Life. Annie is the online avatar of Beth Felice. I interviewed Beth about Second Life, her gallery, the show, and some of the special kinds of creative works that are all the rage in this Other (S)P(l)ace.

Here’s the interview along with shots and videos from the gallery, the installation.

1. For those people who have never even heard of Second Life… can you give us a brief overview of what it is and how it works?

Second life is an example of a MUVE, multi-user virtual environment, a fancified way of saying 3D web browsing. Does it look like a video game, yes. Is there any “game” objective, not really. Who is there? Currently a vibrant world community of about 7 million, including over 350 colleges and universities, NASA, CDC, libraries, museums, both with counterparts in the physical world and those that exist only in second life (sl).

For a presentation I gave in November at the Federation of State Humanities Councils I created a wiki at http://virtualplace.missourihumanities.org/secondlife. You’ll find a nice assortment of articles, factoids and links there.

2. How long have you been involved in SL? How long have you had the Gallerie Octaviana?

I stumbled into SL Labor day weekend 2006. At that time there were about 400,000 users. There was a release of virtual land (512 square feet is included with each paid account) in December of 06 and I staked a claim then, and built the first gallery.

3. Have you had other exhibits?

Yes, I’ve quite enjoyed bringing flickr friends into SL, and hopefully vice versa.

4. Is exhibiting art in SL a good way to get publicity for one’s work?

I’m not sure if you are talking about a subjective or a metric here. In a way, there is a large community of eyeballs, a very organized art community, and the ability to have things on display 24/7. That being said, the most traffic is generated by real time events, openings, artist discussions, etc. I am most interested in this idea of immersion, of being able to walk the representation of self through the art. I am very interested in this intersection of photorealism and illustrative style, and using some of the fantastical qualities, the “magic” not possible in the physical world.

As an aside, I have read that up to 10% (and many believe this number might be higher) of the Sl community is physically challenged in some way. There are some pretty amazing stories about the communities of stroke survivors, wheelchair bound, autistic, and people living with chronic diseases like cystic fibrosis rejoicing in the ability to be “just another” person…or just another person that can fly.

I’m still stuck on the concept of publicity for one’s work. I’m not sure. I think the most interesting work might be that which combines sound, movement, scripting, graphic, and interpretation. And it might exist specifically in a place like SL. Am not sure that work ports straight across from a gallery wall around the corner, into the virtual gallery.

5. I think it’s fairly easy to conceptualize how you put images onto the “walls” of your gallery, but you also have moving 3-d sculptures. Those are a little tougher for me to imagine creating. Tell us about those.

I made a little video, creating an object, and assigning properties and “textures” (graphics). SL Prim-er for Practically Creative Quarter folks

[readers: be sure to check out this primer on prims.
it’s well done and totally intriguing.
also you’ll see the pcq home page on the gallery wall!]

6. Tell us about your alter ego, Annie Octavia. How is she like you? How is she different? Did you have an idea of who you would be on SL or did it evolve out of the experience of being there?

There seems to be an ongoing discussion between immersionists and augmentationists in virtual worlds. Some people want to explore parts of their personality they might not commit to IRL (in real life) and some people see the avatar as an extension of self, trying to make it as close to reality as possible. I remember one of the first librarian meetings I went to, one fellow had made himself into a two story tall dust ball.

There is actually a good deal of scholarly interest in these topics
virtualworldsconnect.com/
edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/06/07/virtual_identity
ibiblio.org/nmediac/winter2004/matusitz.html
gwynethllewelyn.net

Annie began as a representation of self. I’m not much of an actor. Recently a great friend started to explore the visual and creative aspects of costume. Remember, as everything in SL is user created, this includes hair, clothes, etc. A current favorite designer mixes traditional Japanese costuming with a distopian future and goth.

7. What else would you like people who haven’t experienced it to know about Second Life?

In a way it is a next iteration of the internet, and reminiscent of how you might describe what one could find “online” in the early ’90s. It is a communication tool, a collaboration application. It takes the more singular activity of person browsing web via computer to a social activity.

8. Anything else you’d like to say that I neglected to ask about?

Winter Lights is up through April. Anyone wanting a little help learning the SL environment, please feel free to email. The next project is a more intensive scripting project, coordinating events of sound and image with avatar movement through space, or interaction with other avatars. I also seem to be composing a lot these days, and that happens in a very NON networked world!

A Visit to Gallerie Octaviana

When Beth asked me to be in her show this time, I decided to go visit Gallerie Octaviana. I had never been on Second Life but had heard about it, so I was curious. It takes a little time—but not money—to get set up there. I would estimate that it took me between one and two hours to begin. This included time to register and decide on the basic parameters of my avatar (my name is *Aplomb Pomilio*—you can freely choose your first name but the last name must be taken from an extensive list). Then I went to the orientation island where I figured out how to navigate, use the map, chat and appearance interfaces and so on.

I then set out in the world to find the gallery. Even though I thought I had the parameters, I was not able to find it on my own. Second Life is big! I landed in some pretty amazing places though. Finally, I had to email Beth and ask her to contact me in SL. She pinpointed her spot and I was able to teleport there.

Walking through the gallery with Annie (dressed fabulously!) as my guide, is like being a character in a video game, I suppose, except better because you know no one’s going to shoot at you! I have to say it’s pretty amazing to see my photos and the PCQ home page up on a gallery wall in this other worldly place. Thanks Beth for a fascinating introduction to Second Life.

Here I am in some person’s clothing shop (sorry I am too disoriented in this foreign land to know where exactly I am):

I’m sorry I didn’t turn around to face the camera. I couldn’t figure out how to make that happen. The bird on my shoulder was given to me when I showed up on orientation island. It’s probably a sign of a real n%b*. Anyway, it was a stay-at-home adventure for sure. Cheers!

*Note from Beth:

The bird on your shoulder is not the sign of the n00b, just a gift from someone, who also was once new. In virtual and real world communities, people care about one another, and this just makes every day a complete wonder.

You can find all of Beth’s projects and websites at bfelice.jaiku.com :: Beth is also a member of our social network: Being Practically Creative Come on over and check it out.

February 08: Some of my thoughts and photos on further exploration of Second Life. And on the pleasures of playing dress-up!

[warm-up, creative parenting]

Did you play this game as a child? It bears repeating and is a great thing to do with your own kids. It’s non-competitive, free, interactive and instructive, for adults as well as children. Plus, if you bring a creative slant to it, it can be an experience that teaches about the close relationship between smell, memory and creativity.

THE GAME:

Place a series of smells under the noses of blindfolded people and ask them to name them.

Best played in the kitchen.

That’s it.

However, it’s not as easy as it would seem to be. Sometimes the smell is as familiar as your own name but the word for it will not come. This is probably because in order to do this we have to utilize two separate parts of the brain. The part that identifies smells as familiar and known—and the part that puts a word to that familiar and known smell, ordinarily with the assistance of sight.

It would be a great game to play at a Halloween party since this holiday is already so much about masks and the senses. Make it part of your “Haunted House” and have the kids identify a few ‘bad’ smells along with the good or neutral.

If you’re just playing this at home, talk to your kids about the brain and memory. Sit down with them and do a quick free-writing exercise just to see what the non-verbal sense of smell has aroused in your c-minds. If your children are too young to write, let them dictate their stories.

You can also use some of your game smells as the basis for art work. After you’ve played the Smell Game, tell your kids they can make art with the ingredients. Explain that this art work may not be as lasting as if you were using paint. It might be a good time to teach them words like “transient,” “ephemeral,” and “fleeting” and to talk about art and artists who make art that is intentionally so.

Smell Art Ideas:

Sprinkle jello on a paper and let them use their fingers to make art (this is a great sensory-rich way to help them learn to write their letters and numbers, but save that for another more structured time ) Enhance the smell factor by letting them dip their fingers in lemon juice first!

Dip paper in strong tea, coffee, fruit juice.

Use berries to make dyes, paint with them!

Finger paint with (a little) peanut butter. (Maybe even jelly, too?)

Put glue on the paper and use aromatic spices as you would glitter.

Take one item—how about a lemon?—and do a whole picture out using all parts of the lemon.

And, this is a whole other article, but don’t forget: edible art! Pancakes with food colouring, popcorn ball people, rice cake worlds.

LINKS

Here’s a lovely website
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110299/html/index.php made by three young people about the brain and the mind, including pages on creativity (take the How Creative are you? quiz), the senses and memory.

The Ephemeral Arts - check this one out. it’s all about ephemeral arts on the Indian sub-continent; here’s another link to the same site, one that gives examples of these kinds of art. Use them with your kids!

Stayed tuned for my own Ephemeral Arts article. Coming soon!

Have fun and never forget that anything you can do with kids and creativity, you should be doing for yourself anyway. Tapping into our childhood well, keeps creativity flowing strong!

Cooking is one of the few creative activities that I engage in pretty much everyday. However, I realized recently that somewhere along the line I stopped giving cooking the respect it deserves.

I have always enjoyed cooking but I guess my children—over time—with their penchant for the bland and the familiar, ate away at ( )the amount of creativity that I generally poured into daily meals. I remember my younger son exclaiming that a quickie “Sloppy Joe” dinner was “The best meal you’ve ever made, Mom!” That’s okay. As a busy mom, I’d take any compliment I could get.

But for years now, it’s ordinarily just my husband and myself and since we’re both adventurous eaters, I have free reign over what to cook. I’m not much of a planner. I work until my tummy tells me it’s time to eat, go downstairs, think about what I’m hungry for, see what’s available— sometimes pulling out three times as much as I’ll use—and start cooking. I rarely use a recipe for evening meals. The results are usually good and often delicious (my rule of thumb is Would I be happy if I’d paid for this at a restaurant? and often I can answer “Yes!” to that question)

However, I don’t usually think of it as part of my creative day.

Recently, I had a different kind of cooking that needed to be done. We—like many people this time of year—have a surplus of zucchini from our little garden. I don’t even particularly LIKE zucchini so I knew that I needed some creative ways of using up these mass quantities. I looked on the internet for zucchini breads and ran across a beautiful cooking blog called 101 Cookbooks by Heidi Swanson. There, I found a recipe for a zucchini bread with an ‘Indian’ twist. This looked perfect as I was having my book club over that weekend. Our book club does a pot luck dinner with food suggested by the book we’ve read and this time it was Indian.

I set to work making this and what I ended up with was not only a yummy dessert and a little less zucchini to deal with but also a renewed appreciation for cooking as both a creative outlet and catalyst.

Right from the start this zucchini bread recipe offered me two things: 1) the opportunity to bake—which I love but don’t allow myself the time to do and 2) a recipe to follow. Nothing earth-shattering there, but it dawned on me as I got into it that following a recipe was allowing me a mental escape. Follow the directions. Do this, then do this, then do that.

Relaxation was the first thing I noticed. I scooped and measured the dry ingredients, enjoying the gentle mess of flour as it sifted across the counter. I used my food processor with childlike glee to shred that huge zucchini in the photo in a just few seconds.

Then I noticed that the relaxation was overlaid with something else: stimulation. My sense of smell became activated in a major way by the ingredients. Lemon zest! Wow, what a virtual explosion of associations: summer and heat and childhood and so many others—all good! Then there were the more familiar but homey smells of pecans (being from Texas where pecans grow, I used them instead of walnuts), cinnamon and vanilla. My senses were further delighted by surprising ingredients such as crystallized ginger and curry powder. What yummy smells and sooo delicious.

By the time I popped the two pans in the oven, I was as relaxed, happy and energized as if I’d had a late-afternoon walk on the beach or a great yoga class. I felt raring to go! Ready to take on more baking (I used up more, though not all, of the zucchini on Heidi’s gorgeous chocolate zucchini cupcakes! which we are still enjoying around here) and more of anything creative I could get my hands on.

I would have come upstairs and written this post right then if I hadn’t had Book Club coming the next night!

What I realized—remembered—is that cooking, when we can relax into it involves the senses as few other activities do. Not only smell and—of course, taste—but touch and sometimes even hearing. And it’s one of those activities such as walking or riding a bike, driving or taking a shower that can put us into a C-mindful state. I’ve often worked through plot knots while cooking. The activity is absorbing enough that it distracts but it doesn’t require a great deal of concentration—sometimes none at all. Perfect for c-mind problem solving!

So here’s the reminder: We have to eat, so why not approach the occasional cooking *chore* as an opportunity to delight our senses, relax our minds and catalyze whatever we want to do with our excess creative energy.

bon appétit

“Mount Desert Dragons” acrylic on canvas 16″ x 20″ © 2007 Tyler Darvintyne; all rights reserved

It’s wonderful to think that The PCQ has enough history and pure BULK to it that I can be distracted for so many weeks and still have new and renewable readers drop by everyday. Welcome to you all!

Over the summer, I didn’t post as much as I expected but I knew that I was doing well and good by taking a break from what had been a months-long task of putting this zine and its archives into the new format. I needed to get outside, enjoy the too-short summer months, do some physical work and complete other tasks that had been put off too long. It was a great summer.

However, I didn’t expect September to be such a bust as far as posting! I was so inspired and had great ideas for several new articles and posts, but guess what? I didn’t have time.

“dark matter telescopic” 12 x 9 acrylic on canvas © 2007 Tyler Darvintyne; all rights reserved

A trip to see my son and granddaughter came up unexpectedly. My son had the opportunity to show his art work last weekend in Bar Harbor, Maine and he needed help—babysitting and otherwise. I’ve included in this post some samples of his art. I think of it as pure energy with a large dollop of joy. I love it!

“Skies of Van Gogh” acrylic on canvas; 11″ x 14″
by Tyler Darvintyne © 2007 all rights reserved

His first outing was exhausting work for all of us, but a big success. He not only sold quite a bit of art, he learned a massive amount about how to show and sell his work.

I also got to spend almost 10 days with my granddaughter, Acadia, also known as “Cadi.” She’s 27 months old. What an age! I kept thinking, No wonder Tyler is so creative these days, he’s got Cadi around to inspire him everyday. But of course, we all know that it’s not that simple. Children are exhausting and Tyler is raising her all by himself with no family nearby to give him any relief. I think the explosion of creativity is as much about needing to do something other than parenting as much as anything else.

“Land Ho” acrylic on canvas 9″x12″ © 2007 Tyler Darvintyne all rights reserved

Whatever the reason, it’s certainly working for him. Here’s the artist, Darvintyne with a few of his paintings:

And finally, though I don’t post too many purely personal items here, I can’t resist another image, this one of Cadi. Long-time readers will remember her newborn to infant photos from the original PCQ subscriber’s page. She’s still the best!

aka “GRANCY”

For more of Darvintyne’s work go to: quintessential abstractions- http://tylermetzger.wordpress.com

[-painting, process, interview-]

Interview with artist, Donna Marsh
by Nancy Waldman

what I’m reading; oil on canvas, 8 x 16; © 07 donna marsh all rights res.

Donna is an internet friend whose juicy paintings have inspired me to begin painting again after a long time away from it. I knew that she had stopped painting for years and has returned to it fairly recently, so I asked her questions that are pertinent to this process of picking up a “lost art” and also ones that her paintings made me wonder about. I share my questions and Donna’s answers with you in the expectation that there are others out there who have gotten away from a creative activity that they love; those who need a push to get back to it.

Whether or not you’re in that situation, I know you’ll enjoy reading Donna’s story, her thoughts about painting and of course, seeing a few of Donna’s more recent paintings. If you are thinking about picking up a lost art, here is your nudge in the right direction.

green room with mirror; oil on canvas, 14 x 18; © 2007 donna marsh all rights reserved

What got you back into painting after a long time away from it?

I was working as a cashier at a grocery store. An old painter who has a name around here started talking art to me whenever I tallied his oranges. He gave me a book of his paintings. I also accepted an invitation to go see some of them. This was really exciting for me because I hadn’t thought about painting in a long time. After two years in a college fine arts program life moved on the way it does and I just forgot about it. I never really decided to stop. I just forgot I did it. When Mr. Nemeth found out I had bothered to study he wanted to see my paintings. I didn’t have any. He said, “But you don’t stop. You never stop. You can take a rest sometimes but you don’t stop.” Then he never stopped asking for that painting until I produced it. He had an answer for everything too. When I told him I didn’t have any paint he picked a day to go downtown and buy some. He gave me brushes. Later on he advised me to quit my job because I wasn’t painting enough.

I told him I needed the money. His answer, “The world looks after artists.” What a wonderful way to think. I thought it was a bit nuts but he was born in 1919. He had to know a thing or two.

It was like coming back to life to paint again.

houses, Dorval; oil on canvas, 20 x 20, © 2007 donna marsh all rights reserved

What’s been most difficult about getting back into it?

There was a lot of fear in the beginning. People see paintings. They’re hard to hide. Maybe I didn’t know how anymore and people would see that. I had to get over that “doing things right” anxiety because to get it back and then go forward, I had to be willing to let things go wrong. Also, painting is messy and takes up a lot of physical space. I had to learn how to take that space and defend that space because it was important. The same applied to the time. Defending the time has probably been the most difficult part of getting back into it. In school I was studying so nobody ever questioned it. It was hard to teach others and myself that “I’m home painting” does not equal “I’m doing nothing please interrupt me.”

balconies and fire escapes; oil on canvas, 30 x 36; © 2007 donna marsh, all rights reserved

Do you have any tips for other painters in the same situation?

People actually have opinions about what painters should paint. This can be a shock at first. But if they’re really dying for a certain image to come into being they can go paint it themselves. Paint what you want and don’t worry about it making sense or fitting in with what’s going on at the other easels or even fitting in with what you most admire. Sometimes these things don’t work out to be the same. I can sit for hours in front of large minimalist works that appear to be one grey, taking in the sweep of the brushstrokes and subtle gradations of light on the work. Though it wouldn’t excite me to paint that myself, I’m glad it excited Charles Gagnon enough to paint it. It’s taken me a few years to know what I want to paint. I find if it excites me I’m on the right track. Execution becomes a fascinating challenge.

let’s get lost; oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches; © 2007 donna marsh, all rights reserved

Do you paint from photos? what’s in front of you? memory? imagination?

I paint from photos and from what’s in front of me. I’m interested in painting more from memory. I think there’s always imagination in a painting. I admit I’ve been working out some guilt over the use of photos. I wasn’t trained that way. It wasn’t allowed. But I like to have something to look at as a starting point and I found the terrain too limited for what I wanted to do if I only painted “in situ”. I still enjoy getting out for some plein air work or I’ll drag the outdoor easel over to something in the house that interests me. There’s a different feeling to translating space that’s all around me and in front of me. I like to stay in touch with that.

a hotel window; oil on canvas, 20 x 24; © 2007 donna marsh, all rights reserved

In what ways has your painting changed over the years?

The big difference between now and then (when I stopped) is that my colours are brighter and I’m less inhibited. I like to feel the paint and really muck around in it. Impasto is no longer a stranger to me. In the years since I’ve restarted, I find my understanding of what I want to paint has become much clearer and the paintings make more sense to me as a group. Also as I gain more control over the paint I get looser.

drive-thru service; oil on canvas, 22 x 28; © 2007 donna marsh, all rights reserved

And now, my turn—why Donna’s work is so inviting and appealing to me.

Part of it is what Donna talks about when she mentions Charles Gagnon. Often what we like is something that we would never choose to paint ourselves. I am drawn to Donna’s urban and suburban landscapes because I wouldn’t think to paint them but I like seeing them. Her use of thick paint and bright colours for these seemingly drab subjects makes me want to re-think them. It makes me believe that I haven’t really seen what’s there.

I am also drawn in by the energy in these paintings. The brush strokes, the lines drawn into them, the runny paint, all impart the bodily energy that Donna uses when she paints. The paint may have dried and hardened but the energy is still there as I look at them.

I also notice space, or lack of it, in Donna’s work. In ‘houses, dorval’ we get a long wide open view. The paint is applied going away from us, stretching out in response to the scene. In ‘balconies and fire escapes’ the lack of space is part of what makes it all so effective. The representation of over-lapping structures makes me feel the crowdedness of a city.

Being representational scenes, there is also light to consider. With Donna’s paintings, the light is conveyed through colour. I don’t get the feeling that there is any separation as she paints, between the objects and the atmosphere and quality of light that is with them. This gives the a glow to the work that seems to radiate from within.

Energy, colour, looseness, inner light. It’s not ’safe’ painting and, for me, that’s why they work.

Thanks, Donna for sharing your work and your thoughts with us. You can see more of Donna’s paintings at her flickr site. Donna lives with her family in Quebec, Canada where she just manages to carve out time and space to paint.

[-warm-up, drawing-]

Here’s a creative warm-up exercise that uses categories.

Choose a category each day to draw in your journal. Divide your paper into 8 - 12 small sections. Decide on the length of time you want to devote to this. My suggestion is to start with no more than ten minutes. Quicker sketches will loosen you up. Later on, you may want to devote more time to the sketches.

Draw a version of your chosen category in each of the sections.

The idea is to warm-up your creative brain by doing quick, non-threatening, simple drawings. Doing a lot of drawings of one thing helps you explore your visual knowledge of that category. You will find that you’re going to learn a lot about yourself, your visual memory, your ability to express a simple thing quickly and you’ll find yourself being more observant of that category once you’ve done the exercise.

Here’s my “Fruit” category page:
As you see, this isn’t great art. They are quick simple, even iconic sketches. And yet, I found out a lot from doing them.

I found out quickly that to distinguish between a drawing of an apple, a peach, a plum and even a lemon is tricky, but can be done. I found out that though I have removed plenty of them, I couldn’t, when I started, remember what the stem of a pineapple looks like. I found out that in order to make a peach look like a peach, you have to turn your pencil on its side to get a softer edge. I remembered that the skin of a lemon is pitted and that’s a bit of a different pencil mark that the tiny seeds of a strawberry. I found out that in order to sketch a bunch of grapes, it’s easier (and more fun) to sketch the dark, negative spaces that just draw the overlapping grapes. I found that sometimes a fruit is best depicted by the drippy, wetness that ends up on the surface below it. I found out that it was hard for me to come up with twelve fruits and that I didn’t seem to have a clue what shape a fig is.

Try it. It’s fun and you’ll be amazed how much it will stretch you.

Here’s a list to get you going:

I threw in the last three to remind you that these don’t have to be solid objects. But stick with the simpler ones at first. See what happens. After doing these for a while, revisit a category so you can see how the first sketches compare with ones you do after sensitizing yourself to this process and to thinking visually.

And, let us know what you learned by doing this exercise!

[-process, painting-]

Mama and baby gables

Originally uploaded by nuanc.

Hi all! I took some time off from posting during July. It’s been good to get outside and away from the computer. One of the things I’ve been doing is painting—but not my usual kind.

We are finishing up painting the roof line of our old house. This project started in 2002 when my husband put a pitched roof on the previously flat-roofed house. That gave us five new gables. (They are all different sizes so, in order to be able to refer to them without confusion, I dubbed them the Grandfather, Papa, Mama, Teenager and Baby Gables.)

We decided to give the outside of the house more detailing and a lot more colour! The painting started in 2003 with the largest of the gables. We are only now back around to where we started with the last little bit of trim near the roof. (Then we have the rest of the house to paint….after we put on a new front porch!)

The painting is, as you can see, fairly intricate and calls for precision. As I paint, I can’t help but be pulled back to other times in my life where I’ve used paint brushes on a daily basis to do art, not house painting. The feel of paint leaving a paint brush is very enticing, even when all you’re trying to do is paint a straight line.

The process puts me back in touch with that realm of paint and colour, edges and transitions, the build-up of colour and illusion of light that all go into painting a picture on paper or canvas. It is attracting me back to something that I once spent a lot of time doing but have been away from for a long time.

So what do I do with this urge that I’m not only feeling, but—now with this post—acknowledging in public?

It would be easiest for me to let it pass. That I have other interesting and important things to do with my time, other than paint, is true. That summer is busy enough without starting in on another creative pursuit is logical. But the real reason I have for resisting the urge to put paint on paper or canvas is that I’m afraid. I’m afraid of not being inspired once I get to it. I’m afraid that the urge is best felt and not acted on. I’m afraid that what was once a passion of mine, will not recur for me if I try it again. I’m afraid that what I paint will be unsatisfying and mediocre. All of these things and more have kept me away from painting for years now.

But here’s the other side of fear. One of the big reasons I started Practically Creative was to use it as a fulcrum (”an agent through which vital powers are exercised.”) in continuing to work through blocks and indecisions and self-defeatist issues that have always been a part of my creativity. I have fewer problems than I used to, but—as this as yet un-acted on urge shows—those issues never fully recede.

I’ll paint something other than my house today (it’s raining today, anyway). I’ll dust off some tubes of paint, pick a favourite brush or two and I’ll start small. I can’t promise myself much but I think I can manage enjoyment of the seductive feel of paint coming off a brush.

Then, I’ll see what appears.

Happy last days of July!

Here’s a post from my blog that has photos and details of the house painting project: The Up Side of Outside
Another post about the history of our old house: Of Things Dreamed Of

[-short fiction, collaboration-]

by Indie

Sara: How did you get here?
Boy: I followed you.
Sara: Impossible.
Boy: I only had to close my eyes the moment you vanished.

Silence for a moment. Sara in her private Wonderland was right to be astonished. “By Invitation Only” was the law of her fantasy realm, yet here was the boy, and somehow he had found a way in.

“Run that way,” Sara pointed off in the direction of the pink sun. He was off immediately. “But he’ll be back,” she thought to herself, “when I turn the path the opposite way.” Now she pondered the uses of a boy in her Wonderland. “He could put the leaves back on the trees.” They were constantly falling to the ground whenever the trees snapped themselves to attention. “Or put me on the slide, in moments I am not.” She slid the blue slide down to the gravelly ground. “Now come back,” she spoke.

“Here I am!” the boy announced, “I found a tablecloth. We can have a picnic!”

“What will we eat?” she smiled coyly, “There’s no food here.” There really was nothing. If Sara became hungry, she merely forgot more of the real world, to notice, moments later, that her socks became striped or a wall sprouted dots in shades of primary colors. The boy went away, then returned a while later with a handful of jelly beans. Sara was trying to catch her breath after swinging a complete Ferris-wheel cycle on the swing. He let the jelly beans fall and helped her, heading off the long strip of breath that looked like a rosy red ribbon flapping in the chaotic wind. What a mad dance it was! Never more than two feet on the ground between the two of them, and sometimes none, and neither in reach of the other - nor the ribbon. But finally they cornered the renegade breath. Sara snatched one end, the boy the other, and they shared it between the two of them. Afterwards, contented and waiting for something to say, they noticed the spot where the jelly beans had fallen. A spiral of cotton candy had sprouted into the strawberry sky!

“You can’t catch me” Sara teased, or maybe it was the boy. They chased each other first one way, then the other, all the way up the candy, pausing for little bites along the way, for the running was making them hungry. When they reached the top they were holding hands and stickily sweet all over.

There they sat, on top of the Wonderland world, breathing their breaths together. “I still would like to know how you slipped into my Wonderland,” Sara persisted.

“It was easy,” the boy answered while glancing down at rainbow meadows. “This whole fantasy is my imagination.”

She smiled with primal joy, and joined his gaze into the fairy-tale lands below, “I knew there had to be a logical explanation.”

Story #377
Indie, © 2005 - 2007 all rights reserved - originally published October 13, 2006 in The Synchronicity of Indeterminancy
Thanks to dark firefly for sharing her photograph with Indie and now with us!

Please see Indie’s other contributions to The PCQ: Hacker Baby, Vicious Pirates , The Great War of 2015

Indie’s blog, The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy, is an experiment in creativity with daily posts of an original one-minute short story inspired by a found photo. All stories are fictional. The idea is based on the Indeterminacy recordings by John Cage, pairing one-minute short stories with random sounds. His daily stories can be found at: indeterminancy.blogspot.com His blog was recently honoured as a Blogger Blog of Note. Congratulations Indie!

about the writer:
Indie is an American - originally from Cincinnati, Ohio - living in Europe since the 80’s. He enjoys avant garde, dadaistic, and surrealistic art, literature and music. He has a special love for comedy. Indie holds a masters in psychology and is employed as knowledge engineer, designing natural language dialogue systems. He’s lucky enough to be married to a wonderful muse and has a son 10 years of age.

[-crackles!-]

Today is the second full moon of June if you live in the Eastern Hemisphere. For those of us in the Western Hemisphere, it was May 31, 2007. Since I seem to have missed it last month, I’m celebrating it with those of you in the other half of the world. Either way, we both get a full moon [just barely] in June [except Aukland and thereabouts!].

The second full moon in a month is called a Blue Moon.

Blue Moons come around every 2.7 years or 41 times a century.

Even rarer is a year with a double Blue Moon. Those only occur 4.5 times a century or every 19 years or so.

The last Blue Moon was in July 2004.

The next Blue Moon will be December 2009.

Blue Moons have nothing to do with the look of the moon, though on a gorgeous summer night in June we might be excused if we imagined a special hue. Moons do spur people to be creative:

Movies:

Moonstruck
Joe Versus the Volcano
Paper Moon
Apollo 13
Man on the Moon
Walk on the Moon

Songs:

Blue Moon
Moon Over Miami
Moon River
Moondance
Moonlight in Vermont
Dancing in the Moonlight
Moonshadow
By the Light of the Silvery Moon
Moonage Daydream
There’s a Moon in the Sky
Dark Side of the Moon
Bad Side of the Moon
It’s Only a Paper Moon
Harvest Moon
Song about the Moon
Ticket to the Moon
Heading to the Moon

Open your curtains as you sleep tonight and let the light shine down upon you. Maybe you’ll feel more creative because of it!

My Blue Moon photosandwich above was made with the help of hypergenesb who allows his photos to be used under a creative commons license. Thank you! I had a fun time playing with your beautiful photo. On his flickr page, hypergenesb has fully annotated his moon. Click the image to see it and his other photos!

[-process, essay-]

by Nancy S.M. Waldman

As we create, we use up media, materials, tools, ideas, time, and our own creative energy. Working from abundance means having a well of resources—more than we need—to create what we want.

My son used this expression in a conversation about the new songs he had just recorded. I mentioned how much the phrase resonated with me and he said that he had heard it from a professor who used it in terms of writing. In both instances, they were talking about accumulating, creating, way more than is needed for a project and then winnowing it down later to a more refined level.

Not everyone creates this way. I have a friend who writes sparsely and then fleshes out the story after she has the skeleton of it constructed. I’m the opposite. I overwrite and then must be brutal with myself about taking out everything that isn’t necessary.

However, the crucial aspect of abundance isn’t the number of words we write or the collection of materials on our worktables or the amount of paint we have at our disposal. It’s not even about time.

Time is necessary and without it we can’t create. But, there are people with loads of time who don’t use it to record music, make art or write novels. So having the time will only work for us if we have an abundance of what will motivate us to work, to play, to innovate.

Working from abundance is more about a certain attitude. This attitude incorporates elements of openness, generosity, fearlessness, confidence. At times, whimsy and audacity. It involves letting go of negatives, so there can be no sparsity of spirit. It’s about not worrying that we will use up all our good ideas if we throw everything we’ve got at a project. It’s about having faith that creativity is a renewable and sustainable resource.

There’s also energy to consider. Creative energy doesn’t have to be about being upbeat and feeling energetic. Many depressed people, who didn’t have the energy to bathe, have created masterpieces. It’s about using what we have to put into the process of creating.

While it’s true there are those instances when the more we create, the more energized we feel, it does have a limit. We have to always be aware of when we begin to feel like a worn-out battery. At that point, the idea is to get away from what is depleting us and re-charge ourselves. Working from an abundance of creative spirit will always result in a more effective creation.

And perhaps, that’s all we need to remember about abundance. If we can accumulate a deep pool of the attitude of abundance, then we will have what we need to create what we want.