Sketchbook

I've decided to sharpen my "skillz" a little with some daily work in my sketchbook. I don't expect to post online everyday, but I'll be sure to post the highlights once or twice a week at least. Enjoy! [or else post your complaints below]

Spring for Art: the results

Well, it's just one of those things. After borrowing a truck, hauling the paintings, hanging the artwork, fretting over what I should wear [I chose shorts and flip-flops, by the way], after all that, the night was a dud. I would guess around fifteen groups of people came through Coffee Rani last night and of those only five or six groups actually showed any interest in the artwork. Two people commented that this years Spring for Art was poorly advertised and that the side roads were not blocked off as in previous years. So that and the earlier rain and overall humidity of the evening all combined to form a big ball of blah.

On a positive note, all those who came to look at art were enthusiastic about my artwork and only had positive things to say [I immodestly admit]. And I was able to meet a couple of people who had previously seen and liked my work. I handed out a dozen or so business cards, and the owner of Coffee Rani is graciously allowing the artwork to hang for another couple of weeks and offering her wall space for the next Spring for Art in the Fall of the year.

So I'd say it was a solid moral victory . . . which is not quite as good as an actual victory. You take what you can get, right?

Highly recommended if you're in the area:

Coffee Rani
234 N Lee Lane
Covington, LA
(985)893-6158

Spring for Art: the day before

Nothing like an art show to make an artist second-guess his artwork. Now I've reached a certain point in my artistic ability where I am totally comfortable beginning a project with the knowledge that I will finish it and it will be good - I'm never sure how long it will take, but I know it will be good. That said, I have completed a set of twenty-two paintings for this show, and I still don't feel ready. I feel the need to go out and take another peek . . . one last critical eye, perhaps to spot the weakest link: the runt of the group, the straggler that doesn't make the grade. Suddenly nothing seems finished, but I find no logical reason to support the feeling. I have to rely on my earlier judgement, on what I was thinking when I stopped painting, signed it, and called it art.

Anyway, the big show is tomorrow night -- I'll let you know how it goes.

Creativity Week Deconstructed

Recap:

• started out unmotivated


• continued unmotivated


• water in gasline, had to excavate new gasline [$]


• have hot water again


• creativity week ended

As you can see, Creativity Week was mostly a dud for me. Now, I could blame life, or the gorgeous weather or DiGiorno pizza. But truth is, we are all to blame [that's right, I'm spreading the blame around].

Listen. Let us not bicker about who did what to whom; the point is, there are no winners or losers when it comes to Creativity Week: there are only winners. Here is the important point: Creativity Week is not dead, it lives within each of us. We have only to call upon Creativity Week and it will be there, hat in hand, apologetic and triumphant.

Anyway, it is now the week after Creativity Week, and I'm preparing for Spring for Art [this Saturday, March 11th]. I have been busy, as evident by the photo to the right. I should have over 24 paintings to adorn the walls of Coffee Rani in Covington [I hope to sell them all, but I'd settle for a couple]. More later.

Motivation Revisited

Creativity Week is almost here -- three days away, in fact. I'm excited. So excited I find myself thinking of creative things and having to reign in that creative spark, saving it for next week [can a person bottle-up creativity? is it safe to do so?]. But can I overcome my tendencies toward procrastination and pull off a full, action-packed week of creativity? Stay tuned . . .

Motivation is admittedly elusive in my day to day life. I tend to have many hobbies -- many, many things I love to do [and so little time]. More often than not, I end up getting nothing done. So, I am a little concerned about Creativity Week.

However. The show must go on. Creativity Week will be a success.

Motivation. One of my main goals for Creativity Week is to get an insight into the processes involved in motivation. That's really my main reason for establishing this whole creativity week thing: self analysis. If I were more motivated, I would be unstoppable in whatever I wanted to do with my life. That is a fact. [luckily, I would only use my powers for good]

There is a point, however, when motivation, creativity, and procrastination are just empty words -- what counts is action. Get up and do something.

“Do or do not . . . there is no try.� -Yoda

Creativity Week: Feb. 26th - Mar. 4th -- what are you planning to do?

Creativity Week

It's not a very . . . creative title, I'll give you that, and the only references I found with Google were elementary school projects [you know, paper-mache masks, sculptures, et cetera]. But this is what I had in mind: a week of creativity overload, multiple instances of creative projects throughout each day of one particular week, documented on this blog as the week progresses. Original? Maybe not [those elementary schools beat me to it, for one], but it sure sounded like a good idea.

Now, I know many when confronted with a creative task throw up their hands in defeat before giving it a try -- forgive the mockery, "...ooooh, I'm not a creative person..." -- I just thought I'd invite you to join me in giving this creativity-week-thing a try. What can you do, you ask? I'll tell you:

• post a comment below: I need ideas [you know, creative ideas -- lots!]


• prepare yourself for creativity week -- get any supplies you might need ahead of time


• have some way of documenting your creative projects during the week -- this can be a simple log of events on paper


• if you'd like to share, email me a brief run-through and any photos you took -- I'll post them here along with my own report

That's it. Oh, and I need to decide on a week . . . next week -- there! So, February 26th through March 4th [my birthday] will be my Creativity Week. Okay, I've got a week to prepare for this so I'll really need your help. Please post a comment below, giving me ideas on some creative things I could do and, of course, encouragement -- it's gonna be a long week.

Reward Awaiting Accomplishment

Several years ago I built this very computer on which I'm typing. Since then I built one for my mother and one for my brother and assisted my cousin in building his own. I've tinkered with three or four older models around the house, trading parts and trying different operating systems, never satisfied with leaving "well enough" alone in regards to computers. So all of this I've disclosed as background information to my present dilemma: I'm itching to upgrade once again.

I've thought it all out -- a four-phase roll out plan, each stage following the next in logical order, the first phase being the most expensive but offering the greatest increase in performance [a triple bypass operation concerning the motherboard, ram and cpu].

So here I am, the situation clear: I need a goal to reach, something just lofty enough to warrent a phase-one reward [that's all I ask]. For the reward is waiting; it cannot be ignored for long. The reward is waiting.

well after the storm

It's February, six months after Hurricane Katrina came through, devastating the gulf coast and overwhelming the levees of New Orleans. My wife and I were among the lucky ones; our house and pets were unharmed, and life has returned to normal. But storms leave scars and Bogalusa is no exception. We still have two large oak trees down in our yard and the vacant lot next to our house [pictured below] is a maze of fallen, tangled trees.

Around Bogalusa: fallen trees and automobile-sized rootballs can still be seen along the roadsides; traffic is held up occassionally by tree removal workers; Bellsouth vans are still actively fixing phone lines around town. Some folk are still waiting for insurance checks and many have still not recovered emotionally.

Mostly, life goes on. [I have internet again, as of last month, so I'm happy]

Merton

"Everything in life is designed to wound me with the realization of the world's insufficiency, until I become so detached that I will be able to find God alone in everything. Only then can all things bring me joy."
--Thomas Merton

Podcasts

I might have to substitute "podcasts" for one of those words on my list to the right. I just love podcasts. I used to listen to talk radio [like WWL 870 AM out of New Orleans] and then moved to streaming radio [I still listen to the Dave Ramsey Show online]. But podcasts just make so much more sense.

The idea is simple: subscribe to a show [audio or video] and forget about it -- whenever content is posted online, it is automatically detected and downloaded by your podcatcher program where it awaits your listening ear.

Early adopters were of course technology junkies so that's still the dominant catagory [not complaining, mind you, I love technology] but I'm finding great new podcasts every week.

[FYI]Here are the websites of a few of the non-tech-related podcasts I'm subscribed to:

• the Motivation to Move Show


• the Word Nerds


• Reel Reviews Radio


• the Sound of Young America

By the way, I just bought a used MP3 player online [$30 plus shipping] -- it's modest but it works great. That's all folks.

Banana Spiders

Banana spiders have appeared in droves. They have spun their webs [their decietful lies] prolifically and in the general vicinity of our front porch. We host these colorful visitors yearly, sure, but this is ridiculous: they have come on like gangbusters.

The wife and I have been discussing the fate of these eight-leggers, as I like to call them. She thinks we need to take action, and I have taken the high road: "Nah," I say, "let's not disturb them -- banana spiders are people too." [I may have overstated things]

For now the spiders remain untouched, un-swept-away- with-a-broom. They are friendly enough, afterall. [I may give them all names.]

Vote on this

The painting above is one I've just started; it's 2 1/2 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It's not quite finished, but it's at a point just past the opening -- to use chess terminology -- and deep into the middlegame. What I'd like is a little feedback -- tell me what you think I should add, subtract or change to make this a finished piece. I'd also like your thoughts on a title. Just click comment below -- I'd greatly appreciate it!

How To Build A Computer - Wikibooks

This website is not a favorite website of mine, but a website I would highly recommend to the first-time computer builder [or even if you want to add additional hardware to your system]. It's a comprehensive [exhaustive] primer on building computers, start to finish.

Here's the link: How To Build A Computer - Wikibooks

Finally, rain

Thro' several miles of buffeting wind,
on recent trip to the Norther'lands*,
The sky fell out, a gusher true,
that turned the parchment streets to flowing
Rivers -- washed the dust from 'neath the carraige
and managed to slow our passing through.

*north Louisiana

Digg it

Digg.com is an ever-changing news headline site where regular websurfers submit and "vote" on various articles online (the news headlines are then automatically sorted according to the number of "diggs"). The result is an interesting collection of cutting edge headline news, geeky trends, novel websites, and weird science. It's great!

Here's the link: Digg.com

Hummingbirds

Some birds fascinate me -- woodpecker, wren, wood thrush, and mockingbird -- but none so much as the hummingbird, especially when I delve into the amazing trivia behind these little guys [the only bird that can fly backwards, for instance].

I set up my digital camera on a tripod, aimed at the hummingbird feeder, to take a photo once a minute for an hour and a half, resulting in about five good shots of the hummingbirds as they fed. Two of these I combined in Photoshop to create what you see above.

The Red Ferret Journal

Here's a website/blog I frequent [two or three times a month]. It features "tantalisingly tasteful, tacky and taut tech trivia." Actually, "trivia" is misleading: it features tech gadgets. And although I would never have enough money to support such a hobby, it sure is fun to window shop.

Here's the link: The Red Ferret Journal

Ritual

Stone. Earth. Fire. A length of twig draws careful circles in the dust. An ancient ritual begun.

Arms outstretched. Eyes closed tight. A torso, smeared with clay and mud, extends, yearning for something greater. Frozen, now, in perfect faith. Rigid. Stoic. Waiting.

The smoke carries familiar smells which sit sourly in the nose, creating headaches and visions. Spirals upward. Upward. To the treetops and beyond. Ambassador to the Great One, able to reach the heavens, beg for mercy.

Whispers the smoke: "Here I am. Here, I wait. A lowly creature bound to this land. Sentenced to find Your beauty here among the thorns and rocks and river currents. Here I am. Here, I wait."

The smoke summons the courage; tells the long history; fills the eyes with tears.

A sound from within. A low groaning; a pain of the heart. It grows, contorts, takes shape into a cry. Not for help or pain. A cry for knowledge. For reassurance. For answers.

The cry stops. The echoes trail away. Deep and deeper into the woods, progressively fainter, until at last . . . silence. Vast, infinite silence.

The world has stopped its turning. No movement in the trees. No answer from the sky. The crackle and spark of fire have ceased, leaving an immediacy, an intimacy . . . a ribbon of smoke. A golden silence.

The Great One is listening.

Testing our mettle

We spend our lives questioning and testing and proving ourselves, seeking commendations from other men -- our friends and fathers. Testing our mettle in battle, afraid we may not measure up to the ideal; but desperately needing the answer.

Are we here men of quality and good character? Will we yet pass this test? Some of us have survived the fogs of previous war, have taken our scars and given as many in return. Some of us have found our answer; some of us have not.

Until we know we know not. We shake in fear on the inside. We hurry to break our gaze and turn away. We cower but hesitate to run. Until we know we know not.

Our unanswered question keeps us in the battle. We fight on.

Creativity

I am motivated by blank canvases -- this is what inspires me. Possibilities. Potentiality. Creativity.

I was excited: explaining a concept I had for an upcoming painting to my wife [who was probably busy with something more important and wasn't listening anyway]. I was expounding on the color combination or the possibility of using a certain style to achieve the look I wanted or maybe just the unusual nature of the subject matter -- a brick on top of an egg; I don't know -- I don't remember what I was explaining, or why . . . but trust me, I was excited about it. That's what I love. Creativity. The thought that starts the process and pushes it to completion. Most of my best paintings are finished very quickly for this reason. Call it motivation, if you want -- same thing.

Painting is an important aspect of being a painter -- don't get me wrong -- but more important is the idea, the thought. The inspiration. The motivation. Even the determination to fulfill the initial idea. Because that's the spark common to us all. I'm not talking painting here, I'm talking creativity. That's part of being human: being creative . . . or at least having the potential of creativity within us.

"To do the work carefully and well, with love and respect for the nature of my task and with due attention to its purpose, is to unite myself to God's will in my work. I become His instrument. He works through me."
-- Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

Perhaps that is what creativity is: Aligning our abilities and desires with God's will in our lives.