Thinking Way Back, Waaaay Back

I've been thinking about early inspiration.  The earliest memory was the summer after Kindergarten.  At the end of year I brought home the booklets containing my work and Weekly Readers.  I worked over the worksheets several times.  The booklets themselves were folded sheets of construction paper that became the cover and staples down the margin kept everything in.  I used my mother's pinking shears to cut squares of newspaper which I pasted down.

In the first grade, there were several students who attended speech class.  They came back from sessions with composition books that had work sheets, such as a large snake making an S glued in.  It intruiged me.

Next was likely after Christmas in 1961.  I took some used gold foil giftwrap and some used sheets of paper and my sister's Tot 50 stapler to create a workbook. 

After that was the creation of a teachers grade book which I made out of scrap paper.  I was fascinated by that mysterious book that teachers had with the big paperclips holding in absence notes that were in various states of crumple.  I played school a lot as a child. 

In junior high I was into minatures.  Like dollhouse things.  I would take the top of a  zip out page notebook that was used up and cut it into small books.  I also made a few from scratch.  The tinier the better.

My imagination has always been more creative than imaginary.  I can think of things to do and make and alter other ideas readily.  I always wished I was better at imagination.  Not the thinking up things, I am very good at that, but pretending.  I always needed someone else to pretend with.  I could never do it alone.  My daughters were good at it, they had imaginary friends.  I'm still envious of that ability which is why I made up Ianto. 

These days I am working on grunge books.  I still love the rustle and crunch of "abused" paper.  I've been taking printer sample books and soaking them out doors in rainwater with coffee, ink, dye and whatever strikes my fancy.  I am now in the process of drying them out.  It is so much fun to see how each and every page turns out.

Artful Dodging

Inner Landscape

My inner landscape has just been altered.  Not so much by what is in it, although new discoveries have been made; but it has taken on new form, an inclusive form.  The mythology has been introduced to the alchemy as the inhabitants have risen to take my hand and introduce themselves.  Morag, the wise woman lives there as do various and sundry trolls and pixies.  Archetypes are evolving.  Dreams are become more tangible.  The entire world of it existing peacefully as a country on this bereft and be globe.  I may be the only inhabitant to see it fully, but that does not make it less so. 

Just as ones opinions of the reality we live in give it a certain slant and shade, this is just as real.  I was happy to meet some of the inhabitants this past week and look forward to meeting more.  This is what I have always longed to do, but allowed myself to get too tied up in someone else's norms to dare step out.

It began simply enough in the weeklong workshop I took at Hollyhock with Nick Bantock called The Artful Dodger this June, 2011.  We worked on art projects and writing projects.  And they all generated our own new countries.  Meeting the other participants still makes me wonder how we all arrived at the same space and time.  Were we all seeking to create the same sort of thing? 

Prior to embarking on this journey, I searched the net to find what others who had done this before were now producing.  And the results were not encouraging.  I did not see anything that excited me at all.

And now, having come home and studying what I did produce, I do not think anyone looking at my work would really equate it with any of his.  The backgrounds are the only real connection.  I do not render well, and while I now have a bit more encouragement to work on that, it is not what I really am inspired to do.  What I am inspired to do is to continue on the inner journey and explore the new territory.  I have new insight into how to explore symbolism.  And a new relationship with color.  And a better way to write and watch it unfold.  That alone would be worth the time, energy and money spent, but added to that was a great deal of affirmation into the synchronicities, the alchemy, the entire inner realm.  And the outer realm as well, not neglecting the body or senses. 

What a grand trip it was.  Let us begin.

Mind Full ness

There has been a lot going on in my head lately and I think I will have to break it into categories and do them separately or the sheer length of this post will make it unreadable. Chaos in my head usually whirls together at some point and starts sending darts flying at different targets. Sometimes it all comes back together.

I keep telling myself to collect all of my found objects together in one cigar box and when it is full, create something. So far, I've only been able to remember it. I pass up quite a few things when I am out walking, maybe I should keep a bag in my pocket. It would be fun to scan all of the items and play with them like Colorforms. Now I've set myself another task...

If you can get a copy of issue #28 of The Bear Deluxe it is the contemporary art issue. This is yet another fine Portland periodical (free). I've flipped through it quickly, mostly only looked at the first page because Alan brought it to my attention, but that was inspiring. It looks like random patterns, but there are words in it. So I filled up extra space on one of my journal pages with the smallest lines I could manage. It looks like sky to me, with small birds here and there. And sort of brings to mind the comics I have been reading. I love the drawing in comics and of course I think I can't do it, but I probably can if I would only try. I have been attempting to draw more lately, it feels meditative, and it feels beyond what I can find a word for, but I've been reading a book called "Creativity From Potential to Realization" edited by Robert J. Sternberg and others. Only Chapter 8 has given me what I have been looking for, which is a listing of 13 intuitve, imaginative processes (from Sparks of Genius, 1999 Root-Bernstein):

1. Observing
2. Imaging
3. Abstracting
4. Pattern Recognizing
5. Pattern Forming
6. Analogizing
7. Empathizing
8. Body Thinking
9. Dimensional Thinking
10. Modeling
11. Playing
12. Transforming
13. Synthesizing

I am glad I found this book at the library since so little of it is what I was looking for, but I am so happy with this list and the subsequent explanation that I will probably be looking for Sparks of Genius next.