Bittersweet - Book Notes

A few months ago, the pastor at church had mentioned a book he read while on sabbatical called Bittersweet - How Sorry and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain. His sabbatical focused on grief and loss, so I was curious to check this book out of the library and see what it was about.

Although there were some parts that resonated with me, the majority of the book seemed like it was meant for someone else. I did find the section about how creativity can be associated with sorrow and longing particularly interesting. 

At any rate, here are the parts that were most interesting to me: 

- Humans are wired to respond to each other's troubles with care. This instinct is as much a part of us as the desire to eat and breathe.

- Sad moods tend to sharpen our attention: They make us more focused and detail-oriented; they improve our memories, and correct our cognitive biases. 

- What if we took whatever pain we couldn't get rid of, and turned it into something else? We could write, act, study, cook, dance, compose, do improv, dream up a new business, and decorate our kitchens; there are hundreds of things we could do, and whether we do them "well," or with distinction, is beside the point. This is why "arts therapy" - in which people express and process their troubles by making art - can be so effective, even if its practitioners don't exhibit their work on gallery walls. 

- Whatever pain you can't get rid of, make it your creative offering - or find someone who makes it for you.

- Min Kym, a famous violinist, had her violin stolen. "The moment my violin was stolen, something died in me....I have to accept that the person I was with the violin gone. But I've been reborn....There's space now for a new me to emerge....When you do recover from any loss - when you heal, when your soul starts to heal from the shock - a new part grows." 

- In our house, getting into a good college was the holy grail. My mother dreaded my departure, but even more she desired my success.

- May I be free from danger, May I be free from mental suffering, May I be free from physical suffering, May I have ease of well-being.

- May I be safe, May I be happy, May I be healthy, May I live with ease. 

- A mother who developed Alzheimer's kept saying to her daughter, "I just want you to know what a good daughter you've been. I just want you to know." She would say this every single time the daughter called and visited. I won't be able to tell you much longer, so please remember how much I love you. A good daughter, a good daughter, you've been such a good daughter." 

Decorating for Halloween

It's that time of the year again when I pull out the bin of Halloween decorations and add some seasonal items to our home. We used to decorate the home - inside and outside - with lots of items to celebrate the holiday. I've scaled back this year since this is the first year without both girls here (they are both at college), so it is a bittersweet experience. 

Nonetheless, I did decorate our home for Halloween this year. There's a welcome sign on the gate for the holiday.

As I look at some of the Halloween items, they remind me of the girls' experiences in ceramics at the homeschool co-op they attended from Kindergarten through 12th grade. 

I put these jack-o-lanterns on the piano. It seemed fitting since both Sophia and Olivia played the piano from 3rd-12th grades. 

I chose not to put up the Halloween-themed artwork that they did throughout the years. When they move to their first apartment or home, I'll give them the art they created and they can decide what they want to do with it at that point. 

Some of the other Halloween items that we have are from my step-father-in-law who passed away last month. The trio of ghosts was something he gave to us when he went into assisted living (and eventually the connected nursing home) many years ago. I put these in the kitchen so it's the first thing we see when we walk into our home (we live in an 1890 farm home, so the main entry is a mudroom and then the kitchen).

He also gave us this Halloween train when he moved into assisted living. This year it is at the end of our dining room table so we can enjoy seeing it at every meal. 

This year there is a new addition from him - a witch with a black cat. He had that at the nursing home and we just received it when his room needed to be cleaned out after he died. I'm not sure what (if anything) is supposed to go on the platter that the witch is holding.

Also in the box of Halloween items was this string of ghosts that light up. Many of them are playing musical instruments which I love. Music has been and is such an important part of our lives, so it is quite fitting for us. The witch, dressed in white, also is from him when he moved into assisted living many years ago.  

Back in 2018, we had a fire here at our farm that burned our hobby shed where I stored some of our Halloween items. So, I purchased a few replacements - like this Halloween bunting. It is hanging right by our woodstove. It adds some color and festivity to this area.

Also by the woodstove is our Halloween tree. With its purple lights, it has become one of our favorite items. With each passing day, it is getting darker earlier so this adds a pretty glow to the room. 

The final Halloween decorations are window stars that I made. I chose purple, orange, and green. There is no black kite paper, so that color is not an option. 

This is the only window that has the stars on it this year. I could make more to decorate other windows. I have the time now in the evenings. Maybe I could make some extra ones, too, and send Sophia and Olivia a surprise Halloween package at college. 

I have not put up the Halloween lights yet - indoors or outdoors. The first step is to do the last mowing of the season and then put up t-posts before the ground freezes. Once that is done, I can put up the lights outside. Whatever lights are leftover, I use those on the windows inside the home. This is what one of the rooms looked like last year with the lights up.

This is what the string of lights along our driveway looked like last year. I also continued the string along the road for everyone to see as they drove by. 

Maybe this year I'll add some more lights to the other windows in the front of the house. It seems a bit dark in the front compared to the windows on the right side of the house.

Currently I'm...

This is a swap for Swap-Bot called "Currently, I'm..." which I'm in. I thought it was a departure from what I've been doing recently on my blog so I signed up to do it.

Reading...a variety of books about art (photography, collage, papermaking, and book arts mostly). Also am starting to read Marlo Thomas's book called It Ain't Over Till It's Over.

Playing...unfortunately, nothing. It seems like my days are filled with volunteering for the Lions and doing what feels like "work" - updating Facebook pages, editing a website, and lots of emailing. There's more time behind the computer than what I would like. 

Watching...nature mostly. I'm loving how the flowers are blooming and there's so much color compared to even a couple of weeks ago. 

Eating...some new foods that I haven't had before. Each week, I try to make at least one new recipe. This week I have several new recipes I'm trying: Honey-Glazed Sweet Potato Fries, Asian Chicken Noodle Soup, and an Apple Cider Vinaigrette. We get our first CSA box tomorrow and there will be a lot of lettuce in it, so I'm excited to try a new vinaigrette.  

Drinking...lots of water. Every day I try to drink between 3-4 bottles of water (24 ounces each). 

Crafting...I'm taking a mixed media sketchbook course through the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. I thought I'd really enjoy it looking at the photo that accompanied the course description. For some reason, it's just not resonating with me. I haven't been that happy with the pages I've been creating. 

I also started a photography course (9-week course) that I began and did for about four weeks and then stopped. It wasn't what I thought it would be, and the instructor was off conducting other in-person classes so he wasn't providing much, if any, online feedback. The other students seemed to know one another. So, I thought I'd download the information and do the course on my own at my own pace. 

Tomorrow, I have an eco-printing on fabric class and a European papermaking course I'm taking. Both are through the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and are online.  

Swapping...doing electronic swaps only since postage is so much these days. 

Going to...do errands today (post office, bank, Walmart), take Olivia to the oral surgeon for a pre-op appointment to get her lower wisdom teeth out (she doesn't have upper wisdom teeth), and meet with the director of a local history museum who hired me to do proposal writing for a grant they hope to get. 

Craving...a rootbeer float for some reason. I haven't drank pop since January 1st of this year. Maybe that's the reason. 

Loving...the peacefulness of mornings when things are quiet before everyone wakes up. 

Hating...mosquitoes and horseflies which seem to be around every time I go outside. 

Thinking...about what in the world I'm going to do career-wise once Olivia goes to college. I have no idea what direction to go or what to do as I re-enter the workforce in my mid-50s after being a homeschool mom since my mid-30s. 

(As a side note, the photo below is of my mom, Sophia, and Olivia touching a Picasso sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in May 2013. We were able to do a "touch/tactile tour" of the museum because my mom was legally blind. Touch was her only way to be able to enjoy the artwork.)

Planning...for many upcoming service events for the Lions. It's the club's 40th anniversary and I would like to see 40 service activities done and 40 new members added during the upcoming year.  

Smelling...nothing right now. I am remembering how beautifully-fragrant the roses and peonies are that are blooming in our front yard. 

  

Listening to...the fan try to cool the bedroom which has to feel like 80 degrees. This is the hottest room in the home during the summer and coldest room during the winter. It used to be an attic and I don't think it has adequate insulation.

Wanting to buy...a second (used) car to help with getting everyone to where they need to be. It has been a challenge with the girls' activities and needing to get to multiple places on the same day.

Twyla Tharp - The Creative Habit ( Book Notes)

 As part of the photography course I'm taking, I'm reading books recommended by the artist/instructor. Twyla Tharp - The Creative Habit - Learn It and Use It for Life is one of many books he recommended. 

Below are some of the things I found interesting.

- Being creative is a full-time job with its own daily patterns. Set a goal for yourself - write 1,500 words or stay at your desk until noon. But the real secret is that they do this every day. In other words, they are disciplined. 

- Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.

- Nobody worked harder than Mozart. By the time he was 28 years old, his hands were deformed because of all the hours he had spent practicing, performing, and gripping a quill pen to compose. 

- If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge. 

- There is no one ideal condition for creativity. What works for one person is useless for another. The only criterion is this: Make it easy on yourself. Find a working environment where the prospect of wrestling with your muse doesn't scare you, doesn't shut you down. It should make you want to be there, and once you find it, stick with it. 

- It's all been done before. Nothing's really original. 

- I'm often subtracting things from my life rather than adding them (e.g., movies, multitasking, background music).

- Ralph Waldo Emerson sought solitude and simplicity. Henry David Thoreau turned his back on the distractions of his life in pursuit of a better and clearer life. 

- What is the one tool that feeds your creativity and is so essential that without it you feel naked and unprepared? 

- You're never lonely when your mind is engaged.

- Alone is a fact, a condition where no one else is around. Lonely is how you feel about that. 

- Solitude is an unavoidable part of creativity. Self-reliance is a happy by-product.

- Every day you don't practice you're one day further from being good.

- You won't be of much value to others if you don't learn to value yourself and your efforts.

- Take inventory of your skills. Pick one of your skills from this list and remove it. What's left/ What can you accomplish without it? 

- Henri Matisse was bedridden in his home in the south of France with only the use of his arms and imagination in his final years. But he wasn't going to stop working. His mind wouldn't rest. So he came up with a new way of working: paper cutouts. These exquisitely pure creations, out of the most childlike materials, are...the essence of his art. 

- My heroes are the artists whose bodies of work are consistently surprising, consistently fresh: Mozart, Beethoven, Veldi, Dostoyevsky, Yeats, Cezanne, Kurosawa, and Balanchine. They all had stunning early triumphs, and they kept getting better through their middle and later years. 

101 Things to Learn in Art School - Book Notes

I'm taking an eight-week photography course and the instructor recommended quite a few books to read. One of the books was 101 Things to Learn in Art School by Kit White. 

This book is better suited for those in art school or who were art school graduates. It has more of a visual artist/painter focus more so than a photography focus. 

However, there were some interesting points that related to photography:

- Composition is the foundation of image-making.

- Art is a continuing dialogue that stretches back through thousands of years. What you make is your contribution to that dialogue.

- All art is quite useless. Art isn't utilitarian, and if it is, perhaps it isn't art. Art serves as a non-practical role in our lives, but that does not mean that it is not vital or necessary.

- All images are abstractions. Even photographs. They are never the thing pictured; they are a conceptual or mechanical reproduction of a thing past. 

- For every hour of making, spend an hour of looking and thinking. 

- Making art is an act of discovery. If you are dealing only with what you know, you may not be doing your job. When you discover something new or surprise yourself, you are engaging in the process of discovery.

- Art is a form of experimentation. But most experiments fail. Do not be afraid of those failures. Embrace them. Failed experiments lead to unexpected revelations.

- Carry a sketchbook or journal. Ideas and images can be fleeting. It is important to capture them when they occur to you. 

- Learn from your fellow students. Emulate the things they do well, and learn from their mistakes and their successes. 

- Avoid cliches and one-liners. Try to avoid shopworn images, such as a crying baby as a symbol of vulnerability. 

- The studio is more than a place to work: it is a state of mind. It is the place where your practice is established, and the place where you experiment and meditate on the results. 

- Eliminate the nonessential. Every work of art should contain whatever it needs to fulfill its descriptive objective but nothing more. Successful images have no dead spaces or inactive parts. 

- Document your work. Keep a record of the stages of your work. 

- Not every art school graduate becomes a successful artist. But the training one receives in art school opens avenues to the whole world. Art school teaches one to observe carefully, describe precisely. find solutions to problems through experimentation, keep an open mind to all possibilities, and to accept withering critique in the pursuit of the not yet realized. These are the skills of adventurers, visionaries, and builders of a future we cannot yet fathom. 

The Art of Noticing - Book Notes

 There's a book that I read recently that had some intriguing ideas about creativity. The Art of Noticing - 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday by Rob Walker had many ideas that I would like to try doing. 

Since the pandemic began back in March with a lockdown, I've struggled to get in a regular pattern of creative exploration and doing things that I enjoy - like pottery, sewing, writing, and quilting. 

Iris folding.

I'm hoping that by doing some of the activities in this book, that I will start doing these things again. (However, pottery will need to wait until the art center opens again.)

- My ambition is to provoke them [students] into thinking about what they notice, what they miss, why it matters, and how to become better, deeper, and more original observers of the world and of themselves. 
- A broad range of professions and pursuits relies on the creative process. The scientist, the entrepreneur, the photographer, the coach: Each relies on the ability to notice that which previously seemed invisible to everybody else. 

- The stimulation of modern life, philosopher Georg Simmel complained in 1903, wears down the senses, leaving us dull, indifferent and unable to focus on what really matters.

- In the early 1950s, writer William Whyte lamented in Life magazine that "billboards and neon signs," and obnoxious advertising were converting the American landscape into one long roadside distraction. 

- "A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention," economist Herb Simon warned in 1971. 

- Polyconsciousness is what one researcher termed the resulting state of mind that divides attention between the physical world and the one our devices connect us to, undermining here-and-now interactions with actual people and things around us.

The girls next to one another...but, unfortunately, in their own worlds.

- When you actively notice new things, that puts you in the present...As you're noticing new things, it's engaging, and it turns out...it's literally, not just figuratively, enlivening. (Ellen J. Langer)

- Windows are a powerful existential tool....The only thing you can do is look. You have no influence over what you will see. Your brain is forced to make drama out of whatever happens to appear. Boring things become strange. (Sam Anderson)

Thanksgiving window stars.

- The quieter you become, the more you can hear. (Ram Dass)

- Appreciate the random participation of others in our lives. (Speed Levitch)

- Our life experience will equal what we have paid attention to, whether by choice or default. (William James)

Ideas for noticing:

 - Conduct a scavenger hunt.

- Spot something new every day.

Lake Waconia - someplace new I visited in October.

- Take a color walk

- What are the colors that you become aware of first?

- What are the colors that reveal themselves more slowly?

- What colors do you observe that you did not expect?

- What color relationships do you notice?

- Do colors appear to change over time?

 - Start a collection (e.g., search images to hunt and document: arrows, public clocks, manhole covers, geometric shapes, specific architectural details, footprints, signs and objects prohibiting specific behaviors)

- Count with the numbers you find. The game is to find unexpected shapes, sizes, and contexts. Start at 1 and work your way up or start with 100 count down. 

- Document the (seemingly) identical - a developed named Jacob Harris regularly takes pictures of blue cloudless sky - near-identical squares of blue. He calls the series "Sky Gradients." Other ideas - sidewalks, parking lots, grass, tree trunks - both human-made features and natural ones offer endless possibilities.

Seed pods on a tree in the backyard.

- Look slowly. An example is Slow Art Day. Look at five works of art for ten minutes each, and then meet together with someone over lunch to talk about the experience. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York concluded that its patrons spend a median 17 seconds in front of any given painting. 

- Look up and then look farther up - this means slowing way down or stopping moving altogether.

- Repeat your point of view - occupy the same spot for 15 minutes every day and study passersby. 

- Look out a window - spend 10 minutes looking out the window you most persistently ignore. 

Two deer who frequently have visited our yard this Summer and Fall.

- Reframe the familiar - make a Polaroid-size frame, acrylic with a dry-erase surface - like portable windows. Hold the frame up to an object or scene and write a one- to two-word description on it (e.g., beautiful, vacant, cloudy). Then shift the frame to focus on a different subject, leaving the original description. How does the earlier description influence what you're looking at? 

- Cover 4'33" - John Cage composition in 1952 involved a 4'33" "song" of no music. Set the timer on your phone for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Set it to vibrate or chime, place it somewhere screen-down, and don't watch the clock tick. Close your eyes and just listen. 

- Make an auditory inventory - collect sounds and write down what they are. 

- Digital silence - observe a week of digital silence. 

- Stand - "Standing with Saguaros" project - stand for an hour in the proximity of one of the cacti there. You can also sit. Adapt to your area. Pick one thing and really attend to it for an hour. 

- Spend a day of traveling your hometown without spending a dime. See what happens when you take money out of the equation. How does it change where you move, what you look for, how you orient yourself. 

Staying by the hummingbird feeder for a long time yielded some photos 

I enjoy looking back upon now that the hummingbirds have migrated south.

- Play Big-Box Archaeologist - look for and document products you couldn't dream up if you tried as you go through a big-box store. What is the most absurb product you will see? The most poetic? The saddest? The one most revealing of 21st century America? The funniest?

- Read the plaque - read public plaques. They often tell fascinating stories hidden in plain sight. See readtheplaque.com for examples. 

- Apply the SLANT method: Sit up, Lean forward, Ask and answer questions, Nod your head, and Track the speaker.

- Ask five questions, give five compliments - this requires an alert attentiveness toward other people and what they're saying.

- Find something to complain about - without complaining, there can be no progress. The trick is to treat negativity as a means, not an end. 

- Meet a friend halfway - pick a friend and calculate the exact geographic midpoint between where the two of you live. See geomidpoint.com. 

- Be alone in public - it's not a penalty to spend time alone. It's an opportunity - to exist totally free of anyone else's expectations or your smartphone. 

A stand of pine trees on a trail that I 

explored by myself one morning.

- Care for something. Caring is at the very heart of it all. These exercises help you decide what you want to care about - and thus what and whom you want to care for and attend to.

A river in Wisconsin that I have enjoyed visiting several times.

Making Some More Window Stars

One of my goals this year is to try some new window star patterns that I found on Pinterest. One of the patterns I tried turned out very similar to the image shown on Pinterest. I used 3"x6" lime-green kite paper to create it.

This is the pattern and instructions.

I made both a yellow and lime-green version of the window star. I think lighter colors are better so the pattern can be seen easier than with a dark color.

I tried making the window star again, but using 2.5"x5.5" paper. The results were somewhat different with the smaller size, but no other significant changes:

This is how the sizes compare - with the yellow using the larger 3"x6" paper and the lime green using the 2.5"x5.5" paper.

The second star I made didn't even come close to the image in the image on Pinterest. This is my result.

This is the pattern that was linked to Fashion and Recipes. It has quite a few patterns on the website. I used 3"x6" pink kite paper.

Now as I look at it I'm wondering if I forgot the last two steps with folding the points into the middle. I may have to try this one again.

It's been fun trying some new patterns during the stay-at-home order. It passes the time and gives me something creative to do.

More Window Stars for Easter

I made some more window stars since I'm finding I have a bit more time because of the stay-at-home order in Minnesota. It has been fun to try some new patterns that I've pinned on my Pinterest board.

This is a closer look at the left side of the window:

This is a closer look at the right side of the window:

The first window star that I tried was a pin that led to an image.

I used 3"x5" paper because I couldn't figure out the size from just looking at the image. Maybe trying a larger square would create the star - perhaps a 4" or 5" square. My version, in pink, looks different than the yellow star, but that's fine. I'm happy with it.

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Next, I made a purple star from a pin that led to Meinesvenja:

I used 3"x3" square paper for this window star and it came out just as the image above.

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Next, I made a gold star using the pattern below. It came from a pin that led to Origami Maniacs.

This is my version of the window star:

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I found another pattern I liked on Pinterest that led to Origami Maniacs.

It didn't turn out exactly like the instructions. It's kind of difficult without knowing the paper size since even something that's off by 1/4" or 1/2" can substantially change the way the final window star looks. 

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I've had my eye on this pattern for a while because the points are different at the tips than other stars I've made. Since it's Spring and almost Easter, I chose lime-green paper for this 16-point star. The pattern is from Deschdanja.

This is my version:

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Last, I tried this pattern. The pin doesn't lead to an image, so I just followed the directions on the left side of the image. It does not even come close to the image on the right. If I had looked closer at the directions, I would have noticed that before starting.

What's interesting is that when folding the points, they end up much smaller at the center so instead of 8 points, 16 points are needed to make the window star.

Even though the window star didn't come out even close to the image of the red star, it's fine. I still have a pretty star for our Spring/Easter window.