Untitled 1

I couldn't come up with a title for this painting. It's spray paint, oil, and latex on a 6' x 2' piece of plywood that Tracy and I found in a dumpster outside of The Department of Family and Protective Services, where we worked at the time. It has various personal meanings, but I don't want to impose those on anyone else. I want people to see whatever they want to see in it.

Poem

The diaphanous fish
whirls its skittish eyes
from bank
to floor
to glittering sky.
It does not utter secrets to hands:
hands that plunge and grasp,
hands that divide, flay, or provoke
clouds of silt from riverbed.
Yet the body of the stream regards
the body of the fish:
fan gills, dorsal sail, fluttering wily tail.
The current ever perceives the miracle,
releasing its grip
endlessly becoming new forms, of root, creature, stone, vapor,
widening to glorious estuary, sea,
(and as if vaporized by epiphany)
the sky.


[This is a rough draft. Feedback/criticism is welcome!]

Native American Day

I work in the downtown public library in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The city is named after the Sioux tribe, and many Native American live here. Many are also homeless or in rehab or on work release from prison, which brings them all to the library when it's cold.

The white people in South Dakota are constantly trying to make up for the sins of the fathers against the brown people. To make up for the looming white faces in Mount Rushmore, we are now carving Chief Crazy Horse out of rock. The library was closed on what most states call Columbus Day but South Dakota changed to Native American Day. The Native Americans wished it had stayed open, (and prefer the name Indian).

I also have a lot of white guilt and uncertainty when it comes to communicating with Native Americans, and want to try to show that I respect their heritage and I'm sorry about the state of the reservations and I don't judge the alcohol on their breath or the prison address, but it's hard to do that just checking out books. So when a tall, brown, middle aged man in a flannel and jeans named Leon Kills Small starting chatting with me while I was helping him, I let my curiosity override my timidity.

"What does your last name mean?"
He stared at me, then smiled and I exhaled and was immediately glad I asked. "My grandfather was a small game hunter- killed rabbits and stuff. I have an Indian name for my first name, too."
"How did you get it?"
"I'm a rain dancer, and at a tribe meeting in Idaho we were all dancing around the fire. It started storming bad and everyone sat down but I kept dancing. The medicine man came over to me and asked if I had an Indian name. I told him I didn't so he said it was White Thunder."
I said something dumb like "wow, interesting! Uh... your movies are due back next Tuesday, inauguration day."
He said he was looking forward to it and I asked if he voted for Obama.
"Yes I did. My grandfather prophecied about him when I was little"
"Oh, really?"
"He told me that there would come a day when they would sell water in stores and white people would buy it, and one day white man would be brought down and brown man would be brought up."
"They didn't sell bottled water when you were a kid?"
"No, and I thought that was crazy. Why would they sell water in a store? There's so much water everywhere! And now they're selling water in the stores and a brown man is going to be president."

At this point, there was a white lady with a lot of makeup and glasses about half his size standing in line. She kept stepping forward and backward like she was trying to stand close enough to listen but was kind of scared of him. I was disappointed that I had to cut the conversation off to help her.

The ridiculous part about the conversation was that I felt a little offended when he talked about white man being brought down. I felt almost like he should have said, "no offense to your people, but" or something polite. The second I put words to those feelings I brushed them off as ironic at best.

Experimenting with oils

I decided to try and dabble a little with oil painting. I don't know how to paint, and knew nothing about how to start. But I had been watching the BBC series, "Simon Schama's Power of Art". http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/powerofart/ I had learned that VanGogh had not even starting painting until he was in his 30's. Although I am sure I will not be a Van Gogh, it was inspiring to try a new art form I had no experience with. My first painting was of a sunset, it did not turn out to be a masterpiece to say the least. I then thought it may be easier to imitate another's work while learning more about techniques. I decided to imitate "Id" by Cakaj. Here is the original "Id" and my interpretation "Ego". (Id is on the left, I'm sure it is obvious...but just in case). I found the experience to be a little frustrating and very messy. My least favorite part was cleaning the brushes. I would like to paint some more, but think next time that I will do a little more reading on tips for oil painting before I blindly dive in. Here is a quote by the man who inspired me to try my hand at oils

If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. --Vincent Van Gogh

Healthy Banana Nut Muffins

I, too, love food. I am always trying new recipes and looking for new ones. I am not a vegetarian but I do love to eat as healthy as I can. I fail, often, at passing over the pizza and regular coke but I try and love to eat fresh vegetables and fruits. I also like to stay away from sugar and processed foods. I came across this banana-nut muffin recipe and was very excited because of the health aspect. They are whole grain muffins and are light but still sweet. And the best part, they contain no sugar. Proof that health food can still taste good.

3 medium ripe bananas
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup barley flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tsp. fine sea salt
6 tbsp oil (canola or sunflower)
1 cup whole spelt flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup white spelt flour (or all purpose flour)
Makes 1 dozen muffins

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Sift the flours and baking soda into a medium sized bowl, add the salt
-Puree the bananas in a food processor and add the remaining liquid ingredients, mix well.
-Make a well in the flour and pour in the wet mixture (scraping the food processor bowl well) and fold together until the flour mixture is moistened. Add the walnuts and raisins and fold just a few more times to incorporate. Don't overmix or you will have tough muffins!
-Line the muffin tins with paper or brush with oil. Use an ice cream scoop to distribute the batter evenly among the cups.
-Bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for a few minutes then remove to a cooling rack.

All I Want is Food and Creative Love

I'm not ashamed to admit it: I love to eat! I've always been pretty passionate about food. But what I am ashamed of is how lazy I've become in the kitchen. I'm no food snob, but when frozen veggie burgers have become a staple in your diet, you know there's room for improvement. And sometimes I truly think that we might order pizza more than anyone else in the world. My boyfriend, Jason is actually a pretty fantastic cook, but he's in law school, so he has an excuse. I, on the other hand, have plenty of free time and therefore no excuse. And there are several year-round farmers markets in the DC area with really great quality, locally produced food. That being said, I would like to endeavor to become more creative in the kitchen. While we are vegetarians, neither of us is a picky eater, so besides meat, the sky is the limit! I picked up this 1970 African cookbook at a local used bookstore the other day: I actually picked it more for the artwork on the front than for the recipes inside, but you never know, there might be some real gems in there. Anyway, I'd love a little help from the creative community on this one! So, if you have any suggestions or favorite recipes you'd like to share, please post them or email me at: lovelyyou@peacemail.com. Thanks!

P.S. I couldn't pass up this opportunity to post a trailer for an upcoming documentary that I'm really excited about. It's called Edible City, and it should be out in the fall.
Edible City Trailer 1 from East Bay Pictures on Vimeo.

Learning to use Photoshop

Besides giving birth to a couple of the humans in this picture, I was able to obliterate another one by using Clone Stamp Tool. I was very proud of myself when, after about 45 frustrating minutes, I figured out how to edit this picture. On the right side, where the brickwork is, I was able to edit out a person, and also removed some distracting signs and words on the wall in the middle of the background.

I am looking forward to improving my photography skills this year, as my creative endeavor.

Blessings

 

Hope everyone is happy and well on the farm! Each of these pictures represent something that Creativity has brought to my life. Wonder. Peace. Love. Individuality. Togetherness. Happiness. In case you are wondering, the top left picture is of the National Cathedral in Washington, DC during the cathedral's Centennial celebration. Swiss artist, Gerry Hofstetter projected his creations onto the side of the cathedral. It was inspiring to witness the impact one man's creativity can have. To see more, visit the National Cathedral's website. Oh, and just to give credit where it's due, the Happiness quote is James Oppenheim and the Truth quote is from a Micah P. Hinson song. And yes, I did get my boyfriend's permission before posting a picture of him in a skirt and skin-tight cami...he's cool like that. Now, get to posting people! (Click collage to enlarge)

Birdsong

This is a picture I took while in Abilene for Christmas vacation in 2007. I went to Nelson Park to pay tribute to my beloved dog, Marley, who died there a few months before. I was lucky enough to get a shot of this bird in flight. I edited the photo using Picnik and added the quote (an excerpt from a Mary Oliver poem). The words describe how I feel about the endless creativity found in Nature and the way in which it speaks to my spirit and invites it to create something in return.

A Little History

To kick this thing off I thought I would share a little history of the “creative endeavor”. I had a humanities class in high school that focused on philosophy, art, expression, thought…okay well perhaps it didn’t really “focus” on any one thing. This course was led by Mr. Monroe. There weren’t really grades, I don’t know anyone who didn’t make an “A” by simply showing up and participating, and there wasn’t much structure. So it was really my kind of class. The one homework assignment we had for each grading cycle was to perform some sort of creative endeavor, and then share this with the class. Many students made wonderful art projects, shared poems, experimented with a new hobby etc. My most memorable creative endeavor was a social experiment.

At the wise age of 17 I had decided that my family was spending entirely too much time in front of the television. There was a t.v. in every room of the house sans the bathrooms, and I don’t remember too many nights when there wasn’t at least one t.v on in the house. I decided our family needed to shake things up a bit…ya know like talk to each other, eat dinner together, interact, play board games—something! So this is what I did. I asked my friend Sarah who had a small truck to help me out. When went to my house after school, and before my parents were home and took every television out of the house. All five of the t.v.’s were then loaded into the bed of her truck and taken over to my friend Tracy’s house. Here they were stored in secrecy. Tracy’s mom, Cindy had agreed to keep my secret with me.

When I came home I entered upon a scene I did not expect. My step-father was furious with me! Apparently he had not seen the note I left warning him that I had taken the t.v’s and not to worry and had immediately called the police to report a theft. Luckily he did see my note soon there-after and called the police to notify them that his step-daughter was the thief, so no need to file a report. He demanded that I bring the televisions back (I had actually never seen him so angry—he is not a short tempered man). Even though I was a little bit afraid, I didn’t back down. I told him this was part of a social experiment and that they were going to be gone for exactly one week, then they would return safely. I thought his anger would subside once he found out it was for school, but this didn’t help my case much. Fortunately my mother, a strong women, stood up for me and said although I shouldn’t have stolen the t.v.’s it would be good for us to go a week without the t.v.

My brothers had a similar reaction to that of my step-father’s. Needless to say they were unhappy. I thought that my plan would force us all to get to know each other better (after all we were a blended family that didn’t always get along), but really it only meant that I spend more time with my parents playing board games in the evening. On day 2 of this social experiment I caught a side-ways glimpse into my step-brother’s room. There was a blanket covering a very t.v.-looking object. Surprise, surprise there was a t.v under there.

In short my creative endeavor showed me more about my family than I would have realized. Not because we really spent more quality time together, but more because of how they handled the loss of such a valued family member. I am not bashing my family members here, they are all great people. But it was quite revealing to see the different reactions of the family members. Looking back on this experiment that took place a decade ago, I realize that the reactions I saw from my family was probably largely in part to due to a lack of control, and less due to the lack of television. Nevertheless I did spend that week without the murmuring of night-time t.v. shows on in the background and more time talking with the people I lived with.

Creative endeavor accomplished.

Purpose

This year I want to live more creatively. But, I don’t want this experience to be had alone. I want to be a part of a creative community. This is when the plan for “The Idea Farm” sprouted (pardon the pun, but I just couldn’t help myself). I want to start a community blog where members of the blog can share their accounts of “creative endeavors” they are experiencing. What is a creative endeavor you may ask…it is a purposeful creative experiment, observation, project or expression. My goal is to do at least one creative endeavor each month and then record it or write about it on this blog. Perhaps I will write about some thought, realization, observation or feeling I had while endeavoring; or maybe it is a simple record, but the goal is to live more creatively in a community of creative explorers.

I want to invite you to take part of the Idea Farm with me. If you wish to live more creatively, and share that experience with others then let me know. I will add you as an author to the blog where you can freely add entries chronicling and taking part of this experiment. Or if you don’t feel blog-savvy, then send me your thoughts, pictures, videos, etc. and I will post them on your behalf. (please send to amanda at musickandwords@gmail.com)