Magpie’s nest (Photo: Wire.com) Last week I returned from a two week sojourn in the desert. Everything shifts around inside when I am in that landscape, and I have been gently allowing the ballast that balances me to settle into its new positions. Luckily I found the perfect companion for that subtle transition: Living with […]
Wisdom
Coordinates: Unlocatable
Somewhere in New Mexico A Muslim prayer expresses this extraordinary request: “Lord, increase my bewilderment.” In poet Fanny Howe‘s essay, “Bewilderment”, from her essay collection, The Wedding Dress, she describes bewilderment as more than an attitude. It is an actual approach she says, a way to “settle with the unresolvable.” And this: A signal does […]
- Art Making
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Always Enchanted
Tiruchchirappalli, India This year we celebrated Easter with friends from Athens. While a whole lamb turned slowly on a spit, the table was loaded up with fresh bread, olives from the family vineyards back home, and copious bowls of salads and vegetables. It was sumptuous and unforgettable, rendered with the mastery that comes with having […]
- Art Making
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Silky Attention
The sand along the shore in Small Point, Maine: The water’s silky attention brought to bear [Note: I had surgery on my right hand this week so my ability to type has been compromised while it heals. I am reposting from a few years ago since Jane Hirshfield continues to be a guiding force for […]
- Creativity
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Self Revealing
The infinite fascination of waterdrops Simple but useful wisdom for art making practitioners… When asked for screenwriting tips, Greta Gerwig—actor, director and screenwriter—shared these two. As is often the case, her advice is useful for anyone engaged in a creative venture. *** Whenever you have an “idea,” as in a concept that you could explain […]
- Art Making
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Grit-Rich
In my studio: Hand molds in a peat bowl by friend and artist Rachel Parry. Parry made both of these objects from substances she found on her land in Allihies, Beara, Ireland. Like most of my readers, I track creativity research like a part time job I’ll have for the rest of my life. With […]
- Aesthetics
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Third Acts and the Transrational
Diana Nyad arriving in Florida (Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Innerarity) I spent the past weekend quietly contemplating third acts, those moments when the extraordinary emerges from someone in their later years. Like Diana Nyad‘s momentous swim from Cuba to Florida—110 miles—at the age of 64. She became the first person to make that swim without a shark […]
- Aesthetics
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Going with Surprise
My daughter Kellin, clamming at Duxbury Some people are more certain of everything than I am of anything. —Robert Rubin, In an Uncertain World Susan Cain used this quote at the start of one of her chapters in the very engaging Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. I am […]
Meaning Afloat
The Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve, Layton Utah My mother grew up less than a mile from what is now a Nature Conservancy preserve on the Great Salt Lake. This landscape has fresh water and salt marshes, ten foot high grasses, ponds and pools, mudflats and fields. The colors and textures change constantly throughout the […]
The Don’t Know Mind
. . . and to follow a spark on the wind with your eyes; and to keep on not knowing something important. –Wislawa Szymborska The idea of fragments and incompleteness was the topic of a blog post I wrote two weeks ago (Pieced Cloth) but it became the predominant leitmotif for life this past week. […]