Tag Archives: Creativity

Never cut the warp

(Note: this post is about twice as long as most. Good story though!) Many years ago, I owned a weaving studio that catered to helping people who lived on the riverbanks of mainstream culture. The people I worked with were … Continue reading

Posted in Beauty, Musings on Life, My Story | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

A cliffside life on a windy day…

Some folks seem to have bumpier roads to travel than other folks, for no obvious reason. It would be so nice to believe there is a relationship between Effort and Outcome– that it is linear, clear, understandable, even controllable. That … Continue reading

Posted in Musings on Life, My Story, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Beauty Matters, Now More Than Ever

“Art once made a cult of beauty; now we have a cult of ugliness instead.” – Sir Roger Scruton, Why Beauty Matters, BBC 2, 2009 I just spent a delightful afternoon watching a film made by an unexpected ally: the … Continue reading

Posted in Beauty, Book #2: Double Take, Look at That! book, Musings on Life, Tip Jar | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Don’t Let Your Momentum Block an Insight

Have you ever purchased an art instruction book, brought it home, flipped through it admiring all the pretty pictures, then set it down to “read thoroughly… later”?  I’ve done that more times than I care to admit. Here’s my reading … Continue reading

Posted in Book #2, Musings on Life, Tip Jar, Writing | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

In praise of weird-shaped containers

Sometimes all you need is a weird-shaped target area to overcome perceived obstacles. Notice I said, “perceived.” Most of time, what’s keeping us from writing, from sketching, from taking up guitar, or even harmonica is the crazy notion that we … Continue reading

Posted in Cartoons, Pen & Ink, Seeing and looking, Sketchbooks, Watercolor | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The Greatness of Blue: a holiday season story

It was the 24th day of the last month of the year, snow was everywhere, and all the summer birds had long since headed south for the winter. Or so the villagers thought. The townsfolk were busy trying to keep … Continue reading

Posted in Cartoons, Musings on Life, Watercolor, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Art Therapy: A Misunderstanding

Let’s begin to address all that is wrong in our human world. Play with this idea for a few minutes — a step-by-step guide. Think about the 5 senses of Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch. Pick one to be your … Continue reading

Posted in 3- Magic: Art Epiphanies, Musings on Life, Pen & Ink, Seeing and looking, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Superpower of Now-and-Next

I recently returned from a four-day vacation to the coast of Maine, and realized that on vacation, it’s easy to slip into a different relationship with Time. At work, your Time is all tied up with other people’s Time. Time … Continue reading

Posted in Musings on Life, My Story, Tip Jar, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Brickwork of Concord

Do you ever stop to think about all the brickwork in your world? It’s everywhere, and yet almost invisible. Interesting facts: A standard red brick in the United States is 3.625 inches deep by 2.25 inches high by 8 inches … Continue reading

Posted in Musings on Life, My Story, Seeing and looking, Tip Jar, Urban Sketching (On-Site Creativity), Writing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A piece of unexpected art equipment

If you’re like me and you haven’t totally divorced yourself from Amazon, you probably have received more than one piece of blue-and-white bubble wrap packaging from them. That packaging may be hard to recycle, but it’s dead simple to repurpose. … Continue reading

Posted in 2- Bolts: Sketching Tools, Look at That! book, Look-at-That! Pouches, My Story, Sketchbooks, Sketching tools | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments