Marketing Schmarketing

One day long long time ago a badly paid princess toiled in an underfunded arts organisation where she was expected to sweep out the filing cabinets, open the mail, process orders and do the marketing with no budget what so ever.

The organisation was also dependent on volunteer undermaids to keep the place going. One day a letter came from Switzerland from a woman asking to come and spend time at the organisation and improve her English. As was the policy I sorry the princess wrote back immediately (though probably via surface mail as it was cheaper) saying ‘come’. Some months later Elizabet arrived.* After a few weeks of observing the haphazard slightly desperate measures employed in marketing the organisation Elizabet drew the Princess aside and asked err how she’d got the job and erhum what qualifications she’d go. She was most perplexed to discover that in the UK one could get jobs without being trained for them. One could also get jobs without really being paid for them either… anyway Elizabet picked herself off the floor and as she had worked for several major Swiss publishing firms tried to inculcate the rudiments of marketing. One of the most startling facts which has stuck in my head as if branded there is this. The average return on a direct mail leaflet is less than 1%. That is you are lucky to get one response in 100. Phew! I felt less of a failure from that time when I sent out 1500 leaflets advertising our plays and got two orders back then… All to the good so began to realise how much hard work marketing is. One friend does high level networking change meetings in the disability field – will send out 100 + letters about a seminar to a highly highly select target group and will be lucky to get 20.

Now I’ve accepted that marketing is hard. I work backwards how many of x would I like to sell? Eg if I have to fill 12 places on a course I need to cart about the minimum of 1200 leaflets and place them in likely places or even unlikely places. I’ve had dreams of advertising or even word of mouth/internet taking away the hard graft but sadly it doesn’t work.

* Of course her English was perfect.

Yesterknits

a fabulous find and an example of the joys of the internet. Lost myself in a while imagining knitting up some 'Now Voyager' inspired 1940's knits.

The Wandering Moleskine Project

Moleskine notebooks are being sent out into the world and the writers/artists who use them are sending back scans. I signed up for the 1000 Jounals Project last year but my journal went missing in creative action... hope the same doesn't happen to the Moleskine.

Poets & Writers Magazine

Has a free email to notify writers of deadlines for competitions, burseries etc. Also interesting interviews and articles on the online version of the mag.

Sustainable Creativity

I'm prompted by two postings one at Michael Nobbs and another at Pomegrantes & Paper

So my challenge to all of you this week is to start thinking about sustainable creativity. Many of you don't need this challenge; you have it down pat and your blogs and journals glow with sketches and scarves and poems and prose. Many of us, however, need to focus on what we can do instead of bemoaning what we can't. We need to move to action before all our points of light fade out and we're left with the shadow of inaction.

Loretta

~~~~

Ah heres the rub... I had a week where I did a proposal for a documentary project, taught a class, started a new job, did a morning of research in an archive (4 hour journey involved), knitted, wrote 10 postcards to friends, cooked 4 dinners from scratch, went to a 'networking' event, helped one film-maker hook up potentially with a producer, punted a business idea, tried to set up meetings re biz idea, restrained myself from killing lodger who threw away a cheque and resulted in a few hours grubbing about in a black bin bag of rubbish, took two huge unweildy bags of stuff to charity shop, processed three films, took photographs as I went about my daily life, journalled, and did innumerable hours of chat on phone and email to be good friend. Of course all I can focus on is that I've not uplated this blog since last wednesday, arranged my annual christmas event invites, or done more housework etc.

We have to focus on what we do - do. Usually when we sit down and list it our 'not very productive weeks' are filled with activity. Its time we gave ourselves credit and worked out what is a reasonable amount of creative activity to put into a week or day and what isn't. And to monitor what really isn't worth spending time on.

Whateverworks

er... emergency!

it seems the email i sent last week didn't reach you....

so, very short notice but... doing anything tomorrow night at 7pm
(thurs 18 nov)?

for a measly two squids you could immerse yourself in the pure
cinematic joy that is whateverworks at the cameo cinema

two pounds gets you into a screening / informal interview with bafta award winning filmmaker morag mckinnon and then a couple of
complimentary cocktails in the bar afterwards.... it screams value, no?

we'll be showing three pieces of morag's work, 'hoppla!' which she
co-directed as part of her masters degree, the bafta award winning
'home' and an excerpt from the bafta award winning channel 4 series
'buried' which she also directed.

tickets are available in advance either in person at the cameo cinema or by calling the box office on 0131 228 4141. the screening / q&a will start at 7pm on the nail and will last for one hour.

remember, if you can't get a ticket to the screening you're more than welcome to hang out with us in the bar from 8pm onwards...

also, a quick thanks to our supporters: channnel 4: ideasfactory,
edinburgh film focus and shooting people.

ok, hope to see you tomorrow

richard

The Water Cooler

is a writing networking sort of group which meets at the Travers Bar in Edinburgh 1pm. Its meeting tomorrow. Email anne hay at blueyonder dot co dot uk for more info.

an interview done via drawings

with SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy)

Suzanne Falter-Barnes

of How Much Joy has started a Painless Self Promotion blog ... I'm skeptical but I'm adding it to my reading list.

Another Girl @ Play

This website started by Alex Beauchamp has interviews with 25 women who make a living creatively.

The Art of Craft

is a great blog which focuses on the business side of art making.

Meggiecat

Interesting creativity blog which I'm just starting to explore.

Does God Play Football?

This is very cool my best friend Rebecca Knapp (Fife girl done good!) has produced a short directed by Mike Walker which will be shown at the AFI in LA on Monday. If you scroll down the list here you can get more info about the showing times. Does God Play Football is set in South Yorkshire in the 1960's where Tommy is growing up alienated from the rest of the village as he doesn't have a father.

A Stitch in Time on the Line

I'm sewing up the blanket I've been knitting since Spring. It may not be as big as I expected so a few more emergency squares are being made up to make sure its big enough for winter snuggling on sofa with coca. The uncertainty of the world at the moment makes repetitative meditative knitting a particularly attractive option.

A friend sent me this terrific article from London's Metro about a knitting circle which meets - on the Circle line!

Couldn't find it online so I copy for your delectation.

"Today's meeting was organised by Pauline Wall who's fully prepared with flasks of tea and homemade brownies. 'There is no definitive guide and no real organisation to our knitting circles. Youa re simply a knitter and you want to knit with other people who share you passion,' says Pauline. 'So you find a group on a knitting forum that suits you. I quite like the sporadic nature of our Underground meetings. People from regular meetings - such as those in bars or cafes - can drop in, say hi and then scurry back to their own lives.

The combination of women, needlework and gossip is nothing new. Stich 'n'Bitch was the phrase coined for knit-mad housewives back int he 1950's. The term as lives on and Stitch'n' Bitch is now the name of today's biggest international knitting forum. Knitchicks can be found in various forums around the world, from New York to Australia.

But why the underground? 'People come and go,' says Pauline, whose full-time job is in finance. 'You see all different types of people. We get to do as much people-watching as those watching us. But, more importantly, we have a wider audience on the Underground and can touch more people. If you are sitting in a corner of a smoky bar somewhere, you don't actually talk to anybody else. We want people to see us and ask questions.

A few stops later, as if on cue, a young Australian girl asks Pauline about her wool. After she jumps off, Pauline tells me: 'Kiwis and Australians are far friendlier than the English, who are not as forthcoming.'

After completing just one lap of the Circle line, I'm having rouble with my stitching. One of the knittes, Aneeta, swaps seats to help me.

But technique aside, I'm not sure this if for me. I'm ready to shrivel up in embarrassment. As we arrive at Victoria, the carriage is suddenly filled with commuters fascinated by our small group. In a hushed tone, I ask Aneeta if the stares bother her. 'I don't care who stares. I'm perfectly happy,' she replies, very loudly.

'When we need the loo or a fresh drink, or when we have other plans, we call it a day.' says Rachel, a fellow knitter. 'The good thing about knitting on the Tube is that, even at the start of your journey, you are already on your way home. You just have to wait for the right stop.'

Or knitting party comes to an end and I get off with Pauline at King's Cross, while the others continue on to their own destinations. Pauline explaisn why she enjoys this type of knitting circle so much. 'It's a nice, transitory feeling, You do your lap, your time is up and you move on. During that time, you are not anywhere in particular but you are still doing something you love.'

snatches
International Stitch 'n' Bitch
Get Crafty
Cast Off - a knitting forum started by Artists
Knitting for charity

I used to knit blankets for Oxfam but they appear not to be accepting them anymore - if any one knows of a UK based charity which wants blankets please let me know.

Rest

Its too easy to think that we must be doing in order to be creative. I firmly believe that the not doing times are as important or even more important than the doing times. The not doing lays down the materials (in terms of experience and maturation of experience) and the energy stores needed to be creative.

Generally we dismiss rest as being unproductive which I think is a mistake or even dangerous. I was visiting a friend this afternoon who has been laid low by flu for a week and still did not feel well and I tried to encourage her to not go back to work until entirely rested. I've pushed myself in the past to work and do and produce beyond my energy capacity and creative stores and the results are not pretty.

You have enough

You are enough

You do enough
There is only one author which I've found which has fully celebrated and emphasised the importance of rest - Robyn Posin.

As she says 'Rest is as urgent significant, meaningful, honorable and productive as any other purposeful act!'

Imagine:Photography Competition

Promoted by the Wellcome Trust - prizes are up to £2000 in photographic equipment. Info here.

Amongst the Headphone People or

Paying attention to where we are
A student complained about how awful it was to take the bus to work and not read. How then she ad to listen to the hiss hiss of personal stereos instead of burying herself in a book or a newspaper. (All this was prompted by my encouragement of a week of media deprivation to kickstart creativity as prescribed by Julia Cameron in The Artists Way)

But buried in a book or a newspaper we do not pay attention, we do not see what is around us. Everything is fascinating and what we find fascinating is the building blocks of creativity and art. If we don’t look up to notice what is around us we will miss it.

I suggested that the student thought of herself as an anthropologist amongst the ‘Headphone People’ taking mental notes on their customs and cultural norms. She retorted that I was far too ‘noble’ but it isn’t noble. When we dislike, resent and find dull our lives we cannot connect to our creative part. It withers and dies without stimulation.

When we are out of our ‘normal life’ it is apparently easy to find everything unsusual, fascinating and intriguing. You have seen the odd things that Japansese tourists photograph? Take tourist eyes around the life you lead.

Try This:
Pretend you are doing photo journalism essay on your life. Carry a camera with black & white film for a week and photograph the mundane, the water cooler, washing up in the sink, fire hyrants and work noticeboards.

Pretend you are a tourist – visit tourist sites in your town. Take a bus tour.

Pass time in café but don’t read, eavesdrop, write postcards, imagine the lives of the people you observe around you.

Draw your life. Take a sketchbook and a pen around with you. Whenever you have a moment, queuing, communting, a dull lunchtime, start sketching. Danny Gregory can provide some insipiration.

Make a poster of your life. Perhaps using your photographs and your sketches photocopied into a collage. Idea from Learning to Love You More via Keri Smith.

The Beany

Fellow blogger and online correspondent Michael Nobbs has launched a paper illustrated blog (in olden days called a zine..) The Beany.

Afro-Dance

Bebe Oulai is running a class Thursdays 6.30pm-7.30pm at 25 Blackfriars Street, Edinburgh tel 0131 624 3777 for more info.

Ameen Ali Khan - master of the Sarod

The Indian Music and Dance Collective presents an afternoon performance & workshop

Sunday 31st October, 2-5pm Buddhafields, 25 Blackfriars St (off Royal Mile, Eidnburgh) Tickets £7/5 (Children £3).

All welcome if you are a player, please bring along your instrument.

The Sarod traces its origin back to the folk instrument of ancient Afghanistan, and Persia, the 'Rabab'. It is a short-necked, unfretted, waisted lute carved from a block of teak. Its broad, triangular fingerboard is superimposed with a sheet of metal and carries eight main strings - four melody strings, two drone strings and two chikari strings (raised drone strings plucked frequently to punctuate melodic phrases and provide rhythmic variety) and between eleven to fifteen sympathetic strings that are tuned to the scale of the Raga in use. The strings are plucked with a triangular plectrum.

Ameen is vibrant, inspiring and the most promising Sarod player in the country Hindustan Times

IMDCOLL is also starting a new class in Sitar at the end of October. For more information on this or any of the other Indian dance, music or singing classes run by IMCOLL, please contact Dana MacLeod 0845 125 9926 info@imdcoll.org.uk

Scenius

A few years ago I came up with a new word. I was fed up with the old art-history idea of genius – the notion that gifted individuals turn up out of nowhere and light the way for all the rest of us dummies to follow. I became (and still am ) more and more convinced that the important changes in cultural history were actually the product of very large numbers of people and circumstances conspiring to make something new. I call this ‘scenius’ – it means ‘the intelligence and intuition of a whole cultural scene’. IT is the communal form of genius. This word is now starting to gain currency- the philosopher James Ogilvy uses it in his most recent book.

Now I would love to be involves in making something to explore this idea- to support my thesis that new ideas come into being through a whole host of complicated circumstances, accidents, small incremental contributions made in isolation (as well as gifted individuals, of course) that in total add up to something qualitatively different: something nobody has ever seen before and which could not have been predicted from the elements that went to make it up.

One of the reasons I am attached to this ideas it that is capable of dignifying many more forms of human innovation under its umbrella than the old idea of ‘genius’, which exemplifies what I called the ‘Big Man’ theory of history – where events are changed by the occasional brilliant or terrible man, working in heroic isolation. I would prefer to believe that the world is constantly being remade by all its inhabitants: that it is a co-operative enterprise. Folk arts and popular arts have always been criticised because they tend to exhibit evolutionary, incremental change. – because they lack sufficient ‘Big men’ making shockingly radical and unpopular steps in the future. Instead the pop scene carries much of its audience with it - something the fine arts people are inclined to distrust: the secret question is, ‘How can it possibly be good if so many people like it?’

…..But I want to say that the reality of how culture and ideas evolve is much closer to the one we as pop musicians are liable to accept – of a continuous toing and froing of ideas and imitations and misconstruals, of things becoming thinkable because they are suddenly technically possible. Of action and reaction, than the traditional fine-art model which posits and inspired individual sorting it all out for himself and then delivering it unto a largely uncomprehending and ungrateful world.

There are a few recent cultural moments where the scenius process is particularly clear: 1905-15 in Russia; Dadaism in France; the experimental music scene in America through the late fifties and early sixties; the Anglo-American psychedelic scene of the sixties; punk in 1975-8 (the eclectic and co-operative nature of which is documented in John Savage’s book England’s Dreaming); and then perhaps something as specific as the evolution of ‘adobe style’ in South Western American architecture, or even the mid to late eighties at Goldsmith’s! It could also be interesting to include some scenes that were less specifically artistic – for instance, the history of the evolution of the internet. In all of these sequences, there are sufficient gifted and eccentric individuals to satisfy anyone’s hero appetite, but the interesting thing is how they were fed and supported by a vigorous and diffuse cultural scene. That’s the process I would like to explore.

Brian Eno in A Year with Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary Faber and Faber 1996 ISBN 0571179959 Pick up a copy through your local independent bookseller or second-hand.

A corrective to the idea that running a creative biz is all fun

either my discovery of salt and pepper potato chips has made me a size or two bigger, or my pattern maker goofed on her last two assignments. i picked up my new sweatshirt/hoodie and not only was it way too tight, but the sleeves were about four inches too short. since i only have 6 days until the trade show where i will be introducing these items, i'm starting to freak out. I'M FREAKING OUT. On a saner note, after a full night of magnet making, i was able to ship most of the orders on my "to ship" pile; only those with letterpress notecards on them are still waiting to go. it was a successful friday all the way around. as the orders went out the door, new orders came over the fax machine to replace them. normally, the phone and fax don't ring at all on fridays, but today, i got six faxed orders, possibly a friday world record. three of them are already shipped, the others will go out on monday as part of my push to get every in-house order out the door before my trade show begins. this is certainly not going to be a workless weekend. i've got colloection letters to get out, line sheets to create and print, and a huge pile of paperwork on my desk that mus be gone through. sunday is scarf day at the flea market. and if i still have some energy left, cutting of the scarves, so ana can iron and glue them, for pins, on monday. i keep attempting to get some back stock on our shelves, but i'm having a hard time keeping up. we got over 8000 pins finished last thursday, by today, they were nearly gone. this is good, i know. but with exhaustion, comes frustration. and i don't remember ever being this exhausted.

This is from Pamela Barsky's great blog in which she blogs about running her business.

Loads of events at The Script Factory

including one with director Anthony Minghella. More info here.

Free Poetry Postcards!

Send an SAE to The Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton's Close, Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8DT.

Calligraphers Guild

Ran a Graceful Envelope competition. The winners are here.

Fallen Angel

Willa Cline did Nawarimo last year and posted chapters as she went along. You can read them here.

Shameless plug for family

Visual Arts Scotland is an arts organisation which organises an annual exhibition. If you search on the website for 'Carola' you can see my mom's pictures.

Call for documentary and drama projects

Cineworks - deadline 19th Nov

Being a tourist in your home town

I met someone for coffee yesterday who has moved here from the States and as I tired to explain the best shopping areas and things to do culturally was reminded of things I take for granted about my city. I was also reminded about the great things to do right where I am.

Keri Smith has got a cartoon about taking a mini vacation at home.

Go to your own tourist office and browse, check out tours and places to see, also see if there are any festivals or events coming up which look interesting. See where you live with new eyes.

Whatever anyone says

there is some fantastic good writing on blogs if you can find it. This post by Beth of Cassandra Pages got the tears going in my eyes.

Going to a hen night

My first - hopefully more upmarket than most. Cocktails to be followed by Cuban food/dancing.

Indiebride for the independent bride.

National Poetry Day today

The Guardian has a mood poem finder.

In the meanwhile here is one by Rita Dove


The First Book

Open it.

Go ahead, it won't bite.
Well... maybe a little.

More a nip, like. A tingle.
It's pleasureable, really.

You see, it keeps on opening.
You may fall in.

Sure, it's hard to get started;
remember learning to use

knife and fork? Dig in:
You'll never reach bottom.

It's not like it's the end of the world -
just the world as you think

you know it.


From On The Bus With Rosa Parks pub by Norton

The Script Factory

"The Script Factory is a training and development organisation which places screenwriters at the heart of the European film industry by acting as the link between writers and industry.


The Script Factory has a reputation for finding and promoting new screenwriting talent and for devising creative ways to showcase and present new screenwriters and their work, by designing innovative, accessible, and enjoyable events, courses and materials, to support writers in their journey through the industry, and assist the industry in identifying new talent. It also attracts a loyal following of cinema enthusiasts who relish the chance to get a glimpse behind the scenes of how films are made"

More info here.

The Sketchcrawl

A marathon of drawing via Danny Gregory

You can never wait for the perfect conditions to create

because if you do you wait for ever. I can count on my fingers the number of times I've created something and it seemed divinely inspired by the muse. If I waited for the perfect moment I'd have done about 3 haikus, some needlework, a lot of knitting in the past 12 years. Instead of waiting for the gentle breeze, the hand of the muse and the twittering of birds (in the words of creativity writer SARK) I've got stuck in mostly when I'd promised something which I then wanted to get out of but I went on and did it anyway. The result, I've written poetry, been published, made 5 films, written a half dozen others, worked on umpteen films in other capacities, written articles, made blogs and websites, knitted 12 blankets, taken 1000 plus photos, journalled (a small forrest of trees have been felled), drawn and painted, collaged, learned to use super8.

So what I say to you is that if you have ever had a thought flit across your mind about trying ... oh basket weaving go out now find a book or a class and start. As for all of you who ever wanted to write a novel find a pencil and some paper becuase National Novel Writing Month is about to gear up. No excuses now this is your chance to write a short novel (175 pages) in the company of others around the globe. Do it. Allow yourself to create anyway. It doesn't matter if it sucks - get the words down and you can fix it later.

The Return of Peg Leg Pete

I posted about this in September during Talk Like a Pirate Day. I've found an online version which you can play if you have broadband. Its here at the Fox Searchlab Shorts.

The Creative Process is Messy and Unsatisfactory

Friday
Start with bad grace, I think ‘Whats the use?’ ‘What a waste of time to even TRY.’

Start anyway.

About 5 hours of mulling over stuff, intensive ‘googling’, finally I force myself to sit down with pen and paper to write ‘something’ ‘ANYTHING’. I scratch out a few pathetic sentences. Then I scrawl a page. Then I bake an apple/egg bake thing. Blog, email my friend at work, go outside see that my organic box has been delivered. Decided to spontaneously invite friends to dinner and make Moroccan style stew with butter nut squash. Make stew. Go back to computer write up hand-written notes. Print off document. Hide crap in living room. Clear dinning room table, turn off lights and light candles to disguise shambolic state of flat. Friends arrive we discuss document one friend disappears into my workroom (commenting loudly on the mess) commands computer re-writes document. We have a heated debate about his changes with 3 different points of view. At 11 pm two friends dash to get last bus home and my other friend cycles off.

Saturday
Wake up with a groan – I have to prepare the final document, go to the only post office which is open late on a Saturday and meet some people in the afternoon.

More bad grace re-read document. Decide to tone it down as I know the potential readers have had their sense of humour surgically removed. Go to find another image for document. Realise time is passing, email my afternoon meet ups to say I’ll be half an hour later. Try and print off document to proof read and as I do lose document. Re-write document. Try to print again the printer won’t print. (Its been behaving perfectly for MONTHS). Leave workroom encourage myself to breathe breathe breathe, and make a cup of tea. Go back to workroom turn of printer turn it on again. It prints ! Fix typos, set to print again. Find more typos, print again. Find padded envelope. Write address stick items into envelope. Try and find stamps. Flee out of the house at 1.30pm giving myself an hour to go to post office and meet friends.

Now I’m in agony that I should have done the damned thing differently. But I know I could never have made it perfect. I’m also aware that some of the things I’ve done with the worst kind of attitude have turned out to be the most successful moves I’ve made. I don’t know in this instance. I do know I just have to let go of the outcome.

Procastinating

Nothing like having a creative project with a deadline to make other things seem more interesting!

Crossroads Dispatches is "The generalist synthesist weblog - quite often about innovations in innovation and marketing. Juxtaposing the right brain and left. Yin and yang. Analytical and intuitive. Technical and visceral. Future and in-the-now. Intersection of technology, creativity & innovation, leadership, systems, beliefs and worldviews. Eventually, on-the-road coverage from a world journey to the emerging creative class centers of the world." I started reading and got so drawn in I'm blogging the link so I'm not deflected from what I should be doing any longer!

Photography links Edinburgh

Go or rather run to Lidle's in Leith were Agfa colour 200 asa is £1.99 for 2 x 36.

Check out the facilities at the Stills Gallery Cockburn Street, go further up the hill to Beyond Words the luscious specialist photography bookshop. Check out one of the world's longest running photographic societies - founded in 1861! Finally check out the new JPG magazine.

Poetry & Colour

The Scottish Poetry Library is running a series of events to celebrate its 20th Anniversary. South African actress Janet Suzman will be helping to launch National Poetry Day. Also information about The School of Poets a workshop which meets monthly in the library.

In the meanwhile as its such a gray and miserable day I urge you to go and wander around Kaffe Fassett's site to get some colour.

Call for documentary proposals

Bridging the Gap 2004

Interview with Julia Cameron writer of The Artist's Way

Q: Is true creativity the possession of a relatively small percentage of the population?



A: No, absolutely not. We are all creative. Creativity is a natural life force that all can experience in one form or another. Just as blood is part of our physical body and is nothing we must invent, creativity is part of us and we each can tap into the greater creative energies of the universe and pull from that vast, powerful spiritual wellspring to amplify our own individual creativity.

As a culture, we tend to define creativity too narrowly and to think of it in elitist terms, as something belonging to a small chosen tribe of "real artists." But in reality, everything we do requires making creative choices, although we seldom recognize that fact. The ways in which we dress, set up our homes, do our jobs, the movies we see, and even the people we involve ourselves with—these all are expressions of our creativity. It is our erroneous beliefs about creativity, our cultural mythology about artists ("All artists are broke, crazy, promiscuous, self-centered, single, or they have trust funds") that encourage us to leave our dreams unfulfilled. These myths most often involve matters of money, time, and other people’s agendas for us. As we clear these blocks away, we can become more creative.


Read more of the interview with Julia here.

Girl with a Movie Camera

Interesting blog about making a feature film in Italy.

The Big Draw

Quentin Blake children's book illustrator is a supporter of this campaign to get people drawing and looking. BBC Radio 4 had an item on it in Front Row arts programme with presenter Mark Lawson being sent to try some drawing which he'd last done aged 14. I was so intrigued by the descriptions I went to look at the results. At the same place you can play the feature on Real Player. I loved that Quentin Blake's parting advice to get better was to 'practice'. I started drawing in a very undisciplined with way a class last autumn and then each time I sat down in a cafe I started drawing tablescapes of cappachinos, sugar bowls, cruet sets. At first they were heinous but you know something? After perservering over a few months they are recognisable and have a certain wobbly charm. I love that I can flip open my moleskeine and be reminded of a lunch in 'Spoon' or 'EH1'

Lazy Edinburgh Novelist

is the blog by local author Abigail Bosanko.

DIY entertainment

I'd wanted to join a bookgroup for ages - mostly after hearing the uproarious noise from when my mother's group was in residence. I also needed to get over my fear of reading novels. I saw an ad for one and joined reckoning it would also do me good to meet some new people out of my normal circle of friends. Its taken a while but I spent last night discussing Magnus Mills The Restraint of Beasts - a Withnail & I like black comedic book. If you miss the pleasures of reading and would like to have space to discuss books I highly recommend joining a group. Bookslut has guidelines in its usual inimitable way for starting a group.

Did you know that Nobel Prize Winner author

Toni Morrision didn't publish her first book until she was nearly 40?

We are indoctrinated into believing that success must come early ... bombarded by the phase 'new young talent' well what about waiting to actually have something to say?Article on Morrison at the Guardian.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Shivermetimbers!

The Return of Peg Leg Pete

Ahoy there, me Hearties.

Shiver me timbers, this ‘ere be Sunday the 19th of September in the year of two thousand and four, an’ it be International Talk Like A Pirate Day an’ all.

Yaa-Haaaarrrrr!!!!

So we be ‘aving some tasty news for yer landlubber lugholes.

Scotland’s premiere poignant piratical palaver, THE RETURN OF PEG LEG PETE, ‘as been a-gatherin’ in the booty, me beauties.

OOOOO-AAARRRRRR!

Our swashbucklin’ chum ‘as been tipped the wink that he be set to swag OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL ACHIEVEMENT award from the scurvy bilge-rats at Frederick Festival Of Film in Maryland, USA on this very evening.

AAAARRRRRRR!

An’ that not be all, I tell ye!

Since setting sail, our wee sea shanty has bagged the AUDIENCE AWARD from the Down Under Film Festival in Australia, and BEST NARRATIVE SHORT from the Minneapolis/St.Paul International Film Festival in the USA. Petey-boy also blagged a BEST OF FESTIVAL screening at the Weiterstadt Open Air Film Festival in Germany.

Precious booty indeed.

We thought e’d like ter know.


David ‘shiver-me-timbers’ Cairns
Nigel ‘pieces-of-eight’ Smith

Guerilla Art

From Keri Smith

how to be a guerilla artist
Guerilla art is a fun and insidious way of sharing your vision with the world. It is a method of art making which entails leaving anonymous art pieces in public places. It can be done for a variety of reasons, to make a statement, to share your ideas, to send out good karma, or just for fun. My current fascination with it stems from a belief in the importance of making art without attachment to the outcome. To do something that has nothing to do with making money, or listening to the ego.

My first experience with being a guerilla artist was in my first year of art school in a class taught by conceptual artist Shirley Yanover. One of our assignments was to create some form of graffiti in a public place (we were allowed to choose the were and how). We went out in groups of four, (two lookouts, and two painters), and proceeded to make our mark on various blank walls across the city. The experience made me terrified and exhilarated at the same time. I wrote quotes from various authors along the bottoms of buildings, on phone booths, and on the sidewalks. I remember the feeling of daring as we sprinted away from unsuspecting police officers.

Now I am not necessarily advocating that you do anything illegal or potentially life threatening. But there is something wonderfully sneaky about leaving some form of art in public places. I like knowing that at some point in time someone might receive a little surprise in the form of a random message from a stranger, or a doodle in an unexpected place. I remember there used to be an artist in Toronto who would bolt text books and old phone books to various things. It became a personal quest of mine to find them all, and I always felt so excited when a new one showed up just under my nose. Experiment with your own ideas.


Possible Formats

1. Sidewalk chalk
2. Sticker art
3. Flyers/posters (see "make a flyer of your day" at http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com.
4. Journals (pass it on)
5. Zines
6. Object leave behinds (money, gifts, junk)
7. Notes (slogans)
8. Graffiti
9. Book inserts (library)
10. Book leave behinds (bookcrossing.com)
11. Letters (possibly love letters to strangers)
12. The age old 'message in a bottle', or a balloon. Or if you are really adventurous you might be drawn to carrier pigeons.


Potential Ideas for subject matter

-any form of artwork (drawings, collage, doodles, paintings)
-recipes
-photos
-good luck charms
-fortunes
-quotes
-variations on a theme
-many guerilla artist are politically motivated and find that being anonymous allows them to be more controversial or extreme with their message. Popular with activists.

Be sure to check out the full blog as the comments have great suggestions as well.

Andrea Scher is a Superhero of the blogging world

Check out her blog. Full of beautiful photos and writing.

The Gary Wilson Story: You Think You Really Know Him

In 1977 a misfit called Gary Wilson pressed 600 copies of a homemade LP then vanished. The LP called 'You think you really know me' slowly because a cult underground hit. Eventually a record company decided to reissue the record but had huge difficulties finding Gary Wilson who had to all intents and purposes disappered. He was eventually tracked down working as a clerk in a porn store.

Now there is a documentary about the mysterious album and its even odder creator called You Think You Really Know Him - the album has been reissued and even Gary had broken down and got himself a website Six Point Four.

I found the story of Gary in Dazed & Confused when bunking off from work. What the cool thing about it is that its message is 'do the work anyway'.

Treehouses... did you know they aren't just for children?

Here's a site for a treehouse builder in Scotland.

Jen Gray - a beautiful blog of writing and photography

Wanted ! Short films, videos and animations

Silver Saucer- a new opportunity for students and indie film makers to have your work shown in alternative settings. Winter 2004/2005. A series of screenings in and around Glasgow.

Illustrated Blogs

There is now a web ring dedicated to them.

More sheds shedheaven

In Coldingham in Scotland there is a line of beachhuts around the bay all painted in different colours and in Russia they have dachas and in Denmark people have summer huts and in Britain allotments and gardens secret sheds. What we need is £500 a year and a shed of our own.

Shedista! Shed Lovers of the World, Unite!


Author: Mark Mackintosh


Take it to the streets: a veritable shed revolution is brewing. And it won't be televised. Rory Day sheds some light on the matter.

Across the globe, shed lovers - aka sheddists or shedistas - are strengthening their efforts to promote global shedderdom: a shed for every person on the planet. Their starting point, as with so many lofty causes these days, is the Internet. One of the command centers in the worldwide sheddist web is shedheaven.com, run by Rory Day. We caught up with him to talk revolution (tell it to your mama).



So, Rory, who are you and what's up with this shed heaven thing?
I'm a wandering Scottish shed addict who landed in Amsterdam a few years ago but regularly takes the Easyjet home. When I was working in Russia a few years ago, I fell in love with the Russian home-made holiday house or dacha. I was lucky enough to have access to a bit of hillside in Argyll on the west coast of Scotland, where I bashed one together. It was a little self-built miracle. I haven't been the same since.

Please delight us with a concise history of sheds, the watersheds in shed history, if you will.
Ah, how pleased I am you asked! Well, let me see. I suppose that except for the cave, the shed was probably the first human dwelling. It was probably somewhere in Africa or maybe Mesopotamia - the plans will have started out as something ambitious in corrugated iron on overlapping planks with a 2 inch by 4 inch frame and maybe a transparent roof section to let the sunlight in. Heavy foundations, half doors, fancy things like that. But with the lack of Builder's Merchants in those days it is likely they ended up with a pile of leaves on some sticks leaning against a rock. That's the thing with shed building; you can start anywhere you want, and the likelihood is you're only going to get better. And the rest is history, so you should probably ask a historian.

What are the main shed art forms/building techniques around the world?
Well, unlike human evolution I believe sheds were born spontaneously all round the world, fully-formed out of what was locally available to build with. For instance, on the North American plains, with a shortage of wood and plenty of buffalo hide, the tipi sprang up - a top shed. And in Asia it simply had to be bamboo-based, probably with banana leaves on top. In the far north the first shed was an igloo; in Mongolia a ger or a yurt, using lots and lots of manky felt. In Britain everyone (including the animals of course) chilled out in big round thatched houses with fires in the middle.

There have been some big leaps since those days, of course. I think the roof of the Dutch Barn roof was one, and it influenced American architecture hugely. Corrugated iron, the main ingredient of the modern shanty town, was another. Ashphalt and rolled felt roofs revolutionised the garden shed. And bitumen, a lovely sheddy smell that they should bottle.

Is there an international sheddist conspiracy in the making?
I think conspiracy might be too strong a term; it's more like revelation leading to revolution. People, particularly hairy people, are increasingly remembering their shed pasts and yearning for the simplicity that comes with building your own place and hanging out in it. I believe it's in the genes (maybe it comes with the hair), which is why the bitumen BO spray would be such a winner in the shops, if a little tough on shirts. Also, it might attract the wrong sort of person, but then again...

People are getting sick of things like plasterboard, building regulations, net curtains, carpets. They want a wall you can nail things into without a care, and floors that can be hosed out if you make a mess. Somewhere to put old tins of screws where they feel important. A place for old windows. Sheds are very inclusive and very recycle-friendly. They occupy the middle ground between the modern home and the landfill site. And more and more people are tapping into the shed subculture, so it's just a matter of time before everyone will experience the zen of sheddism.


More on the Zen of Sheddism here

Interview with Julia Cameron

Samuel Bercholz: Your work is nominally about creativity, but it seems to be as much about tools for spiritual growth. What is the connection?
Julia Cameron: People often say to me, "Your book is a Buddhist book," or "This is a book about mysticism, really, or this is a Sufi book." That is probably because creativity is a spiritual path, and at the core of the various spiritual paths are the same lessons. For instance, I recently read Thich Nhat Hanh for the first time, and I found myself thinking that he sees the world with an artist's eye. I think that's because he is very heart-centered. Even though we think of creativity as an intellectual pursuit, in my experience creativity is a heart-centered pursuit. We actually create from the heart. I think it's interesting that the word "heart" has the word "art" embedded in it. It also has the word "ear" embedded in it.
So both Buddhism and creativity involve the art of listening to the heart. That's where the creative impulse arises from. That's why I cannot distinguish between creativity and spirituality. When you're practicing creativity you become a grounded individual, and that communicates the universal.
I've been a writer for more than thirty years, and the issues that arise in the creative practice are the same kinds of issues that arise in a spiritual practice. You get to look at your insecurity. You get to look at your inquisitiveness. You get to look at your fantasy that a satisfied desire will lead to satisfaction. As near as I can tell, this is what happens with a grounded meditation technique: you go through all of the shenanigans of the restless nature of the mind and what you are left with is, just be. Out of being, things are made. So creativity is the act of being.

Read the rest here

" . . . you are all original and talented and need to let it out of yourselves; that is to say, you have the creative impulse.
But the ardor for it is inhibited and dried up by many things; as I said, by criticism, self-doubt, duty, nervous fear which expresses itself in merely external action like running up and downstairs and scratching items off lists and thinking you are being efficient; by anxiety about making a living, by fear of not excelling.

Now this creative power I think is the Holy Ghost. My theology may not be very accurate but that is how I think of it. I know that William Blake called this creative power the Imagination and he said it was God. He, if anyone, ought to know, for he was one of the greatest poets and artists that ever lived.

Now Blake thought that this creative power should be kept alive in all people for all their lives. And so do I. Why? Because it is life itself. It is the Spirit. In fact it is the only important thing about us. The rest of us is legs and stomach, materialistic cravings and fears.

How could we keep it alive? By using it, by letting it out, by giving some time to it.

We have come to think that duty should come first. I disagree. Duty should be a by-product. Writing, the creative effort, the use of imagination, should come first, - at least for some part of every day of your life. It is a wonderful blessing if you will use it. You will become happier, more enlightened, alive, impassioned, light-hearted and generous to everybody else. Even your health will improve. Colds will disappear and all the other ailments of discouragement and boredom.

Now, you see, I have established a reason for your working at writing, not in a trifling, weak way, but with affection and endurance. In other words, I want to make you feel that there is a great intrinsic reward to writing. Unless you feel that you will soon give it up. You won't last very long at it. A few rejection slips will flatten you out. A few years of not making a cent out of it will make you give it up and feel bitterly that it was a waste of time.

I want to assure you with all earnestness, that no writing is a waste of time, - no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good. It has stretched your understanding. I know that."
- Brenda Ueland
If You Want To Write


From Whiskey River

The Year of Sleeping Dangerously

Those bouncy 'lets just all go and follow ones bliss' books can be pretty terrifying but I stumbled across the website for one author Tama J Kieves author of unbelievably enough This Time I DANCE! How one Harvard Lawyer left it all to have it all but she won me over in an extract from her book.

" After I walked out of my hight paced, breathless career I funtioned at what seemd to be two notches above the living dead line. I waited tables, bought groceries and fed my cat. But I slept for what seems to be unnatural numbers of hours. My mind revved up like an eager sports car engine racing the need to create a new and improved life. But I found my physical self dragging around the apartment in slow motion in my underwear in the middle of the day and then taking naps to recuperate. I felt like a beached whale hungering for the sea. I ate bagels and cream cheese and leftovers, and lunchmeats instead. Guilt took finky little notes about my attraction to the refridgerator and read them over in my head.

It didn't take long before I found myself haunted by ratling questions and rude images of wsting away in oblivion while the rest of the world drank lattes to go. Would I just extist in limbo now> Was gazing at my walls for hours 'following my bliss'? just how much could I eat anyway? And how would I pursue "the hero's journey." if it tooke me three hours to get up and bursh my teeth?" "Oh, this is great,"I thought "I've wrecked a Rolls Royce career so I could grow as wide as a Buddha and contemplate the daisies on my quilt.

...Months down the road, my grieving and self - exploration gave way to curiosity and wonder. The naps with a life force of their own ended. Stabs at creativity and expression began. The juice returned and the breath-stealing adventure before me unfurled its shapely red cape. I have almost never felt as small or lost since."

Jeanette Winterson on creativity and the meaning of life.

~~~~

If pills are not the answer. What is?
I don`t have the answer, but I have noticed a few things as I have been up and down the world: ONE: People who complain that life is meaningless, are not prepared to find meaning for themselves - they expect it to be automatically present. Nothing of value is automatic or inevitable - it has to be dug out, coaxed, sought, and when found, celebrated. It may be that creative people understand this, because for us, working at the problem of meaningless, is in itself, meaning. Working at the creative problem brings satisfaction. It may not bring happiness, but it fights despair.
I do not know what is THE MEANING OF LIFE, if there is one, but I do know that making something worthwhile is satisfying. We have to find what it is that is worthwhile to us, one by one, each to each, and then give that something proper space in our lives.
For some it may be children, for others, the pleasures of a real home. Real work is enough for many people, but those who don`t have real work, something else must be found. The key is to find it, and to give it everything. `No one can be happy or fulfilled or whatever word you want to use, unless they have something they value at the centre of their own life.
Inevitably, the sense of a venture greater than yourself brings meaning. A selfish life is never a happy life - and famed so-called selfishness of artists is really a misrepresentation. If the work you do affects other people in a positive way, whether it provokes thought or allows imaginative change, then that work and its pursuit has nothing selfish about it. The truth is, that when we fulfil ourselves as human beings, we give something back to the collective.
Of course, there are plenty of people who claim to be fulfilling themselves while giving back nothing. But let`s not waste time there.

In between bouts of viral near-death, I went to Munich to see Deborah Warner`s RAPE OF LUCRETIA by Benjamin Britten. It was a revelatory piece of work, because it went deep into ideas of suffering, betrayal, and the brutality of war. Watching it, thinking about it, it seemed to me yet again that art forces us to grow. Growth is painful, necessary, but art makes a space where it can happen. There are people who find opera the most redundant of art forms, but nothing is redundant unless the human imagination can no longer find a foothold there.
For me, art is about finding a foothold. It is often a steep climb, but the rock-face we are scaling is ourselves.
All the art forms offer a way into and up through the self. Opera, when it works, combines the force of music with the power of theatre. When it doesn`t work, it is beyond belief bad, because the force of the music is lost. We have to be very careful about blaming the piece of music for the faults of a production. A reason to keep going back to opera re-staged, is to be sure we are finding the music again and again.
The same applies to theatre - is it the text or the staging? Great plays can withstand all kinds of interpretations - just as music can. The challenge and pleasure for us as an audience is in re-visiting the places that we think are familiar, and finding that they are changed. When that happens, we change too.

I hope some of you are going up to the Edinburgh Festival this year. I shall be appearing on Sat 21st of August at 11am, in a tent somewhere. Come and find me if you are around and about.

August 27th is my birthday - which is always a great celebration for me, though as last year was The Rolling Stones at the private London Astoria concert, I`m not sure what I can do this year to improve on that.

For Leos and early Virgos, all, Happy Birthday! We deserve it. If you are a Leo, buy someone else a present on your own birthday, and if you are a Virgo, buy yourself a present - or better still give yourself a present. Vow to make the thing you really want to happen, happen.

Meanwhile, our impossible Prime Minister holidays with Cliff Richard in Barbados, and wonders why he is becoming a joke.
Still, this is the season of summer charity. Pour a glass of pink wine and forgive - if not quite your enemies, at least the people you find ridiculous.

From Jeanette Winterson's site

How to be creative - the 14 rules of Hugh Macleod

via Loobylu

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:

1. Ignore everybody.

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. When I first started with the biz card format, people thought I was nuts. Why wasn't I trying to do something more easy for markets to digest i.e. cutey-pie greeting cards or whatever?

(more...)

2. Creativity is its own reward.

You never really reach your goals. By the time you get near to fulfilling them your criteria has already changed. Which is why by the time the world recognizes your genius, it won't seem very real.

3. Put the hours in.

Really its worth checking it out.

Offical Magnum site with news about Henri Cartier-Bresson's death.

Henri Cartier-Bresson died today

Lomo down under
 
One of the things I did was indulge my photography habit. I took about 12 rolls over the month I was away. I've processed 8 so far with 2 coming back blank - its always a bit of a lomo lottery. I'm beginning to understand more of its foibles - one of them being winding on. About 2/3rds of the way through my trip the front part of my camera became seriously shoogly and loose and the shutter started to stick and I was manually opening it. I went online and found Just Shoot the centre of the Australian Lomographic Society and Lomo Shop. I wrote down the address and thought it would be an epic journey to find it (I'm map reading impaired). Then one evening I passed the shop - sychronicity ! It was infact a bare 25 mins walk from my hostel. But it had slightly odd opening hours.... However I managed to go there show a lovely woman called Karen the appalling state of my Lomo. She gave me gratis 2 special Lomo screws and the address of Five Star Repairs in the State Theatre Building and told me to tell them she'd sent me.

Everyone has a sneaking fascination about the workspaces of writers, painters and other creative people. One of the disappointments of my trip to Australia was that I was unable to visit the Brett Whiteley Studio which was near to where I was staying. I'd read that it was closed until 2 days before I left but when I went around there was a handwritten notice saying it would now be closed until July. Brett Whiteley was a leading Australian artist until he committed sucicide in his 50's. His life history easily consumes most myths about the artistic life.

Work it really cuts into your day...
Travelling rituals? Anyone got returning from travelling rituals? I feel I've been hurled into my life without pause or breath. As soon as I get any I'll be a more frequent blogger.

Australian Aborigianl artist Richard Bell has an exhibition of works on Circular Quay near the Opera House. I read about it in a leaflet and was unable to find them and then realised they were being displayed in the adversting hoardings beside the bus stops. A really democratic way of exhibiting work.
.....
Bell learned early on that shyness doesn't get you anywhere. He grew up in outback Queensland, around Charleville, Mitchell and Augathella. His father spent most of his time droving and cane-cutting and was rarely at home, so Bell was brought up by his mother.

"We couldn't afford good cuts of meat and we'd get sick of sausages," Bell says, "so me and my brother would say, 'Oh bugger this, let's go get some goanna, porcupine, kangaroo or emu or whatever.'

"We'd have fried scones with goanna or emu or porcupine, and white kids would be swapping us white bread with ham. [At school] I went off to the side to eat my things, because I was a bit 'shame' that we couldn't afford the stuff all the rich kids had.

"My younger brother, Marshall, didn't give a f---. He'd say, 'Eh, wanna taste of this?' They were like, 'Oh yeah, that's nice.' Then he'd say, 'Good, now give me yours.' He had kids lined up wanting to try his stuff. We ended up scamming some good tucker out of that."

Bell's mother, who made a living decorating wedding cakes, died when he was 17 - but not before she taught her son the art of cake decorating. Bell's aunties remain convinced that icing cakes helped him become the artist he is today.

"It did give me early practice at keeping a steady hand," he says.

More here.

See one of the pictures here.

Away on my travels so updates light until July. Go out and enjoy the good weather!

The Revolutionary Knitting Circle

"Talking with the general public has always been a real challenge for activists," Neufeld said. "Because when [activists] start out with [talking about all these problems in] the world, most people just shut down because they feel so overwhelmed," he said. "So finding a way to ease them into the discussion is pretty necessary."
"Also," Neufeld adds, "the knitting creates a much friendlier environment for a dialogue. It is hard to associate knitting with anything really bad."
The aim of the knit-in was to demonstrate that people do not have to depend on big business for their needs.
"We need to be able to feed, clothe and shelter ourselves so that we can escape those dependencies [on large corporations]," Neufeld said.
Once that is done, he says, people can engage in fair trade and not free trade. The distinction, according to the RKC, is that in fair trade either party involved can walk away at any time whereas free trade can involve one party being dependant on the other, and therefore in a position of less power.
The RKC has several goals, the first of which is building a sense of community through knitting.
"It means a lot more if you can be wearing something that you have made for a friend or for yourself," said Richard Norman, a 20-something knitter and graduate from the University of Calgary.
Janice Kerfoot, another participant in the knit-in, pointed out that actions like the knit-in shows non-activists that violence and protest do not have to go hand in hand.
"People can watch us being creative," she said. "Demonstrators definitely have a reputation of being destructors rather than creators and we couldn't be farther from that."
The other goal of the RKC is bringing on the revolution through knitting. Other acceptable textile activities include crocheting and quilting.
"For certain personal reasons macramé is being excluded," Neufeld says. "There's a bit of a controversy over that, but I don't see macramé as a tool for social change."

The knit and purl of the revolution is here.

Crocheting frumpy?
Not in the hands of Xenobia Bailey.

Bailey’s works in crochet, which include costumes and colorful wall hangings constructed of concentric circles, are a far cry from the traditional shawls and doilies associated with the medium.

“Xenobia Bailey is the kind of artist who is extending what we think of as craft,” says Kate Lydon, assistant director at SCC. “She is definitely exploring uncharted waters in her medium.”

Bailey, a graduate of New York’s Pratt Institute, learned to crochet from an Italian-Swiss teacher she met while working as an artist-in-community in Brooklyn, N.Y., schools. She says that the development of crochet as a decorative needle arts form derives from the grassroots fiber arts movement of the 1960s, the “black holiness” tent revivals, and the “cosmic funk of the urban cultural movement.”

Her earliest crochet pieces, made in the mid-1980s, were hats. “I sent photos of my work to various magazines,” she explains, “and my hats were featured in Elle Magazine. It pretty much got me started as a fiber artist.” Her hats and clothing have also been seen on “The Cosby Show” and in Spike Lee’s film “Do The Right Thing.”


Xenobia Bailey surrrounds herself with some of her favorite work.
Bailey’s unique style is inspired by contemporary African-American music, particularly the funk variety. Her colorful wall hangings and garments are made of cotton and acrylic yarns and plastic pony beads. “My work is a utopian prototype for the aesthetic of funk,” says Bailey.

“To be an artist and be able to create things — it’s like fireworks every time you think about something,” says Bailey. “I try to get energy and movement from something that is not moving at all.”

To see photos go here.

traveling Rituals
(lack of updates due to worm virus and changing look due to indecision!)

There is an exercise in The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron where she asks you to draw a large circle and then divide it up into 6 equal sized pie pieces. Then each one is labeled 'work' 'exercise' 'friends & family''spirituality' 'play' and 'adventure/romance'. Then to plot an imaginary line from the centre of each piece of pie to the circumference and plot a point on the line. Near to the pie edge if we feel fulfilled in that area or near to the centre if we feel very unfulfilled. It gives a snapshot of where we are in our lives and the incentive to add things to give ourselves a more 'rounded' life.

The idea of travel gives off that giddy feeling that romance has so I'm not surprised that she marries the two states together.

In a few weeks I'll be traveling to Sydney Australia for a month long stay. I've opted for the more adventurous route - to stay in a hostel rather than with relatives. I've had my time cut out renewing my passport, buying travel insurance, choosing and agonizing over a hostel etc but now I realise I'm in another mode. I'm performing 'travelling rituals'. I've been buying sunscreen, ordering books for the flight, buying new pajamas, new clothes, new underwear! There is no way I can face the antipodes without new underwear! There appears to be a ritual renewal in a very materialistic way going on before this big change. In addition I'm meeting friends before I go off, tying up other loose ends like writing a will.

All this work is preparation for change - rituals help us to bridge the gap. Sometimes they are formal and organised think of a graduation ceremony or a wedding but we can make up our own.

Facing a new day with a cup of tea in a favourite mug and time for your own thoughts in a journal.

Unwinding from work by watering a garden every night.

Friends getting together at New Year.

Leaving do's at work.

I'm sure you can think of more.

~~~

Here are some traveling resources

Artist @ Large
goworldtravel
journeywoman
the hip traveler
travelertales
travellady
worldhum

Using the throw away to create art
Pencam photography

You grow girl!
Great website with articles on recipes for what you have grown, messageboards and here's an article on permaculture.

Making Happy reminded me of this website, by the way I consider 'creative' to be the creation of anything that did not exist before - gardening easily falls into that category.

My Paper Crane with ideas about getting out of that creative slump

Sometimes I think creative slumps come because we are fighting the 'are we good enough' fears.

Via Loobylu

Film blogs are hard to find
Not the 'what I saw in the multiplex last week and what I thought of it' blog but the ones by people actually making stuff. Here's one I found by two Americans making documentaries while on an exchange to Wits University in Johnannesburg.

Ten Ways to Support your fellow Artist

I would add support independent businesses as well - because the relentless drive to conformity is also not friendly to the artist.

Knit Knit - a zine about the intersection of craft and art. Includes an interview about the Church of Craft

The Joy of a Drawn Journal
No matter how small or mundane or redundant, each drawing and little essay you write to commemorate an event or an object or a place makes it all the more special. Celebrate your hairbrush and it will make you appreciate the intricacy of the bristles, the miracle of your lost hair, the beauty of you. Sounds sappy but it's in there. Draw your lunch and it will be a very different experience from bolting down another tuna on rye. If you take your time (and we're just talking maybe 10-20 minutes here, folks) and really study that sandwich, the nooks and valleys, the crinoline of the lettuce, the textures of the tuna, you will do a drawing that recognized the particularity of that sandwich,. That's the point: to record this particular moment, this sandwich, not something generic. If you approach it with that attitude, you will create something as unique. reaching that place is just a matter of concentration and attention. A brief meditation and you will have a souvenir to jog your memory back to that a moment forever more. Imagine if you can keep doing that, keep dropping these little gems in your day, recognizing the incredible gift you are given each morning upon awakening. You will be a millionaire.

Another great post from Danny Gregory

Sabrina Ward Harrision has updated her website.
I saw her book a few years ago but as it was an import and very expensive I didn't buy it - of couse I regret it now.

More online quilts

Talking Quilts from Loobylu

In search of patten and colour..
I've been looking at Amish Quilts online. Somehow the originals have a very different feel to the contemporary copies - 'ready for shipping next day'.

Sweetie Jar took a workshop by Kaffe Fassett in Sweden. She's a former silk painter turned photographer and found his colour workshop working with fabric a huge injection of inspiration. Here are some photos taken by a participant in a knitting workshop in 2003.

I'm a frustrated knitter today because I came to work but with only one needle. I found this great site - Knitty and loved the article about the woman who got an angora rabbit to get yarn from.

One afternoon about three years ago, while killing time until rush hour, Mr. McDonald came upon a man playing Bach on a cello in the Times Square subway station. The sweet song of this cello, the first one he had ever heard, soared above the train rattle and jangle.

"The sound, the feeling, the intensity, the emotion of it," he recalled. "It was like a wave that came over me. I had never felt that before."

Suddenly, he wanted to play the cello.

When he was a child in a Bronx housing project, he had wanted to learn a musical instrument. But the bleats of a trumpeter-in-training would have been too disruptive for the neighbors, his parents had said, so that was that. Later, as a young man, he often listened to classical music on a transistor radio in his bedroom, recognizing some of the pieces as ones that he had heard in church.

But this cello music.

For nearly a year that subway cellist's music lingered in Mr. McDonald's mind - as he drove, as he ate his salad, as he drove some more. Finally, his passion to learn overcame his fears of being too old. Between one day's rush hours, he went to the New York Public Library and picked a school at random out of the telephone book: The French-American Conservatory of Music at Carnegie Hall.

"They said, 'We'll teach you cello,' " he recalled. "I said, 'I can't play a note, can't read a note.' They told me, 'No problem.' "

Read more here from Danny Gregory.

Freewillastrology
I forgot about the other freebie I love from Rob Brezney.

Internet freebies
There are some great newsletters available on the internet - here's a sampling of ones I'm currently subscribed to.

Eric Maisel - a coach/author/therapist/novelist who specialises in creativity. He's tough just like his books but gets to the core. He also trains creativity coaches so occasionally through the list there is a call for people who want free coaching from his students.

SARK - the incomparable Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy. Her mission is to get everyone to live out loud, creatively, succulently and bodaciously. She has a once a month newsletter and an 'Inspiration Line' you can call (but you have to pay for the call).

How much Joy can you stand?
Suzanne Falter-Barnes has a newsletter which comes packed with tips on pursing your dream and making it real.

Comfortqueen
Jennifer Louden (writer/creativity coach) has a Daily Dollop a short reflection which is designed to gently lead yourself to yourself and re-design your life from within and a fortnightly longer newsletter.

Molly Gordon
Molly is a coach who specialises in artists and 'authentic promotion'. Either way she has lots of expertise for people learning to work for themselves instead of being an employee. Work/life balance, generating business, and general up's and down's of small business ownership.

Shooting People is bad
But the Shooting People network is invaluable if you are wanting a toehold in the film world in the UK. You can sign up to a general list or specialisims such as Screenwriting, Animation, Music Video, Documentary, Script Pitch, Casting and now there is a dedicated NY listing too. It plugs you into an instant 36,000 strong network. To get the emails daily you need to pay £20 per year but if you are not willing to pay you get the emails sent 3 days later and are unable to post requests.

Money & creativity
I read this blog piece quoted at Willa. From the wonderfully named Dogs Steal Yarn.
~~~
My mom, who's actually got quite a gift for making me feel guilty, said something to me a couple of years back that's stuck with me. I was still getting used to the ups and downs of freelance income, and so was being very careful with money. Thing was, I also really wanted to buy oil paint, which ain't cheap. (I wasn't knitting yet. You think knitting is an expensive pursuit? Try painting, baby.) I called my mom (she's a fantastic artist, by the way) and asked her if I was crazy to be spending money on paints at a time when I really shouldn't have been allowing myself too many extras.

She said, "Oh no! Buy the paint. That's like food!"

And she was right. My mother's very frugal. So am I. She and my dad raised me that way. I don't spend recklessly, not at all. I don't take on debt I don't need either. But it's a matter of priorities. Creative expression is important. It's not the same thing as blowing money on yet another pair of shoes, or an expensive meal, or whatever. Are your bills paid? Is there food on the table? Are all the mandatory expenses taken care of? Well, then, make sure you also allow for the tools that feed you--the paint, the books, the yarn. That matters too.

And if you want to feel guilty about it? Well...that's on you.

Now I don't have an appartment in New York
but I've been enjoying this Apartment Therapy.

Photoblogging is dead long live photoblogging

Via Catherine Jamieson

Romancing yourself

Julia Cameron is a fan of the 'Artist Date' a period of time of 1-2 hours perweek doing something you love and enjoy on your own. The point is to fill your interior well of images and experiences which are the basic material of creativity, to refresh the spirit, to give something back to yourself and finally to make friends with yourself. A lot of people are uncomfortable with spending time with themselves which makes it pretty difficult to be creative as most forms of creativity are in part or wholly solitary activities.

JC recommends an all day artist date when doing her course - I did mine yesterday. I extracted myself from the computer and got the train to the next door city. I love traveling by train, the mix of landscape and sky awakens my sense of the visual.

When I got to Glasgow I went by Underground to Kelvinbridge and made straight for Otago Lane. Firstly I went to Voltaire & Rousseau a secondhand bookshop with two shopcats. One orange was sleeping curled up on a pile of books the other a young and fiesty black & white cat came up for head rubs. After some bookbrowsing, buying and cat communing I went further down the lane to Tchaiovna - a tea house which has a small platform over a wooded area which the Kelvin River flows through. A small oasis in the middle of the city. I ordered Rose Pouchong tea from the 80 + varieties and settled back to enjoy the homemade sweetpotato soup, the skyscapes over the city, changing from sun to storm to rain and back again. Finally I left to spend money in boutiques for birthday presents, indulge in excessive magazine buying before getting the train back and wondering if one could fit more pleasure in a day.

~~~

Ask yourself when did you last have a day all to yourself, just for yourself?

Cakes with the WOW! factor

How to make a pinhole camera from a tin

from Worldwide Pinhole Camera Day

20 years of the Scottish Poetry Library

To celebrate this they are organising twenty events at their headquarters in Chrichton Close off the High Street in Edinburgh. Chapman Scotland's leading literary magazine hits its centenary issue soon but its website is a bit out of date. Meanwhile I'm very fond of The Scottish Book Collector.

I crave colour and design

I've been feasting on Sonia Delaunay's colour compositions and experiments.

Playing with colour
I was requested by my mother to get some yellow wool to use as a border on some baby blankets we've been collaborating on. A patchwork of colours donated, and bought second hand and new. Unfortunatly there was no nice clear yellow to chose from so I got a selection. I googled for Kaffe Fassett and found his home site. I drooled over this picture of a stripey blanket knitted in large squares. The squares I knit are 6 inches which are quick enough that i don't get bored and I can use up small pieces of colour.

Kaffe's site is well worth having a wander in.

Going independent...

Indra Khanna
Curator
Khanna's first project was FlyPitch, a groundbreaking series of installations in Brixton Market last summer. Over the course of 13 weeks, an international mix of artists showed their work on stalls, rubbing shoulders with plantain and yam sellers, and the general public. Someone asked, "Does this mean something or is it just art?"' she recalls.

Why Brixton Market? 'It was cheap and I wanted to remove the obstacles that stop people going to galleries. For a lot of people, the feeling persists that galleries aren't for them. If you think about it, it's an unnerving environment if you're not used to it: an intimidating white space, nowhere to sit, people wonder where should they stand, are you allowed to talk?'

Khanna, now 43, worked as a painter and printmaker for 10 years and it struck her, when visiting exhibitions, that she could probably do as good a job if not better. So she looked for jobs in arts administration and curating but got nowhere. Her partner, Hew Locke, an award-winning painter, suggested she do a curating course to improve her chances. 'I decided rather than training to curate and paying for it, I would just jump in and spend the money on funding my own project. I realised I couldn't wait for someone to discover me.'

Khanna's next project, funded by the Arts Council, is called the Garden of Earthly Delights and you will be able to find it this summer in the walled garden in Brockwell Park, Brixton. 'I am inspired by places which have their own atmosphere and I wanted to do something bigger than FlyPitch this time. You have to expand or what's the point?'

More here on other creative people outside the mainstream.

Me-lancing

Do you work for yourself? The answer, and the question, may be more complicated than you think.
Consider the office temp who works for 36 weeks a year and spends the remaining time travelling in India. She is much more in the driving seat of her working life than many of the self-employed, who find it difficult to turn down work or take holidays for fear of losing customers or income. Or what about the person who deliberately chooses part-time work so he has more time to pursue his own private passions or family?

Neither of these people is self-employed. Yet in a real sense both are working for themselves. They have achieved a greater degree of autonomy, ownership and control of their working lives than many who enter self-employment seeking the same things. Isn't it this, rather than who pays your wages, which determines whether you truly work for yourself? Because our language lacks a word for this kind of worker, we need to invent one: me-lancers.

From The Guardian

The Artist's Way
The biggest influence on my creative life has been this book by Julia Cameron. Danny Gregory has a great posting today about it.

"I am not, as a rule, a joiner. Nor am I a believer in much. So please take what I say with a healthy dose of salt. Still, whether you begin this program or another or invent one for yourself, I'm fairly certain that you will find that when you give yourself permission to be creative, your life will change. You will either leave or transform your job. You will open yourself up to new people. You will develop new relationships. You will find that serendipity plays a very active role in your life. You will worry less and appreciate the universe more. You may not lose weight but you'll enjoy food more. Your body may not look better but your taste in clothing will improve. You may not become wealthier but money will matter less. You may not improve your health but each day will matter more.
As for S., he's a very nice man, enormously intelligent, and I'm sure his brain will eventually grant him permission to find his calling. As the Buddha said, "There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the Way." "

To read Danny's full post go here.

As it so happens my life has been derailed recently by creative and personal events and in order to get my groove back I'm doing the course for about the 15th time with a friend of mine. We're meeting in a cafe once a week, taking about sychronicity, the results of exercises and most importantly making sure that we both do the Artist Dates. I've seen most amazing results with the Artist Way - I've facilitated 100+ people through the process and it does make profound changes to peoples lives. And the effects continue months even years after doing the course. I know this because I occasionally meet a former student on a bus and they tell me of the things they are doing.

If you want to read about the content of Van Gogh's letters go here.
Also at the same website found a fascinating history and catalogue of paint pigments.