Latest Movie

So I totally watched the A-Team movie tonight and loved it!

I used to watch the A-Team TV show with my parents as a kid. It was so fun to watch something with that similar vibe. It wasn’t so serious. I feel like all the movies that come out lately are so serious, even the satirical ones. This one was fun, action-packed, and it was actually PG-13, which seems like we never get with action movies anymore. I got myself skinny popcorn and my husband. We had a few laughs together and enjoyed the whole thing.

Have you seen any good action movies lately?

What should we watch next?

Divine Inspiration

“Leonardo da Vinci wrote in his Notebooks: “It should not be hard for you to stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud or like places in which … you may find really marvelous ideas.” ― C.G. Jung, Man and His Symbols

Inspiration is out there. I’m saying this in my best Pixar’s Up voice. We can approach life as artists even in the ordinary. Even more so, I think art lies in the present—those monotonous things we often let slide out of our awareness. Don’t get me wrong; I like a little excitement here and there to change things up, and I think going to new places is inspiring too. The point is that we don’t need to go far and wide to gain inspiration. We can use our own backyard to find the symbols of the universe that’s what I would call divine inspiration.

What has been your latest inspiration? My latest inspo has been the art books at my school and then Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

The Writer’s Job

“Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.” -Khalil Gibran

My immediate reaction to this quote is that this isn’t easy. It almost hurts my brain to think about writing in this way. Francis Bacon says something similar.

“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”

This one doesn’t hurt my brain as much. This reminds me of great art from the past and present. I think every artist has their own job when it comes to why they create. For Bacon, it was to deepen mystery, and Gibran something similar. That’s what works for them. Then there’s art for the sake of art: art that liberates, records, and entertains. And we, as artists, get to dabble in it all.

What is your job as an artist?

Change

“There is nothing permanent except change.” -Heraclitus

If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that things change. Some things need to be manually evolved and adapted. Some things, like nature, evolve and adapt on their own. We get the gift of learning to see the beauty in all the ways things change. I tend to appreciate change. Not last-minute abrupt changes, but even those sometimes bring me joy, like a surprise trip to get ice cream. One change I have learned to appreciate is the changing seasons, seeing the leaves turn and new blooms after a long, cold winter. I also love to see how people change over time. People are art. That’s why I like to write about them and the ways change.

How is change for you? Do you love it or hate it?

Goodness and Hope

“Hope is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.” –Václav Havel

Hope can be a dangerous thing, but this quote I can relate to. It reminds me of the Baby-Sitters Club. They often did things for their community out of the goodness of their hearts. It feels so hard to do those things today. Everything feels less safe, and people are less trustworthy. This quote gives me better perspective when it comes to all of my work because it allows me to focus on the goodness factor. I think life is better when you focus on the good.

Creatives Have Toys, You Can Too

“Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons.” -Al Hirschfeld

I stopped caring about being judged for having toys in my space. Many creatives have little fidgets and toys in their workspace. Now that all those mini collectibles are everywhere, it’s easy to gather all the toys you need to keep the wheels turning.

It adds to creativity when we take time to see the world through a child’s eyes, and when we let our inner child have the little things it desires. Julia Cameron talks a lot about artist dates to help coax out that inner child that many adults learn to neglect. One idea of hers that I really took to heart was going to the dollar store and getting art supplies to make something. And that’s what I did with my little one over the weekend. It wasn’t an official artist date, but my inner child wanted to create, so we went. We had a blast and got glitter everywhere.

Not going to lie, it took me a long time to learn to hear and listen to my inner child.

What do you refuse to put down?

Lose Yourself

 “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton

I used to feel like I needed this for art. This is definitely not my intention as a writer, but I could see how it could happen unintentionally. I don’t know how I feel about the idea of losing ourselves. I could see finding new aspects of ourselves. I could see how writing helps you learn to let go of parts of yourself that don’t serve you anymore. But to lose yourself as a writer, I can’t really say that I agree.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Do you think writing enables you to find yourself and lose yourself?

Writing and Artists My Liberators

“Artistic expression is an avenue through which we can communicate our thoughts, emotions, and experiences. It allows us to transcend the limitations of language and connect with others on a deeper, more profound level.” -hovaveart.com

This is why I write. This is why I create anything at all. I get jumbled up in my words a lot, even in my writing, but the great thing about writing is that I can edit! I may feel like Moses did when the Good Lord called him to free the Israelites (for those that don’t know the story, he told the Good Lord that he was not “eloquent” enough in speech), but that doesn’t stop me from expressing myself as an artist, in the same way that it didn’t stop Moses from freeing the Israelites.

There’s no reason to bottle up all the things I can’t put into words. Writing and other artists are the liberators of my thoughts.

Art of Life

“The art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us.” — Gloria Steinem 

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I love the idea of relinquishing control while following my dreams. At the same time, I also appreciate the notion that I’m choosing the boring life, and if I wanted the wild nights, I could have that. Which means I’m maintaining some sort of control.

I do know creating situations where you intentionally make yourself suffer is not nearly as book-worthy as life’s natural forms of suffering. The nature of living has challenges that do the work for us. Why make it up when you can just tell the truth?

What do you think?