bee creative

layered, day forty seven

and complicated... 

some big thoughts

Yesterday Jude posted about audience and blogging. Early this morning I wrote a long journal entry about this that went off on all kinds of tangents.  That is one of the differences between writing to an audience and something private.  The effort to be coherent, to say something meaningful, to be thoughtful.  I am still trying to wrap my mind around what I want to say but here is some of it.

Accountability and participation.  While we can make goals and live without sharing in such a public way, it is helpful to be able to put what we are doing out into the world:  "I have this goal and I am showing up as a way to motivate me to keep trying."

Community.  An audience often implies information flowing in one direction, a producer and a consumer. A presentation.  A healthy community invites participation and conversation. 

Teachers, mentors, facilitators, caregivers.  To teach is often  someone imparting information to an audience.  The others involve a more complex relationship, one where there is a possibility of learning from each other.  Participation comes up for me again. 

Validation.  This is the messy and emotional part about sharing (Alfie Kohn,"Five Reasons to Stop Saying Good Job"). We all appreciate a "good job" as human beings occasionally. Buying something that someone has made is a form of validation.  It's hitting the "like" button.  And it can become about popularity... sometimes that is necessary for survival in the society we live in. 

When I consider it, I am not very interested in being part of an audience (but I am not judging people who choose that role, it is a way to participate). I want conversation, space to be curious, room to grow and be creative...

 

 

 

 

#17 a few more things

Out in the garden a 20+ year old whiskey barrel is supporting all kinds of growth.

For the next three months the local farmer's market is once a month.  I was surprised by a few things that were available...but a lot is grown in hoop houses now.  I bought radishes, beets, Swiss chard, spinach, chicory, a winter squash, yogurt, milk, cheese and bread. 

Tonight's dinner was a simple one:

-pear slices

-radishes, cut with a knife and a spiralizer for a bit of variety. A dressing of olive oil, vinegar and salt.

-bread with brie (not the cheese I bought yesterday), honey and a bit of thyme.

My stored potatoes are starting to sprout so I cooked up a big batch of mashed potatoes. Some to eat over the next few days and some to freeze.

This morning I made lines with ink for journal writing.  I thought about how we talk about reinventing things.  I am not sure about that, maybe it's more about moving forward. 

I drew a coffee cup and then painted it in with indigo ink.

Not the best place for ink that drifts, but it was fun to do and I learned something.

I wanted to look closer so I zoomed in and then took a screen shot.

Thinking about growth.

 

#16 a few things

It's not just mark making...I am sewing too.

One side of a quilt I am mending. There was a huge hole to be patched. 

I think it looks like a giant jelly bean.

Today's marks:

Taking some deep breathes.

And then altered. 

I keep noticing pools of light in the darkness.

practice

row row

 

I've been thinking about Jude's definition of art... Do I make anything I would define as art or is it all craft?

I do draw a line between the two.  For me craft is making something useful.  Knitting a useful pair of socks to wear is a craft.  Weaving net for fishing is a craft. Making a basket...

And all this can be art too.  A work of art can be useful, can have purpose.  Purpose is what separates the two for me.  Is there a purpose to what is being made. 

And then there is decoration, perhaps better called beauty. Some things might just be beautiful (although that can be very subjective).

We need craft, beauty and art. Art as communication, as consideration, as perspective.  Craft, and people who are makers, to make useful things...things for shelter, for food.  Beauty feeds us, makes us fall in love, become caregivers... 

Where we get in trouble with all this is when value is assigned. 

And...can how we live our life, our lifestyle, be a form of art? Don't we all present a perspective to the world by how we go about living? Is there craft? Where do we add beauty?

How we define words, how we are defining self...

endlessly fascinating.

this morning

Finding shapes in paper scraps...finding shapes in clouds.

tides, locks, the moon...

I've been waking up around 2 or 3 AM the last few days.

The moon is beautiful on the SW horizon. 

Full moon, super moon, Buck moon, Hay Moon, Thunder Moon, Earth's moon.

Thinking about gravitational pull and tides.

About locks (padlocks, boat locks).

add a cloud

Cloud added to the Peace and Plenty blanket.

I suspect that I will be adding things to this blanket for a long time, it has become a kind of journal.

The more I add to it, the more I love it.

yesterday's journal entry

I left for the farmer’s market over an hour before I needed to be there.
Couldn’t figure out why it was so quiet downtown…
So I got a coffee at Adagio and went for a walk down at B’vard.
And then the bookstore.
And then back to the farmer’s market;
where I missed getting gooseberries because the person in front of me bought the last basket.
The vendor promised to set aside a basket for me next week.
Next home, thinking to garden.
I took a nap instead.
And then sewed.
And read.
And wondered
Will tonight be the night I stay up long enough to see the stars come out?