192: happy halloween

hi friends,

aren't these mid-day shadows spooky?

and this tree full of dangling, black seed pods? :)




let's see...yesterday, it was quite warm in durham. i took a walk around noon to ninth street to pick up some treats for two long overdue packages heading to seattle. then, i decided to stop in xiloa restaurant for lunch. they have the most fabulous selection of fresh juice. the owner was kind enough to allow me to sample the current flavors: tamarind, mango, tangerine, cacao, and cantaloupe. so fresh and yummy. i am afraid i'm hooked.

later, i met up with this blogger who just moved to durham to attend the amy hempel reading and book signing in raleigh. saying it was wonderful would be an understatement. i came home with a new signed copy of this book and i cannot wait to read it!

now for the kitty update.



maggie is growing in leaps and bounds and is beginning to adjust to our sleeping schedule. she is just so cute and is a little lap cat.




rilke is hanging in there. his appointment is today so i'm hoping for the best. he has really bonded with maggie which is just the sweetest.

happy halloween! do you have any exciting plans?
cheers,
shari

we drive, time flies

cotton field along I-95

while driving to charleston, sc to visit my family, i was delighted to see so many cotton fields teeming with thick, white bolls of cotton. it looked a bit like snow. i had forgotten that this is the time of the year when cotton is ready to be picked. it's funny how growing up, this was always a part of my southern landscape.

once when we were little, my mom stopped her car along the side of the road, and let us jump out and pick a little cotton. it was so soft and if you pulled through some of the strands, you could find the seeds. i remember really wanting to plant the seeds and have cotton grow at our house. no one had a problem back then with a young mom and her two daughters stopping to pick a tiny bit of cotton. it was such a simple, simple pleasure but one i remember fondly.

i arrived home yesterday with short hair and a revitalized southern accent, if only for a little while. :)

a map of the places i pass between durham and charleston.



xo
shari
ps: name that tune

190: pine and photography

hi everyone!

thank you, thank you, thank you for your words yesterday. they were so encouraging and helped me so much.

i'm still thinking about photography. lately, i've been challenging myself to go outside in my backyard and take at least one photo a day. this exercise forces me to think creatively and challenges me to capture the same scenery in a new way. yesterday, in the late afternoon, as the sun was beginning to go down, i walked outside with my camera. there is a majestic pine tree in our yard that i have been trying to capture for weeks and somehow yesterday i was able to capture the tree exactly as i saw it with the faint blue afternoon light. this photo is a new favorite of mine and has me excited about continuing with this backyard challenge.

i would love to know if any of you like to photograph the same places over and over again. if so, what do you feel that you gain from this experience?

next week i'll announce round 2 of the compound word project. for this round, i'll be accepting 40 participants and once the slots are filled, the project will be closed. hope you'll join in the fun!

in other news, i'm going out of town (solo) today. my grandfather is being honored in a special ceremony at his college alma mater this weekend. tom will be staying behind to look after rilke, who seems okay for the most part. he is still having a bit of difficulty swallowing but can eat and sleep peacefully. thank you for continuing to inquire about his health. it means so much.

have a great weekend. see you on monday!
xoxo
shari

189: self vs. audience

this photo was an accident. i had just taken a closeup when i looked at the sky and noticed the colors and the light and i impulsively snapped this shot. of course, it turned out blurry, but it's soft and i like it. part of me wanted to delete it, but another part of me said so what?!

sometimes, it is hard to be true to what you love, to your ideas. at times, you can stand firmly and present yourself and your ideas confidently. still, there are just as many times when you question so much that you begin to retreat and pull away from what originally sparked the passion within.

i am thinking about these things as i try to decide how to present my documentary idea to my class. i keep getting so caught up in how the "audience" will view my idea that i am feeling lost. i want to be able to think for myself and present that authentic idea without worrying about my classmates' opinions. i am finding this so hard because this work is new to me and so i am doubting every step.

today, i have even been deleting bits of this post---starting again--trying not to sound so negative.

how much is for me and how much is for my audience? my work needs to tell a story so i must consider audience. yet in this consideration, i find i am losing my way.

self and authenticity vs. story and audience. my head is swirling with these thoughts.

have a great day!
shari

188: a tuesday list

a list for tuesday******************************

appreciating: homemade whipped cream sweetened with turbinado sugar

rediscovering: the squirrel nut zippers

revisiting: taking photos with my pentax PZ 10

thinking about: one, two, three

capturing: the sound of the wind

studying: documentary photography

eating: yogurt with granola

drinking: my second cup of coffee

vacationing: via national geographic atmosphere

loving: my polka dotted pjs


yesterday, i pulled out my old pentax 35 mm and realized that my battery still worked and that i had 4 rolls of film stashed inside of the carrying case. i quickly went through 24 shots and am looking forward to having them developed.

also, i am really loving the national geographic atmosphere mini videos. they are so simple. just one fixed camera but i love listening to the sounds and seeing the subtle changes such as the wind blowing or something moving in or out of view. they describe it as the next best thing to a teleporter and i KNOW we've all been looking for one!!

hope you all have a great tuesday!
xo
shari

hello monday

garage with bicycle print


hello monday.

i think i can feel a cold coming on...

this weekend continued in the same fashion previously stated. we didn't venture away from home too much. we ate lots of butternut squash, sweet (pie) and savory (quesadillas). i did a good deal of reading in the book club book. tom repaired his guitar and installed a cat door which leads to our screened side porch.

orange lantern on porch

i also had a breadmaking disaster in the kitchen. feeling like i had enough loaves under my belt, i decided to use a recipe from a cookbook (jamie's kitchen) that i had checked out from the library. jamie oliver's method of baking bread involves creating a well with the flour and salt and pouring in the yeast/water/sugar mixture. i guess i was preoccupied because i forgot to hold back some of the water and poured it all in. of course, it overflowed like a volcano and water, flour, and yeast went everywhere!

i salvaged the dough for the most part and was able to bake a loaf that looked pretty nice on the outside. later, we found that the bread was a bit spongy in the middle and was super salty. tom was convinced that i misread the recipe. we checked and i hadn't. 2 tablespoons of salt?? doesn't that sound like too much salt for a basic bread recipe? do brits just like their loaves salty? i'm unable to eat it. t, always the brave one, slathers it with honey to counteract the salt. :)

airplane trails make me smile

have you read lisa's self-described art babble post? so much to think about. i love what she says about discipline and how you always gain something from it. i will be thinking of discipline this week.



my storyteller cds arrived this past week from leslie and wendy! thank you both. i'm really enjoying my new tunes.


rilke is sleeping soundly. there is a feeling of calm in this room. i wonder how long it can last. unfortunately, we were unable to get an appointment before next tuesday. funny how a week can seem like a year. i'm just hoping we can make it til then and that we won't have to take him to the emergency clinic. thanks for thinking of us and for your sweet comments.



the sunshine has returned and i'm thrilled.

here we go...
shari

at home

hi there.
i'm sorry to say that we have another sick cat at home. poor rilke. he is having trouble swallowing and needs to see a specialist. therefore, we decided not to go to dc, and my meetup with bugheart had to be postponed. darn. we take rilke in next week and see where we go from there.

tom and i have just taken things very slowly this weekend. sleeping in with the kitties, having coffee in bed, taking our time at the farmer's market and running errands, planting acorns in some of my hand made (albeit slightly flawed) pots.

we had a nice lunch outside on our picnic table this afternoon. it was our usual saturday lunch post farmer's market: toasted cheese bread, farmer's cheese, tomato and bibb lettuce from the farm with a generous dose of freshly ground salt and pepper.

as the light began to fade, tom set about preparing a butternut squash for a pie. he also taught me a trick (that he learned from his mom), which is to make extra piecrust to use for piecrust cookies. i had fun cutting out leaf and house shapes. they make simple but delicious cookies. we used the piecrust recipe from the williams & sonoma pumpkin cookbook.



i've also started taking little movies on my canon elph powershot. i wish i knew how to post them here. they are simple little fall vignettes. speaking of movies, we've watched several good ones recently two of which were documentaries: ballet russes and tell me do you miss me, a film documenting luna's final tours. we thoroughly enjoyed both.

okay friends, back to the kitchen for me.

enjoy your weekend.
shari

185

i went out with my camera to capture fall yesterday even though it was in the low eighties. the weather has been crazy. we went from cold and pouring down rain to sunny and hot. today, it's back to being overcast and it's still quite warm. i am wanting to settle into fall but i guess i'll have to be patient.



i really love when i stumble upon something random like this little still life---the browns--and how the leaf just fell on to the table next to a penny that i am imagining was in t's pocket at some point. random bits of beauty. love it.



aren't these eggs just gorgeous? beauty in the everyday for sure. we bought them from fickle creek farm. such amazing colors. i visited this farm last year when i was teaching. it's a lovely place.

i also finally made it to crook's corner for my fried green tomatoes and persimmon pudding. i love eating in season. the chef makes the pudding from persimmons given to him by a friend who has a tree in her yard. when she is out of persimmons, that's it for the year! last year, we missed out but not this year. are there any local treats that you love to have in the fall?

tomorrow evening i am going to dc with tom to visit his siblings. i'm also meeting up with this superhero (to borrow a description from lisa c) on saturday. i can't wait!

i'm up to post on the book club blog tomorrow so no post here.

wishing you all a fun weekend.
xo
shari

184

do you ever have one of those days where you're running around in a hurry and then you find that you are out of everything you need? coffee, for example. blank cds that i need in order to make a swap deadline. ruled notebook paper for a documentary studies writing assignment. yes, it was one of those days and rainy to boot.

i found myself stopping every so often to sit and look at mav's regal no. 1-5 print set that is hanging in our living room. sitting and taking in that beauty somehow helped to center me. i just think mav's work is very special. such beautiful little treasures.

documentary studies classs last night was great. i'm starting to lean more and more towards working with audio. it makes sense when i think about it. i am so charmed by radio and hearing, instead of seeing, the story. as fate would have it, our instructor paired me with a guy who is working on an audio project. he told me all about the audio institute that duke holds each summer. i've got stars in my eyes, friends, even though i know nothing about audio at this point.



do you have your pumpkin yet? we bought a 22 pounder from the farmer's market last week. it shares the porch with our small blue hubbard squash from the farm. i read recently that blue hubbards make a great pie. t and i will have to give it a go soon.



hope you have a great wednesday. i keep reminding myself to soak up all that october has to offer even though i hear the temps will reach the eighties for the next two days. no kidding.

xo
shari

tea

yogi tea, peppermint; early afternoon october 16th


a few things for this tuesday:

andrea zittel and crew have a new blog.

i just love love love the hammerpress test print journals. they can be found here.

estelle & johannes exchange project(via meg)

************************************************

perhaps more soon. maggie goes to the vet this am for her third set of shots and i've got documentary studies homework i haven't even started! yikes.

xo
shari

on photography

hi friends,

so i became reacquainted with polaroid cameras last week. the camera i used was a sun 600. for this class, we had specific assignments around two themes: self portrait and dreams. first, we were given a topic to write about and then we chose something from our writing to take photos of. for example, for self-portrait, we were asked to draw a sketch of ourselves, making notes about memories, feelings, etc. then we were to choose one part to explore in more detail via the writing process. finally, we were given cameras to take photographs.

we talked a bit about how we would need someone else to take our photo but that we could "direct" them on how we wanted the photo to look. my self portrait shots were supposed to focus on my eyes and explore how i view myself differently when i'm not wearing my glasses. these did not turn out as i imagined as i did not want my nose and mouth in the photos. however, i think you can see my eye color which is hard to notice, i think, when my eyes are behind glasses.

i liked working with polaroids and with a limited amount of shots because it really forced me to slow down. i am so used to digital where you can take a gazillion photos and if you don't like them, you can just delete and take more. i started to think of how this affects my photography and what i choose to capture. our instructors also told us that sometimes we might delete a photo in digital that others would love if they were ever able to see it.

i started to think about photography in general and my approach and feelings surrounding it. i know that i miss seeing the world through the camera lens if i don't take photos for awhile. i also know that i can get so inspired looking at the world through the viewfinder. i love being outside and collecting images. what i love is the process: holding the camera, looking at the world almost through different eyes, collecting, collecting, thinking. taking photos makes me think about place and my relationship with the world around me. the collecting of images helps me remember, though it is not the actual product that helps me so much as it is the looking, the searching.

how about you? why do you take photos?

have a great monday!
xo
s

181:mail and catching up

hi everyone,

thanks so much for your comments lately. i am going to try to begin responding to them in the comments section again. i've been slacking off. sorry. please know that i read each and every one and am very grateful for the time you take to write them.

ok, lots to share. first, a delightful package arrived all the way from nova scotia. austen and i did a fall swap trade. see all of my loot below. :) we decided to trade independent papers, chocolate and tea, a book, bits of nature, and a mixed cd. thank you austen!!





more heart shaped rocks for my collection!




several of you have requested to see some finished pottery. here is a vase i made from slab. i glazed it by dipping it into three different colors and i'm very pleased with the results. this is my favorite piece i've made in this class. i brought many pieces home that i just don't like very much. i am not so great with my hands. while i am drawn so much to making things with them, i seem to be unable to utilize them accordingly.

do certain clothes cheer you up? for me, it's sweaters with arms long enough to pull down over my hands, my baggy olive green carharts and my black and white striped socks. pigtails too, of course. this was my outfit today.





tomorrow, i'll tell you more about my literacy through photography class. while i enjoyed the experience, the work with the polaroids was not exactly as i had imagined. it did bring up interesting thoughts regarding photography in general, though.

enjoy your evening.
shari

ps: oh! please come visit lisa, and ash, and me at our book club blog, ship of fools. we'd love for you to read along with us. currently, we are reading the history of love by nicole krauss. our goal is to read about 25 pages a week. all are welcome!

180

just a quick hello today! it's early but my new class (literacy through photography) starts this morning. we will be using polaroid cameras so i'm very excited. this class is more like a workshop in that it only meets two full days. i will try to post a polaroid or two for you friday morning.

after this class, i have pottery where i hope to make a flowerpot. busy busy. then on friday, one of my closest friends is coming in to town. i don't get to see her much but i love spending time with her. t and i will meet her (and her husband) in chapel hill. crook's corner is serving up fried green tomatoes as well as persimmon pudding with whipped cream this week so i think that's where we'll eat. yummy southern fare.

off to fix breakfast. enjoy your day!
shari

179: junk drawer

in baking:

i feel like i'm constantly baking in the kitchen lately with flour on my hands and always dusting my jeans. in the past few days, i have made lots of apple recipes. first i tried apple scones, then an apple cobbler using my mom's recipe, and finally another (double) batch of apple scones. t's pretty fond of them.

kelly sent me her recipe for marmalade cupcakes (thank you!) and they are next on my list of things to make along with molly's banana cake with coconut cream cheese frosting! both of these desserts are gorgeous. i just love to bake, and i also have quite the sweet tooth!

in arctic art:




i'm sure i've gushed about rachell sumpter before but i really love her paintings. i'm feeling even more enchanted by them as i'm reading arctic dreams and learning a bit about the sami people. these are my favorites: top=hearing voices; bottom=all the friends you can get. both are available at giant robot san francisco.

do you have a list of artists whose work you would like to own someday? well, she is on the top of mine.


in book clubs:

lisa, ash, and i will be hosting a book club complete with its own blog. visit lisa's musings this friday for the scoop! we hope you'll read along and comment frequently.

in fashion:



i love this look from the chloe spring 07 show and think it would work well for early fall here in the south.

in bathroom blinds:




anna steiner takes the cake.

in beautiful use:

k. cooper's swap idea is so so lovely. i'm not sure i should join another swap but this is so tempting. how about you?

in gorgeous magazine spreads:



have any of you seen the article titled "kitchen artistry" in the october issue of living? i thought it was just beautiful. i love the idea of mindful eating and the peek into the potter's studio was so wonderful.

nancy bauch is the artist behind white forest pottery. her website is gorgeous. i love the rose bowls, the tiny porcelain bells, and the tea cups. i also love how she says nature is her "library of ideas". just beautiful all around. i'm so so inspired by her work.

okay friends, enjoy your wednesday!
xo
s

morning minutiae

Soft yellow-gray light of early morning,
butter and wool,

Billy Collins from his poem "After the Storm"

i really love the morning time. in the early hours, it seems easier to breathe.

this morning i've been sitting at our red fifties dining room table, eating apple scones and drinking coffee. i am still reading one poem each morning and still working my way through picnic, lightning by billy collins. today's poem is "snow".

the cats are pretty active in the morning as we stir. they follow us from bedroom to bathroom to kitchen to bedroom to dining room. they can't seem to settle with the new energy of the morning upon them.

i have a new candy striped pink and white bathrobe, but i keep forgetting to wear it. i haven't had one in so long that it is no longer a habit for me.

the coffee pot has already been drained. usually, we leave a bit left in the bottom but not today.

the house is chilly. the sun is bright outside and the leaves gently dance in the wind, although almost hesitantly.

in a few minutes, i will get dressed and move to my studio. i have such a crush on the radio these days. my favorite radio program comes on at noon. then, perhaps i will listen to a podcast or two.

mornings marked by coffee, poetry, and radio are the best mornings. and lately, these are the little rituals that must be performed before i take a running jump into my day.

so i'm off. i have yoga to do, a zine to work on, new ideas for collage based on yesterday's maps and rivers post, documentary studies homework, guitar to practice, chores, always chores...

what is your favorite thing about mornings?

xo
shari

177: of maps and rivers

over the weekend, i started to think once again about place. in part, this was fueled by a comment one of the poets from the poetry bus said on friday night. he said, "this is my first time in durham and it will be my first time in asheville and athens, too." immediately, i had the thought that i am a 5'5 map. we are all maps. these places we've visited are written in our bones, and yet there is still so much uncharted territory available.

i have been to athens numerous times seeing that it was near clemson, my college town. the line that is drawn from clemson to athens is solid and dark, a well traveled path. in athens, that line continues to atlanta on occasions or at least up and down the streets of downtown.

i have also been to asheville for it is close to both clemson and winston-salem where i lived for seven years. to me, it is so interesting that i am familiar with these places and yet there are others out there who have never seen these cities and their landscapes.

my personal map reaches from coast to coast, up to canada, then alaska, down to texas, up to maine, down to florida. it crosses the ocean just twice, leading up to england then over to the netherlands, france, switzerland, germany, luxembourg, and belgium. my map is my own.

yet there is no line connecting me to philadelphia or houston or new orleans or the eastern reaches of canada. my map does not jump the pacific ocean and land in hawaii or japan or russia. this is so interesting to me. each of us contain maps to all of the places we've lived and traveled to, and i am certain that this affects the way that we look at life.

a second reason for these thoughts is that i have begun reading barry lopez' arctic dreams (in addition to the book club's the history of love and numerous magazines). i have always been fascinated by the arctic and antarctic, drawn to it in fact. the beauty, the remoteness. in the preface to the book lopez asks these questions, "how do people imagine the landscapes they find themselves in? how does the land shape the imaginations of the people who dwell in it?"

i've been thinking about these questions in regards to my two year stint in colorado. how did i imagine the western landscape before i moved there? how did the western landscape shape my imagination? in fact, how does the southern landscape affect my imagination?

yesterday, we went to the river. i paid close attention to my surroundings.



freshwater mussel shells that have the slightest hint of purple in just the right light.



gray brown rocks, feathery grass standing up in the water.



rusty leaves tucked into the cracks and crevices.

i imagine our maps are like the tributaries of a river or the roots of a tree. they branch out from the main. they take us to different places. they enable us to absorb nutrients. maps, rivers, roots.
************************************************

for now, i have no answers just many thoughts.

hope you all have a nice monday!
shari

notes from yesterday

a big bowl of apple, raspberry, blueberry, raisin crisp with homemade whipped cream

over a thousand chimney swifts swirling around the tip tops of buildings in downtown durham as the sun began to fade

a homemade pink tshirt with sylvia plath's image in black

brown corduroys with brown striped socks

cat eye glasses

half of a caprese sandwich coupled with half of a grilled cheddar chutney

the poetry bus



a man in a cowboy hat running down main street carrying a pizza box

open windows in an old warehouse building

a man with a pony tail on a skateboard filming with camera in hand

neon lights

a poet from belarus reciting a poem entitled opera first in belarusian and then in english

two good friends, one with a new scar

a red tru-tone guitar

an envelope containing a black credit card

rilke and maggie play fighting

the wind moving branches outside of our dining room window

hands balancing wine glasses at fowler's around suppertime

the most beautiful baby bok choy fresh from the farm




thanks to gracia for the inspired idea. i love recording these one line snippets from my day. in fact, i think i may start a new journal and fill it daily with one liners.

how's your weekend going so far?

as i mentioned above, the poetry bus rolled into durham last night. read more here. i forgot how much i love being read to. last night was a true feast for language lovers complemented by delicious sounds: water running through metal pipes overhead as loft residents flushed their toilets or turned on their sinks {i wondered if they were washing their hands or brushing their teeth}, a freight train's whistle blaring loudly as it passed through town. listening intently in this quiet space really allowed me the chance to take in all of the sound the old building had to offer. words tumbled out of poets' mouths, and the building responded with its own poetry.

til monday!
xo
s

inspiration notes part 5

On the other hand, although I have a regular work schedule, I take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can listen to what is going on inside my head. If my work isn't going well, I lie down in the middle of a workday and gaze at the ceiling while I listen and visualize what goes on in my imagination.
Albert Einstein

today's quote is all about balance. to me, einstein hit the nail on the head by saying that a work routine and time out are both essential. maybe we should all have a ten minute break at work where we can just lie down on the floor! i really like that einstein said he needed time to listen as well as visualize. someitmes i feel that i am not truly listening to what is going on inside. more listening today for me!

thanks for joining in this week in the comments section. i have loved reading your thoughts and will reread them this weekend.

favorite sounds this week:

maggie lapping up water
the trains that ramble through durham (while i'm in documentary studies)
the heavy rain we're having this morning
the sweet sounds of carsie blanton (i like ain't so green)
keep your silver shined by devon sproule

oh! and a BIG congrats to my sister for winning employee of the year at work!! i'm so proud of you!

hey kids, it's october! hope you have an amazing weekend.
xo
shari

inspiration notes part 4

When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer--say, traveling in a carriage or walking after a good meal or during the night when I cannot sleep--it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

i love this quote so much, especially the phrase "completely myself". solitude is important in this business of inspiration i think. that alone time where you can just sit still and watch the thoughts and ideas swirling around on the movie screen in your brain is so key. for me, this is where the synthesis occurs. the quiet and solitude aid in processing and making connections but allowing the inspiration and ideas to rise to the surface.

i also think it is important to note that mozart emphasizes being in good spirits. when i am feeling worried, anxious, or just plain mad at the world, i find that inspiration retreats. when i am in good spirits (maybe at the end of a lovely dinner with friends or relaxing with a cup of tea), i notice that ideas come more quickly.

for me, waiting can be beneficial. i am a procrastinator (gasp, yes it's true) and i find that there is often a huge burst of energy, ideas, thoughts, etc. that occur at the very last moment. it's like in the final push for ideas, they all come running, aware that the time is NOW. speak up or the moment is gone! and because i know this and expect it to happen, i can sit back and wait confidently to see what else my brain has hidden away. i say that calmly but in actuality, there is no calmness. i am frantic and with that adrenaline, a few ideas begin to blossom. while this is not my favorite way to come up with ideas, it can work.

which brings me to this quote:

Who knows where inspiration comes from? Perhaps it arises from desperation...
Amy Tan

finally, a pair of links---

where i live this is what the sky looks like

claire oswalt

a lovely thursday to you!
shari

inspiration notes part 3

Excellent ideas come to me every moment and if instead of executing them at the very moment they are clothed with the charm imagination lends them . . . one forgets, or what is worse, one no longer finds any interest in what seemed inspiring. Delacroix

wow, you are leaving me such beautiful comments. i can't wait to read back over them properly when i have the time!! thank you for taking the time to reflect and write.

today's quote addressses the topic of saving up inspiration instead of acting on it as it occurs! this quote by delacroix is a great reminder for me as i always want to store up inspiration to use later. in fact, i decided to write about inspiration last week and instead of diving right in, i waited until the beginning of a new week! now i'm having trouble finding the words to explain my ideas. i can't help but wonder if that would have been the case if i would have started these posts last week. :)

i do think delacroix is right. when we save up ideas for later, they do not have the initial "charm" that they had when we first became excited by them. i keep notebooks, and i am always jotting down notes of things to pursue at a later time. while i don't feel it is impossible to execute an idea at a later time, i often find that my interest in the idea wanes over time. yes, i can still execute the idea but i may not be quite so passionate about doing so. but, maybe i can find that passion again.

i have been sharing quotes about action specifically because i tend to take the passive route when it comes to inspiration. i like to wait and have inspiration hit ME over the head and while it is certainly powerful and exciting when that happens, i think that i need to take more action. most of the time the reason i don't take action is out of fear. fear that my creation, whether it's writing or a collage or a loaf of bread, won't be worth anything. ah, but we all know how much we learn from process though.

like all things, i find that a balance is what's called for. times of diving in coupled with times of quiet. doing my work and daydreaming. surrounding myself with beauty and nature and letting those images flow through me as well as actively reading and researching topics and ideas.

equal parts doing and being.

more tomorrow!

for now, i leave you with two more bits of inspiration:

citizen katya's folded books

the portfolio of kathryn kenworth

inspiration notes part 2

Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning. Igor Stravinsky

i really enjoyed your comments yesterday. thank you for taking the time to join the conversation. so more on inspiration today. stravinsky takes a practical approach that i'm sure a few of you can relate to. "work brings inspiration..." many of you seem to agree based on the comments you left yesterday. i like this idea. it is simple and active. also, it reminds me a bit of journaling and the importance of doing it daily. putting words on paper often opens up some part of my mind. it may take some time (work), but during that time i usually hit upon an idea that yearns for further examination.

the same has been true with my collages. physically going about my work, cutting out images, making photocopies, scanning leaves and then actually playing with the bits of paper all help ease my anxiety. so, it is only by doing that work that i am able to relax enough to arrive at the idea. :)

in reading this quote over and over, i noticed stravinsky's use of the word discernible. in a way, maybe he thought that inspiration is always around us, and isn't it? sometimes we just have trouble locating it. by working, maybe we see more clearly what was already in simmering in our minds, or perhaps we bring an idea to the surface.

what do you think about stravinsky's words? do they ring true?

inspiration for you today:

this essay

this photoblog

hope you all enjoy your day!
shari

ps: i realize that my blog looks very different (i.e. large font)in explorer. i'm not sure why. any help would be appreciated.

inspiration notes

to welcome in the first day of october, t made crepes. a celebratory breakfast for my favorite month. later, we went to the central park neighborhood to watch a play, chekov's "the cherry orchard". fabulous. a delicious pizza dinner at lilly's in raleigh followed. relaxing and reading ended the night. a lovely day and i am feeling inspired yet again. the mail didn't hurt either! :)

last week when i was feeling a bit blah about things, i searched for quotes from famous artists and writers about inspiration and what i found was that there were many differing views. this week i will spend some time exploring these ideas regarding inspiration.

the first camp, represented by author jack london is what i like to call the don't take no for an answer or perhaps the seek and you shall find camp. london says "you can't wait for inspiration. you have to go after it with a club." in this view, the creator is active. it is almost as if london is saying, don't let inspiration fool you. it is not as elusive as one might think. go after it!

however i'm not sure you can force yourself to be inspired or rather FEEL inspired. during the lows, i know that something different happens in my mind. for example, have you ever read a book when you weren't feeling inspired and the book just did not do it for you? then later when you are feeling excited and inspired, you pick up the very same book and read the very same words but this time something clicks and you respond to it much differently than before? even if i am being active and seeking inspiration, it does not necessarily propel me out of the blahs. it just takes time.

believe me, i have tried to force inspiration to appear and usually i just get frustrated. i do believe,though, that by surrounding yourself with books, information, beauty, nature, and exciting events, you can encourage the mindset needed for inspiration to come knocking.

do london's words resonate for any of you?

inspiring me so far today:



this playlist from homemade 1 from grache and lj.

this beauty from port2port press.

hope you all have a great monday.
xo
shari

ps: thank you to karina of fototiller for posting about the compound word project! please check it out here if you are interested.