I knew May was going to be a busy month, but what nobody told me was that instead of blogging every day, I'd be building a new website every day. Believe me, it's not something I wanted to do, but my web hosting service is in the process of upgrading and I've been notified to go with the flow or get left behind. Consequently I’ve had to learn a whole new set of tech-skills faster than you can say "pixel" and my head is still spinning. At this point in the game I'd do just about anything to set back the clock and return to the simple world of going through my ABC's. At least I have next April to look forward to!
Before I landed in this big website morass, one of the things that made this year's A-Z challenge so special for me was my theme of art journaling. To make my posts authentic, I had to create a daily art journal page to illustrate what I was writing about. Despite the extra work, I feel I got much more out of the challenge than I bargained for; I love the small journal I created for the month and it will always be a “Yes, I can do it!” reminder and reward for participating.
Besides the fun of creating a new journal, other benefits I received from the challenge include:
- Learning I could write under pressure. During the challenge I still had to go to my day job and fulfill all my other routine obligations. But I always posted!
- Learning that I could create an art journal with limited time and resources. You can do a lot with a little—no excuses.
- Met many great bloggers--and from all over the world.
- Felt easier than I usually do about opening up and sharing without my inner critic interfering. There just wasn’t any time to listen to her cautionary ranting. (Thank goodness.)
- I felt comfortable calling myself a “blogger.” Often I just consider myself an author with a blog and that's the end of it. But I like blogging, and I enjoy having my blog. So I guess it's okay to call myself an honest-to-goodness real-life blogger!
- I particularly liked having the routine and discipline of posting every day. Although I won’t be able to maintain that kind of schedule (once or twice a week fits my life much better) it made me realize how I can use that same time for a creative exercise every day, and with satisfying results.
So will I return for 2017? You bet! I had a great time with the challenge, and I hope you did too, bloggers and readers alike. Thank you to the A-Z team who made this exciting event possible, and thank you to everyone who took the time to visit and comment on my pages.
Finally, and as promised, I have selected (using Random.org) a winner from my visitors who commented on my posts over the month for a copy of Overtaken! Name to be announced in my next post. See you then!
Tip of the Day: In order to participate in the challenge, I gave myself about an hour every day to both write my posts and work on my accompanying art journal pages. By carving out just a little extra time I found I could do a lot. The secret was in telling myself I had to do this—I had promised, I was committed. Now that the challenge is over, what can you commit to with that same dedication? Blogging, painting, journaling, beading? Whatever you choose, promise yourself you'll do it--seize the day.
I never thought I would miss blogging every day, but already I'm feeling nostalgic for that early morning ritual of stumbling to my computer in the dark to write yet another post!
I'm also missing reading all those great posts from other bloggers that would fill my in-box every morning--hopefully they'll all start up again soon, too.
At the same time, I feel like I've been through an initiation of some sort, an "ordeal by blogging." To celebrate the end of a long (and intensely interesting) month, the first thing I did when the Challenge finished was go to my drawing table to draw these feathers. Not only did I feel "as light as a feather" to have put blogging behind me for a day or two, but I'd been postponing this small project for a few weeks and really wanted to try it out.
The feathers came from the last meeting of my colored pencil group when we were all given a handful of wild turkey feathers with the assignment to draw them for the next meeting. On Sunday I finally had some spare time, so I used my new Faber and Castell Polychromos pencils and three different kinds of paper. The subject seemed to fit my mood to a T. While I was drawing, my mind was also jumping all over the place with plans for the coming month, including:
- New re-prints of two of my books: The Great Scarab Scam and Better Than Perfect. More on this coming soon!
- Submitting my new novel, The Abyssal Plain with new query letters and synopses.
- Going back into ceramics. Before the#AtoZChallenge I bought a fresh batch of stoneware clay and made three pots that are now ready for a bisque firing (maybe this weekend?). As soon as they're out of the kiln I'm going to try decorating them in an Asian splash-ink style based on last year's trip to Taiwan. This is an entirely new direction for me and I'm excited to see the results.
- And finally, speaking of Taiwan, out of the blue I've started to write a series of poems to go with my Taiwan paintings, drawings, and now pottery. This has been a huge surprise to me--talk about a change of plans! The first poem came to me in the middle of the night last week and I had to get up to write it. Now I can't stop!
It's going to be a busy month--how about you? Any plans you want to share? Leave a comment, and have a Happy May!
Tip of the Day: Working through the alphabet isn't just for blogging or the month of April: how about trying an A-Z art journal, poetry or short story series, a picture book for children, or even an entire novel outline with each chapter based on a letter of the alphabet? The possibilities are endless--and once you finish one project, you can start all over again with a fresh approach.
Here we are--the very last day of the challenge! Huge congratulations to my fellow bloggers for sticking with the program; it's been a pleasure to meet you.
I'm not sure what today's collage is all about, but that's one of the great joys of art journaling: discovering where you're going, what you're looking for, and what you want to say as you create the page. Basically I think it simply expresses my "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" joy in making it through the month!
Early on in both my writing and my art work I learned that I could only write or paint what I had a real and true zip-a-dee-doo-dah for, or in other words, what I was passionate about. Working for hire on an insurance brochure brought that home very quickly, as did the summer I took a class on painting only what the teacher insisted we produce: ultra-realistic portraits in blue watercolor. Flat yukky blue--no electric ultramarines allowed. After four sessions I dropped out and spent the rest of the year discovering how much I loved oil pastels and in every color of the rainbow.
Writing these blog posts day-in and day-out, and making my accompanying art journal pages, has proven to me how much I enjoy art journaling. I really do have a passion for it! I hope I've been able to impart some of that same enthusiasm to you, and that you have been encouraged to maintain journals of your own.
For me, my journal is both a refuge and a portable studio. I can take it with me wherever I go, and I can try out numerous experiments with color, design, and text without fear of failure or judgment. Anything goes, and that goes for you too--HAVE FUN!!
So with that said, it's Saturday, it's Spring, and we've got a whole weekend to play. If you haven't started your journal yet, maybe this is the day to begin. Best wishes and thank you so much for stopping by. Catch you later.
Tip of the Day: For a completely relaxing and no-stress art journal, try creating one without any words, or even any specific meaning. Simply collage the pages, and in no particular order. Start in the middle, add some red to the end papers, a picture of a "Z is for Zebra" when you come across one, a peaceful beach scene just because you love it. Add various elements to your pages at your leisure and where you think they fit best. Don't worry about a thing--I promise it will be beautiful and something you'll cherish long after you've run out of glue!
If I were to isolate a single word that sums up all of creativity, I would offer up the word "yearning." So much of what we aim to do in our art journals, fiction, screenwriting, poetry, the visual arts is, I believe, based on yearning. The yearning to be whole. The yearning to be authentic. The yearning to tell our unique and soul-specific stories.
Today's art journal page is based on my Gothic novel, Overtaken. It's the story of a portrait artist yearning to find not only her missing husband, but her true identity, as well as her strongest artistic self. Of all the art journal pages I made for the #AtoZChallenge, this is one of my favorites. I've always enjoyed a touch of romantic melancholy and nostalgia, a little bit of mystery and regret, a dash of "beauty in the ruins." Writing Overtaken satisfied many of those same yearnings and I'd like to share that story with you.
In order to accomplish that, I'm giving away a paperback copy of Overtaken chosen at "R is for Random" to anyone who comments on any of my #AtoZChallenge posts (past comment-leavers are eligible too!) until 11.59 PM, Sunday May 8, 2016. I figured I'd give a little extra time for last-minute comments as I know from past experience it's sometimes easier to stop by after the challenge than during it. The winner will be chose on Monday, May 9, 2016.
Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge. I admit to feeling rather sad to reach the end. I can't say I'm exactly yearning to start all over with another 26 days, but it has been fun and I've enjoyed the self-discipline of art journaling along with the blogging every day. How about you? Let me know--you could win a free book!
Tip of the Day: What are you yearning for? Write it all down, every single little angsty bit of it. Find or paint images to reflect your feelings rather than the actual items or states of being.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of us are using the theme of "X-rays" in today's posts, me included. X isn't the easiest letter of the alphabet and my mind always goes straight to the word "xylophone" when I think of it. The trouble is I don't play the xylophone, so have nothing to say on the topic. Therefore, X-rays it is!
X-rays have always played an important role in my life. As a child I spent many hours in my father's chiropractic office while he developed his patients' X-rays. Sometimes I would go into the darkroom with him, a mysterious and magical closet illuminated by a single red bulb. Fascinated, I would watch what resembled a type of alchemy: sheets of X-ray film dipped into odorous trays of solutions and water before being raised to the light to reveal skulls and spines, vertebrae and ribs--the human skeleton in all its twisted and imperfect agony. I learned to stand up straight by studying those ghostly images, and I'm sure they had an impact on my entire attitude to healthcare: stay well!
For today's art journal page I painted a sheet of paper with black gesso and pressed my hand down into the paint. The results intrigued me--what did my hand have to say to me? In real life I've never liked the look of my hands. Childishly small and usually stained with ink, burned from taking something out of the oven, grazed from clay, scarred with endless paper and knife cuts (more cooking accidents), and dry, thanks to the Albuquerque weather, they are not the long, elegant hands I envy. Yet when I see my palm with "X-ray vision" as it appears here, I'm not so disappointed. Slightly feathery around the edges, it's a capable and gentle hand, and I'm suddenly filled with gratitude for its hard-working, "accept any challenge" attitude. After all, my hands have never let me down, and have been as eager to plunge themselves into mud as they have been to try embroidery and bead-making.
Fortunately, I've never broken a bone or injured my hands in any serious way, the worst accident being a milk bottle in New Zealand splintering in my hand and cutting my thumb with such severity I still have the scar to this day. The nerve endings are still a little tender there, but other than that it's fine. But whenever I feel that twinge or see the deep line where the glass cut through, I'm reminded of so many things: the milk boys rattling their carts up and down the street at twilight delivering those treacherous bottles, the way the rain fell while I ran cold water over my hand. . . I feel it in my bones.
Art journaling is another way to feel "with the bones." What does your body have to tell you? What memories are waiting to develop and emerge? Today, let the darkness speak.
Tip of the Day: The single most important book that set me firmly on the writer's path is none other than Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. Any of the exercises in the book can help you uncover what it is you want to say about the images you create in your art journal. If you don't already own a copy, don't worry, it's a staple at most libraries. Check out a copy today!
