Showing posts with label recharging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recharging. Show all posts

26 February 2011

Mr. Whimsy, or Why I Heart James Gurney






Photos by me

Ok, I don't even know the guy, but James Gurney's Dinotopia books have been a mainstay on my bookshelf for years, ever since they were first published. I have a large print of his "Dinosaur Boulevard" painting from the first book and a puzzle version the same which I pull out and assemble every few years.  And, glory of glories, I even have a Dinotopia-inspired pitcher and two matching cups that I made a decade ago at one of those paint your own pottery places.
  



More recently, I've been enjoying (and learning a great deal from) Mr. Gurney's two books, Imaginative Realism and Color and Light.




His blog is a wonderful variety of show-n-tell, solid and entertaining art instruction, informative exposition, and on occasion, just plain silliness.  Like the series of videos he did sometime back promoting Imaginative Realism, one of which starred his budgie, Mr. Kooks as the Parakeet Artist.  His deadpan delivery and the smooth and spot on documentary-commercial production make this piece just delightful.





This week Mr. Gurney posted a video that all of us in the frozen Midwest can appreciate.  Talk about catharsis!  Take THAT winter!!  Thanks, Mr. G!  I have to shovel the sidewalk now (again!), but will do so this time with a song in my heart and a chuckle.




Links to Mr. Gurney's various sites:

His artist website
His blog
The Dinotopia website


13 January 2011

Recharging via Categories



Like any creative person, my inspiration runs into walls on occasion, or just gets weary.  That thing called Life intervenes: deadlines, familial obligations, hot weather with ridiculously high humidity, insomnia, laundry that needs doing, etc.  And sometimes the creative ideas themselves interfere with one another.  I need to sew some work clothes but there sitting right next to that lovely black-brown gabardine are the file folders of my little group of pen friends.  I am behind in sewing and behind in my letter writing.  Both are hugely fun.  Which gets top priority?  Especially when my sketchbook and the graphic novel notes are sitting right next to both?

There is this sudden rush to MAKE SOMETHING NOW.  But what?  When?  And if I choose A  when can I do B?  Creative indecision is a weird beastie.  It feels like one is firing on all cylinders simultaneously and like one is frying the synapses of the imagination to boot.  It paralyzes at the same time it jolts the spirit.

So when it's practical - cuz even creativity needs its pragmatic moments - I spend a few hours cruising through all the links I've bookmarked over the years.  Some of the sites I don't even recognize, so the visit is like seeing a new-old friend.  Some sites seem strange and no longer interesting - which leads me to think about what it was that caught my eye way back when - which can lead to some constructive reflection on who I was then and who I am now. 

I took some time over the end-of-year break to see where I went once.  Just for fun, I am posting a handful of those links here for your interest.

From my "Foods" category:

How to Hard-Boil an Egg (works perfectly every time!)

From my "Fun Stuff" category:

- need to find a Celtic session group? Or a class? [from their site] is the largest group involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music. We’re a non-profit cultural movement with hundreds of local branches around the world, and as you can read in our history we’ve been working for the cause of Irish music since the middle of the last century (1951 to be precise). Our efforts continue with increasing zeal as the movement launches itself into the 21st century.

Bing Crosby singing Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra from the movie Going My Way.

[from the download site] "The Free Electronic Shakespeare Reader is a downloadable piece of software that you can install on any Windows computer, and instantly have all of Shakespeare's 38 plays at your fingertips. No internet connection required; read plays at your leisure on any computer. An excellent study resource for any English Literature student. Provides in-depth full-text searching to all of Shakespeare's plays."

How to Make a Hula Hoop (adult version - weighted for dance hooping)

Strange Games site (includes stuff like the 2010 Rock Paper Scissors tournament, lawn mower tossing, and similarly goofy activities; please note: not always for kids).

From my "Creatives" category:

Green Thoughts Asleep and the Fury of Dreams: Native Shading in the Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin (well-written piece on this deeply thoughtful and creative author and wordsmith)



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