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World Poetry Day - Tuesday, March 21st, 2023

3/20/2023

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Source: World Poetry Day (March 21st) | Days Of The Year  ​Find your favorite poet and share them on social media using the hashtag #WorldPoetryDay. Let your friends and family know today’s a day to appreciate language and the way we communicate with one another.
​

​Prompt: Write a Poem by Changing the words of one of your favourite poet’s poems…
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The Red Wheelbarrow 
BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
 
so much depends
upon
 
a red wheel
barrow
 
glazed with rain
water
 
beside the white
chickens

 The Little Blue Dot
​By Nicola Schneider

so much depends
upon
 
a little blue
dot
 
orbiting round the
sun
 
nestled in the
galaxy
Another prompt (from somewhere & sometime) — walk a mile in another's feet: an exploration of rhythm and nonsense... based on Poe's, "the Bells"...​

BASED UPON POE
 
fear the witches with the spells
evil spells!
what a thrill of detriment their remedy so smells!
how they, wrinkle, wrinkle, wrinkle,
in the mighty flare of light!
while guitars, that smoke and sprinkle
all the questions that dream to giggle
with a byzantine punchline:
feeling fine, fine, fine,
in a court of ironic time,
to the insubordination that so foolishly fells
from the spells, spells, spells, spells
Spells, spells, spells-
from the wiggling and the mingling of the spells.
 

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Everyone IS an Artist - Speech

2/26/2023

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This is my view on art-making. Everybody IS an Artist. 1. Art is easy. 2. Practice makes better. 3. Be YOU. 4. Make Ugly Art & make mistakes. 5. Have fun.
Art is the answer to everything. Think about it… Feeling sad or mad? Make art! Want world peace? Make art not war! Bored? There’s always art! Okay, maybe art isn’t the answer to absolutely everything, but it’s pretty darn close!
 
I can hear you… “But I’m not an artist,” you might be saying, “I suck at art!”

“Phooey!” is what I say to you! If you can make a mark with something on anything, then you are an artist.
 
A dude called Joseph Beuys agrees. He said, “Everyone is an artist.” Wait? That’s what I said. But he also said it, so there.
 
Pablo Picasso said, “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once one grows up.” This is what I will help you realize.

 
The first thing to know is that Art is actually pretty easy, and you can definitely do it.
 
Try this - anytime. No time like the present (or right after this speech)! Pick up a paint brush, get some paint, or a marker or pencil. Get paper and make a mark. 
​Or even that little ring left behind on the page where your chilled soda glass was sitting… well, that can be Art – for reals. See…
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​It’s not a dot, it’s a wee little sunshine.
It’s not a squiggle, it’s a boat on the water.
It’s not a scribble, it’s a lizard by a bush and a rock!
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Secondly, practice makes perfect. Nope. Nope! NOPE!! Wipe that word - perfect - from your brain. Perfect is unachievable. No one and nothing is perfect — perfectly imperfect, perhaps. In fact, I say we remove the word from existence altogether. Instead, we’ll say: “ Practice makes better.” This is a simple concept. The more you do something, the better you will get at that something.

Talent is great. If you got it, use it, but practise is what really makes artists awesome… or allows anyone to be good at anything. When you were a baby, you didn’t know how to walk. You had to practice, bit by bit - first, you lifted your head and discovered your arms and legs and tried crawling. Then, you stood up (and fell down), all before even taking your first step. You had to practice  — and fall — a lot! But you did it. Are you perfect at it?

No! Trick question. There is no such thing as perfect, remember?! Are you better at walking than when you were a baby? Of course! I know sometimes I trip, even fall, and I most definitely walk into loads of things, and that’s okay. I try not to be a klutz because I just want to do better than before. And it’s the same with art.


“You were born an Original. Don’t die a copy.” John Mason

Incidentally, this is the third important thing to remember… when I say better, I mean better than YOU did before. Not better than anyone else. Be YOU. Do art that YOU love; how you LOVE to do it. (Okay, maybe at school you must do some art you don’t love, and you may have to do it a certain way in order to get marks, but you can still learn from it, even if you are learning what you DON’T like.) Learning what you don’t like is just as important as knowing what you DO like. Then, it’s simple. If you like something, do more of it and do it often. Try changing it a bit. If you don’t like a mark, cover it up. Try again. No big deal.

So back to that that Joseph Beuys dude, who said, “Everyone is an artist,” he meant that being an artist means being creative in whatever way is available to you and feels natural to YOU.


We’re on a roll, here, so now you are ready to Embrace Ugly. What?! I repeat embrace UGLY! In fact, make ugly art on purpose. What?! Why?! Note how it makes you feel. Has the world ended? Nope. Did you learn something. Yep. You learned what you don’t like. Now, cover it up and keep going. Guess what? You might even like what happened. That happens a lot in art. I’m a gonna tell you a little secret… ssshhhh…. Listen up and tell absolutely everyone: a lot, if not most great artists and stunning art happens by mistake. 

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and make them often. If you aren’t failing, you are doing the Art wrong (which is essentially the only way to do Art wrong). It’s how we learn new things and make great art even better each time.

And, if you are loving your ugly art and happy to make mistakes, then you will not be afraid to take risks in you’re art. Ask, “what if…?” Try the thing. If you don’t like it, cover it up and try a different thing.

“But art materials are expensive, and we should not waste them.” That can be true, indeed. Use materials you don’t worry about using up. Think dollar store. There are so many excellent art-making items that are affordable… you can buy ‘fancy smancy’ art-shop materials when you have built your confidence and reframed your beliefs about making art.


Finally, and this last guideline is by far the most important one… Have fun. Art IS fun. Play. Experiment. As Gord Downie sings, “Looking for a place to happen, making stops along the way.” Enjoy the process. Don’t worry so much about the outcome. As Picasso and I say,“Learn rules like a pro, so you can break them like a champ.” 

“The artist is not a special kind of person; rather each person is a special kind of artist,” says Ananda Coomaraswamy. And the best news is “ You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have, said Maya Angelou.

In summary, let’s review: To be an artist, do art. Easy peasy. Everybody is an artist.

Go! Make art, Human!

(February 2023)

Quote Sources: 1. Joseph Beuys; 2. Pablo Picasso - bit.ly/3KFksUNg; 3. John Mason - book cover; 4. Gord Downie - N. Schneider original photography; 5. Pablo Picasso - https://artjournalist.com/acrylic-paint-brushes/; 6. Ananda Coomaraswamy - bit.ly/3m6CRzF; 7. Maya Angelou - Flickr: York College ISLGP
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My Most Resent Art Fixation

1/13/2023

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NEUROGRAPHIC ART* Super calming and by far the coolest thing I've learned in a while... and, I learned a lot of cool stuff about octopuses today, but that's a whole other blog post (maybe, if I remember to do one). As a substitute teacher, I have a gig teaching art to middle schoolers for a couple of weeks. I was left this amazing lesson on Neurographic Art, which has both calmed my soul and pushed my art practice forward... 
* So, I could work real hard to find my sources and post the slide show that the teacher I covered for sent me, but then I would never post this blog and I would get all hung up on all that other stuff when I really just want to share the art. And I also cannot figure out hashtags but I really just want to post and not worry about that. So, whatever. Just Google "neurograpahic art" to be as inspired as I was!
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Then I decided to apply it to an old artwork left abandoned. And I think it has been sufficiently resuscitated.
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Thank goodness for ART:)

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Starting NaPoWriMo 2022…

4/2/2022

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A day before and going strong… and then...
we’re back to 2 days behind😊
 
I’m always excited by the idea of and anticipation for NaPoWriMo, but the reality is such that

life happens
to get in the way
and I have no time
to write what I want to say


I've come up with a couple options that incorporate poetry each day for 30 days:
  1. WORDLE as a poetry prompt – for 30 days à wordle in the AM; do a poem
  2. Work on poetry course
  3. Poetry Group Business

March 31st…
I’ve decided to try Wordle for the first time… but I will use the word as a poetry prompt for #NaPoWriMo2022.
 
So, on the last day of March, the eve of National/Global Poetry Writing Month, I have written a poem:

​Lowly ol’ me
couldn’t get thee.
Oh, Wordle! You see –
I’m no longer free!  
 
Also, there is a bit of talk about Emily Dickinson on the NaPoWriMo site…
  • An early-bird prompt, based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Dickinson is known for her elliptical style, unusual word choices, and mordant sense of humor. Over the past year, I’ve experimented with writing poems based on, or responding to, various lines from her poems. Today, I’d like to challenge you to do the same! Here are a few lines of Dickinson’s that might appeal to you (the slashes indicate line breaks):
 
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From the official website:
NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.
This website is owned and operated by Maureen Thorson, a poet living in Washington, DC. Inspired by NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month), she started writing a poem a day for the month of April back in 2003, posting the poems on her blog. When other people started writing poems for April, and posting them on their own blogs, Maureen linked to them. After a few years, so many people were doing NaPoWriMo that Maureen decided to launch an independent website for the project.
This site was designed by the very nice people at 2the9design, who know waaaaayyyyy more about back-end coding stuff than Maureen does. But this site isn’t meant to be “official,” or to indicate ownership or authority over the idea of writing 30 poems in April. There is no corporate sponsorship of this project. No money is intended to change hands anywhere. Maureen just likes poems and wants to encourage people to write them. The site doesn’t ask for your email address, or any other personal information. Heck, you don’t even have to give your name.
Need more information? See the Wikipedia entry for NaPoWriMo, or check out our FAQ!
https://www.napowrimo.net/about/
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At the start of Pandemic Times, I started watching “Dickinson” on AppleTV… and was inspired to delve deeper…. I read poems watched the series and was inspired to write this poem after seeing this random picture...
 
SHE & ME
                (Honouring Emily Dickinson)
 
Notions niggle and needle at the edges 
of restlessness — nibbling.  
She, in her white gown, gazing out, 
absently rubbing the silky-smooth surface
of her newest stone
that only earlier she’d seen surfaced 
amongst the sprouts, 
sparkling in the sunlight --
beckoning like her words,
trickling and dripping down, 
tickling the paper,
shiny as the diamonds that dot 
the midnight skies.
 
Truly awake now, she relents.
The poem gushes forth, flowing 
from her soul made of stars --
And of dirt from the Earth and 
of all the spirits that stir in the night.
There was no rest for the poet — 
Until she closed her eyes for good.

** Published in 2 poetry publications, some time in the last 2 years (Tower Poetry Society and The Ontario Poetry Society - but I suck at record-keeping, remembering stuff, and finding stuff, so ...)

Happy Poetry Writing Month!

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Some of my first creative endeavours...

11/28/2020

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I found a journal from way before... talk about a time machine!
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NaPoWriPo2020 - Poem 28

5/8/2020

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NaPoWriMo2020 - Poem 27

5/8/2020

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NaPoWriMo2020 - Poem 26

5/8/2020

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NAPOWRIMO2020 - Poem 25

5/1/2020

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I am not ignoring the prompt, but merely deferring it until another time in the future. It is an intriguing prompt that I wish to devote some time. Later, so I will use this opportunity to share two poems that I wrote in Aug. 2019 for an entry into a local art walk.... our local art gallery, Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, Ontario does an annual Art Walk, during Art Week, in which they team up with the Tower Poetry Society. Poets choose artworks to inspire poems and both are displayed on a walk through Dundas BIA.

Beverly
In response to “Beverly Swamp” by Lynne MacIntyre

I peer into the murk and see many me’s,
And reflections of trees.
The trees are upside-down,
And so is my frown;
When I look into the swamp.
I listen with my eyes:
Water waves with a splash
and there’s just a flash
as you dash away;
To where the wild things are,
in the dark, dark wood.
And I wonder where are you, now?
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Hidden
In response to “Stoic” by Ralph Heather

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So much unseen amongst your green leaves.
In your proud boughs
you gather all the creatures
that I see with my ears:
Squirrels crunch nuts;
Blue jays squaw and screech;
Chickadees chime in;
Cicadas preach;
Interrupting the blackbird’s speech.

Leaves sway,
And they give away
the spot where you play

A tree is a house, an umbrella and a playground,
interconnecting
the lives that exist within and around.

Ouch, a chestnut knocked upon my noggin!
And, I know that if a tree branch crashes to the ground,
it certainly makes a sound.

Can you see the forest for the trees?
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NAPOWRIMO2020 - Poem 24

5/1/2020

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Opticks

The prompt was ‘fruit’ and this somewhat recent and unshared poem has an apple in it, so I count it(;
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    This site is my attempt at gathering all of my creativity that I have strewn about out 'there'....

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