Category: Original Art - Everyday Art Every Day

My Most Resent Art Fixation

1/13/2023

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!

Then I decided to apply it to an old artwork left abandoned. And I think it has been sufficiently resuscitated.

Thank goodness for ART:)

Starting NaPoWriMo 2022…

4/2/2022

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:

WORDLE as a poetry prompt – for 30 days à wordle in the AM; do a poem
Work on poetry course
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):

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/

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!

Some of my first creative endeavours...

11/28/2020

I found a journal from way before... talk about a time machine!

NaPoWriPo2020 - Poem 28

5/8/2020

NaPoWriMo2020 - Poem 26

5/8/2020

NAPOWRIMO2020 - Poem 24

5/1/2020

Opticks

The prompt was ‘fruit’ and this somewhat recent and unshared poem has an apple in it, so I count it(;

NaPoWriMo2020 - Poem 23

5/1/2020

The prompt was to play with the alphabet (more or less). I was going to cheat and use a poem from when I did this before. Instead, I tried a new one, and Aha! I like it, but I also like the other one, so here are both...

A is for Apocalypse

Architect of anarchy, asshole archetype; And
another apeshit angry anti-asshat holy epiphany --

Aaaaarrrgghhh --

After all the awesome angelic altar-egos
effectively alienate the aliens, isolating with the best of ‘Em,
but only if it’s after eight
and, only if you’re arboreal, all upright and sturdy strong,
can you truly see all that’s wrong.

Ardent animalistic instincts above all else — so I attack,
aggressive and artfully with much ado.
Ammunition needed to amass amenities amongst
the average anomalies in this after-lifetime of allegorical irony.
No glory, like getting schmucked by a lorry, asterisk...
It might have been a bus, but it doesn’t matter when I’m dust --
Awesome August allergies in April —

Aaaachoooo --
Boo hoo. Me too.

(April 24... first write/word gathering, April 25, 2020... arranged, edited, finalized, again Apr 30/May 1)

Mouthful of Marbles

NAPOWRIMO2020 - Poem 22 - EarthDay Theme

4/30/2020

one

one sun
many moons
one love
many tombs
one earth
many rooms
many fumes
few blooms
many ruins
go boom
with doom
now gloom
it looms
fill the saloons
escape tycoons
big goons
human hoodlum unions
loosen delusions
or grow illusions

as we consume
do not assume

hope
floats
like 99 bloated red balloons
going by
before they deflate
as laws dictate
it’s innate
relate, mate ?

one faith
would be great
too late
many fates
many hates

one earth
one sun
one love

one hope

(March 8, 2019)

NAPOWRIMO2020 - Poem 19

4/27/2020

NAPOWRIMO Prompt: Write a poem based on a “walking archive.” What’s that? Well, it’s when you go on a walk and gather up interesting thing – a flower, a strange piece of bark, a rock. This then becomes your “walking archive” – the physical instantiation of your walk. If you’re unable to get out of the house (as many of us now are), you can create a “walking archive” by wandering around your own home and gathering knick-knacks, family photos, maybe a strange spice or kitchen gadget you never use. One you’ve finished your gathering, lay all your materials out on a tray table, like museum specimens. Now, let your group of materials inspire your poem! You can write about just one of the things you’ve gathered, or how all of them are all linked, or even what they say about you, who chose them and brought them together....

I walked by the crick and back home up my street and snapped some pics. Then I photoplayed and created a wee scene...

A Drunken Tale (At the Local Watering Hole)

Wise turtle tells me tall tales of ye old Captain Fundas
who’s quite known for his specific brand spitfire sass.
He lives at his lighthouse, never raising his brows
when the fish fan outwards, away from the birdy buzzards,
for frisky frolics further upstream. Was it all but a dream....
in a little fishing town, a little further down
than that other nifty place, where I saw your pretty face?

(conceived April 24, 2020, recrafted and finalized April 25, 2020)

It’s a nonsense poem, not really saying anything,
But it’s whimsical
And quirky perky:)

NAPOWRIMO2020 - Poem 17

4/25/2020

Prompt: write a poem that features forgotten technology

CDs Remastered; Compact Discs Rememembered

Like 8 tracks and cassettes, CDs 💿
are almost obsolete technologies,
Just ask Sam the record man

Those shiny, silver discs once dazzled me
with magic,
Or, if you’re more scientifically inclined - a semi conductor laser wrote and read music that
enticed my ears and affected my life.

That’s the magic of the mix cd.

Now, I’m left with a museum of mementos;
thousands of sparkling memories in the mixes of youth.
Unhelpful titles scrawled across
in my 13, 17, 21 year old handwriting,
Relics representing events and feelings of ‘the best days of our lives’- not!

when ‘we were young, we were free!’

Long since forgotten what the titles mean;
they used to mean the world.
Now, a total surprise and a complete mystery
you don’t solve until you slide that cd into the player...
Wait for her to load .....
and let loose all wild a n d f r e e.
On the open road, you suddenly give nod to the equivalent of a stuck record needle, or the crumbling mess of cassette tapes, or a streaming stuckness.

Going digital is the loss of the craft.
It doesn’t have that certain slant of light;
It’s just data and it’s invisible,
all up in a cloud somewhere.
With all the space in the world, you can add or delete songs on a whim.

We used to slave over our latest creation.
Couldn’t wait for all the appreciation
Everybody wang-ed, everybody chung-ed
Everybody had fun tonight
Finite selections - 80 minutes, 18 or 19, 20 songs max -
Gotta be selective,
You had to pick and choose
Keep a specific theme or mood
Order mattered - Let’s face it,
No one knew how to work the shuffle
on those awkward clunky Discmans anyway! -
You had to be certain.
Once burned, burned forever!

Oh, and,
Never in the right case at the right time;
Chasing the perfect song,
Hunting for happiness and happy surprises.

That’s the magic of the mix cd.

(April 23, 2020)