Aug 12
Only four submissions for this week’s creativity contest (the prompt is “circles’) — but there are more than 6 hours left until deadline, so if you need a kick in the pants, think outside the box and send something in! Come on, you know you want that $10 amazon.com gift certificate!
Aug 12
The summer Olympics? Yeah, I’m watching. It’s always a thrill to see the world’s top athletes doing what they do best (and, at least for the swimmers, breaking world records right and left). Whenever I witness someone at the top of his or her game, it makes me regret that I’m such a slug in comparison want to reach higher. (And who among the readers of this blog isn’t waving a few extra flags for Dara Torres?)
Whether the greatness is a gold medal for synchronized diving or a Nobel Prize for literature, I’m in awe. I went to see Doris Lessing reading at the Boston Public Library in 1997 (on tour to promote the second part of her autobiography, Walking in the Shade) and the place was a mob scene. Rabb, a huge lecture hall, was packed to overflowing and satellite seating areas with closed-circuit monitors were set up to accommodate some of the extra audience. Being in the presence (albeit, distance presence, although she did sign her book for me) of a true great was a thrilling experience. Obviously, Doris Lessing is beloved by many, and the fondness of her audience was palpable that night. While I have no illusion that I will ever approach anything that Lessing has created, it was hard not to be a little starstruck — to want to earn some of that success and popularity, to dream about going to bed at night knowing you are truly “great” at what matters to you. That maybe somehow the external evidence of success makes you believe “yes, I have accomplished something.”
When I watch the athletes in Beijing, I gobble up the “human interest” stories that detail the competitors’ “regular” life. What must it be like to work at your craft for 6 to 8 hours a day? What must it be like to win a gold medal; proof that you are the best in the world at what you have spent a lifetime pursuing?
Yet my life couldn’t be more opposite. Instead of creating a cocoon in which to concentrate all my effort toward a singular purpose, I have given birth to five children, ensuring that I spend a great many hours taking care of other people and their interests rather than my own. However, as Christa observed in a comment yesterday, that isn’t a reason to succumb to “can’t.” But it does add a few extra challenges. At some point, even if it’s decades away, I want to experience what it’s like to be fully immersed in my craft for an extended period of time. To at least live like a “great,” even if I’m just trying it on. Hopefully, at that point, I’ll be able to manage my child-free time better, and not be so adrift without the structure that motherhood brings.
Until then, I’ll keep cobbling my work together in bits and pieces, creating something around the edges. While I’m at it, I’ll keep my eye on the “greats,” hoping to pick up a few lessons on self-discipline, perserverance, and courage to use along the way. (Seriously, I wonder if I’m too old for a second career in beach volleyball…)
Aug 11
A few important reminders from writer Natalie Goldberg, artist and author of the uber-classic Writing Down the Bones. Like Julia Cameron, Goldberg asserts that writing is a basic element of connected existence for everyone, writers and non-writers alike.
Goldberg’s most recent book, An Old Friend from Far Away, was released in February. Old Friend is about writing personal memoir — exploring memories and connecting with the self in a way that opens doors for all who follow a creative path. I haven’t read the book yet, but Goldberg is certainly an “old friend” to many of us.
In this morning’s Boston Globe, novelist Allegra Goodman published the op-ed piece “So, you want to be a writer? Here’s how.” She advises against writing about yourself and advocates reading widely (of course) and finding a peaceful place to work (yeah, right).
And this is true for everyone, but especially for women: If you don’t value your own time, other people won’t either. Trust me, you can’t write a novel in stolen minutes outside your daughter’s tap class. Virginia Woolf declared that a woman needs a room of her own. Well, the room won’t help, if you don’t shut the door. Post a note. ‘Book in progress, please do not disturb unless you’re bleeding.’ Or these lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which I have adapted for writing mothers: ‘. . . Beware! Beware! / Her flashing eyes, her floating hair! Weave a circle round her thrice, / And close your eyes with holy dread, / For she on honey-dew hath fed, / and drunk the milk of Paradise.’
Unfortunately, the “don’t bother me unless you’re bleeding” routine really isn’t appropriate for mothers with children under the age of six, to my mind. What do you think?
Aug 8
Get your passport out, because this week we’re meeting in Japan for Breakfast. Meet Suzanne Kamata: mother, writer, editor, blogger, expat, and wife of a baseball coach. Oh, and she’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Five times. Batter up!
Suzanne Kamata
CC: Please give us an intro to who you are, what you do, and your family headcount.
SK: I’m an American writer, sometime editor, and stay-at-home mom living in rural Japan with my Japanese husband and our nine-year old twins.
CC: Tell us about your writing life. Any other creative pursuits?
SK: I have been writing and publishing short stories in literary journals since my early twenties. Not long after I arrived in Japan, I started an English-language literary journal of my own called Yomimono, which enabled me to connect with other expatriate writers. This gave me the confidence to edit and publish an anthology of expatriate fiction: The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan. During this time, I’ve always been at work on one novel or another. I finally published a literary novel — my third attempt — this past January. It’s called Losing Kei and it’s about an expat mother in Japan who loses custody of her son then does what she has to do to get him back.
Having children inspired me to start writing children’s stories, and over the past year I’ve published fiction for kids in Ladybug, Cicada, Skipping Stones, and an anthology called Summer Shorts. My first picture book for kids, Playing for Papa, will be published in a bilingual edition (English and Spanish) by Topka Books in November.
I’ve also developed a deep interest in literature about individuals with disabilities. (My daughter is deaf and has cerebral palsy). I recently collected literature on parenting disabled children. The resulting book is Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs.
Losing Kei
CC: What got you started blogging, and what keeps you going?
SK: Originally I was hoping for free books, but now I have a sense of audience. I write for my readers, for the people who keep coming back.
CC: Where do you do your creative work?
SK: At the computer, in my car, at the kitchen table, in restaurants and coffee shops, and occasionally while sprawled across my bed.
CC: Do you have a schedule for your creative work? Is this different when you’re working under a contract?
SK: I don’t really have a schedule. I usually have a couple of days a week when I am free between dropping my kids off at school and picking them up in the afternoon. If I am working under a contract, I use that time to get my work done. If I don’t have an assignment, I try to use that time for creative work.
CC: What do you struggle with most?
SK: Time, of course. There is never enough of it. And I always feel like I should be cleaning the house or exercising or writing letters to my 92-year-old grandfather or something, instead of writing. I also feel that I should be out making money.
One of Suzanne's muses
CC: How has motherhood changed you creatively?
SK: It has changed the focus of my writing and it has made me less precious about my writing time. It has made me more productive! I used to have hours and hours — entire days to myself, where I accomplished so very little. My novel and my second anthology, as well as half a dozen short stories, essays, and a bunch of newspaper articles, were published after I became the mother of twins, one of whom has special needs.
CC: Where do you find inspiration?
SK: From my children, of course, and also from newspaper and magazine articles. When I was teaching English, I was often inspired by stories that my students told me. I’m also inspired by Japanese culture. And I dig back into my memories.
CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs — the ones you read every day?
SK: The blogs at LiteraryMama and MotherVerse; Mothers Who Write [see Breakfast with Kate], Disabilities Studies Blog, and various blogs by expat moms, such as Here in Korea, and mothers of kids with special needs, such as Vicki Forman’s blog Speak Softly [we join Suzanne in extending our mother hearts to Vicki and her family on the recent and unexpected passing of her son, Evan] and Pinwheels.
A selection of Suzanne's credits
CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
SK: Books. I buy lots of lots of books and I’m always getting in trouble with my husband when the Visa bill comes. That, and green tea lattes at Tully’s Coffee shop, where I often go to write.
CC: What are you reading right now?
SK: I’m reading Opa Nobody by Sonya Huber, which is an interesting hybrid of fact and fiction; Mama PhD, edited by Caroline Grant, which is a collection of very accessible essays on motherhood and academia that anyone trying to juggle meaningful work (and/or creativity) and motherhood would be able to relate to; and finally, a short story collection, Apologies Forthcoming by Xujun Eberlein, a Chinese writer whose work I first discovered in MotherVerse.
CC: What advice would you offer to other mothers struggling to be more creative?
SK: Don’t feel guilty about getting a babysitter once in a while and going off to a cafe or a locked room to be creative. Also, I think it’s important for us to share creative work with our children. When asked, my son once said that his dad was a teacher, and his mother did nothing. After that, I made sure that my son knew I was writing and producing. Now he’s very proud of the fact that his mom is a writer.
CC:Thank you, Suzanne!
Aug 7
After all these years, I finally figured it out. My creativity works in cycles of gathering times and output times. Last couple of weeks was a wonderful output time. I made significant progress on my youth novel, I blogged, wrote an essay for the weekly contest, and more. My garden even produced a bunch of good eats. This week, I’m darned if I’ve written anything worth mentioning, my tomatoes are still green and the squash bugs have eaten my squash plants from the inside out, rendering the squash garden an ugly open squashy graveyard.
I feel like my rose bushes. Honestly, they look pretty spindly most of the time, but if I let them do their thing in their own time, I pull out of the driveway, down the side street, around the side of my house to a sudden bursting of big deep fuscia blooms, so fragrant I can smell them from the road. Or the vining trellis is covered in mini white blooms, like marshmallows or little gobs of snow in June. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to say. At other times, the writing pours out so fast and furious, I can’t stop to keep myself from drowning in it. I am so excited and anxious during those few days that it can be overwhelming. Then it stops, just like the blooms fall off the bush.
But then, while the bush may look dead, and I may look like I’m doing nothing, 
I know those flowers are gathering nutrients from the roots. I know my writing is gathering momentum again. And right now, I think I just may write the next bit in a couple of days from now. I can’t force it, just like I can’t make my rose bushes be covered in blooms constantly, either. Right now, we’re both feeding from deep within.
Aug 6
Just like packing for “vacation,” a flurry of last-minute activity for this week’s prompt! Our winner is Lisa Worthington-Brown, who submitted a dreamy painting. Lisa writes: “A secluded house on the water, surrounded by trees. A quiet retreat, where good books will be read, writing will happen, naps will be taken, and telephones will not ring. That is the vacation I want right now.” (Read more at Lisa’s blog.) Congratulations, Lisa! Your $10 amazon.com is “in the mail.”
From Kelly Warren: “Perfect timing on this one! I just finished this piece as part of the Fat Book swap I’m participating in. Our overall theme for the swap is ‘Women,’ with 10 subthemes. This subtheme was Retro, and it’s entry number 4 of 10. I thought of Retro 80s, and the Go Go’s ‘Vacation’ immediately popped in my head.” (Read more at Kelly’s blog.)
From Cathy Coley: “My daily walks are my mini-vacations. This is ‘my’ bench by the lake with my tote which holds notebook, camera, Wreck this Journal and currently, Alice Walker’s In the Temple of My Familiar, one of my favorite books of all time for a re-read, cellphone, keys and pen. I take baby C in stroller, and our little dog Lucy. When baby C sleeps, I read, doodle, jot or snap and drink plenty of water — it’s ‘hoddernhades’ here — while Lucy pants under the bench. I gaze at the rings or the turtles breaking the surface of our little neighborhood finger lake. I watch birds, too, mostly waterfowl, but this is the mockingbird mama who yells at me as I pass everyday, protecting her young who must be in the bigger tree next to this one.”
From Cathy Jennings: “just back from a mellow day at the beach. off to do some knitting.”
From Bec Thomas: “I’ve been out for a week do to my kids’ showing poultry at the fair but I caught your post today…”
From me (Miranda), a haiku and image pairing. I reached into childhood for this one — my annual camping trip with my mother. An only child and a single parent — but we never lacked for companions, seeing as all of our cats came with us every year. My mother (hands-down the most creative person I know) even made a six-sided “cat tent” (not pictured), a huge rectangular tent made from old fishing net, where the cats could hang out during the day, when they weren’t clipped to a run or sleeping in “our” tent at night. For an added feline treat, the old fishing net reeked of old fish had a certain “maritime” odor. (I did take this photograph, although I was about ten at the time! Hence the missing head — which today I can re-cast as “edgy” photography, right?)
Camping with Cats
An unusual
challenge: Meow Mix al fresco
and pets in a tent
This week’s prompt: “Circles”
Use the prompt however you like. All media are welcome. Please e-mail your entries to creativereality@live.com by 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 12. The winning entry receives a $10 gift certificate to amazon.com. Writers should include their submission directly in the body text of their e-mail. Visual artists and photographers should attach an image of their work as a jpeg. Enter as often as you like; multiple submissions for a single prompt are welcome. There is no limit to how many times you can win the weekly contest, either. (You do not have to be a contributor to this blog in order to enter. All are invited to participate.) Remember, the point here is to stimulate your output, not to create a masterpiece. Keep the bar low and see what happens. Dusting off work you created previously is OK too. For more info, read the original contest blog post.
Aug 5
"The Path to...."
Do you ever have so many creative ideas running through your brain that they keep you up at night? Thus is the insomnia of a creative addict, and it has descended upon me tonight. I’ve been laying in bed thinking about how I’d like to revamp my website, how I can rework current projects to use for other projects, how I can change up my product pictures, how I’d sure like to sew some fun little dresses for the girlies, and most importantly, how I can find the time to carry out all the new ideas I’ve been dreaming up…
Mixed media, photography, jewelry design, 2-D art, 3-D art, fiber and textile arts, what have you! At one time or another, I have tried or wanted to try every bit of it. Sometimes that drive to create is so strong that I truly wonder where I’m going with these little hands of mine. I read through the profiles and stories of the women here on Creative Construction and I wonder how you all manage to do it all without losing just a little bit of your sanity. Hmm…maybe that’s the key! You do have to lose a little bit of your sanity to do it all! I know many of my friends would agree I lost mine a long time ago.
At times, I’m envious of stay-at-home moms, whether they work from home as Mom or in another field on top of being Mom. I’d like to think I’d have a little more time to create if I were in your shoes, at least while the kids are in school, yet something tells me those of you in that situation might disagree! So maybe whether we work inside the home or out, we all face the same challenges, just in a different form?
So do you make a change? How do you make a change? How do you follow that path to your dreams? I’ve been thinking about it, just don’t know quite how to go about it. Sometimes it seems we get trapped in our own little situations and can’t figure out a way to get out. That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. Given the time, I think I could make a go of my creative endeavors full time, whatever form those creative endeavors may take, and knowing me, they would probably take quite a few different forms. Yet there is a mortgage to pay and kids to raise, so for now the idea of me quitting my day job scares the heebie-da-jeebies out of me (yes, that’s a technical term, heebie-da-jeebies), not to mention my DH; it just doesn’t seem to be a viable option.
I’ve been trying to make the switch to teaching full time, which would give me much more time, yet with the changes and new programs being added at our college, that just might require a doctorate degree before too long. I’ve given quite a bit of thought to that whole going back to school thing, and I’ve realized that if I went back to school, it wouldn’t be to earn a doctorate in English or Higher Education. You know what I’d love to pursue instead? A master’s degree in Art Therapy. A good friend of mine and I have long had an idea in our heads about a program combining art therapy, music therapy and pet therapy. She’s a counselor, collage artist, and dog lover; I’m an I’ll-try-everything-once artist, musician and dog lover with a strong public relations background. Just dreaming here, but haven’t big things come from little dreams?
What are your dreams, and what are you doing to reach them? Tell me your secret dreams, and maybe you’ll give me a kick in the pants to chase mine. Or maybe you’re already living your dream. How’d you get there? Do tell! Inspire the rest of us! In the meantime I’m going to try to get some sleep…while I think about designing a new journal cover…and that cute little polka-dotted peasant dress…and that mixed media piece featuring Isabelle…and, oh yes, I guess I do need to get some new jewelry designs made since I have four major shows coming up this fall…and…oh, what the heck! Who needs sleep, right!? I’ll just hop in my Magic Bus and go get some Red Bull…
Aug 5
If you have a few extra minutes today — even just ten of them — consider creating an entry for this week’s contest. Our theme is “vacation.” Remember, you can use this theme as broadly as you want to. A color, a snippet of memory — anything goes. We have just two entries in hand so far. (They both happen to be great entries, but everyone likes a little competition!)
Aug 4
In my last post here, I talked a little about a source I’ve worked with before. In my personal blog, I’ve talked a little more about him. The reason I haven’t posted much in either place is, in fact, that source.
In the last few months, I’ve been working on more articles with him. A friendship has developed, and along with it, the beginnings of what we both think will be a strong long-term collaborative relationship. I get his ideas, the kind of information he’s trying to impart to our audience. He gets the way I work, my values as a writer. He has talked me down from creative panic (over an unwieldy and unfocused article that simply needed a little direction) and backed up my instinct (to use a source’s information for sake of balance even if it challenged his relationship with his peers).
I am amazed that this has even happened. At the start of my career, one of my dreams was to find a collaborator. I remember talking about it on and off with various people with whom I seemed to hit it off, but nothing ever came to pass. Wrong time, wrong people, I guess. Ironically, although I have always gotten along great with this particular source, I never thought of him as a potential collaborator… until this past spring, when he mentioned the possibility of working together on a book.
So? Good news, right? For the most part, yes. And at the same time, not such good news for my fiction. Developing this relationship, trying to discern the next stage in my career, has taken up huge amounts of emotional energy. It’s all tremendously positive, so I don’t mind. Yet it’s left me with little interest in my short stories or novellas. I can’t think about characters when I have this new, real-life person I’m trying to get to know. I can’t think about plot when a new chapter in my own life is unfolding. I can’t think about setting when I may be moving.
Which creates another level of anxiety. Our house is still on the market. If we go and I freelance full-time, great—I can move forward with my plans. But if we stay and I’m home with small children once again—well, what does that mean? More time for fiction, perhaps.
But also putting off a collaboration I was really looking forward to. I am confident that my friend will remain, but anxious that the momentum will be lost, the timing that was last spring will not be the same this coming spring. One step at a time, my friend tells me, and I know he’s right. I feel such a strong desire not to give up what I’ve regained this year, and at the same time, maybe we do need another few months to get to know each other before we get going on new projects… especially one as big as a book.
Meanwhile, I’m not too stressed about the state of my fiction career. I miss it, but this relationship is rather intense (hey, it’s creative!) and I know it’s the “life experience” that counts toward producing strong fiction. So, until the next stage, I’m tentatively moving forward and going with the flow—the best way, I’ve found, to handle fiction… even when it isn’t happening quite the way I expected.
Aug 1
Ah, it’s Breakfast time again—my favorite way to start Friday! This week, our creative mother from the blogosphere is Sarah Markley. I discovered Sarah when Lisa Leonard recommended I read Sarah’s blog. I was quickly enamored with Sarah’s honesty and open sharing of her life and spiritual journey. I don’t know Sarah personally, but I sense that her external beauty is reflected on the inside. Another cup of decaf, anyone?
CC: Please give us an intro to who you are, what you do, and your family parameters.
SM: I am Sarah Markley and I am a wife and a mother to two girls, ages 2 and 6. I got married at the freakishly too-young age of 21 and we just celebrated 12 years. I got my bachelor’s degree in English and my masters in education before teaching middle school language arts for a few years. I quit almost 7 years ago when my first daughter was born. Now I work from home a little for my husband’s business (he/we have a small technology consulting company) and I volunteer at my church. Between those things and trying to keep my house clutter-free (an impossible task), I am a mother to my girls.
CC: Tell us about your writing life.
SM: I guess I could say that I am somewhat new to writing. Sort of. I wrote some in college and had something tiny published in my university literary publication. For some reason, when I got married a couple weeks after graduation, my writing just dried up. It wasn’t my husband’s fault; I just stopped and didn’t begin again. I began dozens of journals over 10 years and I have stacks of them with two pages written. I would put that aside and buy a new blank book a couple months later. Same story.
Until I began blogging. It has been the discipline of trying to produce a decent piece of writing each day that has changed my life. I began last summer and haven’t stopped. There is a purpose to it and there is immediate feedback. A friend knew that I was quietly trying to pursue writing and she invited me to a writer’s conference. 
It was the most amazing experience. It was like taking a crash course in writing and I met some wonderful other women writers, some working on books and others on article-length writing, but each one very encouraging.
I know that blogging does not equal writing, but for me, it has been the daily discipline of trying to be creative that has helped me feel like I am moving forward in my craft. I am still unpublished, but we’ll see what the next year holds. The pull and almost “call” I feel toward writing is very strong. I know I have a lot to learn and many more rejection emails to receive, but I’m not giving up yet!
CC: What prompted you to start a blog?
SM: A good friend of mine, Lisa Leonard (featured on one of your previous “Breakfasts”), moved four hours away and began a blog. I initially began reading it to keep up with her life and her new jewelry business. After a couple months, I realized that I could do this too. In fact, I felt I needed too.
CC: On your blog, you posted a moving and personal story about your weight loss experience, in four installments. What moved you to be so open with the general public?
SM: I had shared a little bit about weight loss in some of my early posts and it seemed like it really resonated with readers. I feel like everything a person goes through is so that they can be a helper to others who struggle with similar issues. I’ve always been moderately open with friends and family about my weight loss journey, and I figured that blogging was a perfect medium to share my entire story. Also, you use the term “general public.” And even though the internet is surely open to every person on earth, somehow I feel like my blog readers are closer than the general public. Sure I get someone who disagrees with me now and then, but for the most part, I felt like I was just sharing another facet of myself with people who, for the most part, were interested in what I had to say.
CC: Where do you do your creative work?
SM: As I considered how to answer this question, I kept laughing. If you all saw my house, you’d laugh too. Toys, unfolded clothes, Goldfish crackers — you name it. To find my own space seems impossible. I usually carve out a piece of my dining room table to work and then at night, hoist my laptop upstairs and work in bed. My bedroom is my favorite place to work and the most peaceful room in my house, but it just isn’t practical during the day when I am trying to keep sisters from fighting. I use a desk too, and I’ve only recently had an actual space that is just mine.
But also, when considering the idea of spaces, I do a lot of my work outside. I jog most mornings for exercise and so many days I do my writing in my head. Whether it is actual outdoor inspiration, or me just putting my life in order being by myself, many mornings I return with great ideas and a couple of paragraphs written already.
CC: Do you have a schedule for your creative work?
SM: No schedule. But I imagine as my kids get older and require less of my intense attention, I will be able to do more writing on a schedule.
CC: What do you struggle with most?
SM: Blogging is one thing: 300 words, one idea, a decent take-away and I’m good to go. But writing, editing, and polishing an article for a publication is another thing altogether. Finding the actual time to perfect and article is one of my biggest challenges. By the end of the day I am so exhausted. I have no inspiration left at 9:30 at night.
CC: How much does guilt factor in your life?
SM: I don’t feel a ton of guilt. I try to balance everything so I don’t go crazy (doesn’t always work out) and give everything/everyone the right amount of energy and time. Maybe my writing suffers, maybe I’d write more if I didn’t have kids, but I sure wouldn’t have much to write about.
CC: Where do you find inspiration?
SM: Inspiration really comes from anywhere. I guess that is a cliché answer, but it’s true. I think that an artist (any kind) has to live her life trying to look at things through different eyes — I try to see my kids and my husband and myself in a new light every day.
CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs?
CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
CC: What are you reading right now?
SM: Both of the books I’m reading right now are memoirs. I guess I’m drawn to real stories told in fresh ways. I’m finally digging in to Anne Lamott’s Travelling Mercies. I’m flip flopping between that and Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. I might have never picked it up had someone not given it to me as a gift (it was the only book I brought with me on vacation). I love her unique perspective on fiction and how it is woven into the greater story of our lives.
CC: What advice would you offer to other mothers struggling to be more creative?
SM: I recently had a discussion with my husband about “creative people.” It seems like some people are creative and work in creative fields (photographers, designers, writers, etc.) and some people move through life without pursuing anything that requires “creation” at all. I think that we all are creative in some way (some of us have multiple talents) and that it is the doing of something consistently that makes the difference. Advice I would give to mothers who struggle to be creative? Just decide to do it and don’t stop. Do a little every day of whatever makes you feel like you are in the process of creation. Someone told me at my writer’s conference, “You’ll get published if you keep writing.” Sounds like good advice to me.
CC: Good advice all around, Sarah! Thank you.
Jul 31
The website 350.org is gathering momentum in the fight against global warming:
Many think of 350.org not as a campaign, but as a global collaborative art project to promote knowledge of the number 350. So let your creativity run wild by making your own art, crafts, and more to spread the word about 350 wherever you go. So far people are making 350.org t-shirts, quilts, paintings, and more – show us what you can come up with to get the word out in your community! Just be sure to share your creations with the rest of the 350 community by uploading a photo of it on our website and tagging it ‘art’. Below are a few resources and opportunities to plug into the project artistically.
350.org has teamed up with Craftster.org and other crafting organizations to sponsor a couple of exciting contests. Together we’re asking people to create quilts, t-shirts, hats, needlepoint designs, finger puppets, or whatever you can think of that helps spread the number 350 in their community. The submission period will be during the month of August, when participants will be able to enter their creations in the t-shirt design competition or the general craft competition – so get started early! Visit the contest website for more details.
Be free, create, and save the world. Who could be better equipped for the job of superhero than a bunch of creative mothers?
Jul 30
This time our weekly creativity contest really went to the dogs! Well, and the cats, too. Our winner is Cathy Jennings, with a beautiful image of three of her cats. Congratulations, Cathy! Your $10 amazon.com gift certificate will arrive momentarily.
Lisa Worthington-Brown writes: “Here is my submission for ‘Beauty.’ This is a ‘literal’ one for me as my dog’s name is Beauty. This is a piece I made from a photograph of her at a local coffee shop.” Love it, Lisa! And welcome to Creative Construction.
From Cathy Coley:
Beauty
Beauty has always been a powerful concept to me. I’ve been involved in the arts, all of them, since I was a very young thing. Something about my dreaminess in finding the most beautiful shells to collect, astounding sunsets to watch, the soul stirring of church hymns, the magnificence of a daddy long leg walking along a stick, finding my father’s collegiate anthology containing Robert Frost marked me in pursuit of beauty for my whole life. Even watching my mother get dolled up for a night out with soup can rollers in her hair while she applied her deep red lips and pressed a tissue to them before a night out was a source of endless fascination.
When I was nine years old, our ten-year-old Shetland sheepdog, champion-bred, who was previously assumed to be barren, rolled her fatness over one day, and we discovered she wasn’t just fat, she was pregnant and due any day. Years before, my parents had tried to breed her. Then one night, in her dog’s life twilight, my mother and next door neighbor, Mrs. Maxwell, who had grown up on a farm in the Midwest and was a nurse, so knew about these things, sat doula to Duchess’s long labor before Mrs. Maxwell declared, “we need to get her to the vet.” One canine caesarian section resulted in five black-and-white mutts, just in time for Halloween. One was solid black. I immediately named her Black Beauty. As the puppies grew toward Christmas, my mother kept warning me, we can’t keep any, we have to give them all away. Slowly, the little black one gained some brown detailing along her legs and snout, a white mark grew on her chest, and her name was shortened to Beauty.
Of course, we all adored all the puppies, but I saw a special sweetness in her disposition early on. I came home from school a few days before Christmas break, and my mother had taken the puppies to the pound. The house was so quiet without them. She and I, and mama dog, too, were sad and worried that they all wouldn’t find homes, and would be put to sleep. So close to Christmas, adoption was inevitable, and my mother made them promise to let us know if any weren’t adopted. The last day before break, I came home to find Beauty back in our home. My mother couldn’t stand to not keep her. That was the best Christmas yet. When we opened presents, she played in the ribbons, and Duchess kept corralling her dutifully.
Beauty lived a long life with our family. She had puppies of her own the following year, and we gave them all to friends or acquaintances, except one male we named Butch. They were nearly inseparable and from us, too. They walked us to school, ran us through the neighborhood and woods. They meddled in the neighborhood stickball games which happened in the dead-end in front of our house. Beauty ran the bases with the batters, and Butch chased the ball. Touch football in the backyard turned funny when someone said, “hut-hut-hike!” For some reason, the generally sweet-tempered, playful Beauty went doggie psycho on whoever said it, and wanted the ball for her own. When I was in a more contemplative mood, which was often, and climbed up to the top of the maple in the yard, they sat at the bottom, waiting for me to come down.
As she got older, she stopped two doors down on the walk to school, or when my younger brother and I were bopping around the neighborhood. That’s where Mrs. Holcomb, with her houseful of cats, would feed table scraps to our dog. We had a houseful of cats, too, but that’s another story. Beauty knew she had a good free meal every time she showed up. My parents took to calling her Butterball.
Eventually, I went away to college, then only saw the old dogs when I was home on breaks. A year after college, living in Boston, I got a call from my mother, “Beauty’s gone.” I will tell you, the only times I heard my mother cry were when the dogs died. She did not weep openly about her parents, or sisters, just the dogs. And then she boo-hooed. However, having pursued beauty all my life, I found a strange sweetness in the death of Beauty. She was one beautiful dog.
From Kelly Warren: TWO haiku/photo pairings!
1)
Best Friends
Growing up so fast
They’re treasures beyond measure
Reaching for the stars
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2) “If you look closely towards the middle right side, you’ll see a little ellipse of cloud poking out with a halo of green and pink around it. We were riding in the golf cart when I saw this, and I made my DH stop the cart. He couldn’t see it! I was so happy when it actually came through on film.”
Angel’s Halo
An angel’s halo lights the sky
Hands reach down to touch you
Like magic from above
From me (Miranda):
Simple Gifts
Beauty waits, clear and
patient, within silver threads
of the everyday
This week’s prompt: “Vacation”
Use the prompt however you like. All media are welcome. Please e-mail your entries to creativereality@live.com by 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 5. The winning entry receives a $10 gift certificate to amazon.com. Writers should include their submission directly in the body text of their e-mail. Visual artists and photographers should attach an image of their work as a jpeg. Enter as often as you like; multiple submissions for a single prompt are welcome. There is no limit to how many times you can win the weekly contest, either. (You do not have to be a contributor to this blog in order to enter. All are invited to participate.) Remember, the point here is to stimulate your output, not to create a masterpiece. Keep the bar low and see what happens. Dusting off work you created previously is OK too. For more info, read the original contest blog post.
Studio Mothers: Life & Art 