Musing About the Muse

Back in the day, when I was feverishly working on the Magnum Opus of my Master's Degree, I covered a very large segment about John Keats.  Like many good poets, he understood the value of Greek and Roman literature and paid homage to the muses.

I used to chuckle to myself at the idea that some magical being would come to a writer, and inspire them to write.  I knew it was likely the influences of drugs or alcohol or other natural or unnatural substances not the divine.

But lately, I've been understanding where they were coming from.

Frankly, I am more like them than I would usually care to admit.

Something has happened at the beginning of this new year.  I am inspired by everything.  My artistic side is busting a move. Today, I spent my Saturday relaxing while I still try to expel the last few dregs of a wretched cold I had a couple weeks ago but that still haunts me.  But the one thing I did not do today, which I have been doing every day for about a week and a half, is draw.  And not just draw, but draw with my new dip pens.

You see, while artists have no specific muse, I believe I might be entertaining a muse in disguise or something.  Maybe she's taking a holiday in California. Maybe it is because I am both a writer and artist? All I know is that not having drawn anything at all today after several days of being on fire has made me jittery tonight.  I feel like I'm going through some sort of addict's withdrawal symptoms just from not having inserted a nib into pen holder, dipped it's perfect tip gently in an ink bottle, and then gliding it across a paper.  But it's late at night and I don't want to do too much before sleep.  So I will merely layout my plan of action for tomorrow.  But I swear, I must work on a little soon or I may go crazy.

The artistic surge is tangible and unavoidable. I feel invigorated and I refuse to back down.

So, my love letter to my muse, my angel, my holy intangible spirit guide whomever you are that is inhabiting my soul, I welcome you.  Please stay.   Your presence is most appreciated and most welcome.   You and I can make the world more beautiful, I know we can!

Proof?  Here:

Work that is coming out of me is blowing myself away.

I feel like I'm on the verge of something amazing.  And that's a really good feeling.

Let my own inner flower unfold!

The Element of Surprise

In keeping with my cousin Melissa's blog, and her frequent LML (Love My Life) Monday episodes, today I am keeping positive with the element of surprise.  So I began to think of the ways that surprises have cropped up just in my normal day.

1. I was reminded of my friends who 17 years ago came to me and said they wanted to elope, and wanted me to be a witness.

We were all on religious retreat in Niagara Falls, Canada. My friends were very much in love, and decided that what they really wanted to do was exchange vows and the sooner the better. No one to interfere as she knew family could.  Just people that loved them sharing a beautiful and intimate moment of commitment.

They found a very Irish minister and exchanged vows right there.

It was beautiful! It had been raining and now it was partly cloudy out.  They exchanged vows, and the sun broke through just at the right time in the beautiful botanical gardens.  I borrowed a beautiful dress that served as my bridesmaid's dress from her, and she borrowed a sweater from me. It was a moment and a bond I will always cherish.


2. My friends had their baby today! It came a little early, but their little baby girl was happy to come on her very own schedule.  Not only this, but they were blessed with a beautifully smooth birth of a five pound and ten ounce gorgeous little munchkin. No issues, no hugely long labors.  It was wonderful.

3.  My age.  I turned 40 and I still have a little hiccough saying it.  However, the payoff is when not only do you still get carded, but when a new friend meets you, and your friend tells them how old you are, they think someone is pulling their leg.  No really? Seriously? Sara is 40?  No. Really?

Yeah really. Kind of makes my day that it's that astonishing and that I don't look anywhere close to my real age.

4.  When I surprise someone with my abilities.  I usually mention that I'm an artist, that I like to draw and such but because I'm not one to usually go around bragging about it, it usually gets swept under the rug.  However, as an artist I do look for opportunities in my life to showcase my work.

In this case, I just so happen to be helping out with a film series.  While this next event is more of a research and panel discussion with no film screening, it still is based on the 50th anniversary of the epic film Lawrence of Arabia.  So I decided to contribute some illustrated artwork for it.  Frankly if I had been thinking of it on the last round when Shirley Jones came, I probably would have done something illustrated for the Music Man.  But my work on that happened so quickly that I didn't really have time to think about it.

This time I had been thinking about it since the Music Man, so I prepared an illustration to go on flyers and posters.

I had originally been going for realism, and then my brother pointed out that it would fit better if I gave it a comic book style, so viola!

It came out so good, that my friend and colleague that I was working with asked me who did the illustration.

That would be me.

Actually quite a shock I believe.  He also believes I should attempt a graphic novel, and at some point I may very well do just that.  However, it's such a lengthy process it would take me much more time to do than just writing a novel. But who knows? I obviously have it in me.

So, what surprised you today?

As for me, I'm always looking for the really good surprises and relishing every one.

Paying Homage to Winsor McCay

I am always happy when Google pays homage to what some may argue is an obscure artist or literary figure.

Today's Google tribute is to Winsor McCay, who is legendary in the comics community.

McCay's work is considered groundbreaking for creating an illustrated strip revolving around Little Nemo representing the fascinating fantasy world of dreams.

His early work in animated film has made him one of the forefathers of our modern era of animation.  In a sense, we can thank him for inspiring Walt Disney and others for the accompanying empire of animated film that resulted from groundbreaking work such as this.

It is especially relevant when seeing movies like ParaNorman, Coraline, Frankenweenie, Nightmare Before Christmas, and a host of other stop-motion animated films that came before and will continue to delight us.  Stop-motion bears the closest resemblance to the process laid out over 100 years ago, requiring patience as frames are photographed one by one.

In the link below, Winsor McCay films a cute silent film about putting together a short animated feature and and selling the idea to others, then presents his month of work.  While it does drag a bit by today's standards, it is a true marvel considering there was no such thing as color film in 1911. In order to project in color, it would have had to have been hand colored frame by frame.

To give me even more of a feeling of connection as an artist, he was born in Michigan and went to Ypsilanti Normal College to study art. My great grandparents made a home in Michigan, my grandfather was born there, and my father grew up in Michigan.  As well, my mother's side of the family has provided me with a gaggle of Michigander cousins.

Even without the Michigan connection, much of our animated entertainment can give a hat tip to those who set the stage for modern animated entertainment and until today many may have never even heard his name.

So, Winsor McCay, I salute you.  For helping pave the way for a happy childhood and fostering dreams of artists like me for generations.

Discovering something new

Being an artist and a writer, I'm always exploring, improving, and otherwise looking for ways to express myself in new ways.

Thanks to a rampant round of insomnia, I managed to discover an artist named Natasha Westcoat.

Starting while she was still a teenager back in 2004, she started selling her work online and since then has sold an astounding 1000 pieces.

Her work has been so successful that not only is it all over the place, but now located as patterns on linens in major department stores.  For a relatively short career, she did what many aspiring artists like myself dream about: making it big.

While making it big would be exciting, big for me these days would be eeking a living.

However, her story inspired me in another way, in that it has turned me on to a growing art movement.  Whereas I had always thought that art had to be huge (after all, my instructors were always encouraging bigger and bigger) it seems that more people are catching on to a trend of shrinking.

What I am referring to is Artist Trading Cards.  The idea is to create original works of art but tiny that can be exchanged for other tiny works.  Clubs have formed around the world, and you can even do exchanges of work online to get exposure.

But apparently, people like to purchase these little gems as well.

As an artist, I consider this a tremendous opportunity to try something new at a low risk.  One of the most annoying aspects about trying new techniques is that feeling of investing time in it only to see it not come out the way you want and only finding this out at the end of a very long investment.  Or accidentally making your work a catastrophe by one screw-up.

The marvelous thing about this, is that I can complete an entire work in a matter of an hour.  If I want to try a more time-consuming technique it won't take me a week, but maybe a few hours.  If it doesn't work, it's not the end of the world.

Even better, I'm upcycling by using discarded paper samples from a prior job as a graphic designer.

All of this serves as proof, that often annoying circumstances like insomnia can actually turn into something productive and amazing.