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By: Leslie Ann Clark,
on 6/24/2013
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That is the question! The answer is in you. Will you be who you yearn to be in this life? Will you accomplish your dreams? Much of it is up to you.
My neighbor is an example. I met her three years ago. I was so excited to have an artist move in next door! She is a potter and when I visited her she would show me what she was making. She had some really fun pieces.
Last December she agreed to be in a garden show. She was one of two artists that would show their work in a specific garden. She knew she needed to fill the yard so she began in earnest to produce pieces with a garden theme. All winter long the kiln was firing wonderful creations! Colorful pots, bird houses and bird baths began oozing out of her garage. Her work began taking on a personality and a style like no other artist. I saw her grow in her skills.
Last Wednesday was set-up day. We placed her art all over the yard. By the time we finished, the yard look like it was out of a fairy tale! I could see that her pieces told a story. There was color everywhere! We were so excited!
We returned on Saturday for the sale. No sooner did we sit down at our table when the crowd of visitors began forming a line to buy my friends pottery. The line did not stop until the day ended. It was wonderful!!! All of her hard work paid off.
So what is my point? Find what you love and DO it! Find a way! Keep moving in the direction. To be or NOT to be? It’s up to you!
Pottery by Juanita Estepa
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Today Deb Gaby and I finished leading the third day of a three-day Foundations of Writing Workshop training. At the end, we asked for reflections. Teacher after teacher commented on the impact of… Read More →
All I really wanted to do today was draw. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do. Some of those things you are not good at, so they take you ALL DAY! Sometimes things go wrong. Then you are sad. … and sometimes you mess up. … and sometimes you do all of that in ONE DAY! Ha!
Goodbye Wednesday. I’m going to bed!
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Peruse our past posts about reflective practice and self-assessments students can use at the end of the school year.
By: Leslie Ann Clark,
on 3/14/2013
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Have you ever started a new chapter in your life? Have you ever dared to do something you never did before? Did you feel launched into it and found yourself in free fall? You are not alone. It happens all the time! Anyone who wants to do something worthwhile in life has to take risks and sometimes those risks lead to even more risks!
When my art career began, I was imagining all the possibilities. I dreamed of success. I created many fun little cartoons and talked about what I wanted to do with them. Then one day, I ran into a friend who was DOING what I wanted to do. She shook me! She said, “Les, you have to go to the N.Y. Stationary Show and you have to go NOW!
I had heard of this show. I had many of my friends online talking about going. This was back in the late 90′s. There was something in her voice. It was more like a command from heaven than a gentle nudging from a friend. I made up my mind to go!
This was huge for me. I had only been on an airplane once for a 45 minute flight. I practically sat on the lap of the man sitting next to me… asking him what this bump was and what THAT bump was! I decided I better pray about this trip. I told the Lord that if HE wanted me to do this then he would have to make the way for me. A few days later someone had put an envelope in my mailbox. It was $300.00. Enough for my flight! It was not long until I was flying across America to New York City. I met up with my girlfriend and stayed with her uncle and aunt. We took buses, rode trains and cabs. Once at the show we had to pedal our portfolios. I am NOT a sales person. … but there I was asking people where their art director was and if I might have a minute with them. Over and over. Hmmm…. it became a little easier each time.
One last company sat down with me. They looked through my whole portfolio and asked if I had anything more? I pulled out one last picture of a little baby. That was it! That was the one the art director liked. She asked me if I had any more and I told her I would email them to her when I got home. You better believe I was sketching babies on the airplane!
This was one of my first “be brave” moments. Over and over the good Lord has taken my by the hand and shown me what to do next. Some would say, “you are weak if you need help for everything.” But I say, I am smart for asking.
I have a few more adventures I am yearning for. There will come that day, when the dreaming is over, and the bags all packed and ready to GO!
What are you waiting for? Be Brave!!!!!
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During Lent, the minister of the church I attend sends out daily reflections over e-mail. This is today's, and I think it's wonderful. From The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life, by James Martin:
When I was a novice, one of my spiritual directors quoted the Scottish philosopher John Macmurray, who contrasted "real religion" and "illusory religion." The maxim of "illusory religion" is as follows: "Fear not; trust in God and God will see that none of the things you fear will happen to you." "Real religion," said Macmurray, has a different maxim: "Fear not; the things you are afraid of are quite likely to happen to you, but they are nothing to be afraid of."
By: Leslie Ann Clark,
on 2/25/2013
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Come February, without fail, I begin to feel the effects of Spring Fever. My tulips are peeking out, our trees are budding, and my heart begins pining away for warm weather. THEN it SNOWS 8 inches! haha!
There is no complaining on my part. Colorado needs the moisture! Like Peepsqueak, (above) I put on my coat and scarf and set off in our winter wonderland. Spring will arrive as it alway does, but there are sidewalks to shovel and a wood stove to load and lots of indoor activities to keep me busy until snow gives way to rain and flowers.
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By: Leslie Ann Clark,
on 2/22/2013
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Oh little Peepsqueak. This picture of you reminds me of something that happened to me when I was little. We were visiting an aunt in Washington. She had a rope that dangled from a tree in her backyard. She also had a big DOG that came running into the yard barking at ME! I jumped on that rope and UP, UP, UP I went! I did not even know I could climb a rope! I just did it! ha ha!
Most of my art comes from my imagination, but it is also from my memories and from my life experiences. All that being said, I think I can still climb a rope!
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Lord, I love Zadie Smith's essays, like this wonderful piece in last week's New Yorker on Joni Mitchell, changing artistic tastes, changing selves, and artistic continuity:
Who could have understood Abraham? He is discontinuous with himself. The girl who hated Joni and the woman who loves her seem to me similarly divorced from each other, two people who happen to have shared the same body. It's the feeling we get sometimes when we find a diary we wrote, as teenagers, or sit at dinner listening to an old friend tell some story about us of which we have no memory. It's an everyday sensation for most of us, yet it proves a tricky sort of problem for those people who hope to make art. For though we know and recognize discontinuity in our own lives, when it comes to art we are deeply committed to the idea of continuity. I find myself to be radically discontinuous with myself -- but how does one re-create this principle in fiction? What is a character if not a continuous, consistent personality? If you put Abraham in a novel, a lot of people who throw that novel across the room. What's his motivation? How can he love his son and yet be prepared to kill him? Abraham is offensive to us. It is by reading and watching consistent people on the page, stage, and screen that we are reassured of our own consistency.
This made me think of the fact that often the moments I love most in fiction or film are the moments where a character does something that is seemingly inconsistent with his or her outward character, but completely consistent with his or her inward self, which we've glimpsed throughout the proceedings . . . a sacrifice, an unexpectedly marvelous dance, a moment of honesty or tenderness they weren't capable of at the beginning. It is often the revelation of that character's strength through the demonstration of their vulnerability, and it shows us layers, dimensions, complexity, reality, all the things I like best.
That said, I disagree a little with the last few sentences of the paragraph I quote above because I don't find Abraham inconsistent at all; his obedience to his god simply outranks his love for his son, which could certainly be found offensive if you disagree with those rankings, but which is not a matter of discontinuity. And I think I like watching consistent fictional people not because I am like them, but because their dependability, the cleanliness of their consistency, anchors and comforts me in my own wild ups and downs. One of the great joys of fiction is that it can be neater than life; the best fiction either organizes the reader's emotions completely, I think, or just barely manages the messiness of reality.
Agree? Disagree? In my inconstancy, I'm open to persuasion.
Finally, this essay also reminded me of this extraordinary version of "Both Sides Now" -- made famous in the Emma Thompson weeping scene in "Love, Actually" -- which almost makes me cry every time I hear it with its texture of pain and wisdom. It is worth stopping what you're doing to breathe and to listen:
One of the lines from the Voices Strong class mantra, taught by Christy Rush-Levine is Write Unapologetically. I love these two words side-by-side standing for genuine marks on the page. Today, I planned… Read More →
It’s one of those days. You know, where you wonder if you really want to keep doing this? It’s one of those days. You know, where you are positive you are doing exactly… Read More →
Katha Pollitt, a critic, feminist, activist, and liberal who I greatly respect and admire, posted this on Twitter this morning:
Half of laity members who voted against women bishops in Anglican church were women.
And I wanted to say, "Sister, please." Because that "#slavementality" hashtag reflects a fundamental misunderstanding -- or perhaps better put, a fundamental willful blindness -- on the part of my fellow liberals about the way that my fellow people of religion or faith sometimes think or behave . . . and in particular, a willful blindness by my co-feminists toward women who make choices that don't advance the cause.
Those women who voted against women bishops were quite likely ladies who read 1 Timothy 2:12* literally and who find that more important or compelling than their own rights. This is a
perfectly valid way to think and behave in the private sphere
. It may not be the way we feminists personally would interpret Scripture or vote -- but
other people's religious beliefs aren't any of our business, and liberals have fought long and hard to make sure everyone's religious beliefs
stay their private business and don't come into the public sphere.
All of this goes ditto for women who vote, based on religious grounds, for a candidate who opposes abortion rights**. That does come into the public sphere, as those women's choice of a candidate can influence all women's choices about life and death, literally. But that's still a valid belief and choice, and the work of those who support abortion rights then is to argue better and either change their minds or convince other people to outvote them. Same goes for the Anglican vote: The work lies not in insults, but in a more wide-ranging theological discussion that might open up these women's minds, if they're willing to go there (which they may not be). It's complex and hard, but not cheap, as Ms. Pollitt's comment felt to me.
[A side note if you're interested in issues of Biblical literalism and religious mind-changing: The
New Yorker from November 26 has a
terrific, thoughtful, even-handed profile of Rob Bell, the founder of Mars Hill church, and his journey from strict evangelical to someone still faithful but rather more nebulous in religious definition.]
Feminism is, or should be, nothing more and nothing less than the fight for the rights of women to maximize their personal choices and opportunities within a culture that often represses them -- including those choices and opportunities some feminists might disagree with, such as those that reinforce the repressive culture. Calling those women who make different choices idiots does not advance the cause here, and I wished we did it less and argued for complexity more.
_____________________________ * "I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet," as quoted in the New Yorker article. ** I should note that my own feelings about abortion are extremely squooshy, so I will not argue it one way or another, nor do I welcome arguments about it in the comments (goodness, no).
Rest. Why does this seem like a dirty four letter word? I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about rest. We were on fall break last week. You might think I took rest… Read More →
Rest. Why does this seem like a dirty four letter word? I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about rest. We were on fall break last week. You might think I took rest… Read More →
Here’s the thing: I’m not really the kind of person who follows authors around and gets their signatures and takes photos with them. In fact, I’m rather shy when it comes to this… Read More →
I hesitate to write this blog post. Yet it needs written. Maybe for you or for the teacher next door. Definitely for me. This week I’ve had too many conversations with teachers who… Read More →
I am finishing out this month of blogging (hooray!) with a theory I've been working on for some time. Last February, thanks to John Green's The Fault in Our Stars -- which I loved intensely and immensely -- I was thinking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and how it might apply to literary judgments. That is, to use the books within the book of The Fault in Our Stars (which form an important part of the narrative), what makes The Price of Dawn (an action-adventure novel based on a video game) better or worse than An Imperial Affliction (a literary novel about life, love, death, and the existence of God)? Is one better or worse? How do we decide that? And for me, in my real-world daily life: What makes one manuscript better than another on a solely literary basis? To answer these questions, I hereby present, as a hypothesis up for discussion, the Klein Pyramid of Literary Quality:
(My original sketch of the pyramid above; much more readable version created by the kind
Ed DeCaria.) To take these from the bottom (lowest level) up:
1. COMPLETION. The literary work is complete. (Lots of writers never even get here -- a completed manuscript -- so truly, this counts for something.)
2. COMPETENCE. The literary work is readable and understandable by a reader who is not the author.
3. CHARISMA. The literary work is able to make you feel the emotion the writer intends you-the-reader to feel, so well as that intention can be discerned. (While the subject of intention is clearly nebulous and much debated, I feel as if it is safe to say
Pride and Prejudice is intended to make a reader laugh, for example, while
Pet Sematary is intended to scare us, and any romance novel is intended to make readers fall in love along with the characters.)
3. QUALITY. The literary work displays some measure of imagination, originality, and/or accomplishment in at least once of these areas:
Prose, Character, Plot. Ideally, all three aspects of the Quality triangle will work together to contribute to the book's Charisma or Questioning or both.
3. QUESTIONING. The literary work intentionally asks and answers questions about our human existence. (See above for caveats on intention.)
4. CONSONANCE. The literary work successfully integrates all of the above into a meaningful and beautiful whole. Consonance books are masterpieces.
How to Use This Pyramid: To measure the literary quality of the work, you fill in all the triangles/trapezoids the particular work has achieved according to you, the reader. The darker the pyramid, the better the book is. A book must have all of the triangles/trapezoids of the previous level filled in to advance to the next level. Thus, for me,
The Fault in Our Stars would be one solid dark triangle, because I think it does everything well, up to and including Consonance. But
Twilight would be a dark trapezoid at the bottom (Levels 1 and 2) with just the Charisma triangle filled in above it, as it totally caught me up in the feelings of falling in love, even as I was not overly impressed by any of its Quality attributes, and I don't think Ms. Meyer especially intended to Question anything. An intensely didactic picture book might fill in Levels 1 and 2 but then have only the Questioning triangle complete, as it's asking how we should live and then answering that question, but with no emotional appeal (Charisma) at all.
Each judgment would be peculiar to its reader and the date s/he read the work, as opinions vary widely and can change over time; but that is where half the fun of literary discussion comes in, as one reader might say "Oh, this book was totally Charismatic for me!" and another would sniff, "Hmph. It barely achieved Competence!" The more widely it is agreed a book fills up the pyramid, the closer to classic status it moves in the public eye. And this pyramid has nothing to do with sales or other financial success; it is for aesthetic judgments only.
There are two more concepts that I've puzzled over whether and how to include in the pyramid: the ideas of Pleasure and Ethics.
Gone with the Wind, for instance, would have earned Consonance from me when I read it in seventh grade, and it Pleased me intensely at the time, but it's also a book rife with racial stereotypes; should it then not be allowed to achieve Consonance in my judgment, because its Ethics are bad? Or
Waiting for Godot is likewise Consonant for me, but I
hated reading it (I've never seen it staged): Can it then not be Consonant because I didn't take Pleasure in it? (I guess there was some Pleasure in recognizing the mastery of the construction, how completely the Quality of its plot, characters, and prose contributed to the Questioning and Charisma it wanted to achieve; but none of that really made up for my desire for someone to
move, dammit.) (Also, clearly, I would have to come up with synonyms for "Pleasure" and "Ethics" that start with K sounds.)
What do you think? Are there categories I've left out that should be included in any future revision to the Pyramid? Would YOU include Pleasure and/or Ethics, and how, and what would you call them? What books have you read this year that you would call Consonant and why?
I would be delighted to hear thoughts here! And thanks to anyone who's stuck around and read my posts through all of this month; I've really enjoyed the writing of them, and appreciate your attention.
 |
| oddly, this accidental screenshot was taken when my screen was actually busted and looked totally nothing like this. iphone magic, i guess. |
My iphone died today. I dropped it on a tile floor. I drop it all the time, but today I guess I dropped it in some extra-special way. All the stars aligned, and the screen totally went. I watched in horror as it happened—I actually felt like I was in a movie. I think that all speaks volumes to my iphone attachment, for better or for worse, and how, maybe (and I'm looking for the silver lining here, but
just maybe) it's not a bad thing for me to view this whole debacle as an opportunity for a little self-examination.
For one thing, I do not NEED to use my phone as much as I do. Yes, it is an indispensable tool. Yes, it is the biggest technological revolution since the computer and the internet. Yes, I do
need it—there is no getting around that— it's the swiss army knife of productivity for me.... BUT (you knew this was coming!) the iphone does not have a conscience. It does not have an opinion. It can't tell me what it thinks I should or shouldn't spend my time doing. (Kazoo, anyone? Flinstones?) It can only go where I tell it to go, do what I tell it to do. That, unfortunately, can sometimes add up to a fair amount of time goofing off. Time that would be much better spent with my sketchbook, or my notebook... or even just hanging out with my dog more. I'm certain of this. Sure, I mostly use it for productivity-laced activities.
I read helpful e-books on it. I have so many tools on it that help me communicate with others, deliver files to people, and generally keep things running well. The phone itself even assists me with off-line creative work in several ways.
And when I do play a game, it's often Draw Something, which I consider a casual but engaging creative exercise, not a waste of time.
But... my iphone can't tell me to knock it off when I take the off-ramp into junkdom (Hello, Us Weekly!). It can't coach me to curb my Instagramming. (Hey I love Instagram, but I also love pie, and if I ate pie the way I Instagram..) It doesn't set a timer when I'm making photo collages in PicFrame, my latest obsession. (Think they should make an app for that?)So, I'm coming clean: On some level, my iphone addiction actually
bothers me! Yes, It
is an uber-productivity tool, but it's also an uber-
time-suck-and-goof-off tool if one is not really careful about it. This is something I've been aware of. It's not a secret. But here I am,
now, in
this situation. And it's really a great, gifty opportunity to investigate my phone habits and take steps to revise them where needed. I'm not saying it's great that I dropped and accidentally killed my phone. But I
am glad that I'm self-aware enough to see this as a chance to make some small changes that I think will add up, and eventually improve— ironically—
my productivity. Definitely, when it comes to sketchi
Today Sam went to day one of a five day Lego Camp. I went a little early to pick him up, just so I could observe a little bit. I was impressed by… Read More →
This morning I had breakfast with three members of my writers’ group–it’s something I look forward to each and every month. Our Breakfast Club. Our favorite spot is Melrose Place: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Melrose-Place-Family-Restaurant/138793829468192 And our usual waitress, who is excellent, is Ashley. We first started meeting because writing for most of us is a solitary pursuit. I’m [...]
Last year on Mother’s Day the kids got me an e-reader. Unfortunately, it took me until a few weeks ago to get through the pile of print books I’d already purchased so I could try it out. Funny, how my reading list can get ahead of me! In the meantime, I’d started teaching a course [...]
For Christmas we gave Sam The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Sam and I have been reading it ever since. I like to move through books quickly, often staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish the story. I can’t wait to finish stories, wanting the character world to be restored [...]
"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."
Winston Churchill
Do you know and understand how important your attitude is? I mean, truly understand? I'm realizing this more and more each day, especially here in Abu Dhabi.
I love living here. I love my kids, the opportunities I've had, and the new friends I've made. But, it's not always easy. Sometimes, it gets rough. I mean, I kind of expected challenges since they're in the middle of an education reform, but MAN! Things have been harder than I thought they'd be. And I'm in one of the better schools. I did stress last trimester. I struggled a bit.
And then, I changed my attitude. I made a vow not to let the challenges get to me. I decided not to complain about what's going on (especially since there are other teachers in far worse predicaments). It was time for me to think positive about everything that came my way, even the challenges. I refuse to let them get me down.
Attitude is everything. When I changed my outlook, things didn't bother me as much. Don't have resources to teach like they want us to teach? It allows me to access parts of my creativity that I didn't even know I had. Have double the amount of work cos they added more students who don't understand my language? That's more children for me to reach. Our principal wants us to do what by when? That's ok. I'm strong. God's got my back...I've got this.
I can still smile. God has given me such a peace that I can't even explain. Since I've changed my attitude, I'm loving it here even more. I've even started going out and enjoying myself more, which says a lot cos I'm normally a homebody. I live in a beautiful high rise apt (rent free), I'm minutes away from the beach, I'm part of an education reform that will help build up a new country, I'm touching the lives of children who, because I taught them, will be bilingual before they even reach 6th grade. I've met people who have the potential of being life-long friends. I'm doing things that, this time last year, I wouldn't have thought I'd be doing.
Are your circumstances giving you grief? Try changing your attitude. Think positive instead of negative. I know it's so cliche, but go on...try it and see what a difference it makes!
By: Linda Aksomitis,
on 3/27/2012
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I teach online classes for a library training certificate and/or diploma at night for Credenda Virtual College. When I’m done I need to relax! So, I turn to television to give me a break from work and monitors and life in general. In the past, I’ve had few choices. I absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt do not [...]
In a year of being home and listening to myself, I have just entered month three.
February was for.... lots of things. Some writing, yes. And more staying still, more creating routines. More discovery. It's hard to put into words. I didn't know making the decision to stay home this year was going to bring me feelings this... deep. I don't know when I'll write about writing again. I'm sorry if
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Good for Juanita… She showed what having a goal can do for a person!
Yes!!! She worked so hard!