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What’s one fearless thing you’ve done that you never expected to do [evah!]?

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My first finished colored Fearless, with the weight of the world on his doggy shoulders.  Poor little guy. I'm trying a different technique for these - light acrylic washes underneath, with colored pencil and whathaveyou on top.  Layer-oppen-layer-oppen-layer.  (Those of you who didn't grow up with adverts for Sarah Lea flaky pastries won't have a clue what that's all about... oh well.) I like the way it works so far - it dries at the speed of light compared to oils, so I can finish a picture in one sitting, and it lets me get in much more detail.  I loved doing the texture of his muzzle in this one.  Don't you just want to grab those jowls and give them a good squeeze?  Or is that just me? Ahem... probably revealing too much about myself there.  I'm just off to do something perfectly normal now, like ... um ... taxes.  Arranging the spice rack.  Pairing socks.

Last night we had the next session of Fearless Writing, led by Crescent Dragonwagon. CD focuses on the writing process and creativity.

If you Show Up, the Work Will Flow

CD talks about necessary percepts or perceptions, ways of thinking about our work. Not precepts, but percepts. One is that if you consistently show up, the work will flow.

We started by doing a timed, fifteen-minute free write on any topic you wanted. After that, working as a group, we made lists:

• List of 5-6 fears
• List of 7-8 places humans could shelter (cave, bed, tent, etc.)
• Looking back at our free write, we were asked to circle five verbs.
• Then we contributed verbs to a list of about 10-12 from the group.
• Looking at our free write, we circled nouns and contributed to the group list of 10-12 nouns.
• Looking at our free write, we circled descriptive words and contributed to the group list of 10-12 nouns.
• Finally, we were asked to give a number between 1-100 and the name of a tree; then the name of a former President. These gave us addresses of 88 Oak Street and 8 Roosevelt Rd.

The result looked like a hodge-podge of random words, with different vocabulary levels and different topics. After all, they came from the text of a dozen different writers, writing about a huge variety of topics.

Finally, we were asked to pick out one of the feelings and write it in the top right-hand corner of the page; then fold down that corner so no one could see it. We chose an address and a shelter, both part of a title: The Tent at 88 Oak Street. Then, in a fifteen-minute timed write, we were supposed to write something that incorporated all the other words. ALL of them.

The results were amazing. The flow came for most people and somehow, out of the chaos, story lines appeared. Nothing perfect, of course, but enough to demonstrate that Stories Want to be Told, and that Flow Will Come if You Show Up.

One more session tonight for our final percepts.