It's been a busy time ...

I apologize to all of my regular viewers for the lack of posts.  I lost 2 weeks during family visits, and though the journaling class is chugging along, there have also been member vacations, moving, allergies and flu which impact regular attendance.  There just hasn't been time to write up what-all we've been doing.  I can, however, say that if you have been reading along in Drawing on the Artist Within by Betty Edwards, the class has just finished the "Analog Portraits" activity (pp. 96-101).  In our next session, we will be discussing the section on "Drawing Together Some New Ideas," and starting Chapter 9: "Drawing on First Insight to Find the Question" (p. 102).  So we have reached the real work, opening the door to study the first step in the creative process.  I'll be trying to catch up and pull things together as soon as I can.  Please don't be discouraged, just be patient.   Thank you, the Cornerhouse.

Useful Journaling Supplies

Over the years, there have been a few items which I have found to be very useful in the journaling process, so this seems to be a good time to round them up in one place.  These are just some of my own favorites, but not intended to be taken as ideal in any way, and undoubtedly you have favorites of your own you like to use.  They are listed in no particular order.

Pens: “Sarasa” gel pens by “Zebra,” both 0.05 and 0.07 sizes.  They are archival quality, last a long time, and come in at least 8 colors.  Also, the “Profile” gel pen by “PaperMate,” though I have  seen no claim that it is archival quality.

Pencils: There are three main brands I use regularly.  The Sketching & Drawing pencils by Derwent , in the “B” (Soft), “H” (Hard), and “HB” (medium) range have been my personal favorites for years.  Derwent has many other products which might be helpful.  The Derwent “Colorsoft” collection is formulated for resistance to fading and their watercolor pencils can be applied like standard colored pencils and then liquefied with water for watercolor effects.  They also have pastels, metallics and other specialized products.  I want to mention the colored pencil products of two other companies which I have found very useful for journaling work: Faber-Castell (“Polychromos”) and Caran D’Ache (“Luminance 6901”).  They are both somewhat more expensive, but there are some unique colors not available elsewhere.  I find all of these products are extremely dependable.  Personal preference is more the issue.

Glassine Envelopes: These are economical and most often found in philatelic stores, as they are used for storing stamps.  I use the 3.5” x 6.5” size, though they come in many sizes.  Since sketches and drawings on journal pages sometimes smudge easily, I cut a glassine envelope to the size I want, and tape it over the sketch.  I just make sure not to put it in the same place on every page, or it will become an unbecoming “lump” and distort the rest of the journal and spine.

Erasers:  I have been using Staedtler’s :Mars-Plastic erasers for years.  I bought a small case of them as a student, and so have never run out.  They make clean erasures without disturbing the surface of the paper.

Mistakes Happen!  I willingly admit that I am rather a traditionalist about my journals.  I write in them every day, in ink, and longhand.  Inevitably, when expressing oneself, there will be at best some small mistakes: spelling, choosing a better word, etc.  So I make it a habit to keep a dispenser of the dry paper tape which is drawn over the error or a bottle of “White-Out” (liquid correction fluid with a brush or foam dauber).  Either works just fine, and you can write in your correction when it is dry.

Rulers:  Since many journal books are anywhere from 7” to 10” high, depending on which you prefer, having a ruler at hand serves many convenient purposes.  I keep two.  First, is a metal ruler with a cork backing which prevents slipping and the numbers are easy to read.  Second, is a clear plastic ruler with clear numbers, which is the same length as the spine of the journal.  It was hard to find this – some are too long and hard to handle conveniently; others are too short and need frequent repositioning on the page, which is inconvenient.  As a result I bought a long plastic ruler, scored a line on it at the proper size, and broke the ruler on the score line.  Works like a charm.

Miscellaneous:  A few other odds and ends which come to mind are colored gel pens, pencil sharpener, bone paper folder, glue, small scissors, and archival-quality “invisible” tape, a calendar for the year you are working with, photograph mounting devices, book marks, maps, etc.

I hope that this is an assistance to your journal keeping.

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “Sometimes just picking up my journal, just holding it, leads me through a doorway and into another state of mind.”  [“One Hand, One Voice,” Barbara Bash, p. 1.]

·        “What I have done most of my writing career has been to fill folders with notes, ideas, and clippings. … Another note, scribbled on a scrap of paper: ‘I wonder if dirt’ll hurt a turtle?’  Sounds a little saucy.  Probably wouldn’t use it.  But it’s in here. … It’s a good place to tuck ideas.”  [“Keeping A Life,” David Harrison]

·        “No longer private, but still safe, Jennifer Owings Dewey’s journals trigger new book ideas.  She opens her journal, flips the pages, and begins making notes.  New ideas always speak to her.” [“Rattlesnake Dance,” Jennifer Owings Dewey.]

The Code-Written Journals of Beatrix Potter

[Ref:  The Journal of Beatrix Potter from 1881 to 1897, Transcribed from Her Code Writing By Leslie Linder, Frederick Warne & Co., New York, 1968, pp, xxiii-xxix; illustrations see xxvi & xxvii.  The chart of code symbols in the above source is not included, as many of them can not be reproduced by the letters available on a standard keyboard, but if you can find a copy of the book, there is a chart on p. xxv.]

We tend to think of Beatrix Potter mostly as the author of charming books about the adventures of little animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  However while looking up some journaling information at the public library, I ran into this account of her journals, done in secret code between the ages 14 to about 30. 

The author, Leslie Linder, tells how she originally learned about the journals.  In 1952, during a visit with Captain and Mrs. Stephanie Duke, a relative of BP, she relates the circumstances.  “As I was taking leave of them at the railway station she turned to me saying, ‘Do you know that we have just come across the most extraordinary collection of Papers,… a large bundle of loose sheets and exercise books written in cipher-writing which we can make nothing of – I wonder is you could decipher them?.’  It was not until several months later when I was at Hill Top that I first saw this mysterious bundle of Papers which had been given to the National Trust to keep with their other Beatrix Potter Papers. 

     I was able to examine them in detail, but could find no clue to the cipher-symbols, apart from the fact that they looked like ordinary letters of the alphabet, also the figure 3 appeared very frequently. …

     The following year [c. 1953] when again visiting Hill Top, I was allowed to take away some of the code-written sheets in order to study them at my leisure. … but the next few years passed without any definite results, and all attempts to break down the code failed.  By Easter 1958 I was beginning to think somewhat sadly that these code-written sheets would remain a mystery forever.

     On the evening of Easter Monday, 1958, I remember thinking to myself, I will have one last attempt at solving this code-writing, more to pass the time than with any anticipation of success.”

She selected a sheet at random.  It happened to contain the letters XVI and what looked like the date 1793.

     “I consulted a Dictionary of Dates without success, and then, almost by chance, looked up Louis XVI in the Index to the Children’s Encyclopedia, where I read, ‘Louis XVI, French King; born Versailles 1754; guillotined Paris 1793’.  Here at last was a possible clue!

     It so happened that this particular line of code-writing contained a word in which the second cipher-symbol was the letter x, it immediately suggested the word executed as the equivalent of guillotined. … and the clue was valid. … With the help of these assumed symbols, other words were deciphered, and by midnight  on that memorable Easter Monday practically the whole of Beatrix Potter’s code-alphabet had been solved.”

“ … this collection of code-written sheets contained the perfect clue – a page of note-paper headed XC.  … The Roman numerals were, in fact, the heading to verses 1-12 of the 90^th Psalm [from the Bible].  Apart from two wrong words and three which had been omitted, it was word perfect…and a simple and straightforward key to the code.”

Although the key was available, the author explains that there were still problems to solve.  One was that parts of the cipher symbols had faded over time, making it difficult to decipher words.  Second, while early texts had upper case letters, this was abandoned in later texts.  Third the code-alphabet was a mixture of Arabic letters, Greek symbols, German script, and some imaginary letters.  Fourth, some symbols could represent more than one word.  For example “2” could mean to, too, or two, and “3” could be the number 3 or the word “the” and would therefore appear several times on a page.  Some compound words would have a shortened compound symbol: “4get” might mean “forget”.  And fifth,  at some times, two symbols were combined to make a third word, with a totally different meaning.

Comparative authentication and checking was conducted to determine certain contemporary information, such as political activities, place-names, botanical names, natural history, geology, names of artists, and titles of pictures mentioned.  Research was conducted to establish the chronology of events.  The journal material shows an extremely broad vocabulary and some editing done by Miss Potter herself.

The journals end on January 31, 1897, in which “she described in detail her preparation for a Paper [on The Germination of the Spores of Agaricinae] and the help and encouragement she received from her uncle Sir Henry Roscoe, the distinguished chemist…. From now onwards the keeping of a Journal appears to have been put on one side as Beatric Potter became more and more absorbed in the planning of her books.  It is of interest to note, however, that in later years she sometimes wrote odd notes and even fragments in code-writing, but it was never used again for the purpose of a Journal.”

Living and Leaving Your Legacy

[Note: Material by Merle R. Saferstein, posted: 07/09/2014 of Huffington Post, shared here with permission of the author.]

This article contains extremely helpful information about some of the ways we can document life information, using various journaling techniques and processes.  By documenting memories and anecdotal experiences and including valuable stories and pictures, one person’s daily life becomes family history and in its turn, a historical document.

“My cousin Carol died recently…. Of pulmonary fibrosis -- a diagnosis with no cure… All they could do was make her as comfortable as possible.  I visited Carol often during her last two years. Some days watching her gasp for breath frightened me. How could I help her? What could I do to ease Carol's fears? How could I assist her as she faced death? As her condition worsened, Carol asked her own questions. "How do I want to be remembered? How do I handle my unresolved issues? What messages do I want to leave for my loved ones?"

Together we embarked on a sacred journey filled with meaningful moments and a lot of hard work. 
The first project Carol tackled was her autobiography. She started by outlining the pivotal moments in her life-those events which defined her days on earth. Then she began the task of filling in the blank spaces. Carol documented her personal family history from the time she was born and recollected her joys and sorrows. We discussed her favorite memories and most difficult challenges. At times walking back in her life seemed hard for her, but she continued on and, in the end, compiled a comprehensive history for her family. Working together gave her the opportunity to perform a meaningful review of her life.

Carol was blessed with fourteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and over the years had accumulated thousands of photographs of them. She decided to sort them out and to give each child his or her pictures. It took several days for us to put the photos into individual piles. While browsing through the massive collection, Carol often stopped and shared a story. These happy memories left her smiling. When we finished, we filled an envelope with photographs for each grandchild….

On another visit, Carol told me that she wanted to go through letters, cards, programs, and other special papers she had saved. I hauled out the three large bins, and we began her sentimental journey back in time. She was determined to read each item, regardless of how long it took. Looking at these precious mementos brought laughter and tears. She came across her old prom dance card, letters from her beloved aunts, handmade cards created by her sons when they were little, and a host of other treasures. Some she clearly was not prepared to part with; others she reluctantly threw away…

As she became sicker, …I also knew how important it would be for Carol to have closure on certain aspects of her life and talk about her impending death.  It was a dreary day in September when I broached these subjects one by one…. In this way she was able to come to terms with … unresolved issues in her life.  By the end of that day, we had discussed her increasingly debilitating disease and how she was feeling. Since caring for herself was becoming more difficult, I brought up the subject of hospice. … However, she talked about her fear of dying -- of how painful it was to think of not being in her children's lives, of not watching her grandchildren grow up and get married -- the finality of it all. For me, the conversation ranked among the heaviest of my life. For Carol, verbalizing her feelings seemed tremendously liberating.

We had talked about writing an ethical will, which is a spiritual legacy that includes reflections on a person's life, ethics, values, life lessons, hopes and dreams. This past December, Carol told me she was ready to write hers. During that week, every time Carol mentioned a saying she lived by, something she had learned, or anything that would be material for her ethical will, … When she finished she said, "I thought this was going to be a gift for my family and friends, but I realize that the gift is one I have given myself."  [There was a sense of] urgency in Carol's situation. We knew that her time was limited, and she wanted nothing more than to finish those tasks on her list.

My last visit with Carol was in March. By then, her condition had worsened and while her energy had waned, she was determined to complete the last and probably the hardest of the projects. Originally she had hoped to write individual letters to each of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Instead she typed one letter for all of them and then on copies handwrote separate notes including a personal, endearing memory and a loving message to each. She put them in the envelopes of photographs and felt relieved to have finished that huge job.

Through the years, Carol had commented about the many items that decorated her home. She knew that in some families, fights occur about one's inheritance -- not just money but possessions as well. In her case, she wondered if anyone in her family would even care about her treasures. Regardless, she wanted to leave special people in her life her fine jewelry and all of her favorite collectibles -- clowns and figurines, assorted knick knacks such as fancy china tea cups and saucers, paintings, and other items she cherished. The process of going through her belongings and labeling them was emotional and exhausting, but she was determined to get it done and she did.

When everything was completed, Carol expressed relief -- as though a tremendous burden had been lifted. She had reviewed the highlights as well as the low moments in her life and had come to the conclusion that she had lived a wonderful, mostly happy life with almost no regrets. Carol understood the meaning of what she had accomplished and knew that she had mattered to her family and friends. In her mind, her affairs were in order.

The last text I received from Carol was on the day her sons had arrived from California. I had written to ask if their visit was all she had dreamed it would be. She immediately responded. "And more. There are not enough words to describe all this love between us. So blessed." Hours later, she slipped into a coma.  Carol died the next morning.

Her family gathered … from all over the country. On the day after her funeral, I asked them to come to her condominium. Fifteen of us sat in her living room with her nine-month-old great-granddaughter crawling in the middle of the circle. I began by explaining the work Carol and I had done prior to her passing, sharing meaningful details of the process. … Our shared memories helped bring her spirit into the room in a loving and powerful way.

When we finished, we sat in silence for a few moments -- each of us reflecting on our own private recollections. I then read Carol's ethical will to her loved ones. In the otherwise silent room, her words came alive. Her profound messages reached deep into everyone's soul. The impact left us speechless.
When I step back and reflect on my unique experience with Carol, I am struck by its power. Spending concentrated time with her and then later with Carol's family and friends helped me to understand the tremendous scope of the work we did and the value of what we had accomplished.

The way Carol lived her life and the lessons she imparted became her legacy. It was a privilege for me to help her leave her loved ones with a priceless gift that will remain forever in our hearts."

_____________

[Cornerhouse thanks.]  Merle R. Saferstein, author of 'Room 732,' teaches a course entitled Living and Leaving Your Legacy to people of all ages. As the former director of educational outreach at the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center in South Florida, she helped Holocaust survivors pass on their legacy to students and teachers for twenty-six years. Since 1974 she has completed over 350 volumes of personal journals and is currently working to compile them.

Journaling a Unique Life

In the words of Paula W Graham, “Keeping a journal is living a wide-awake life.  Whatever its name – notebook, sketchbook, log, daybook, diary, or journal – the blank book we fill with bits and pieces of our lives affirms us and validates our experiences.  It also provides a safe place to make discoveries, celebrate one’s story, and to confide, confer, question, and confess.  Alert to the outside world, attuned to the inner one, the journal keeper lives with the consciousness that his or her life matters.  Throughout history, as various strands of its traditions combined and recombined, the journal became an invention of writers, artists, naturalists, sea captains, and explorers.  In the eighteenth century the journal served as a tool for self-education as men and women copied down in Commonplace Books observations, reflections, and pieces of wisdom from what they had read or otherwise experienced.

     In recent rears the journal has surfaced in American schools as a major component of the writing-across-the-curriculum movement.  Teachers appreciate the connections between writing and learning, recognizing how writing clarified between writing and learning, recognizing how writing clarifies thinking and helps to internalize new constructs.” [Ref: Speaking of Journals, by Paula W. Graham, “Preface,” p. ix.]

Recently, I happened to be in the Children’s Books section of the public library and I ran into an interesting publication: Native American History for Kids, by Karen Bush Gibson, Chicago Review Press, 2010.  It has all kinds of class activities to engage Native American children in discovering their own history.  One activity [p. 81] mentions “Journaling at Indian School,” a Native American boarding school, c. 1879.  It suggests that the student imagine that they are a student at an Indian school, and write about a day in the life of this young person.  What clothing would be worn?  What language would be spoken?  What would a day in their life would be like? 

As motivation for this assignment, it includes a page from a real journal of a student of the period. [Excerpt from Zitkala-SA, a Yankton Sioux, wrote about her first day at White’s Manual Institute, a Quaker missionary school for Native Americans.]  “I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids.  Then I lost my spirit.  Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities.  People had stared at me.  I had been tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet.  And now my long hair was shingled like a coward’s!  In my anguish I moaned for my mother, but no one came to comfort me.  Not a soul reasoned quietly with me, as my own mother used to do; for now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder.”

Many of these boarding schools have long gone, which is probably a mercy. However, the Haskell Institute, originally a Native American trade school in 1884 in Lawrence, Kansas, still exists, though now it is called Haskell Indian Nations University, a nationally recognized center of Native American education and cultural preservation.

And this journal by a young Native American is a treasure to be honored.

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “Whether they carry journals in their shirt pocket, back pocket, pocketbook or whether they write at home, all authors  agree: the journal is a writer’s laboratory.” [Ibid, Graham, p. x.]

·        “It is the mind that makes the body.” [Sojourner Truth]

·        “The Crone is the wise woman who watches over our dreams and visions, who whispers secrets to our inner ears.” [Vicki Noble]

Creative Journaling (7) – Journaling the Wild Side

A few postings back, we talked about the value of drawing as a method to make thoughts visible.  Doodling is one of the ways which enable the right brain the freedom to express itself.  It’s a truly awful paraphrase, but “A doodle a day is the right brain way.”  The little sketches, done regularly, are like doing scales for a musician, or stretching for a jogger, or warm-ups for a dancer.  It’s a way to stimulate the creative powers of the right brain, and let it be free to contribute fresh input to your creative writing or art projects.

It works well not to form preconceived expectations, not to have a particular goal (like a picture you already envision - that's for later), but instead to take a small piece of paper and just make some lines and marks on it anywhere.  At this point in my journaling class, people look at me and say something like, “What kind of marks?” or “Where do I make them?”  And they get a very confused or disgruntled expression when I respond, “That’s a personal choice you get to make.”  Then the room gets quiet, each thinking in his or her own mental world.  The mental gears start to creak – in the beginning thinking this way is totally new territory.  It takes courage to just let go and take a new path into unknown territory.

At Cornerhouse we’ve explored several small start-up activities lately – the last one being “Take a Line for a Walk” – an activity which tells a story using one simple line.  This time let’s do it again – “Take a Line for a Walk” but try something a little more challenging.

Activity: “Take a Line For a Walk on the Wild Side:”  As you draw a line, let it a story to you about what sort of things the line is doing and what is happening to it. Let it have a life of its own.  This is a reversal of the usual assignment.  Usually you already know what you want to do, and you draw the line(s) to match that..  Instead, this time, the line forms first and tells its story back to you.  When you are done, record the story again in words and language below the line drawing.  

It’s a good idea to keep your drawings, both those you’ve done before, and each of the new ones, and from time to time, take a look at your previous works.  It’s surprising how concepts and projects develop over time in ways you never expect.  Our own brain can surprise us.

Some Words of Encouragement:

+  “Any step of the journey IS the journey.” [Proverb]

+  “The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.” [Louis L’Amour]

+  “Some experiences simply do not translate.  You have to go to know.”  [Kobi Yamada]

+  “I haven’t a clue how my story will end, but that’s all right.”  [Nancy Willard]

+  “My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.”  [Diane Arbus]

Creative Journaling (6) – Relief for Right-Brain Strain

[Ref:  Adapted from “18 Things Creative People Do Differently,” by Carolyn Gregoire, Huffington Post, 03/04/2014]

I found the original article interesting and thought-provoking, especially as many of these habits can be considered right-brain activity and have tried to adapt it to the journaling process. As previously we adapted habits from the arts of dance, music, and drawing, so to the following habits of creative people might spark ideas for fellow journalists have been inspired and adapted from this posting by Carolyn Gregoire.

·        Daydreaming: This is a mental shift, useful in journaling.  It is an ability to entertain a visionary experience separate from the immediate environment.  It is a waking, but altered state, usually pleasant and absorbing.  There may be a loss of the sense of time.  It is an act of the imagination, very valuable to artists and writers, often sparked by the question, “What if…?”

·        Observation:  To take notice of something.  It is often a good habit to take a walk before journaling, to see things that are either new or new-again, new details as the seasons pass, are all fodder for journals.

·        Work Times:  Basically, write in our journals regularly, but when and where is up to the individual.  Some people like early morning, others before bedtime, and some have coffee and a journal-break during the day.  Whatever works.

·        Solitude:  This characteristic can be tricky, because it means more than sitting alone in a room to avoid interruptions to your writing.  It is entirely possible to write in your journal while you sit at the table in your favorite coffee house, for in the midst of many, you are alone in your mind – so that can be your solitude.  It is a case of what works for the individual.  However Twyla Tharp [“The Creative Habit,” Twyla Tharp, p. 30-31.]  says, “Build up your Tolerance for Solitude… The thought of going into a room to work all by themselves pains them … in a way that is paralyzing them. … It’s not the solitude that slays a creative person.  It’s all that solitude without a purpose…. [if you have a problem with solitude, you can] Sit alone in a room for one minute and let your thoughts  go wherever they will. … Then start paying attention to your thoughts to see what materializes…”  Good advice.

·        Obstacles:  Sometimes the biggest blocker is the “gate-keeper” in our own minds.  It’s a protector to keep us out of trouble.  That’s fine.  Pay it attention, but then make the decision to just go ahead, or pause and get more information.  It isn’t the problem, but it is a prompt that there is something to consider.  Often the solution is to turn the situation around, or upside-down, or inside-out, to un-lock the writing difficulty. 

·        New Experiences:  It’s good to consider ways to get out of the daily, predictable pattern.  An open and flexible consideration of something new is a good thing.  Rules are fine, but when they become iron-clad and rigid, they are obstacles to creative thinking.

·        Resilience:  Think of this as the ability of a poor, stressed, over-strained right-brain to recover, an ability to adjust in situation of change.  The world today puts plenty of compressive stress on all of us, but adopting a resilient attitude is conducive to the creative process.

·        Questions:  As I’ve said before, in questions lie answers.  As a matter of fact, whenever I have said, “I have a question…, “ the whole family would groan!  Not a bad thing to ask questions – and don’t be afraid to ask the Big Questions.  We all need to have those answered.

·        People-Watching: People are endlessly fascinating.  If you are at an airport, there are those coming and those going, and if you get bored, you can look just at their feet and be fascinated by how the world’s people select shoes.  Journaling is as much about other people as they are about our selves.  As Twyla Tharp says, “You can learn a lot by watching.”  [Ibid., p. 50]

·        Risks:  OK – Taking chances can be chancy, and that’s where the gate-keeper above comes in to play.  But if a risk means doing something new, it’s good to consider the possibilities.  You might discover something totally new and wonderful.

·        Self-Expression:  I have to admit that I’m mostly a quiet person, but after I’ve listened and thought about something, it is a good thing to share your perspective with others.  Throw it in the pot and see what happens.  And a journal is an ideal place to bring up something which is on your mind and sort it out.  State the case, explore the options, and then decide your own view.  Having it clear in your mind ahead of time gives self confidence.

·        Passionate:  Creative people are often passionate about their interests, and passionate about sharing them.  It often takes passion to see a difficult project through to the end.  And, truly, it takes passion to commit to daily and regular journaling, but it’s also tremendously rewarding in the long view.  Journals are contributions to the human history of the world.

·        New Perspectives:  If the drawing is giving you trouble, turn it upside down and look again.  Creative solutions often pop out from innovative approaches.  So if you are stuck, but it around and look at it from a different angle.  Recently, I was in mid-sketch when I kind of froze up on what to do next.  What to do?  Then I remembered a suggestion from Twyla Tharp about “Chaos and Coins.” [Ibid., p. 100]  “Take a handful of coins.  Toss them onto the worktable and study the result. Sometimes the coins fall into a random pattern that’s pleasing.  …Sometimes I fiddle with the coins, moving them around… Eventually I land on an arrangement that feels like a musical chord resolving…. There in a nutshell is the essence of creativity.”

·        Beat the Clock:  That is, lose track of time.  It’s OK, and very right brain.  And it feels so good, when you finish and return to the world. 

·        Beauty:  Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. [Confucius]   “Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference: beauty demands to be noticed; it speaks to us directly like the voice of an intimate friend. If there are people who are indifferent to beauty, then it is surely because they do not perceive it.”  [Roger Scruton, Beauty]

·        Connections:  Build a bridge to the next day.  I’ve taken to drawing an empty box, a frame, on the next day’s journaling page because is established connectivity among my days one to another, so it doesn’t feel like I’m always starting over from scratch. 

·        Mindfulness:  It’s a kind of focused awareness.  For some people it meditation.  For others it is yoga.  Or a candle flame.  No matter.  “A lot of habitually creative people have preparation rituals linked to the setting in which they choose to start their day…..In the end, there is no one ideal condition for creativity.  What works for one person is useless for another.  The only criterion is this: Make it easy on yourself.  Find a working environment where the prospect … doesn’t shut you down…. To get the creative habit, you need a working environment that’s habit-forming.” [Ibid., Tharp, 16-17].

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        Be brave.  Face your fears.  [CR]

·        What is the first creative moment you remember?

·        What is the best idea you’ve ever had?

·        How do you begin your day?

·        Who regularly inspires you?

[ Questions from Tharp, ibid., p. 13-14]

Journaling that Sticky Thing

It’s inevitable.  I get this great theme for next year, and I can’t get it out of my mind.  It’s like a song you keep re-playing.  It niggles at you all the time.  I even woke up this morning thinking about cracks and light.  I was thinking about learning to glow from the inside to the outside.  I think to myself, “It could happen. (maybe).”  And how if I really want this to happen, I need to sort some things out, things which clutter up the cracks in me and make it hard for the light to pass through.  I got up and dressed and started to make my morning cup of coffee, my thoughts still niggling about cracks, light, glow.  So while I waited for the coffee to brew, I casually opened up the refrigerator.  I checked for any food items which are probably not good for the promotion of glow.  To my surprise, there were largely healthy things.  I guess I’m on the path toward clearing that crack already.

For me, at this pre-mature point, the metaphor is as much about light as it is about cracks.  As the poem says, “It’s how the light gets in,” or out.  The crack is the space where the action is.  I’ve always believed that the most interesting, exciting, creative things dwell in the place where two different areas border on each other.  Robert Frost nailed it when he wrote, “Something there is which doesn’t love a wall,” and nature causes the wall to keep falling down, i.e., causing the cracks to occur between the two properties (and neighbors), so that they need to meet and interact, even if only for once a year.  Thus, they learn about each other, and they become “good” neighbors.  It’s true in chemistry, physics, art, families, communities, and nations.  I say, welcome the cracks, even in our characters, because that’s where the light, the glow of enlightenment, the chance for wisdom, passes through, both in and out.

For me, this is like the effect of the Creative Journaling project:  Step #1, “First Insight” in action – as it’s happening.  That Right Brain flashed something to me.  It fits in-between, in the space between two apparently disparate areas and provides a sudden flash of understanding.  It will be really exciting to see how this theme of Cracks unfolds.  So what seems creatively logical now?

In the Creative Process, step #2 is “Saturation” – data gathering, a Left Brain activity, so in the interim before the next year, clearly I need to do some research.

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        Look up some words which mean “crack” and “light.”  It’s a place to start. [CR advice to encourage me!]

·        Be alert to those flashes of insight.  They have value beyond words [CR]

Autumn Means It’s Theme Time

I have to take a brief break from the Creative Journaling series because autumn is near.  The leaves are showing tiny spots of color, and the chrysanthemums and sedum are in bud.  This morning I saw flocks of birds stripping the berries off the honeysuckle.  In my world, that means it is time for me to start my annual search for an idea for the next year’s theme.

I do this every year, and it is fraught with a sense of frustration and a vague feeling of upset, anxiety, like being homeless.  It’s understandable, because I’ve been quite at home with the current year’s theme (“Windows”), and now I have to move myself on to a new challenge, like a child, moving from a comfortable grade to a whole new class room, with so many unknowns.

I spoke some months before about themes in journaling.  Good themes are hard to find because there are so many choices, and at the same time they have to be appropriate to the individual person and where I feel I am inside at the present time.  They should be broad enough to offer a range of new ideas and accommodate new situations, yet just narrow enough in focus to offer new insights. 

And there is a practical problem, too.  In the past, I have kept the.New theme Candidates in a list at the end of my current journal – not a good idea, I’ve found from bitter experience, because I have to go back through at least thirty old journals as I consider previous good ideas, but not yet used.  This year, I’m smarter – I took a small miscellaneous note pad, and have transferred all my theme ideas into it.  It was tedious, but necessary.  So, from now on, all I have to do is add any brilliant new ideas to my on-going theme list in the “Journaling Theme Book.”  (Too soon old, too late smart!) 

However, with that in mind I thought I would share some theme topics I’ve considered, as they might spark ideas.  So here we go…

Morning Songs                         Oasis

Foot Steps                               Well-Lived

Connections                             Then & Now

Fear Not                                  Reflections

Left-Overs                               Sights Unseen

Sign Language                          Bricolage

Patchwork                                Trick of Light

Mind’s Eye                               Lost & Found

No Matter                                Inside Out

Pathway                                   Outward Bound

Breathless                                 Cracks

At that point, everything suddenly fell together.  I felt relieved, satisfied, happy again, as I set up and customized my journal for the new year, 2015.  I found my theme by remembering a quotation I had run into earlier this year.  It is the refrain of a lyric/poem by Leonard Cohen, called “Anthem.”  (see below.).  But it suddenly flashed new possibilities for me.- not for things broken, but for the new light which shows through and becomes possible, the new insights, which emerge because of them.  I think, too, it makes a good “next step,” from Windows to all the new kinds of light, of understanding which hopefully will become visible to me. 

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “Ring the bells that still can ring,

Forget your perfect offering;

There’s a crack in everything,

That’s how the light gets in.”  [“Anthem” – Leonard Cohen]

·        “Perfection is for the next world.” [Shoghi Effendi]

·         “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” [Plato]

Creative Journaling (5) - A Story Line

If you completed the previous Creative Journaling posting activities up to now, and I hope you enjoyed them, then you have some idea about “reading a line.”  But just in case, let me summarize a bit about lines.

From looking at the different emotional information in drawing lines, such as the differences in writing a signature, it is possible to guesstimate some of the conditions under which the signature was written.  Does it have evidence of fast speed in execution?  Slow?  Jerky?  Tension?  Arthritis?  Smooth?  Scribbled?  Splattered?  There could, of course, be many more choices.  But given the signature itself, what does it communicate to you about the person who wrote it?  What do you “read” about the line when you look at it? 

Now, turn to the previous 8-panel activity.  Each panel had a tag or label at the bottom of the space:  Anger, Joy, Peacefulness, Depression, Energy, Femininity, Illness, and a personal choice.  In our journaling group, we made copies of everyone’s panel pages (some people did more than one).  Then, everyone placed their initials on the back of each panel for identification, and we cut all the panels apart.  Next, we glued all the “Anger” panels onto one piece of paper, all the “Joy” panels on another sheet, and so on.  We then tried to “read the lines.”  What could they tell us?  Although each one expresses the individuality of the person who made it, taken all together, they also express a wide range in how the information was conveyed. 

Betty Edwards (Ref:  Drawing on the Artist Within, ch. 7, p. 77, 79.) comments, “One would expect enormous variation among the analog drawings – and in fact, no two drawings are alike.  What is surprising, however, is the structural similarity of the drawings that express a single concept, such as “Anger,” “Joy,” Peacefulness,” and so on. And this structural similarity occurs often enough to suggest that it is a shared intuition which contributes visually to our understanding of the concept the drawing means to express.  These structural similarities are most easily seen if one views a large number of drawings at once.  We have looked at a collection of “Anger” drawings. …

     you see that each drawing is unique.  Yet the drawings share a basically similar structure.  The concept “Joy” appears to generate not jagged, dark, pointed forms that almost overwhelm the format as does “Anger,” but instead light, curving, circular forms that tend to rise within the format show how master artists use the language of like to express joy.”  (She goes on to discuss in detail each of the other panels in terms of their form, structure, and visual impact.) …

     In conclusion, “I believe these analog drawings have proved to be a very valuable exercise, for they demonstrate that there is a “vocabulary”  of the visual language of drawing… to generate ideas and to overcome ‘blocks’ to writing.  Both methods apparently skim from the subconscious in R-mode fashion, skirting the rules and regulations, restrictions and censorship of L-mode thought processes…” (Ibid., p. 95.)

There is another activity which I call “Story Line” (my daughter calls it “Taking a Line for a Walk”) which is both simple and a yet a challenge, but it helps to hone the skill for leaning to read lines. 

Activity – “Story Line”:  Take a piece of paper (or in your journal, if that seems better to you).  On it, you are to draw a single, continuous line which tells a story of some sort, of your own choosing.  Then under the drawing, tell the story in words.  This can be more difficult that just drawing a line for just one feeling.  Now it needs to convey a more complex visual situation.  Again, use of pictures (flags, hearts, kites, logos, etc., are not allowed.)  Just start the story/line and do not try to visualize what’s going to happen beforehand – just take the line for a little walk.  Allow the image(s) to emerge in their own way.

I would be very interested in anyone who wants to share their experiences about the Creative Journaling project by commenting on this Cornerhouse blog site or via email..  (my email is in my profile:  sliknl@yahoo.com. 

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “A rose is a rose is a rose.”  [Gertrude Stein]

“A line is a line is a line.”  [Cornerhouse Rules – CR]

·        You might check out the drawings of Wassily Kandinsky.  “Kandinsky wrote extensively on the ‘language’ of line.”  [Ibid., p. 76.]

·        “The first steps of a creative art are like groping in the dark…These moments are not pretty. I look like a desperate woman, tortured by the simple message thumping away in my head: ‘You need an idea.’”  {Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit, p. 94.]

·        “You must never, never, never, never, never give up!” [Winston Churchill]

Creative Journaling (4) – Nurturing the Right Brain

[Reference: One Zentangle A Day for Relaxation, Inspiration and Fun by Beckah Krahula.  Note:  “Zentangle” is a trademarked term.]

Let’s talk about Zentangles.  It’s “Zen,” as in meditation or focusing the mind, and “tangle,” as in all tangled up.  They are so enjoyable that once the members of the journaling class learn to do them, it’s addictive, like eating peanuts – you can’t eat just one.  The class members do them at home, and bring them in to “Show and Tell.” 

A Zentangle is somewhat like doodling, only with a few simple guidelines.  It’s something we all have done, and deceptively easy.  You know, maybe you are talking with someone on the phone, and your mind start to play.  You pick up a pencil or pan by the telephone, and you just let your mind wander while you talk (remember the right brain can do multiple things at the same time), and you start to doodle some pattern on the telephone pad.  Zentangles are like that.  They are short, spontaneous drawings which energize, encourage and focus the right brain, similar to the way exercise benefits the body.  They activate and stimulate the conditions for creative right brain work, like a pianist doing scales on a piano.  However, as there is a method for doing piano scales and, so too for doing Zentangles. 

Zentangle Activity: If you have not done a Zentangle, here is a summary of the process we use in our journaling class, just to get started.  This activity should not be long a tiresome – about 15 minutes or so is about right. 

·        Take a piece of paper and draw a square 3.5” x 3/5” (We like card stock, and have several rectangles pre-cut ready to use.).

·        Using a pencil, put a dot in each corner of the square about ¼” in from the edge.

·        Connect the dots, forming an inside “frame” around the edge of the square.

·        In the space inside the frame, draw 3 lines, called “threads.” (Don’t think about it too much. As in doodling, just let your mind be free to follow the pencil and to make whatever lines it wants to.)

·        Now using a pen, make a different pattern in each of the spaces between the threads.  These are free-form patterns, not pictures.  No erasing – be brave!  This step usually takes just a few minutes.

·        Now back to using a soft pencil, turn the pencil on its side so that it will make a wider line, run the pencil along some of the lines, and using your finger or a cotton swab, “pull” the shadow line from the edge toward the center of what you have drawn.  It will “smudge” into a soft, shaded shadow, making the image appear more dimensional.

·        Take up the pen again, and put your initials somewhere in your image.  (Every artist signs his work.)

·        Finally, turn the paper over.  On the back side, make a square in the center about 2” x 2”.  In the square put your signature, the date, a title/name for your Zentangle, and perhaps a comment (ex: “This is my first Zentangle!”)

When you started out with the Zentangle, you just worked without the preconceived formality, which the left brain usually controls.  You worked just with lines and patterns, which the right brain usually joyously controls.  Then, putting the title down at the end requires words/language, and at that point the left brain suddenly wakes up and kicks in.  In the process of making the Zentangle, thoughts and images become visual.  And finally, in the titling, the visual is translated into language.  It’s heuristic, in that the value is in its structured guidance, to discover and reveal creative insights.

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “This drawing … requires no previous artistic training or experience at all… ability to use the power of drawn lines is already in place and available for use… You will draw no recognizable objects at all and no symbols, letters, or words.  … you need not know beforehand what the drawing will look like.  In fact, you don’t want to know, because the purpose of the drawing is to reveal aspects … that are perhaps not accessible to conscious, everyday thought – again, to show you what you know but don’t know you know.”  [Ref: Drawing on the Artist Within, Betty Edwards, Ch. 8, p. 97.]