Lynn Fisher - Write Where I Am

Beyond Illumination

The journaling that resulted from the Collage Challenge and the Writing Challenge back to back, was amazing to me. Sometimes changing focus from art to writing is a good way to jar what needs to be shaken. I'm hoping to do this next year as well...I hope you'll join me.

In the mean time, I've started writing for another magazine called Central Minnesota Women. It's good to have a somewhat regular writing gig again.

I'm also in the midst of building another journal. You can see the entire project start to finish, just click on the pages section marked "Other Stuff": How to make your own ginormous, all-purpose journal, to your left.

As far as journaling goes, I've started doing some small drawings on each page with acrylic inks...and a pilot pen. The pen isn't waterproof so after the drawing is in place, I apply the inks and the effect is a softer, almost blurred edge as compared to a Pitt or India Ink Pens.  I just may have to do a few more of these.

Typepad is being temperamental today...more later!

10-day Journal Writing Challenge

As promised, here it is many days after the start of the 10-day collage/writing challenge...and now it is time to start writing in your journals.

Write for 10 consecutive days.

Put your pen on the page and start, not letting up until one full page is filled.

What do you write about?

Your previous 10 days of collaged pages.

Start by asking yourself about the images you used. What is significant about each of them? Where are they on the page? What does each image's placement mean to you?

Did the image find it's way to the top of the page? Is it right or left of a figure? Is the figure looking away or directly at the image? What do each of these images and how they are placed mean to you? If there is a story there, start to write it...and keep going. Each days writing should reflect its cooresponding collage.

This has been a fun exercise and I've heard from a few people who have been doing it, with ideas on how to share.

In the comment area (at the end of the post, if you are not at all cyber) add a small part of one or more of your journal entries...a paragraph or so...as your comment.

Easy...on your bikes! 

Collage Challenge (part two)

This week the collage challenge was harder than I anticipated. Things kept coming up...I was tired, and I ended up putting the finishing gluing touches on the page as I rushed out the door in the morning...at 7:00 AM. Then I did my journaling on my lunch...which is not often conducive to creativity. So...it was after all, a real bonifide challenge. 

 I'm finding that my most satisfying collages contain few images...but they are often color copies of my own photographs; close-ups of peeling birches, stones in water, etc.

I do this excersise often in my journal but not for 10 days at a time. I found it to be revealing. Images rose to the top and announced themselves. I also found that in each collage I had one tiny image of a previous journal page...small, even torn, but there. A little part of me no matter what the predominant image was. Perhaps I'm trying to emerge.

Next week we'll begin the ten-day writing part of the challenge. So if you have collages to share...please do. In the comment section, here's your chance to list your blog and link to your 10 days of collage. I'd love to see them...and hope to do this again next year.

Once again...on your bikes!  

The First Annual 10-day Collage, (followed by) the 10-day Writing Challenge

 Every so often it is good to challenge yourself artistically even if it means stepping out of your regular area of expertise. The Point of the 10-day challenge is to force yourself to do something so quickly that there is little time to think about it, thus telling your inner editor to "shut up already." You'll be much too busy ripping magazine pages, slapping on glue stick, or writing to listen to her (mines a "her"...she looks an awful lot like my second grade teacher who kicked me out of the library for talking).

My own stifled youth aside, the first part of this challenge is easy; trust me. Give yourself an afternoon to gather magazines...then let it rip! Rip out any image or color swatch that appeals to you on any level. then add anything to your pile of ripped mags that would add to your collage, like tea bag packet thingys, tickets, canceled stamps, etc.

Then begin. If you usually write each day like I do then, you can write on each collage, making it a part of the all over page design. If you don't write every day..wait until the 10-day writing challenge to start (again...trust me).

Make one collage page in your journal every day for 10 days. (Here are the first five of mine. I'll feature the rest in the next post) You should do this quickly...don't think to much. If you are taking more than 15 - 30 minutes to finish...your missing the point. Make it fun...make it fast!

Now here's where you come in. Here your chance to share some or all of your collages...I would love to see them. In the comments, add a link to your blog and post your collages. I'll start a Flickr group if enough people comment that they don't have a blog, but want to share. (I'm new at this so be kind)

Now...on your bikes.

I've been Tagged - Six Word Memoir Title

Ok, I hate e-mail forwards but this actually seems sort of fun, a challenge and creative...so here goes:

My six word memoir titles are (I hate being limited to one)

I taught my cockitiel to cock-a-doodle-doo.

Unexpected turn of personal life events.

Drinks alot of tea and journals.

Hey, is that a Pileated Woodpecker?

Wait, I think there's more cake.

and my fave:

But more importantly; is he single?

 

I was tagged by book artist, writer, and world traveler, Kel

I tag Sue, Kim, Samantha Kira (that's all I can muster at the moment...I'll work on this...)

Here are the rules:
1. Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words.
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who tagged you.
4. Tag 5 more blogs.

Ok, I hate e-mail forwards but this actually seems sort of fun, a challenge and creative...so here goes:

My six word memoir titles are (I hate being limited to one)

I taught my cockitiel to cock-a-doodle-doo.

Unexpected turn of personal life events.

Drinks alot of tea and journals.

Hey, is that a Pileated Woodpecker?

Wait, I think there's more cake.

and my fave:

But more importantly; is he single?

 

I was tagged by book artist, writer, and world traveler, Kel

I tag Sue, Kim, Samantha Kira (that's all I can muster at the moment...I'll work on this...)

Here are the rules:
1. Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words.
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who tagged you.
4. Tag 5 more blogs.

...and more about the garden

The Answer from the Impatiens

Whirligig in the garden;

much slower now

hardly a tick.

everything drowsy

and timeless;

getting warm,

except for the presence

of the Sphinx Moth,

there is no movement.

The moth glides

and flutters

in and out

of impatiens

planted around

slab cement patio

in terra cotta.

How did she get her name?

A good flier,

very unsphinx-like;

not made of stone

and other worldly,

looking onto

a vast and sandy desert.

The Sphinx swoops

alive with nectar

of impatiens, begonias,

fastening her gaze

inward,

on what lies deep,

and stings each flower

like a crazed bee,

not stopping,

weaving

beneath what is left

of the old basketball hoop

that stands net-less,

and gaping

like an unanswered question.

 

Have we planted enough flowers?

Will there be more moths?