Multifaceted Creativity

I was in the middle of writing a different post when I went to the Museum of Modern Art yesterday to see the Picasso Sculpture exhibit. It’s effect on me has led me to change direction and muse instead on the idea of being creative in multiple genres.

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I write in various genres: non-fiction (obviously), poetry, and fiction. You also know I crochet, sew, draw, and paint. I love to bake. I used to sing and play both piano and flute, and wish I had time to pick them up again. (Someday!) I often feel pulled in many directions and never feel I have enough time. After asserting in my last post that what it takes to be a writer is to write, I’ve written very little; yet, I have completed one fun crochet project, finished half of another, finished a drawing, and started a painting. So, I have been creative. Sometimes I wonder if I could be more productive if I pared my pastimes down to a select few. But, what would I cut? I cannot give up my writing, nor can painting go. It would be silly to cut crochet as I can do that when watching TV or chatting with friends. Granted, I don’t bake as much as I used to, but that’s probably better for our waistlines, but as Christmas is around the corner, I wouldn’t dream of not baking Christmas cookies no matter how busy I am! I don’t sew as much as I would like, but I am not about to give up my fabric stash. I have a couple of projects in mind that will get going in 2016.

What does this have to do with going to MOMA and Picasso, you may ask? I think most of us think of Picasso as a painter, the father of Cubism. Perhaps, his “Blue Period” comes to mind or his Cubist portraits. However, there is another side to his creativity, and like his painting, it it’s multifaceted. That is his sculpture. He was prolific throughout his life in his sculpture, yet be was never formally trained in it. He began with cardboard and wood but when he decided to make a sculpture of a guitar out of metal and didn’t know how to weld, he sewed the pieces together. Some years later, he decided to work with a welder and learn that craft. He cast in bronze; he carved wood; he assembled pieces out of found objects. Every few years, he changed his sub-genre. And he never stopped painting. He did not abandon one pursuit in following another. He let creativity guide him to new materials, new techniques, new expressions.

I am no Picasso, and I must continue to hold down a job. Granted I love teaching, but it does take more time than those not in education would imagine. Nevertheless, I felt a sense of validation after viewing the exhibit. He continued to expand and try different genres, different materials. Like Picasso, I will not let genre hold me back. The varied creative outlets will not bring me the fame or fortune Picasso enjoyed, but they will do something much more important. These pursuits all feed my soul, and they feed each other and lead to a life well-lived.

AlyCatCreations1

As you know if you follow this blog,  I love to create. I crochet and sew and paint and draw and bake and write. I sing, and play the flute and piano as well, though less successfully than my other myriad pursuits.

Do you ever wonder what to do with all your creations? I do. The baking,  well that’s no problem. Everyone loves homemade baked goods,  and even if something is not finished,  it goes bad and you throw it out. And the writing,  well that can stay in a drawer, a notebook,  or a file (and burn a hole in my heart). But the textile crafts,  the sketching, and painting, that’s another story. Of course,  there are gifts. I have made baby blankets for friends’ children,  and I’ve painted pictures/portraits (okay, animal portraits) to give as gifts. I have donated paintings to auctions as well.  (Should I worry that those auctions no longer take place?) But that does not really take care of all the goods I can produce. The sketches stay in their sketch pads, but even those take up space. And while I have quite a few of my own paintings on my walls, but there is only so much wall space in a two-bedroom apartment. And then there are the crocheted and sewn goods. They (and the raw materials that go into their making) take up more than their fair share of said apartment.

So, why do I keep crocheting more scarves, shawls, and blankets? Why do I keep sewing? I love it. Crocheting is a nightly activity for me. It relaxes me. I sit on the couch after a long day of teaching and grading, and I crochet while I watch TV with my hubby. As I wind the yarn around itself, I unwind myself. And, as a bonus, I have a completed physical product at the end of it.

The sewing? That feeds my creativity. The physical product, the knowledge that I created it myself, the unique item, it is an accomplishment. I teach for a living, high school English, and I love it, but there is no physical product by which one sees one’s accomplishments. Having a hobby that ends in a unique physical creation is a satisfying hobby for one who spends so much of her time in the mind.

Yet, that physical product builds up. I have a storage bin now filled with scarves, shawls, and blankets.

Luckily (?), my good friend Alyson has a similar problem. Fabric shops call to her with promises of projects. Her stash threatens to take over her apartment.

So, we finally did it. My friend Alyson and I finally opened our Etsy shop. We are putting our collective goods together for your benefit (we hope). Please visit us: we are AlyCatCreations1 on Etsy.com, Facebook, and Instagram.

Here’s our Etsy link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlyCatCreations1?ref=hdr_shop_menu

https://www.etsy.com/listing/234584960/crochet-blue-ruffle-yarn-spring-summer

And a few photos of some of our products. I hope you enjoy.

What’s Your Summer Project?

 I was listening to The Brian Lehrer Show this morning, and there was a short segment on “What’s Your Summer Project?” Listeners called in to share what they planned to achieve this summer. One man, a new farmer, was working on turning his manure into fuel; he was so intense and dedicated to his project and pushing for more people to join him so that we can radically reduce our impact on the environment. The show gave him the forum to share his enthusiasm. While I don’t really have any manure on hand in my two-bedroom apartment (thank goodness!), I do admire his enthusiasm. Interestingly, one of the reviewers on the show’s website thought the topic was silly and irrelevant. I have to disagree with that reviewer. I think goals are important. What the reviewer lists (cleaning, laundry, going to the doctor) are necessary, but are more like chores than goals. We all need to clean our homes or do our laundry–and sometimes when life gets crowded, the time to actually do so becomes precious–but our goals tap into something deeper, something more personal, something soulful. If anything, I thought the segment was too short. We all need encouragement to move outside the realm of the daily needs and pressures towards the enrichment of creativity. Hearing about other’s goals helps us to remain committed to our own. If I’ve done this right (and there’s no guarantee that I have), you can listen to the segment here and draw your own conclusion: The Brian Lehrer Show

Of course the segment made me think about my own summer goals. As usual, they are far too many to actually accomplish. And some are just too vague. “Write.” Yay! I should write every day. (And I started, yesterday, to do so…two days in a row so far–go me!) But I suspect I should be more specific. I am also continuing my myriad other creative interests. Perhaps if I were less of a Renaissance woman, I would accomplish more in one field, but my interests are too varied! I really enjoy many creative interests, and as these interests, unfortunately, are not income generating, why not enjoy them all I can!

Painting class will continue about once a week, but I also want to sketch more at home (or at least outside of class) this summer. My sketching needs work, and I need more confidence in my sketching. 

Summer, which for me is vacation time, also affords me the time to pursue other creative outlets that I don’t always have time for during the school year. I want to sew–both for the home and for myself. I plan on finishing the curtains I started last summer (one window done, one yet to do), and to make at least one dress.

 

I’ve also been baking and crocheting, and that will continue.

And the writing? I hope to finish a novel by the end of the summer. Should I set myself a word count goal each day? pages? time spent in chair? plot points? Fellow writers, I would like to hear from you about how you set your goals. And, do you accomplish them?

Stay tuned for updates. And share your goals and accomplishments.

 

On the Bank of the Seine

It’s a cold, snowy winter in the Northeast (and indeed throughout much of the country). NYC has seen 54″ of snow…so far. Mixed with it came sleet, hail, and freezing rain, and not enough rain to clear away the snow. Followed by Arctic blasts to freeze the mess solid. I’m afraid to use my car–not because of the roads which are okay at the moment, but because once I move it, I lose it–my parking space that is. Snow like this reduces street parking by at least a third, and my husband did such a great job of clearing the snow away in case I do need it, that the spot is the envy of the neighborhood. This winter has already made it onto the top ten list for snowiest winters in NYC. And we’re not done yet. Another small snow is coming tomorrow. I’m sure it’s not the last of it’s kind. How I wish it were summer and I were sitting on the bank of the Seine!

Posted below is my latest painting: a girl sitting in the sunshine on the bank of the Seine. It looks so relaxing and carefree. Wouldn’t’ it be nice to be there right now? Posted next to it is what it looked like from the studio window many Saturdays as I was painting her. Where would you rather be?

It’s time to let creativity take us away. I’m on winter break this week –no need to wonder if the Mayor will close the schools (let’s face it, he won’t). Instead I can watch the snowfall from my kitchen window as I sit in my pajamas with a cup of coffee and write about palm trees and sunshine. Later I can bundle up and head out with my camera to catch the dazzling white before the plows and shovels dirty it up. Then I can come home and put up a pot of crab and corn chowder, bake corn muffins and chocolate cake. And after dinner, it’s time for the Olympics, where there isn’t enough snow (Can we send them some of ours?) and it’s too warm.

But right now, I’ll just dream about sitting on the bank of the Seine….

Christmas Stockings

It’s been far too long since I’ve written. To my followers, I apologize. I got into a heavy duty work time during which I was working three jobs. BUT, that is no excuse for ignoring one’s creativity–in fact that’s when one’s creativity is most needed. And I am happy to report that I did not let work completely overwhelm me. I did manage to create a bit during the past two months and that is what kept me sane! This has been the month that has proven to me without a doubt how important creativity is.

There have been two main foci of my creativity this past month: baking and crocheting. Let’s talk about the baking first. I have been baking since I was knee high to a grasshopper. It has always been a passion. At one time, I even considered a career as a pastry chef. So what have I baked recently? Mostly successes…and one failure. For Thanksgiving, I have always made apple pie. This year, I “shook it up” a little and made a salted caramel apple pie too–delicious! I was very pleased with the results–as were the family at Thanksgiving. The funny thing about finally trying a salted caramel apple pie is that my sister, who lives in England, told me yesterday that she made a salted caramel apple pie this November too! She’s also a baker, and it was also a first for her.

My baking failure came in the beginning of December when I was making a cake for a dinner with friends. I saw a recipe for a Chocolate Caramel Cake with Sea Salt–sounds delicious. Alas and alack, no. Something went wrong. I may try the recipe again some day when I don’t have friends coming to dinner, but that day, the cakes never rose. I reread the recipe three or four times after I took the shrunken cakes out of the oven. I couldn’t see anything I missed. Hmmmmm.

But then, I finally finished all three jobs—for at least a few days, and Christmas was coming. And “OH MY GOODNESS” I hadn’t begun my Christmas cookies. Yikes. I spent December 23rd and 24th baking away–to success! Not only did I manage to make my collections for family and friends, I also tried a new recipe for “ambrosia bars” which have been a success. Whoo-hoo.

The main area of my success though is in crocheting. First, I crocheted a ruffle scarf in a lovely teal yarn that I gave to my sister for Christmas. Previously all the ruffle scarf patterns were for knitting; finally finding one for crochet felt like a triumph, and it was an even greater triumph finishing a scarf in just three days!

My other crochet triumph also revolves around Christmas. Somehow in the past year and a half our Christmas stockings have disappeared. Last year, we had none. I didn’t realize that they were gone early enough to do anything about it. But this year was a different story. I knew. So I got to work–first searching for a pattern, then buying the yarn, and finally crocheting the final product. You can see the results in the picture above–a his and a hers, one a little frillier than the other.

And of course, I’ve been painting. No completed new painting yet, but good progress on the current project. Hopefully coming soon is the next painting.

Painting, baking, crocheting, a completed product, some yummy goodies=sanity. What keeps you sane this holiday season?

Follow the Fairies…

I began today reading an excerpt from “Fairies” by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge which arrived in my inbox as the poem for today from the Academy of American Poets, and I was struck by the first line:

“Fairies begin their day by coming together a moment and sharing joy.”

What a lovely thought, especially as I was sitting in the faculty room at that moment, and while we share good times and bad for I am lucky to be part of a congenial faculty, there are more complaints than moments of joy. How often do any of us feel and share true joy? It is so easy to get caught up in our daily lives and the minutiae of modern life that we can let those moments of joy slip through our fingers. 

My creativity of late has consisted of lesson planning rather than curtain making, and I sometimes feel guilty about the material still sitting on the side waiting to be made into something useful or pretty. But, those lesson plans designed to expose young ladies to great literature and examples of creativity (especially women’s creativity with the women in lit course I recently designed) are art as well. I need to make better use of my time to accommodate both the lessons and the sewing (or painting, or crocheting, or baking), but I also need to appreciate the creativity available in my working life. So today, I’ll discuss “The Cask of Amontillado” and “To Build a Fire,” and tonight I’ll go home and create a chocolate truffle torte. Tomorrow, I’ll share the chocolate, and thereby joy, with friends. Won’t you join me in “coming together a moment and sharing joy”?