An Artist Date for the Birds

According to the book, The Artist Way at Work, Riding the Dragon, Chapter 2, this is the week devoted to listening for The Roar of Awakening.

Can't say I heard it, but in synchronicity (love that word) with Annie's pigeon vision the other day, I heard some chirping. I believe there was some fire-breathing involved, as well.

One of the creature comforts of my kitchen is its two-way fireplace, where I sometimes like to perch first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee and a book until the clock says I'll be late for work. This past Friday I took the day off. With the luxury of time on my hands after breakfast and the prospect of a three day weekend spread out before me like a buffet, I sat literally with feet to the fire reading a book to the finish. To the finish. Seventy uninterrupted pages. The tranquility of my household is something I trade for the assaults of working daily in a cubicle, shut away in an exhibit warehouse off of 8 Mile in inner Detroit. Imagine my delight in sitting by the hearth and suddenly hearing the chirping of birds. First just one, then the collective. Flocking right overhead, drawn by the warmth of the chimney, the chatter of birds, a welcome harbinger of Spring. And there it was: my Cinderella moment. No need for bibbity-bobbity further "time-out" for the ball - having experienced a morning so sublime... with the birds.

As for the prescribed Inner Dragon Holiday this week, suffice it to say it involved a short trip into Ann Arbor, with all its usual pleasures and curiosities.

Best "Artist Date" to date: last Friday I took myself to the movies (a first!) where I put on 3D glasses and a stupid grin on my face and delighted in every last luscious frame of AVATAR. Okay, wordwise, plotwise, it's like an all-day sucker, every flavor: Dances with Wolves meets Alien Smurfs on the Titanic. But for the eyes and ears, it's drop- dead gorgeous cinema-making. Go. See it. Soar.

Artist Date 2.1 -- Annie & Cujo

Progress report on the Ribboned Memo Board Project.

1) I bought the wrong puffy stuff. Or bought the Too Puffy Stuff. When I opened the bag, instead of unrolling circumspectly, it came poofing out. You could stuff a pillow or a bear with it, but that's not my project. So I put it in a large trash bag and stored it away to share with the pillow or bear makers. And now I need to go back to JoAnn. But it is a gorgeous day so, so what.

2) I found the stapler and used it to snap a staple right into my finger. This was not on plan.

3) Cujo has found my decorative furniture nails. (Securely packaged is the only positive note.) I think he just shoved them under the couch in the boathouse. In any case, they are far, far away.

Not a smooth start. But a lovely Sunday. Read Chapter 3. It has some very cool stuff. Not puffy stuffing, but still quite cool.

Artist Date II - Annie

What the heck is that?

My first thought, as I drove up the ramp toward it, was that there was Arabic lettering on the Jo-Ann Fabrics ETC storefront. And although that certainly would have been creative, it didn't seem too likely. I looked closer. Pigeons! How fun is that??? I took their picture and rejoiced to be out in the world seeing strange and wonderful things.

My Artist Date for Week II is in two parts.

Part The First: Shopping at Target & Jo-Ann.

Part The Second: Making myself a Ribbon Memo Board.

Julia wants us to put up messages to ourselves. Like, "Stop playing 'Zuma and write something, you slacker!" Just kidding. Julia wouldn't want us to call ourselves slackers. That's not her Way. These would be inspirational messages. "Such as, 'I'll provide the quantity and let Holy Tree provide the quality."

Plus, I have photos and little mementos I don't want to poke holes in with pushpins. Thus, my desire for a padded memo board with crisscrossed ribbons you can just tuck things into. I am so all about this project.

I'm planning to do it tomorrow and post a photo of it in all of what will certainly be its glory. But first I have to find my stapler.

What I'd like to point out here is this: Jo-Ann Fabrics ETC. at University Square is a gigantic space. Just massive. And as far as I can tell, with the exception of a handful of mundane objects like straight pins, it is fully, irrevocably, profligately devoted to the pursuit of creativity. Wow. Ribbons, buttons, notebooks, scrapbooks, yarn and knitty items, macrame, decoupage. Lord Almighty! Even some of the straight pins are fancy. Actually, there are pins in every possible color. Racks of them. Pins! I LOVE this. The sheer, over-the-top exuberance of it all. It speaks Creativity to everyone who walks in the door. I was gaa-gaa over stuff I didn't even know what it WAS.

That's it for now.

In closing: A good time was had by me.

It worked! Oh, how fun! S

I am trying to see if I can post on my own. fingers crossed, Susan

TGIF

Hi everyone, it's Maura... former colleague and eternal friend of Annie's... and several others among us, you know who you are! Not the mysterious Saudade, my Blog-joining secret identity, she's very beautiful and mysterious. She piles on the Fracas, asthmatics be damned.

Here's a real picture, of me, "hard at work". LOL. I have already fallen off the Morning Pages wagon, or off the Bus, as it were. Annie said I could soldier on though, and so...

I wanted an Artist's date with myself, gave myself my number, but I never called. I guess I'm Just Not That Into Me. ha-ha- we all know THAT's not true.

Planned to see Crazy Heart, maybe this weekend. I have a morning page, well maybe a page and a half. I have done AW once before, and look forward to easing back in- I don't do anything very abruptly these days. Joint pain.

My Artist credentials are: Art School dropout, "published" poet (at age 13 in a Literary Magazine), school literary pursuits and editorial positions, and the inexorable yearning. Saudade. Leave a beautiful scrap behind of the beautiful world as I see it. Make something. Though I did make commercials for a long time, and several of them were quite beautiful. For a commercial.

Happy Artist's Weekend!

Time-out. And action!

How not to get A-Way from work:

Answer email. Call colleagues. Check email. Snorkle the web. Poke through the news. J.D. Salinger died today, who knew he was still alive? Check out the new iPad. Steven Jobs is definitely still alive. Clean desk. Hold fast to the delusion that you’re busy, racing against the clock, catching up and making up for lost time. . .at work.

Reporting in on “time-out,” I observe that work deprivation can be a form of torture for the workaholic.

Tough times, tough town. January in Detroit. However sunny and clear the day, it is bone chilling cold. Here in what feels like the epicenter of the Great Recession, “time out” for all too many friends and close colleagues means time out of work. I have not been cut from the workforce, but the blade feels ever so close.

Home today, I couldn’t be busier at work, my desk piled with books to read, proposals to write, new projects in development - all engaging and challenging enough to keep me occupied. Gainfully employed. And yet, becalmed in this sea of work, my time is my own today, on a “Furlough Day,” an imposed day off without pay.

Furlough. Isn’t that the word for temporary leave of absence from the army or from a prison term? Furlough. In Detroit that’s shorthand for lay low, wait and see how the next quarter will go. Furlough. Let’s share the wealth in reverse. Better news than Lay Off, if everyone sacrifices just a day off, we’ll all get through. Isn’t that the spirit of non-profit?

Ok, boohoo, so I feel like a polar bear swimming in open water. With a day off of my choosing every pay period, I have all kinds of time for Time-Outs to plan. Or not. The day awaits, the wind blows fresh and clear, there’s still a good hour and a half before the sun dwindles, and my resolve fades. Still time for a Starbuck’s and a curl-up with a good book. ( reading The Maytrees, Annie Dillard).

Up in the Air. Oh yeah, I’ve seen it.