Days 3 & 4

Bear with me on this blog guys, it’s a long one!  

Wednesday-

“Today’s exercise is simple—Pull out (or better yet buy a new box!) of crayons and color to your heart’s content…”

My favorite page!

After I read Wednesday daily exercise I got very excited. This was like a dream come true…almost. It was perfect timing as well because I was babysitting my little nephew pretty much all day.  It was so much fun!! I didn’t buy a new box of crayons because I’m poor and jobless (You know 2 bucks can buy like a whole case of ramen noodles!). I borrowed some crayons from my sister and some paper from my mom and made a little book for Joseph. I didn’t finish it because Joseph was more interested in eating the crayons and ripping up the paper. I had to put it away before  my WFR skills came into play. Needless to say I’m actually rather proud of my little book. It was fun and I have some ideas for it to come in handy later on. I will finish it but that may require me to actually go out and buy some crayons. I can’t be a freeloader the rest of my life. I figured crayons are a good start to practice my independence.


Thursday-
Thursday’s task is a little interesting. Luckily I didn’t really have to create anything just reflect. I’ve had plenty of time to reflect today. I’ve spent the majority of the day in a car so I can meet up with my husband while he is doing an odd job. The drive was uneventful and pretty boring as far as scenery goes. Honestly though, I didn’t get to the exercise until later that night and I talked about it with my husband. I realized a few things about me and have come to the conclusion that I’m strange. I dunno why that was such news to me. I guess I’ve never really thought about how my mind works. Anyway…the day starts out with a quote:
“I believe we all have strands of creative code hardwired into our imaginations…these strands are as solidly imprinted in us as the genetic code that determines our height and eye color, except that they govern our creative impulses. They determine the forms we work in, the stories we tell, and how we tell them. I’m not Watson and Crick; I can’t prove this. But perhaps you also suspect it when you try to understand why you’re a photographer, not a writer…or why your canvases gather the most interesting material at the edges, not the center. In many ways, that’s why art historians and literature professors and critics of all kinds have jobs: to pinpoint the artist’s DNA and explain to the rest of us whether the artist is being true to it in his or her work.” –Twyla Tharp
It’s a long quote but I like it. I’ve always wondered how imaginations worked and watching babies play by themselves shows that it’s a natural thing and not something that’s taught.  After the quote the book asks a series of questions to help you reflect on your own creative DNA. As I read the questions I realized I need to talk this one out. Sometimes my mind just doesn’t work by itself; I need someone to hash things out with. Naturally, I turned to my husband.  He was so patient with me as I rambled on and on about really just random things. After I was finished all he did was just smile, kiss me, looked deeply in my eyes and said “Babe, you’re weird.”
Well I’m not going to argue that point. I know I’m weird I guess I just didn’t realize in what way I was weird.  Thanks to this book it’s all become clear now!


If you were born to produce just one type of work, what would it be?: At first I said an auto-biography. This might be the paranoid side of me but I’ve always felt like the trials or problems that I go through in my life are not only to strengthen me but so that I can help other people who happen to find themselves in the same situation. I’m awful at motivational speaking and things like that. The help is more like…if someone needed a listening ear or advice or a place to go to for comfort, I would know how to give them what they needed or asked for.  As I rambled on about that point, I realized it’s really not so much about the trials it’s about telling the story. If I told my stories about myself or about my relatives (present and past) or even a story about someone I made up if it could mean something to someone then I feel like I would have accomplished something. It’s telling stories that I enjoy and I believe that’s what I was born to do.


What is your unique view of the world, and how does it manifest in your artwork?: Oh this was a tough question to answer cause it’s kind of complicated. I view stories not a world. My philosophy is that everyone and everything has a story. The problem is that I can’t shut off my brain. I look at something simple like a water bottle and I wonder about the factory worker who made that bottle. What kind of life do they lead? Would they be happy? Are they Mexican? You know things like that. When I was talking about this to my husband he asked me to tell him the story of his hair. My mind instantly flashed to these tiny little cells with these hard hats on their…uh…heads lying on their death beds telling the mourning cells to promise them they’ll use their bodies for good. So they lock them up in these tiny little brown coffins and push them up through the skull while the cells wave good bye with their little hankies...How does this manifest in my artwork? Everything I create has back story. Even a tiny little doodle on the side of a page has a whole history. Everything has a story line! It’s amazing I haven’t gone insane yet.

What medium lets you best express your creativity?: Medium Rare.