Tag: art

The Business of Blogging

It seems I have given myself yet another job, where I work for FREE.

My unpaid jobs pay me in a way that money cannot provide.

I enjoy writing my blog. I think it’s because it is socializing. I connect with people I will never see and never know, except through their writing and their pictures.

I read other people’s blogs and yes, we are all stories. There are three that have affected me recently; The Skeptical Teenager, The Beauty Within and another one that I can’t find again. I thought for sure I liked one of her posts, but it’s not on file. She was a woman whose grammar didn’t exist. She wrote in the vernacular and her blog was the story of her life. She only had four posts and I couldn’t believe it~she had 78 followers.

Writing is powerful.

It is art.

It is informative.

It can take you apart and it can put you back together.

The Path To Hell in 60 secs. or less

Just spend your time thinking about yourself. Or try comparing yourself to other people. Or focus on what you don’t have.

If you want to live in hell, go ahead.

This painting is The Bluest Eye. The title is a reference to Toni Morrison‘s first novel. In the story, the main character, a little black girl, is driven mad because she wants to be like all of the images pushed on her as ideal beauty; white, blonde and blue-eyed.

She has no sense of who she is and as life happens, like it will, she can’t handle it.

If you want to be somebody, be yourself!

This painting was done years ago. I ran across it yesterday cleaning up a shed that houses all of my old art work. I was considering painting over it. But now that I’ve remembered the experience of painting it and what it was about, I think I’ll keep it.

 

 

Como las Vacas

Live Like the Cows

This is one of my favorite paintings. It’s on the wall at the foot of my bed. Como las vacas ~ which means ~ to live like the cows.

This can be good advice for living in Costa Rica, or anywhere for that matter. Have you ever watched a cow?

We don’t expect waves until February third….. I haven’t seen it flat for this long, in a few years.

Que, Kooks and Censorship

Once a month, I write an article for a local magazine, Que! My column is titled Eye Am Art. Meeting the two guys that own this publication was a fortunate day.  Que!, is satirical and hilarious. It pokes fun at our crazy, Costa Rican lives. Hence the name, Que!. In English that means ~ What! Which~ you will find yourself saying here a lot. Such as in my recent post John Denver and Cat Burglars. Check out the magazine. If you like to laugh, you will enjoy it.

Eye Am Art is serious. Each month I write about a local artist or I expound on the topic of aesthetics, or I just try to be encouraging of the arts. I have a Fine Arts degree and am passionate about all the arts. I’m an art cheerleader.

Coincidentally, this month I wrote about Poetry and censorship. As an artist, I am against censorship of any kind. Right now there is a House Bill in the works, SOPA. It is supposed to protect intellectual property rights. But as the bill reads today, it opens the door for repression. WordPress, as well as myself and bloggers worldwide, are protesting. That is why there is a STOP CENSORSHIP banner across the right corner of my blog. If you want to become more informed, read, One Cool Spot Blog, January 17th’s post.

That being said, I would like to share with you my latest column from the magazine.

                                        Poetry~The Word Arts—A Poet’s Advice

A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feeling through words. This may sound easy. It isn’t.

A lot of people think or believe or know they feel-but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is feeling-not knowing or believing or thinking.

Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody but yourself.

To be nobody-but-yourself–in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else-means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

As for expressing nobody-but-yourself in words, that means working just a bit harder than anybody who isn’t a poet can possibly imagine. Why? Because nothing is quite as easy as using words like somebody else. We all of us do exactly this nearly all the time-and when we do it, we’re not poets.

If, at the end of your first ten or fifteen years of fighting and working and feeling, you find you’ve written one line of one poem, you’ll be very lucky indeed.

And so my advice to all young people who wish to become poets is: do something easy, like learning how to blow up the world-unless you’re not only willing, but glad, to feel and work and fight till you die.

Does this sound dismal? It isn’t.

It’s the most wonderful life on earth.

Or so I feel.

Reply to a letter from a high school editor; published in Ottawa Hills (Grand Rapid, Michigan) High School Spectator October 26, 1955

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This poem was sent to me by an anonymous poet. So, we printed it and I advised anyone who wants to write to do so, like no-one was ever going to see it. Writing should be a freedom of expression. It’s an art. Art is how we connect as human beings.

The editor and poet who wrote to the high school editor, giving advice did so in 1955. I doubt he would have been able to use those words, “blow up the world” today. He could inadvertently become responsable for some kooks bad behavior.

Now me, printing the above poem-I will not take responsibility for what happens in the line up.

That’s one reason I like it down here, you’re basically own your own.

I don’t know what the future holds. But I do know it has been portrayed in novels, such as 1984, as a place where all of our freedoms will be taken from us. And we will be controlled by Big Brother through the use of technology. Vamos a ver/we’ll see.

I feel, until then, I will practice the editor’s advice to a poet and be and individual, I feel.

And as far as the anonymous poem, I don’t want to feel any pain~so we are all warned no dropping in!

pura vida

STOP AMERICAN CENSORSHIP

Tick tock~time talk

My blog is approaching 1000 views. At the last peep it was 991, and the clock ticks. I created this blog, as a learning tool.

As you can tell from the nature of my post that surfing is an important aspect of my life. At one time, because of my love for the beach, sitting in the sun and swimming and surfing, I found it hard to get to school or do anything else. I found myself, not where I wanted to be. Time was getting away from me.

I’ve always been an artist, but I really wanted to be better. I went to the local, junior college and took a drawing class. After that class, I was awarded a half time, talent grant and went to school for four years on scholarship. I always took one art class and one academic class. You don’t HAVE to go to college to get ahead, but it sure does help.

If my life’s path had not turned in this direction I can’t imagine where I would be.

I learned to start things and finish things. I learned to use my time well.

These are a few drawings that I did very quickly to prove my art abilities, to someone here in Potrero. She thought I was lying about my academic credentials. I can’t say as I blame her. Lying is a favorite pastime of gringos in Costa Rica.

Anyway, I have a lot of time on my hands here, sometimes. We do not expect to have waves until next Friday.

I have created new goals for myself on my blog. I would like to create a better home page. Who am I?

Once I have done that to my satisfaction, I’m going to create a Facebook page for the Secondhand surfer.

I live my life one day at a time, one wave at a time, and now, one post at a time.

Why not, that’s all you can do, the same as, you can’t drive two cars at one time!

And the clock ticks, tick tock, time talk.


Rise Up and KISS

~The Fish~

Last night, I started writing my post. I began with my discovery of Costa Rica. I was trying to relay how coming to this country was a spiritual quest. I was answering the still small voice in me, that said, “GO”.

Answering that voice use to be scary; now, it’s old hat. I practiced, practiced, practiced!

My post got too wordy, and too bogged down, trying to share my experiences. It seemed important, but proved difficult.

This morning, waking anew, I just want to tell you the results of my spiritual adventure ~ I rise up and enjoy the day the Lord has made ~

Regardless of my circumstances ~

Trying to live here in Costa Rica, brought me to my knees, and that’s obviously a good place for me to be.

Keep it Simple

Looking back~

This is Susan Nicks~my first spiritual teacher~she taught me that everything I  needed to know, I had learned in kindergarten. I don’t believe our paths crossed, by accident. I do believe in God. God is alive and God lives through me.

Just the other day I had the feeling of looking to my future. Today I have the feeling of looking back. It has been quite a year. Like every year, there’s always good happening and things that are not so good. What I have come to realize is, it’s what I focus on the most, is going to determine the overall mood of my life. So,why not focus on the good? It’s a choice.

There was a time in my life, when I can honestly say that I did not possess that choice. I was ruled by all things external.

Due to circumstances, I found myself in the company of people who knew a better way to live. It involved becoming unenmeshed. I do not have to be homogenous with those around me.

When people call you rebellious or lazy, what they are saying is, they cannot control you.

It was required in my home, for everyone to think along the same lines: to do things in a unified time frame. That was impossible for me. Not only with my family of origin, but in other social settings. I always wondered, why in the world should I wear my hair like that, or drive a car like that, or live in a house like that. Just to be like everyone else?

However, if you’re the odd man/woman out, it can be a trial to say the least.

Then, it happened, for me, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear”.

I learned to ~ Let Go and Let God ~ One Day at a Time ~Relax. I let life unfold; I practice, Live and Let Live ~ To Thine Own Self Be True ~ Love and Service…People First, Money  Second  (Suzie Orman). And in the words of  Scarlett O’Hara, “Why do today, what you can put off until tomorrow” ~ Slow down you move to fast, you’ve got to make the morning last (Paul Simon) ~ have a good day, it’s really all you have (me).

Life is not a competition.

For twenty-four years, I have made New Years’ Resolutions. I know what I am going to resolve, in my life, this year. In looking back, I feel strong in looking forward. And whatever I do, I don’t have to do it alone.

If I have a choice, which I do, then, why not?