Sometimes I can dance for hours with total abandon. A true trance. Processing. Exorcising. Recovering. Advance to trance because it’s remedy. Let it go, feel the flow, fast, then slow. (Source: Dance Trance) Dance can be such a total commitment (or no commitment at all!) and a profoundly visceral and immersive act. It’s a way to wrestle the beast without damaging yourself, without damaging ...
Midlife Doodles
Doodling in middle age, doodling in the digital age... Daily. Digitally and not so digitally. Sometimes almost not digitally at all. Welcome to my midlife doodles.
I doodle old school back-of-the-napkin doodles with borrowed pens and pencils. Or a straw dipped in tea. I doodle in meetings, and I doodle in bed. I doodle at the beach. On the beach. In the wet sand by the water's edge where I sometimes re-doodle when the waves wash over my works of whimsy. I doodle on my phone. I doodle on the not-so-fancy paper placemat with my spilled coffee. Or red wine. I noodle-doodle on my plate, and sky doodle with my flashlight. I doodle in the margins of my books, and doodle on the backs of envelopes when paying bills. My friend even doodles on pristine white airsickness bags and then slips them back into the kangaroo pouch in the seat in front of him for somebody to discover later. Dogs doodle in the snow and we call it marking their territory...
Do You Doodle?
Maybe you should try marking some of your territory with doodles? Or maybe doodle a morning message on your misted mirror instead. Doodle-dawdle to decompress, and doodle-bomb get even or make a point or just to experience [almost] what it's like to graffiti. Doodle because teachers and parents told you not to. Doodle because it's risky. Doodle because it's safe. Mostly — and most important of all — doodle because you can and it's fun!
Tea Time: From Paisley to Procedural Drawing Tool
This morning (if 3-something AM is morning rather than purgatory) sleep abandoned me and I flitted a bit while the most incredible orange orb settled into the Jemez Mountains. Maybe I was moonstruck. Or just lucky to be insomniac, to be witness to the most magnificent moon dance I've spectated in a while. Somewhere, somehow between mugs of tea swirling steam paisleys into the darkness I stumbled ...
Midlife Reality Check
"Midlife is when you reach the top of the ladder and find that it is against the wrong wall." ~ Joseph Campbell This is an image called "Tele Time" that is included in 40x41: Midlife Crisis Postponed. It's one of a series of telemark skiing collages I've created over the last few years. It's a mobile (originating photograph and doodle were created via mobile phone and tablet) mashup (digital ...
Carpe Mediae Aetatis
Carpe mediae aetatis? What?!?! Think, "carpe diem". Now think, "midlife". Put it together, and the closest literal translation I've come up with is "carpe mediae aetatis". I like this better... Carpe midlife! It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Carpe midlife. Carpe mediae aetatis. Carpe Diem + Midlife = Carpe Midlife I'm pretty sure my middle school Latin (and even the able wizardry ...
Little Pot Belly
What little pot belly? Me? Are you kidding?!?! [Suck in gut. Turn sideways. Gaze confidently into mirror.] Nope. No little pot belly. Nothing. Not me! I'm trim. Fit. Svelte. Looking better than my thirties. Little pot belly... whatever! Billy Crystal's Midlife Crunch So you're feeling optimistic. You're advancing on your midlife quest for greater creativity and curiosity (and a healthier, ...
Excellence Is a Habit
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." ~ Aristotle ...