Category: creativity
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My Commentary on the Slice of Life Ballad
The following comes from the original email in which I delivered my manuscript to Ellie for the Slice of Life ballad. I knew that my work can be kind of dense at times, so I used the postscript of the document to write her an explanation. It explains the major thrust of the poem :: Hey sister, Though…
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Joplin Photonovel • Behind the Scenes 002
For your mid-week viewing pleasure, here are some more outtakes our shoot for… THE Joplin photonovel :: (click on the photos to get the full story) :: I can’t tell you much more right now, but as always, more to come…
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The Alex Seton Life Jackets
Empathy. It may well be the driving force behind all art – that we learn by making decisions along with another. This is the crux of story, but it also works in terms of seeing life through the eyes of a sculptor or a painter. The story behind Alex Seton’s Life Jackets :: In May…
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Leon Ransmeier’s Interplay between Objects and The Human Body
Leon Ransmeier showed up at Governor’s Island in 2012 with pieces like this :: Leon Ransmeier’s objects guide interaction – they seem to say that there’s a right way and a wrong way to use them. The piggy bank above, for instance, has a single hole and no plug. The only way to access your money once this…
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Joplin Photonovel • Behind the Scenes 001
For your weekend viewing pleasure, here are some outtakes from our shoot for… THE Joplin photonovel :: Click on the pictures to open the gallery and see the stories behind them, but I need to highlight one in particular… Of course, the day we were shooting a long, progressive walk downtown would turn out to become the coldest day – complete…
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Building of the Year
As a would-have-been fourth generation carpenter, I gleaned my father’s and my grandfather’s appreciation for architecture early on in life. If you don’t have a magazine like The Architect’s Newspaper in your arsenal, it’s a great way to cross-train regardless of your discipline. And if you’re not the artistic type, it’ll give you a deeper appreciation…
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The Creative Center at University Settlement
Based in Bowery, NY, The Creative Center believes that medicine may heal the body but art heals the soul. They started out with free art classes to ladies with cancer and grew to include artist-in-residence programs in over 20 healthcare centers. The Creative Center also hosts galleries… …that sell the paintings of these cancer and illness…
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The Makehouse :: Rest for Weary Artists
If you’re creating art of any kind in the New Jersey, Eastern Penn, or New York areas, you might check into a Makehouse residency. The Makehouse brings together a diverse community of artists, fostering an environment of generosity and non-judgement. Emphasis on the word “environment.” They make house like this by hosting retreats out in this Thoreauvian-style…
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Your First 1000 Copies
Several of you have asked what I think about self-publishing and whether I would recommend any resources for selling your first 1000 copies. I have strong opinions concerning self-publishing that I’ll withhold for now and defer instead to some outside resources like Tim Grahl’s book. Your First 1000 Copies sounds like an audacious title. But…
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Royalty Exchange :: Are Artists Commodities?
Many of you already know this, but a new site opened up recently called Royalty Exchange which allows professional investors to bid on – and win – percentages of creative and commodity-generating estates. Think “Sinatra’s discography” for the former and “the mineral rights to Joplin” for the latter. Royalty Exchange is great news for investors,…
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A Christmas Carol Stave 2 : The First of the Three Spirits
Keeping with my pseudo-tradition of reading Christmas stories, this year I’m doing A Christmas Carol. The whole story’s kind of long, so I’m breaking it up into its component staves (It’s a carol, remember?) Here’s A Christmas Carol stave 2, The First of the Three Spirits. I always think of A Muppet Christmas Carol on the first of…
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Sacrament of Fiction: On Becoming a Writer and Not a Priest
Nick Ripatrazone, author of Good People (a book of stories) and the novella We Will Listen For You, wrote a piece for The Millions back in April entitled “Sacrament of Fiction: On Becoming a Writer and Not a Priest.” I bring it up because it fits right into our goal here of encouraging artists and there are a ton of you…