The month of May brings sunshine (hooray!), hints of the lazy days of summer (ahh), and a new roundup of links to #Art, #CreativeExpression, and #Bravery.
Watch, listen, read, and enjoy.
#Art
I love this video of Shantell Martin (via The New Yorker, The Scene), “Follow the Pen,” in which she talks about drawing, letting the pen go where it wants, and creativity being “just like a language unfolding.”
I come to a drawing with intention, a good intention to make something work. . . . I don’t plan…I trust in the pen, and I trust in this experience.
#CreativeExpression
Issue 60 of The Drum Literary Magazine offers four great stories, of fiction and non, for your listening ears and includes Melanie Senn’s essay, “The Art of Drumming Badly.” Senn doesn’t wait until the mood (or inspiration) strikes; she dives in the moment someone says, “Let’s do it.”
I stopped caring what other people thought, and I learned to play with attitude. . . . If I tried to be a perfectionist at this juncture in my life, I’d accomplish nothing. . . . we persist because it is fun and cathartic and makes us feel young.
#Bravery
So, we follow the muse to where she wants to go; we stop caring about what others think; then, we hit send. None of this happens without a stiff shot of courage or without the support of those around us. This month I have an essay up on Hippocampus Magazine, a piece that’s been several years in the making and one I’ve tried tackling in a myriad of ways. Many thanks to those who’ve read (and re-read) this piece in its many draft forms and to Donna Talarico at Hippocampus for finally bringing “At the Fence” to the page.
You love a good rain, the relief after the humidity falls, the way everything outside looks so green and alive. But as you follow your mother through the field, you notice patches of dead grass drowning in puddles and clumps of clover beaten down by the storm. The air is still heavy, and you slip in the mud.
