Wild Earth Integration

What do you get when you mix fire and ice?

A whole lot of awesome, that’s what.

Seeing how we’re starting to enter into ‘Winter Temperatures: The Extreme Edition’ around here, I thought it would be a great time to put all of the cold to some creative use. Plus, all of this gray outside can make people squirrelly. Enter the Icy Candle Holder. I swear, it’s going to be the next Snuggie.

All you’ll need is an empty can – big, small, whatever you have – (although tuna sized cans would make for particularly cute holders), some water, food coloring and a chunk of plasticine. And if you know me at all, you know I’ve got plenty of plasticine lying about. *Grin*

Start off by cleaning out your can and giving it a quick dry with a tea towel. Next, use your hands (or feet, if you’re really talented) to form it into a tea light shape. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be Bernini to pull this off. Starting off with a bit of clay the size of a rum ball should do the trick. Stick your chunk of clay into the bottom of the can – this will serve as where the candle will be set when your masterpiece is done.

Next, fill ‘er up! Add water to the top and a dash of food coloring and head on outside to find a good spot for it to freeze. Letting the water freeze for awhile before adding color will give you some cool streaky designs, while adding it right away will give you a nice blended look. When the whole lot is frozen, a quick run under warm water will loosen the ice and voila! – a wintery candle holder to add a bit of color to your winter world!

I’d love to see some of your creations, so send some my way (pictures, please no ice in the mail) if you try it out!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go and shovel purple snow.

Field notes:

-Hat on wet hair does not a warm girl make.

-Adding bird seed to the water will gain you some feathered friends.

-If attempting while windy, be prepared for lovely food colored-splash on pristine white snow. (see above) This might result in neighbors thinking your dog is terribly ill. Oh my.

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently led a few workshops for 60 12 and 13 year olds, who were very interested in changing the world for the better. We spoke about mixing different mediums to send positive messages, and about how each person can make a difference no matter what their passions are. Of course, one of my favourite mediums is clay, so I let them loose with a few colours and some illustration board. I wanted to see what they would come up with, if challenged to create something with a positive message.

Their results were incredible – It was great to see how aware these kids actually are – issues like biodiversity, poverty, health care, racism, climate change, peace and unity were forefront in their creations. I was also happy to see that, despite representing 4 different schools, they all worked together to make something. I won’t be surprised to hear about any of the awesome things these kids will accomplish in the future. In fact, I can’t wait.

So, as promised, here is a gallery of their work. Great job, folks!

The first piece represents 2 sides of the world – one side is covered in factories, stinky clouds and sludge in the water. The other side is how the students want the Earth to be – with a clean atmosphere, wind turbines, lots of trees, and of course, wildlife. Note the snowman in the North Pole – he’s there to show that we still have ice caps!

The next piece uses a lot of color to show peace, integration and unity. Bright colors and integrated swirls are on one side, with darker, murkier colors on the other. I only gave students a few colors to start with and I noticed there were people in charge of mixing new shades!

The next two pieces focus on water – pollution, fresh water needs and biodiversity are all issues these guys were concerned with. Of course, the first is modeled after the Texas-sized pile of garbage in the Pacific. Note the Cola can…

Finally, diversity, unity, racism and global needs are tackled in the last two. In the first piece here, flowers represent people, in that we are all different in some ways, but the same deep down. Brilliant, no?

The last group tackled a whole gamut of issues, with recycling, health care, biodiversity and peace depicted, around a healthy Earth.

One thing I did notice was how often the teachers peeked at the box of clay. It’s funny how when plasticine’s in the room, it’s hard to ignore…

Here are some creations from teachers who just couldn’t help themselves.

Congrats everybody on a job well done!

Just a quick update to look forward to — Last week, I was fortunate enough to speak at a workshop focused on creating positive change in the world. I chatted with 3 groups of Grade 7s-8s about sustainability, social justice, environmentalism and (of course) clay. The kids were awesome, and they definitely have some world changing ideas.

Just wait ’til you see what they made. Stay tuned for more details and pictures of their masterpieces!

In the meantime, I hope you’re feelin good.

“The reason they want you to fit in is that once you do, they can ignore you.”

-SG

In case you don’t read Seth – you should.

First item: It’s Friday. This makes me happy.

Second, I finished a new pic. You like?

In the spirit of Friday, I thought I’d write a little bit about input and output. No, I’m not talking about hooking up the DVD player, although that is an experience for the books also. I’m talking about the other part of the creative process that many people often ignore.

Here’s the way I see it. Creativity is output. It comes from inside of you (this is starting to sound a bit like Alien, but bear with me) – and then something is formed, stitched and melded together from your own blood, sweat, tears and imagination. It could be writing, dancing, sculpting, basketweaving – it’s all coming from you and ends up representing a snapshot of your life and mindset at the time. You put a lot of yourself into it. That’s why people use the phrase “it took a lot out of me.”

What I’m trying to say is, it’s really hard.

But this is only half of the equation. These are the awesome-super-fired-up-gungho-I’m-the-king-of-the-world moments where you’re buzzing with the excitement of creating, or having created, something entirely you. What’s the other half, then?

The other half of the equation is input. I think of input as a time of mindful, active rest. It is the second piece of bread in the creative sandwich, but too often people ignore it and make a huge mess trying to eat it open-faced style. Input is the time you allow yourself to delve into those activities that you used to enjoy as a kid, or feel niggly, naggy little feelings towards now. Input is the stuff that you want to do, but won’t allow yourself to do because you’ve got work to do.

Maybe your version of input is seeing an opera. Or watching Die Hard for the eighth time (shush, it happens). Maybe it’s sneaking a read of Twilight to see what all the fuss is about (guilty), or sitting on a park bench watching the squirrels. It could be eating an incredible meal with your main squeeze or going to the bookstore and poring over the children’s books you used to love. Input is the stuff that many people see as absolute fluff. But they’re wrong.

Input, unlike creating, is letting the world come to you.

I hear you – “But Jess! I can’t just escape my life and master the art of french cooking! I’ve got pieces to finish, papers to grade, books to write!”*  *(Pick your poison there). But what we’ve forgotten is, input is part of the job. If you don’t have input, you’ll have nothing to turn into output.

You’re no super(wo)man. Neither am I. But for a long time, I gave myself a hard time about needing the time to gain those inputs in my life. I would get frustrated if I caught myself staring out the window, feeling like a desperate spaniel pawing at the outside world. I would steal glances at the latest novel beside me and say to it “in a minute, in a minute”. (So I talk to books sometimes, what’s it to you?)

But you’d be surprised what a little input can do if you allow it into your life. Watch the movie. Take a walk. Get over yourself and how serious you are about your work and do something you actually want to do. The funny thing is, the more you allow yourself to be human and work with yourself (by that I mean, accepting that you need inputs), the more you’ll notice your outputs taking off! When you allow yourself to work with your own process, you’ll become more productive. Promise.

This isn’t just me telling you to go easy on yourself and take a break every now and then. It’s me telling you that input (walks, books, movies, friends, tree climbing) is necessary to any sort of creatively successful life. It’s filling up your mental dictionary. It’s expanding your brain, making new connections and sorting old files. As soon as you realize that input is part of the job, things change.

So go ahead. Don’t ignore half of your job. Enjoy some input time. Yippee-kay-yay – John McClane would be proud.

It happens all the time. Just when you think you Know A Thing, you take one more look and — bammo — your world turns upside down.

I’m all about seeing what we can learn from the natural world. You’re here, so you already know that. The latest in spider news actually holds a big secret for you – are you ready?

They discovered a vegetarian spider. *cue daunting music*

No takers? Bear with me.

Ok, here’s the scene: in the tropics of Mexico and Costa Rica, scientists have been studying this fellow for awhile now. Back in the late 1800s, scientists named this spider Bagheera kiplingi. Sound familiar? Literary buffs (or Disney enthusiasts) will recognize Bagheera as the straight-laced, slightly uptight panther from Kipling’s the Jungle Book. Nice little homage there.

Fast-forward now. So they’re out there in the forest checking the spider out (as one does) and they notice it using stealthy jungle-spider moves to attack its prey. But here’s the rub – it would leap Tobey Maguire style not to catch bugs or any other critter – it was catching acacia buds. No insects for this spider, he’s a veggiesaurus. They use their mad spider skillz to avoid ants (who protect the acacia buds), and chow down on a plant-rich diet.

Yeah, yeah – I hear you. You’re not into spiders. You’re not a scientist in Costa Rica spending your days swatting flies under a canopy of greenery. So why should you care? Think about it.

There are 40,000 spider species (that we know of) wandering around the globe. Until now, they have all been classified as meat-eaters. So if you’re a scientist out there, knee-deep in the fact that 40,000 out of 40,000 spiders are carnivores, how likely are you to notice that one teeny spider is munching on a plant?

How many people walked by this spider because they saw what they wanted to see? Or because they saw what everybody else saw?

Everytime you look around you, your brain fills in the gaps of your perception. This is why you can read sentences missing whole chunks of words.

C n y u rea th s?

See?

So your brain can fill in the letters that are missing, because statistically the letter ‘a’ goes between ‘c’ and ‘n’ more often than ‘p’ or ‘e’. We all know that ‘cpn’ is not a word.

This is how your brain works with language, but I’d bet you a dollar to a donut that overall perception follows the same patterns. If 100% of the time when you see a flower and it’s not talking to you, you’re going to develop some pretty strong opinions about plants. Let’s face it – sometimes ‘facts’ can drag you down.

So what does the veggiesaurus spider teach us? Do your absolute best to approach your life (problems, solutions, work, writing, creations) from a new standpoint, as often as you can.

Sometimes, all it takes is a walk outside to clear your head. Write down everything you think you know about a situation, and challenge yourself to counter each point, as strongly as you can. Create within yourself a mindset that allows you to be surprised. Develop a state of mind wherein you suspend judgment. Or, maybe just don’t be such a stubborn arse all the time.

Depending on patterns is inevitable, and most of the time it will help keep you alive. After all, [hot stove + hand = bad] is probably a good pattern to notice. But too often, we miss out on a lot because we’re seeing what we’ve geared ourselves to see. Lightning can strike, but normally it occurs in the form of a quiet insight. Train yourself to notice the vegetarian spiders of the world, and you just might be surprised what else you find.

See you next time. Til then, I’m gone, man… solid gone.

Artists and writers, listen up. Scientists, you too. We all play nice here and this post is for both of you.

Looking for something to really help you open up and create a masterpiece? What about a clever trick that just might lead you to stunning scientific epiphanies? Are you ready?

Sfumato. Kind of sounds like a weird sort of tomato-fungus hybrid, doesn’t it? But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sfumato can change your life.

Literally, sfumato means ‘to go up in smoke’. It is normally used to describe an Italian painting technique, most notably demonstrated by our pal Da Vinci and his Mona Lisa. The wispy thin layers of paint endlessly applied over each other created one of the most ambiguously beautiful images in our history. Sfumato is why this painting has become one of the most talked about icons of all time. Is she smiling? Smirking? Pregnant? Happy? Innocent? Seductive? What is her deal? The Mona Lisa personifies sfumato because we really have no idea what is going on with her.

But sfumato is more than just a paint technique.

In life, sfumato is the principle of accepting and embracing the unknown. It is seeing the paradoxes and contradictions – the gray areas, the smoky hazes and the veils between ideas. Da Vinci once said that the things in life that make us the most happy will also make us the most sad. That’s a paradox if I’ve ever heard one. To me, this is a lot like what Achilles says in Troy: “Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed.” Life is full of contradictory ideas like this. Joy/sorrow, journey/destination, good/evil, incubation/output, change/permanence, logic/imagination; we live with the tension between these ideas everyday, but we don’t really think about it. The principle of sfumato allows you to contemplate these ideas simultaneously, while accepting the fact that you just don’t know.

The Big, Bad Unknown

Typically, when faced with the unknown we get anxious. We freak out. We enter denial. We become control freaks, desperately trying to align our world in clean, right angles and tidy, colour coded boxes. But this is no way to view the world – at least not if you want to do something extraordinary. You must be willing to not know, which inherently means you are willing to absolutely fall on your arse and fail remarkably. When you start a new project, admit it – you have no idea where it may lead. You may create the next bestseller or the world’s heaviest paperweight – who knows? You might seek the cure for cancer and find it, or you might lead the way to something else or (just as remarkably) add to the pile of ten thousand ideas that don’t work. You just don’t know. Embrace that.

Why Sfumato Is Where It’s At

If you’re okay with the concept of uncertainty, you are open to more. More sights, more sounds, more tastes, more experiences, more ideas. If something comes at you when you’re hell bent on forcing certainty, the chances are good that you will miss it, because it wasn’t part of your plan. It might even bug you. If you are open to doubt, you are open to all sides – the yesses and the nos, the rights and the wrongs. Most importantly, if you are open to the unknown, you won’t miss your hunches. And hunches, my friend, are quite possibly your best opportunity for success, in work and life.

Say it with me. Sfumato.

Allow yourself the possibility of seeing things differently.

Yes, this post is ambiguous. See my point?