"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." ~Neil Gaiman

The Challenge:
Create one new thing every day in 2011.
The Rules: 10 "freebie" days are allowed, but not encouraged.
The Proof: Weekly updates accounting for each day.
LET'S MAKE SOME ART!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Days Seventy Three to Eighty One: Revisiting the Past

Day 73: In addition to that bookmark I made for the library, I also made a brochure of books that both teens and adults would enjoy. Here it is, front, center and back:







Day 74: Perhaps inspired by my birthday, I wrote the following (not very good) poemish thing:

Years are like boxes. They hold things. But some things don't always fit neatly inside.
They spill out, overflow. Some boxes are nearly empty.
Years are like doors - no, that's not really true.
Years are like long lists of things to do.
No, years are cars on that distant road,
things that go by quickly as you're paying attention to something else.
Years are heavy sometimes. They have weight.
And yet they're so light that you don't tend to notice.
Years are grains of sand. Years are like air.
The truth is that years are like the absence of light,
the mechanics of mirrors, or why birds have flight -
they're things that I don't understand and maybe never will.
But I'm okay with that. I'm okay.
Forget about years. I'll just worry about today.


Day 75: I wrote more on the house between worlds, including this excerpt:

There are many ways to be wrong.

There’s the wrong where you know it’s wrong, and everyone else does too, and there’s nothing good that could possibly come from it.

There’s the wrong where you know it’s wrong and other people do too, but they figure it’s for the best so why try to stop it.

There’s the wrong where everyone else thinks it’s wrong but you don’t, not really, and you’re stuck trying to figure out how these people you look up to and trust so much could think something so fundamentally different from you, and whether they’re the ones who are wrong or whether you are.

There are many more, but these are the ones I’ve come across tonight.

It’s wrong to ask for a Second. I know that, Jason knows it, and everyone on the ship knows it too. Nothing good could possibly come of it.

It’s wrong that Jason loves a girl but cannot ever be with her. I know it, he knows it, Em knows it… I know she must. But in the end, I think she reasons it’s better this way. Better to cut it off like this than to give him any hope of an ordinary life when he never will lead one.

It’s wrong that I dream of staying when we, of course, must always leave. It’s wrong that I question the curse, that I wonder if maybe there might be some other way to break it, some important thing the adults are keeping from us somehow. But
is it wrong? Am I wrong? Or is Em really the one who’s in error here?

Or is it possible that neither of us are really wrong, that all that’s wrong about this is the problem we find ourselves in, that really we’re just two people trying to make the best of an impossible situation?

I saw Jason leave this morning when the others were asleep. I saw that he took his things with him, all of them. I saw the look in his eyes.

And now we are airborne. Moving on to a new place, and Em assumes Jason is below decks with the others.

Which leads to the biggest question of them all: is it wrong that I haven’t told anyone?

I want to give him as much of a headstart as I can.


Day 76: A difficult day for some reason, so all that came out of it was this haiku...

That mouse over there
Looms above me like a giant.
Yes, I feel that small.


Day 77: I had the most incredible nightmare. Usually, if it's the kind that wakes me up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night all I remember of it is whatever happened right before that, but in this case I remembered an actual story behind the dream and it almost made sense. There wasn't really a beginning to it, but I jotted down what I could remember of the dream and started trying to adapt it into a short story, fixing some of the weirder dream-element parts that would mess with the logic. I won't get too much into it, because it's definitely going to be one of the 13 days of Halloween this year!

Day 78: Using some beads I bought from the art store down near Rebekah's house in Florida, I made a necklace. I accidentally left it out in my car and I'm lazy and don't want to go get it right now, so I'll have to post a picture later.

Day 79: More on the house-between-worlds story. I know, I know... I'm starting to sound like a broken record. But like I said earlier, it's not a short story; it'll be quite long when I'm done. And there are quite a few characters to juggle, so this section isn't about the same people as in day 75. Here's today's snippet:

The ride to school was awkward. Since we were the last two on the bus at this, the final stop on the route, we were wedged into the very back on the broken bus seat that supposedly sat two but only really fit one person comfortably. Technically, Alexander could have sat anywhere he wanted. He was that kind of person: the waters of high school society would part miraculously for him if he so desired. But today it seemed like all he desired was something I wasn’t about to offer up: the knowledge of what exactly it was that I had seen in that window.

Day 80: So, the house-between-worlds story I keep talking about is very much an autumn-y kid of story. It deals with darkness and shadows and the colder time of year, mysteries and some scary stuff. But one of the first "novels" that I ever wrote (if you can count the 50-page document I wrote when I was eleven as a novel) was very much a summer-y kind of tale. It's always secretly been a hope of mine that I'll get around to rewriting that story one day, and with spring kicking into high gear here in North Carolina, I was reminded of it more than ever. I was also reminded of it because of a drawing Rebekah's sister Bess posted on her facebook of Red Riding Hood on horseback riding into the forest.

I should explain: this story (which I nicknamed "Wishbook" for reasons that will become apparent) is about a young girl named Anna who lives in that kind of pseudo-medieval world that a lot of fantasy stories take place in. She hates all the boring stuff that's expected of her as the daughter of a country knight and longs to go off and have adventures. In a strange turn of events she stumbles upon a magical object; she thinks it's merely a blank book and treats it like a diary, but really it holds the power to grant any wish written in it. Action and excitement ensue as all her wildest dreams for adventure become reality, but as things wind more and more out of her control she begins to realize that getting everything you've always wished for isn't all it's cracked up to be.

So yes, her going off on her journey starts out very similarly to that drawing of Bess's: heading into the forest, leaving the safety of home behind and going off to discover what adventures await. So, between that and the weather I sat down and wrote a few scenes for the new-and-improved Wishbook. I don't think it's something I'll seriously pursue this year, but it was a fun diversion for the day.

Day 81: I pulled out my oil pastels and attempted to draw pictures of two of my story heroines: Anna from Wishbook, and Joan from House-Between-Worlds.

Here they are:



Monday, March 14, 2011

Days Sixty One to Seventy Two: On the Road

Day 61: Melissa and I hopped aboard a plane to fly down to Florida and meet up with Rebekah (and Jackson!) for some fun adventuring in New Orleans and Niceville. Being distracted all day by packing and work (you know, trivial things like that), it wasn't until I was buckled into my seat on the plane that I realized I hadn't created anything yet. But a quick inventory of the seat-back pocket solved that for me. There was a blank barf bag, just dying to be... "improved upon." Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on hand to take a picture of it, but here's what I wrote on the back:

Maybe you're a newbie,
or perhaps a travel nut,
but if nervousness or turbulence
wreaks havoc on your gut
and you feel so ill (despite those pills)
you think you're going to yak -
I'll be waiting right here for you,
nestled safe in the seat back.


Day 62: Our first day in New Orleans we visited the children's museum, and I bought some colored chalk in the gift shop. Even with the rain, there were tons of people in the French Quarter, so when we finally found a parking spot nearby, I decided to celebrate by decorating it a bit. (Seriously, New Orleans drivers are INSANE. They like to stop in the middle of the street for no reason whatsoever!)

"New Orleans":



Sun, moon, and star:



Day 63: On our second day in NOLA, we ventured over to City Park where we, among other things, scared seagulls, disappointed ducks (they didn't seem to like Trader Joe's yogurt candy and would have much preferred bread), lounged with lions (of the stone variety), and ended up at the playground. Near the playground was this awesome tree:



I got it into my head to try to climb it, which was kind of insane since I was wearing my Skechers Shape-ups, which are curved on the bottom and not really ideal for gaining traction on tree bark. But after several slightly-embarrassing failures, I made it to the top and took this victory picture:



So, while we all took many pictures on the trip, I'm counting this particular one as my good madness for the day. Because I earned it? Well, mostly because Rebekah told me to. :)

Day 64: A while back I had this random idea for a story about a woman about to sell her deceased father's lake house who must go and make sure things are in order before the sale goes through. She's staying there the weekend to fix things up and make sure everything's set, and it's not until night has fallen that first evening that she realizes she's not alone. It's a horror story, but not in the way you might think, and I don't want to give away any more because I might use it for 13 Days of Halloween this year. But even though I had the idea a while ago, I never actually wrote it. I just jotted it down to save for another time. For some reason, on our drive home from NOLA something brought the memory back. So on our second night in Niceville, I'm afraid I kept the light on way too long (sorry Melissa!) and stayed up writing the beginning of it.

I went old school, writing by hand on a legal pad since I hadn't brought my laptop. This is cool, because you get to see the story unfold in your handwriting. I guess you feel attached to it a little more? If that makes sense... maybe it doesn't. But anyway, the downside is that there's no backspace, and you can't cut and paste blocks of text to change the order, etc. So as you can see there are many scribbles, arrows, and stars to try to indicate what text should be deleted, inserted, or moved:



Day 65: Switching gears back to the house-between-worlds story, I had an idea about one aspect of the story that could involve a symbol. Rather than choosing a pre-existing symbol, I thought it would be cool to invent my own. Still, I wanted it to bring to mind certain meanings or be associated with certain things: protection from danger, life, an Ash tree (don't ask), perhaps a journey. So I looked up other symbols that meant these things from a variety of backgrounds (mostly from Norse, Celtic, and Native American traditions) and jotted them down and spent a good deal of time trying to invent my own. Melissa helped a bit too, and both of us came to the conclusion that it's much harder than it sounds. So while I didn't settle on one particular symbol I liked (and I may or may not abandon the initial idea completely and go in a different direction), I'm counting it as my good madness for the day. Here are two sheets' worth of brainstorming:





Day 66: More on the lake house story. The day before I had taken a walk through Rebekah's neighborhood. While it's mostly newer houses with paved driveways and the like, there's a section of it, kind of tucked away around a bend, that's almost like a trailer park. In one of the yards, I noticed a fallen tree had been moved to the back of one gravel drive as a barrier to keep from driving too far forward into the yard, almost like those concrete dividers at the head of some parking spaces.

This gave me an idea, so my writing that night included the following lines:

She laughed out loud, and the laugh became a wild and hysterical thing, as embarrassment and relief bubbled to the surface. She rolled her windows down and turned the radio on and laughed and laughed and laughed. Which is why she didn't notice the log blocking the driveway until she was already upon it. And by then it was too late.

Day 67: So by today, I was back home again and launched into the ordinary daily routine. Which meant I got home from work and realized, "Wait a second... I haven't created anything today!"

Fortunately, the weather and the night were inspiring. The rain had been pretty steady throughout the day and continued on into the night. So I wrote this poem:

It was raining
You were outside
Spattered, muddy
but in awe
Night had fallen,
dark come early
settled heavy
like a shawl
It was silent
But not really
Night and rain
each have their noise
You were dancing
But not really,
More like stomping
in your joy

You couldn’t see the stars shine overhead
They reflected off the thousand million raindrops instead
You couldn’t see the moon up in the sky
But it was shining in your eyes

There is madness
in the moment
Fierce and freezing
but amazing
If you want it
you must grab it
Or the chance just
will not last.
There are reasons
to stay in
all dry and warm
and safe and sane,
but there is something
in the darkness,
as it crashes from the skies.
There is something
in the rain
and in the night
and in your eyes…

Oh, I rarely see the stars shine overhead
I’m too busy with my eyes closed fast asleep in my bed.
And I tend to miss the moon up in the sky
I’m distracted with the regular routines of my life
But I think next time the night comes, rain or shine,
I may peek my head out anyway and give it a try.
And the next time that I think of you as mine,
I’ll remember how untameable, how wild and alive you were
Wet and muddy with the moon’s glow in your eyes.


Day 68: I took that poem and put a melody to it, making it a song. Only after recording that did I realize that the melody for the verses sounds a bit like part of the Cake Bake Betty song "Eleanor," and that the melody for the chorus sounds a bit like the silly not-really-a-song-but-kind-of "Eocarcharia" I posted on here earlier. So apparently the song is somewhat recycled, but I'm still counting it as my good madness for today.

Day 69: I worked a bit on a children's story/fairy tale idea I've had for a little while about a monkey. It's not finished yet, but to prove I worked on it here's a blurred screencap:



Day 70: Today I drew a picture of the monkey character I wrote about in that story. It's a simple pen and ink drawing, and looks a bit more like a bear than a monkey, but here's the general idea:



Day 71: At the library I made a bookmark of suggestions of adult fiction books that teens might enjoy:



Day 72: I took the song I made from the poem on days 67 and 68 and put together this video:

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Days Fifty Five to Sixty: Earth, Air, Fire and... Seuss?

Day 55: We're having another Discovery Place program at the library. This time it's "Electrifying Attractions," all about electricity and magnetism. I designed the poster and flyer for it:



Day 56:

Light a fire
Let it fade to ember
Gaze at stars
And think "That's what we are."
Shining things
People fondly remember,
Long dead
By the time our light reaches this far.


Day 57: This may seem silly, but it's been forever since I've made a paper airplane, so that's exactly what I did. I made a few different kinds, but interestingly the one that flew best was the "test" one I made out of a pink post-it note. Go figure.



Day 58: I used oil pastels to draw two mini pictures: a tree with a stream behind it, and a red coffee cup.





Day 59: More work on the House-Between-the-Worlds story, including these lines:

Sometimes one of the adults has a strange dream, or a sudden inexplicable recollection. It could be anything… the sight of a building at the edge of a new town, a crooked tree, a snatch of conversation. Something triggers one of the memories hidden down deep, one the magic didn’t quite pull away completely. After such things happen, one or another of them may spend minutes, but often hours, writing down in detail all they can recall. They will discuss it with the others, see if it triggers anything else useful, anything more they can add to the never-ending puzzle of How-We-May-One-Day-Break-The-Curse-And-Return-Home-Again.

Day 60: Since it's Dr. Seuss's birthday, we had a Dr. Seuss event at the library. All attendees could enter a raffle to win tickets to the Charlotte Symphony Lollipops performance of Green Eggs and Ham. So I made this "hat" for them to drop their raffle tickets into. (That's where the disappearing pretzel container went, Mom!)



Now I'm off to New Orleans... we'll see what inspires me there!