National Library Week (Pat's Project)

My friend pat is a biographer. She has published an article in a historical journal. Her work has taken her to many parts of the U.S. and Europe. She has been researcher-in-residence. Pat's work has taken her to such diverse locations as Cody, Wyoming and Madrid, Spain. She is currently co-curating an exhibit in New York City with another scholar. She has two books about her research underway.

"Wow, how did she get started in this wonderful life?'

She read a book.

"No, really. Does she have a degree in English or creative writing from some prestigious university?"

No, both of her degrees are in psychology from state universities.

"Oh, is she rich then with lots of resources?"

With two children in college, I don't think she would call herself rich. And she taught herself to use library resources and the Internet to locate useful sources.

"Seriously, she got to do all this just from reading a book?"

Well, there is one thing more. Six years ago, when Pat read a book about a famous Spanish poet, she asked the question. How did that poet happen to meet a young teacher from a small town in Vermont of all places? When she started to research the teacher, she told people about her about her inquiries. It is amazing the number of people who were able and willing to help her. Look here. Talk to this person. Contact that place. People are there to help when you are willing to share your creative idea.

So what have you read this week?

HAPPY NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK  APRIL 14-20, 2013

And for more information about Pat's research, look here:
http://www.philipcummings.net/  

For Matthew 5/4/82-2/17/13

Some time ago, another artist gave me a list called Why Do People Make Art? Written for a young audience, it includes the expected responses like "tell stories" and "adorn themselves" and "seek personal enjoyment and satisfaction." It reduces the Cathedral of Notre Dame to "worship" and the anti-war songs of the sixties to "seek to affect social change."

Why do people make art? "to record a time, place, person or object." That one strikes me. So much of the world's art, architecture and literature exists because someone needed to keep someone else's memory alive. Tonight, I am not going to create art, architecture or literature but try to take a brief moment to keep a memory alive.

The first time I saw Matthew Lawrence Dyson, I almost didn't see him. He was a tiny baby propped up against a couch pillow. I had to do a double take. I remember holding him for a long time that first night. Later, I knitted him a blue baby sweater with  cables, the only time I've ever knitted cables. Matthew's mother is my friend Louise, who I've known for many years.

I moved to Germany, back to the States and later to Texas. I did not see Matthew grow up. In the only photo of him that I have, he is a small child wearing big sunglasses and surrounded by paper and crayons. Did he like art? I don't know. The one art that I do know he excelled in is the art of being a dad.

Matthew was not given the option of going slowly into that good night. He left his family, his parents, sisters and brother on February 17, 2013. He joins his sister, Jen.

Be at peace, Matthew.

  

Try Something!

Hello again. If you read my earlier post this month, you know my theme for the year is "try." Well, what have I tried in the last three weeks? I had a trying time filling out a federal form. And I tried to keep warm during very cold weather for this part of West Texas. But that's not what I'm really looking at when I think of trying something. Making a different type of paper flower or trying a new art journal technique is more what I have in mind. 

As I looked at the positive and negative forms of the words, I remembered a very trying time long ago as I tried something new. Now, those of you that know me, know that I can do some very intricate work; I knit lace, I cross-stitch on 22-count cloth, I work with seed beads. Years ago, though, I could not tie my shoes.

Seriously, my poor mother spent hours trying to teach me and it just wasn't going to happen. It made absolutely no sense to me. Now, I know it must have been very frustrating to my mother. This was in the days before Velcro fasteners and I wore corrective shoes that tied. I was seven years and could not tie my shoes.

One weekend, I visited my cousins and spent the night there. The next morning, my Aunt Ann showed me a  new way to tie my shoes. I'm sure she had to show me several times but I left there knowing how to tie my shoes. What was the difference between her method and my mother's? I have no idea. There was no silliness about rabbit ears or anything like that. Whatever it was it worked. 

What I learned from that encounter, although I certainly couldn't articulate it at the time, is that sometimes if you are having a hard time learning something, maybe it's not your lack of talent or it's not the thing for you. Maybe it's the teacher. I learned many things from my mother but tying my shoes was not one of them.   

Here's the other thing to be aware of. Sometimes, you just need to keep trying. Conventional wisdom relates that one needs 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. Even experts can improve. How? Go visit your Aunt Ann. Read a new book about your subject area. If you're the author of the number one ranked book in your field, read the second. In this wonderful era of the Internet, make a point to see what else is out there both in your area and others. If your specialty is metal work, check out what fiber artists are up to. Keep current. Keep fresh. Keep trying.