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695
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dbpedia
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2
| 16
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https://santafe.com/books-from-the-land-of-enchantment/
|
en
|
Books From the Land of Enchantment
|
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"Jesse Williams"
] |
2020-06-24T09:50:01-06:00
|
New Mexico has long inspired storytellers. From the early native people who passed down stories to their descendants to tellers of cuentos, Spanish Colonial
|
en
|
SantaFe.com
|
https://santafe.com/books-from-the-land-of-enchantment/
|
New Mexico has long inspired storytellers. From the early native people who passed down stories to their descendants to tellers of cuentos, Spanish Colonial tales, followed by a steady stream of novelists, poets and nonfiction authors, the region has provided a profound sense of creativity, with majestic mountains, endless views, a unique blend of cultures and remote ruggedness.
Writers have long been drawn to New Mexico, and they’ve extolled the region in novels, poetry, essays, articles, plays, nonfiction and more. From Ben Hur, penned by Governor Lew Wallace, and Willa Cather’s classic novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, which has remained a bestseller in the state since it was published in 1927, to John Nichol’s novel The Milagro Beanfield War, which became an acclaimed film directed by Robert Redford, books about New Mexico have long been bestsellers.
In the first half of last century, writers established flourishing literary colonies in Santa Fe and Taos that brought some of the most famous artists, writers, dancers, musicians and others to visit. In Santa Fe, poets Alice Corbin Henderson and Witter Bynner presided over a prestigious group of writers that included Mary Austin, “Oklahoma” playwright Lynne Riggs and visitor Willa Cather. In Taos, Mabel Dodge Luhan reigned over the Taos writers’ colony, and her guests included Thomas Wolfe, Thornton Wilder and D.H. Lawrence, who lived in a ranch outside of Taos that is now a pilgrimage site for his fans.
After the colonies faded during World War II, authors continued to trek to northern New Mexico, including Truman Capote, who spent a summer in a rented house on Canyon Road, and Vladimir Nabokov, who lived in Taos for a summer with his family. Other books were written that became classics, including Richard Bradford’s Red Sky at Morning and a wonderful mystery, Spider in the Cup, long out of print but the copy I have contains a list identifying which real-life people inspired which sordid characters in the book are based on.
Northern New Mexico continues to be a literary center, as dozens of writers live here producing national bestselling books, including George RR Martin, author of the Game of Thrones series; Hampton Sides, author of the acclaimed Blood and Thunder; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy, who wrote All the Pretty Horses.
In an effort to determine which of these books about New Mexico or by New Mexico authors have left the greatest legacy, we asked some of Santa Fe’s bibliophiles to weigh in with a list of their top 10 books about New Mexico and by New Mexico authors.
In the following weeks, we will be running those lists which were contributed by Pat Hoddap, director of the Santa Fe Public Library; Ellen Bradbury, founding director of Recursos de Santa Fe; Jo Chapman of The Lannan Foundation, David Morrell, author of books about Rambo as well as numerous thrillers; and Frances Levine, director of the New Mexico Museum of History.
Based on their selections for the top 10 books about New Mexico or by New Mexico authors, we assembled our own SantaFe.com list for the Best Books About New Mexico, which follows below.
Do you have a favorite New Mexico book that’s not on our list? Let us know in the comments box below. We’d love to hear from you!
SantaFe.com’s Best Books of New Mexico
1. Hampton Sides’ Blood and Thunder
2. Tony Hillerman’s mysteries
3. Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop
4. Richard Bradford’s Red Sky at Morning
5. Mabel Dodge Luhan’s Winter in Taos
6. John Nichols’ The Milagro Beanfield War
7. Peggy Pond Church’s House at Otowi Crossing
8. Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima
9. Paul Horgan’s Great River
10. George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series
This article was posted by Jesse Williams
|
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695
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dbpedia
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1
| 14
|
https://www.instagram.com/juliacameronlive/reel/C2Xd9VSOos8/
|
en
|
Instagram
|
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695
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dbpedia
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2
| 41
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https://english.unm.edu/grad/prospective-students/programs/mfa/index.html
|
en
|
Master of Fine Arts Program :: Department of English Language and Literature
|
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Master of Fine Arts Program
|
en
|
//webcore.unm.edu/v1/images/unm.ico
| null |
Master of Fine Arts Program
UNM’s MFA Program in Creative Writing is designed for graduate students committed to pursuing the writing life. This three-year degree combines studio-based workshops in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction with craft seminars and coursework in literature, pedagogy, and professional writing.
The MFA faculty is committed to supporting its graduate students with teaching assistantships for the full three years it takes most students to complete the program, offering them the opportunity to teach not only Freshman Composition and Expository Writing but Introduction to Creative Writing as well. At UNM, we believe that MFA students should not go wildly into debt while completing their degrees. For this reason we encourage all applicants to our program to apply for teaching assistantships. Our program is small by national standards, but with a relatively small student-faculty ratio and competitive teaching stipends for three years, we believe we offer our MFA students the chance to fully immerse themselves in writing without the exorbitant price tags attached to some other MFA programs.
In the same spirit, UNM’s MFA Program prepares graduate students for professional lives outside the program, offering coursework not only in creative writing pedagogy, teaching composition, writing theory for teachers, and teaching literature and literary studies, but also electives in editing, proposal and grant writing, publishing, technical writing, documentation, and scientific, environmental, and medical writing. Additionally, we offer our students practical experience in editing and arts administration through Blue Mesa Review and two highly popular reading series. Through program affiliations with such illustrious nonprofit organizations as Santa Fe’s Lannan Foundation and the National Hispanic Cultural Center, MFA students attend readings, conversations and craft talks with renowned national and international writers.
During their final three semesters, students work individually with a faculty mentor on a book-length creative dissertation suitable for publication. Among recent graduates who have published books are: Erika L. Sanchez (Crying in the Bathroom; I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter), Natalie Scenters-Zapico (Lima :: Limón; The Verging Cities), Celia Laskey (Under the Rainbow), Robyn Mundy (The Nature of Ice), Juan Morales (Friday and the Year that Followed), Gary Jackson (Missing You, Metropolis, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize), Molly Beer (with David Dunaway, Singing Out: An Oral History of America’s Folk Music Revival), Israel Wasserstein (This Ecstasy They Call Damnation), Richard Vargas (McLife, American Jesus), Tanaya Winder (Soul Talk, Song Language: Conversations with Joy Harjo), and Paul Bogard (The End of Night; The Ground Beneath Us). Additionally, students in our program have published essays, stories, and poems in a wide variety of magazines, literary journals and other notable venues, including, The Georgia Review, The Sun, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Tin House, Gargoyle, This American Life, Crab Orchard Review, Bellevue Literary Review, The Minnesota Review, Mosaic, New England Review, The Believer, Cream City Review, New Ohio Review, PANK, Mid-American Review, Connecticut Review, and Southern Humanities Review, among many others.
Our widely published creative writing faculty, along with a distinguished visiting writers series, a faculty and student reading series, a nationally recognized, student-run literary magazine, and a setting in the Rio Grande Valley overlooked by the Sandia Mountains and mere minutes from the Colorado Plateau make for an exciting, rich, culturally and ethnically diverse atmosphere for the study of creative writing.
Program History
Edward Abbey, Paula Gunn Allen, Rudolfo Anaya, Denise Chavez, Sandra Cisneros, Robert Creeley, Gene Frumkin, Joy Harjo, Tony Hillerman, Antonio Mares, N. Scott Momaday, Simon Ortiz, Louis Owens, Leslie Marmon Silko, Patricia Clark Smith, and Luci Tapahonso (listed in alphabetical order) are just some of the celebrated writers associated with UNM’s creative writing program as students, faculty members, or both.
Among the awards garnered by alumni and faculty: a Pulitzer Prize, a National Medal for the Arts, a Before Columbus Book Award, a Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature, a William Carlos Williams Award, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, numerous National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and an Academy of American Poets Prize, to cite only some of the most noteworthy awards.
No other university in the Southwest and no more than a handful of institutions in the nation can claim such an illustrious gathering of artists. Our current creative writing faculty includes award winners in all three genres.
MFA Degree Requirements (48 hours)
Core Course (3 hrs)
English 501: Introduction to the Profession for Writers (3 hrs) (Students are strongly encouraged to take this course in the Spring semester of their first year.)
Workshops (18 hrs)
MFA students must take at least twelve hours in a primary genre; at least three hours must be in a secondary genre.
English 521: Fiction Workshop (3 hrs)
English 522: Poetry Workshop (3 hrs)
English 523: Creative Nonfiction Workshop (3 hrs)
Four of the six workshops are to be taken as regular courses. Two may be taken in an independent study format as studio hours.
Genre Studies (6 hrs)
MFA students must choose at least one genre course (3 hours) in their area of concentration. (Students may take no more than twelve hours of English 587.)
English 587: Genre Studies (3 hrs)
Distribution Requirements (12 hrs)
MFA students must take four courses chosen from at least two of the following groups:
British literature to 1660
British literature from 1660 to 1900
American literature to 1900
Literatures in English since 1900
Literary criticism and theory, rhetoric and writing.
Professional Preparation Electives (6 hrs)
English 513-520: Professional Writing courses in Science, Environmental, Medical Writing; Documentation; Publishing; Editing; Biography/Autobiography; Proposal & Grant Writing; Visual Rhetoric; other topics (3 hrs)
English 530: Teaching Composition (3 hrs)
English 533: Teaching Professional & Technical Writing (3 hrs)
English 534: Composition Theory (3 hrs)
English 540: Topics in Language or Rhetoric (3 hrs)
English 592: Teaching Literature and Literary Studies (3 hrs)
Electives (3 hrs)
May be taken outside of English.
Creative Dissertation (6 hours)
English 699: Creative Dissertation (6 hrs)
Language Skill Requirement
There is no language skill requirement for the MFA degree.
MFA Committee on Studies (COS)
All MFA students must assemble a COS to assist in planning a program of studies designed to foster a fundamental knowledge of the major field, both in depth and breadth, and facilitate the students’ advancement in their chosen genre(s). The chair of the COS should be chosen by the end of the third semester of study.
The COS generally includes three University of New Mexico faculty members approved by the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies (ACGS). Students generally select their major advisor to be the chairperson of the COS. The basic role of the committee is to help students plan an integrated individual program of study and creative output that meet general UNM, OGS, and specific MFA requirements. The COS will serve as the MFA comprehensive examination committee, and in most cases, as the core of the Dissertation Committee. The COS may also establish prerequisites when needed, recommend transfer of credit, and approve significant changes in the program of studies.
Appointment of the COS involves the following steps:
Students arrange for an appropriate faculty member to serve as COS Chair;
Students confer with their COS Chair to agree upon the remaining members of the Committee;
The ACGS approves the COS, as evidenced by his or her signature on the Committee of Studies form and Application for Doctoral Candidacy.
Comprehensive Examination
MFA students must take and pass a written comprehensive examination as a required component of the MFA graduate degree. The examination, which must adhere to the general MFA exam requirements outlined in the UNM Catalog, is an essay in which students demonstrate their understanding of the theory and craft of their chosen genre(s) and the literary tradition in which they are writing. The exam, which may eventually serve as the preface to the dissertation, is evaluated by the COS. Students must pass the examination before hours in English 699 (Dissertation) will count toward the degree. The English Graduate Office must file the “Announcement/Report of Examination” two weeks before the Committee evaluates the exam. Therefore, students must notify the English Graduate Office in advance of this date.
Advancement to Candidacy
In order to earn the MFA degree students must file for Advancement to Candidacy by completing the Application to Candidacy form, which formally summarizes their MFA program of studies. The ACGS and the MFA comprehensive examination committee approve the program of studies by signing the form. The English Graduate Office forwards the Application for Candidacy forms to the Dean of Graduate Studies after students pass their MFA comprehensive examination. After determining that all requirements except for outstanding course work and the dissertation have been fulfilled, the Dean of Graduate Studies advances all qualified students to candidacy. (Note: This form must be filed by the end of the semester before graduation and is available here).
The MFA Dissertation
All MFA students must write a dissertation according to the guidelines that follow.
MFA Dissertation Committee
The MFA Dissertation Committee supervises, directs, reads, and approves the MFA dissertation. The committee consists of four graduate professors, at least one of whom must be from the English Department at UNM and one from outside the English Department. The external reader may be a faculty member from another accredited graduate institution; in such cases the student must submit a formal application to the Dean of Graduate Studies who must approve the appointment of the external member. The Dissertation Committee Chair must be a tenured or tenure-track member of the University of New Mexico faculty and have regular graduate faculty approval.
To select a committee, students should arrange for a qualified faculty member to serve as the director of their dissertation. Together with their director, who serves as the Dissertation Committee chair, students then select the other members of the committee. To get the Dissertation Committee approved, students must file an Appointment of Dissertation Committee form with the English Graduate Office no later than two weeks before the Prospectus defense. Students generally submit this form right after passing the comprehensive exams, and no later than the first semester of 699 enrollment. If the members of the Dissertation Committee change, a revised Appointment of Dissertation Committee form must be submitted to the English Graduate Office for forwarding to OGS. OGS may request additional documentation when such changes are made, particularly regarding outside readers. (See the UNM Catalog for more details about the Dissertation Committee and qualifications for committee membership.)
Writing and Submitting the MFA Dissertation
MFA candidates must complete a book-length, creative dissertation in their genre (fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction) and defend this dissertation in an oral examination conducted by an approved dissertation committee. The dissertation includes a preface that demonstrates an understanding of the genre(s) covered by the dissertation, and it places the dissertation within a literary tradition. The preface may include material from the comprehensive examination essay, but students will determine the dissertation’s final form in consultation with their dissertation director. Students must submit the dissertation to OGS, so the manuscript must adhere to the dissertation format stipulated by OGS and outlined under the doctoral section of the UNM catalog.
MFA Dissertation Hours
During the course of their dissertation work, MFA candidates are required to enroll in a minimum of six hours of dissertation (699) credit. Students must pass the comprehensive exams before 699 credit hours will count. Enrollment in 699 cannot begin prior to the semester in which a student takes the MFA comprehensive examination. Only those hours gained in the semester during which the comprehensive examination is passed and in succeeding semesters can be counted toward the six hours required. Students who fail the comprehensive exam cannot apply any 699 credits toward their program of studies until the semester in which they retake and pass the comprehensive examination. After registering in English 699 for the first time, university regulations require that students maintain continuous enrollment in English 699 for a minimum of three hours per semester (excluding summers, when not taking other courses) until successfully completing the dissertation defense.
Final Examination for the MFA (Defense of Dissertation)
The MFA final oral examination is the last formal step before the degree is awarded. Students are responsible for providing each member of their dissertation committee with complete copies of all written materials in ample time for review prior to the examination. The presentation and examination phases of the examination are open to the university community and are published in various sources; the deliberation phase is only open to the committee.
The focus of the final examination is the dissertation and its relationship to the candidate’s major field. Its purposes are:
To provide an opportunity for candidates to communicate the results of their research and creative work to a wider group of scholars through a public reading;
To afford an opportunity for the members of the examination committee, as well as others (faculty, students, staff, etc.), to ask relevant questions;
To ensure that the research and creative work reflects the independence of thought and accomplishment of the candidate; and finally,
To ensure that the candidate is thoroughly familiar not only with the particular focus of the dissertation, but also its setting and relevance to the discipline of which it is a part.
At the conclusion of the examination, the dissertation committee confers and makes a recommendation to accept or reject the dissertation. The committee then submits the Report of Examination to OGS communicating the examination results. (Note: In order to qualify to sit for an exam during intersession, students must be registered for the following semester.)
Announcement of Examination/Defense Form
At least two weeks before the final examination is held and no later than November 1 for Fall graduation, April 1 for Spring, or July 1 for Summer, the English Department must notify OGS of its scheduled date by submitting the Announcement of Examination/Defense form.
Notification of Intent to Graduate
Students must inform the English Graduate Office in writing of their intent to graduate. The proposed graduation list must be received by OGS no later than 5:00 p.m. on the last day of the semester immediately preceding the semester of graduation. (Remember, students must file an Application for Candidacy form in the semester before the semester of graduation.)
MFA Time Limit for Completion of Degree Requirements
MFA candidates have five years from the semester in which they pass their MFA comprehensive examination to complete the degree requirements. The final requirement is generally the acceptance of the dissertation by the Dean of Graduate Studies.
Teaching Assistantships
Teaching Assistantships are competitive and are based on a variety of factors including financial need, prior teaching experience, and overall completeness and quality of the application submitted. Decisions are made by a committee including the Director of Creative Writing, the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, and the Associate Chair for Core Writing. Opportunities to teach creative writing (English 2310) are also competitive. Students applying for these positions must have one previous year of teaching English 1110 or 1120 at UNM.
Teaching Assistantship Limits
MFA students who hold Teaching Assistantships are limited to six semesters of assistantship funding, excluding summer TA appointments. Petitions for extensions may be addressed to the Graduate Committee through the ACGS. Extensions are the exception rather than the rule, and all extensions are contingent upon academic progress, the availability of funding, and departmental need. MFA students who receive a TAship after their first year lose those prior semesters of TAship eligibility.
|
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695
|
dbpedia
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1
| 1
|
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/julia-cameron-says-you-can-get-creative-indoors
|
en
|
Julia Cameron Says You Can Get Creative Indoors
|
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[
"Rachel Syme",
"Andrew Marantz",
"The New Yorker",
"Alexandra Schwartz",
"Condé Nast"
] |
2022-01-23T06:00:00-05:00
|
Rachel Syme speaks with the author Julia Cameron about her best-seller “The Artist’s Way,” her career as a journalist, her time living in New Mexico, and her thoughts about the spiritual side of writing.
|
en
|
https://www.newyorker.com/verso/static/the-new-yorker/assets/favicon.ico
|
The New Yorker
|
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/julia-cameron-says-you-can-get-creative-indoors
|
I first heard about “The Artist’s Way,” Julia Cameron’s best-selling self-help book, from 1992, about tapping into your inner creativity, when I was in my twenties and struggling to finish a piece of writing that had been dogging me for months. A friend mentioned the book, which is big and floppy, like an elementary-school math workbook, and I trundled off to the Union Square Barnes & Noble to grab a copy. Then I promptly shoved it into my bag like it was contraband. There is something about “The Artist’s Way” that inspires eye rolls at first—oh, so you think you’re an artist? The book’s language, with its invocations of a higher power called the Great Creator who wants you to make things, and lines like “action has magic, grace, and power in it,” can feel a little out there even for those with a high woo-woo tolerance. But the advice contained within is surprisingly practical and effective. Cameron recommends two core practices to activate one’s creative energy. The first is Morning Pages, a ritual of scribbling three longhand, stream-of-consciousness pages each day, preferably before you’ve even had your coffee. The second is Artist Dates, a weekly “festive, solo expedition,” such as going to a museum or walking through a strange neighborhood, to stimulate the mind through flânerie. What resonates with many readers is Cameron’s matter-of-fact approach to making things, and to overcoming self-doubt: to get work done, you have to have a steady, everyday practice. Her techniques have spread astonishingly far and wide: “The Artist’s Way” has sold more than four million copies, and writers and celebrities from Elizabeth Gilbert to Alicia Keys swear by its methodology. During the pandemic, the book has leaped back onto best-seller lists.
Before she was a self-help celebrity, Cameron led several other professional lives. Raised in the suburbs of Chicago, she became a star of the New Journalism movement in the nineteen-seventies, when she wrote for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice about Watergate and party drugs; one writer described her as an “East Coast Eve Babitz.” She had a two-year marriage to the director Martin Scorsese, from 1975 to ’77, which began after she interviewed him for a magazine article and he asked her to do some punch-up work on the “Taxi Driver” script. The two had a daughter together, and after the marriage ended Cameron found herself struggling to get screenplay gigs in Los Angeles. She got sober and began writing motivational essays for her friends who were still stuck in bad mental places. In the course of a decade, those texts evolved into a cult-popular workshop in SoHo, and then into a self-published, Xeroxed workbook. At the urging of her second husband, Mark Bryan, Cameron contacted a literary agent who landed her a publishing deal. “The Artist’s Way” took off slowly at first, spreading through word of mouth, but soon became a mainstay of “unblocking” literature. In the years since, Cameron has written several dozen more books in a similar vein.
Now seventy-three, Cameron lives in a cozy adobe house on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico. I visited her there one morning in December. We sat in the purple living room of her house as her Westie terrier, Lily, circled our ankles. Cameron shares Lily’s fluffy white hair, and she had rimmed her eyes with kohl. As we spoke, she got up several times to bring me various artistic trinkets from her life: a pack of medicine cards from Taos, a small Casio keyboard she uses to write music on, a binder full of poetry. She showed me a printout of a recent profile of her daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, now an actor and director, who cited both of her parents as equal creative influences. During the pandemic, Cameron wrote a new book that’s just been released, “Seeking Wisdom,” which urges artists to tune in to their spirituality in order to help guide their decision-making. Like most of Cameron’s methods, this latest one combines concrete activity with free-form thinking; she believes that the mind often follows the hands. Our conversation has been condensed and edited.
Did you do your Morning Pages today?
I was nervous about meeting you because of the pandemic. So I wrote that in my Morning Pages. I do them every day.
What is your ritual? Do you do them in bed? Do you do them at a desk?
I don’t do them in bed. I do them either there in that chair, right over there [pointing to a large leather chair], or else I do them in my library, where I have what I call my writing chair. It’s a big tipsy chair. And I brace myself on one side with my Morning Pages book and on my other side with Lily [gesturing to the dog].
And do you ever go back and read them?
I don’t. I do guidance, which is when I’ll say, “What should I do about x?” And I’ll listen. I’ll go back and reread that, which is sort of comforting and straightforward, and hopefully less neurotic.
What was the last thing you asked for guidance on?
How to make you feel comfortable.
What did the pages bear out?
They said we would like each other, that we would have an immediate rapport. That we would offer you water.
Ah, so you predicted the water. When you’re asking for “guidance” in these pages, are you asking from your subconscious? Is that what answers? Or do you feel like you have another sort of separate personality that comes to answer—someone wiser, someone more confident?
I don’t want to say it’s my subconscious. It feels it’s sort of a benevolent force.
Did you do a lot of writing as a little girl? What was your childhood like in terms of creativity?
My father was in advertising. He was the executive at Dial soap. My mother was very creative. She was a poet. She was very aware of nature. She would be alert to cardinals, to robins, to finches. And she had seven children. She would give us projects to do. And then she would tack up the result on the bulletin board in the kitchen. Things like making snowflakes, things like rhyming, drawing. I had a drawing that I still remember of a palomino horse rearing up with a mountain in the distance. I read horse books. I read “Black Beauty.” I read “The Island Stallion Races.”
I feel like a lot of girls who are into horses grow up to be writers. I don’t know why that’s a correlation.
I think reading all the horse books made me want to write. It made writing seem as possible as riding.
So you started writing poetry in high school?
Yes. I had a nun in high school, Sister Julia Clare Green. She encouraged me. Then when I got to Georgetown, I had gone as an Italian major. But it turned out that the whole Italian faculty had been hired away during the summer. So there was no one who could really teach Italian. And I thought, Well, I’ll just go straight to English, then. But, when I went to the English department and said, “I want to be a writer,” they said, “Men are writers. Women are wives.” This was 1966. And so, I went to the newspaper and said, “I’d like to help,” because I had been on the newspaper in high school. And they said, “Can you bake cookies?”
Oh, my God.
So Georgetown was not supportive of a plan of becoming a writer. They had lots of rules. Women were not allowed to wear slacks. Women were not allowed to sit on the lawn. You had to get back into the dormitory before curfew ended. No public displays of affection. When I finished college, I got a call from a boy I had gone to high school with. He said, “How would you like to work for the Washington Post?” He was a copy aide. And I said, “I’m writing short stories. I don’t want to work for the Washington Post.” And he said, “Well, it’s four hours a day and sixty-seven dollars a week.” So I went.
That’s when you started publishing in the paper?
Yes. I was offered a book-reviewing job by a man named William McPherson. But, I had the boy that I went to high school with, peering over my shoulder, telling me I was sorting the mail wrong. And I told him to go to hell! And he went to the editor of the Arts section about it. The editor came to me and said, “At the Washington Post, we do not tell people to go to hell.” And so I quit. I think that boy was jealous of me that I was publishing pieces in the Style section. So I went back to writing short stories. And I got a phone call that said, “I’m an editor at Rolling Stone. I’ve been reading you in the Style section. Would you like to write for us?”
Do you remember your first Rolling Stone assignment?
Yes, it was to write about E. Howard Hunt’s children. You know, Watergate. I said, “I don’t think I want to do this.” And they said, “Well, just try.” So I found their house. I drove out. It became a cover story. It got written up in Time magazine. William F. Buckley [Jr.] called me and said, “You’re a catastrophe.”
That’s when you know you’re doing something right.
And I felt that I was doing something right. And then I became known as a hot writer. And I was writing for the Village Voice. I had my passport stamped in a lot of the right places.
Did you ever write for Esquire?
No. Esquire called me and wanted me to write about one-night stands, and that wasn’t my story.
And did you have a lot of contemporaries at the time, women who were also writers, who you felt were your peers?
I was friends with a writer you may know called Judy Bachrach. And Judy was sort of doing everything right, and I was on the outside. I never had the security of a full-time job. This is still true. I write my books on spec.
Wow. Still? Not by proposal?
Yes. I write the whole book, and then I try and sell it.
You were part of the New Journalism crowd. So you have Nora Ephron, you have Joan Didion, you have Tom Wolfe, you have all these people writing. Were you going to the parties?
Well, I was living in Washington, D.C., but I knew Nora. She once told me I wrote the best ledes in America. I knew Carl [Bernstein]. I knew Bob Woodward. I knew sort of the whole crew. But I was a girl, and I didn’t . . . matriculate.
When you started out, did journalism feel like a boys’ club where it was hard to be taken seriously? Or did you feel like it was exciting to be the rare woman everyone knew who was doing these big stories?
The answer to that is both. I wasn’t somebody’s girlfriend. I had to be scrappy. I had to be independent. I had sort of a persona of a tough girl. I wore all black. I smoked Camels. I drank. And I sort of made my way by keeping up with the boys.
And then at what point in this did you meet Marty [Scorsese]? You were doing a story on him, right?
Yes. Though I prefer to not talk much about that. It was forty-five years ago. People want to focus on that little fragment of my life. And my real story was I was a writer.
I do wonder how you squared being this tough, independent woman with getting married. How did you maintain your creative autonomy?
Well, my desire to remain a creative iceberg stayed intact until Marty sat down at the table. I realized I’d met the man I was going to marry. And my mother had always supported my father. And so it seemed to me like I could support Marty. And what happened was, he gave me a script of “Taxi Driver” to read, and I thought parts of it were a little shaky. And I had my own history as a reporter. So I blindly wrote on the script.
Did you find your time in Hollywood to be particularly creative? Did you keep writing your own stories?
It was difficult. My editors said to me, “If you want to write for us, get divorced.”
Because you got so wrapped up in that other world.
Right. And I got pregnant on our wedding night. Well, we think. So I went from being a tough Rolling Stone writer, hip and cool, and writing for the Village Voice, and flying around on assignments, to, suddenly, Marty was going to work, and I was in charge of a child. It was a hard transition. I think, if I had stayed married to Marty, there would not be an “Artist’s Way.”
I think a lot of women pick up “The Artist's Way” after they’ve had a baby because they want to find their way back into this creative way of living. Did you manage to do any writing for yourself as a new mom?
I’ve always kept writing. In fact, the night before I had Domenica, I stayed up all night writing. I wanted to record her entry into the world. She was born on Labor Day, which I thought was perfect for a writer’s child.
Very literal. At what point in this journey did you stop drinking? You’ve been open about being sober as an important part of your creative process.
It will be forty-four years in January.
Did you feel that sobriety helped you become a better writer?
It helped me become a different writer. I began to try to write to be of service. And where, before, as per Nora Ephron saying I wrote brilliant ledes, I was always trying to be clever and intellectual, after I got sober I began to try to be useful. A lot of what happened to me with “The Artist’s Way” was an impulse to teach something that I had learned through experience.
Let’s talk about how “The Artist’s Way” developed. You’re sober. You’re no longer in your marriage. Walk me through how it came to be.
So, I had written a movie for Jon Voight. And they called me up, and they said it was brilliant, and then I couldn’t get them on the phone. I was living in New York at the time, and I thought, I’d better go to Hollywood and get to the bottom of this. And, as I was flying from New York to Hollywood, I was praying, Dear God, please give me a sense of direction. And I think the line from Dylan Thomas, “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower,” was what I was praying to, the creative energy. And I heard, “Go to New Mexico.” This was before New Mexico was hip.
When I landed in L.A., I told my girlfriend, a woman named Julianna McCarthy, who was an actress and a poet, “I keep hearing, ‘Go to New Mexico.’ ” And she said, “Here’s a thousand dollars. Go to New Mexico.”
And you just went?
I went to Santa Fe and I thought, This isn’t it. And somebody said, “Take the high road to Taos.” And I went to Taos, and I just fell in love with the place immediately. I rented a little adobe house at the end of a dirt road, surrounded by cows. I had my daughter. I didn’t know what to do about my movie career. And I was heartbroken. I didn’t have the stomach to write scripts and have them shelved. I needed to have things made. I started getting up in the morning to write before my daughter woke up, and she would manage to stay asleep for three pages.
So that’s how the length of Morning Pages came about?
Yes. I was staring out the window at the Taos mountains, which would be wreathed in clouds or clear or folded gold velvet. And that was the beginning of “The Artist’s Way.”
The other big method in the book is the Artist Dates. How did that idea start to congeal?
Taos was an Artist Date. They had a teeny metaphysical bookstore called Merlin’s Garden. Artist Dates happened when you went to town and explored little nooks and crannies. And, meanwhile, I had people I had left behind in Los Angeles who were stymied and blocked and unhappy. And so I wrote essays and sent them to them. Then I went back to New York.
Why did you leave Taos, if you loved it so much?
I had a prowler in Taos. The police were not particularly interested in catching the prowler. I had a doctor say to me, “You’ll never feel safe in your house again.” Taos felt dangerous—and drunk. I went to New York to be part of sort of a river of creativity that wasn’t grounded in substance abuse. I was walking in the West Village, and, again, asking for guidance from the creative force. And I heard, “Teach.” And I thought, Oh no. I don’t want to teach. I want to be an artist! And I called a girlfriend of mine and said, “I’ve been praying for guidance and I keep getting told, ‘Teach.’ ” And she said, “I’ll call you right back.” When she called back, she said, “Congratulations. You’re now on the faculty of the New York Feminist Art Institute, and your first class meets Thursday.”
Kismet!
So I started teaching Creative Unblocking at a little space on Spring Street. I worked with blocked directors, blocked painters, blocked writers. All women. And I taught them, “Do Morning Pages. Go for walks. Take Artist Dates.” And they started working the tools of “The Artist’s Way” and getting unblocked.
Did you know that these ideas were coalescing into a larger system? Did people take you seriously as a teacher?
I feel like I’ve always taught from my own experience. And this is why I have had my run-ins with intellectuals who are offended by my experience. Now the book has five million practitioners. So people who are cynical are still curious. What I didn’t realize was that, by teaching unblocking, I would stay unblocked. That, by doing Morning Pages, I would be led. And it’s thirty years later, and I’m still led.
You’ve said in the past that your second husband, Mark Bryan, was the one who encouraged you to publish your ideas as a book.
I’d been teaching a little circle. And I met my second husband, and he said he wanted to be a writer. And I said, “Well, would you like to take a course in unblocking?” And he said, “Where’s the book?” And I said, “I am the book.” I’d been teaching probably ten years without a book. And he said, “It could help a lot of people.” I dedicated the book to Mark. I felt like he was the wind behind my sails.
In terms of getting it published, was that an uphill battle?
At first, I self-published it and sold it to people, and I began to get correspondence: “I hear you have a manuscript.” I would mail it out. And then the Jungians got ahold of it and the Creation Spirituality Network got ahold of it. I was still at William Morris, with a movie agent. She read it and she said, “Nobody will be interested in this.” She wanted me to write a beauty book! Mark said, “I have a card for a literary agent. Call her.” She said, “Every year at Christmas, I get a good book. Maybe this year, it’s yours.” So we mailed off the manuscript. And, right after New Year’s, she called and said, “I want to represent you.” She sent the book to Jeremy Tarcher, and he wanted to publish it.
When it was published, did the reception shock you?
Initially, they thought they were publishing a little California book. But I knew the tools worked because they worked for me. I think they sold a hundred thousand books before they realized they should do something with it. What happened was, one person would work it, it would be contagious, and the second person would work it. I was once told that, for every book it sold, there were seven practitioners.
I first heard about it by word of mouth. A friend told me, “You have to do this to get unstuck.”
Word of mouth happened. The people who first started teaching it were some nuns at a place called Wisdom House in Connecticut—Brookfield, Connecticut. Nuns got ahold of it!
You never think that’s the first part of a viral phenomenon—the nuns. When did you start to feel like you were becoming a bit of a celebrity for these tools?
I ran away!
What does that mean? Where did you run to?
I ran to London. To write books for musicals. And, when I got to London, I found people who were blocked.
So you’re like, Oh no. They need this here, too! Did you ask for guidance again?
Well, in “The Artist’s Way,” I talk about how, at the end of Morning Pages, I write “LJ,” for Little Julia. I ask her things. And I said I didn’t want to be trapped as a teacher. I considered it being trapped. I wanted to be an artist.
Do you ever resent the tools for becoming your calling card?
I think it’s important to me to keep creativity around me and in me. And, when I am doing something creative, I don’t feel trapped. I feel liberated. I’m a practitioner first and foremost. I don’t just rest on the tools. Every Thursday night, [my assistant] Nick and I go to dinner, and our deal is that we have to bring a new poem each week. And so that keeps the sparkle alive for me. I’ve never felt “The Artist’s Way” blocked my reception as an artist. To the contrary, it seems to have opened doors. I have never felt embittered or pigeonholed.
How did you feel when people who were, say, professional writers besides yourself, started to use the tools? Like, say, someone such as Elizabeth Gilbert, who says she is devoted to them?
It’s exciting. I did an interview last year with a man who said, “I’ve been doing Morning Pages for twenty-two years and I’ve written thirteen feature films. And I don’t believe in God.”
Let’s talk about your relationship to the term “self-help.”
I think it’s a misnomer, in my case. I don’t really feel like “The Artist’s Way” is a self-help book. I’m just pretty divorced from that whole debate. And I think a self-help book is a book where you’re pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.
Really? Because the book is catalogued that way a lot. And yet I know it has connected with people who might not identify as devotees of that genre. Why do you think people respond to the book, even if they’re skeptical at first?
Well, as I say at the beginning, don’t let semantics be a bar for you. I think, if people start working with the tools, they pretty quickly become interested in themselves.
Did you ever, when teaching the tools in your workshops, have people push back or say, “This is hokey”?
I didn’t have that experience. I did have an experience, one time teaching at the Open Center, when someone stood up and said, “Julia, I’m not getting anywhere!” And, to my eye, she had been changing at the speed of light. So I think sometimes people have grandiose expectations. They feel that, if they aren’t having huge creative breakthroughs immediately, the course isn’t working. But of course, it’s more subtle. I think, at this point, thirty years in, the book has a reputation for being useful. And I think its reputation sort of precedes it now. I feel like the book has stood the test of time, because it was a book written out of experience, not out of theory. I think there was a time when people were perhaps more skeptical. The pandemic has definitely opened people’s hearts.
A lot of people seem to have found “The Artist’s Way” again during the pandemic. Why do you think that is?
I think that, for many people, the pandemic was a sort of spiritual crisis. We were thrown back on ourselves, and we needed to have a sense of guidance. And I think we needed a sense of exploration. It was abundantly clear that it had to be an inside job. It’s been No. 4 again on the best-seller list in Los Angeles. I don’t think that there’s embarrassment any longer about “spirituality.” I think people have felt they need this.
But how are you supposed to do your Artist Dates when you cannot really go anywhere?
I think there’s a whole raft of indoor things that we can do when we turn to look at our creativity. Make a pot of soup, bake a pie, take a bubble bath, dance barefoot.
But people are also feeling burnt out. How do you expect people to tap into creative energy when they are already exhausted?
I think that feeling low in resources is having restless energy turned in upon the self. And my prescription, at the risk of sounding fanatical, is please do Morning Pages. They will wake you up to a sense of possibility again.
How did the pandemic affect your own creativity?
I wrote the prayer book. And then I wrote another book, which won’t be out for another year, called “Write for Life.” That one is just about writing.
And what did you want to teach people about writing?
Gentleness. I think we have a lot of negative mythology about writing. We believe that you have to have discipline. We believe that, if it’s not difficult, it’s not good.
I want to talk about the role of spirituality in your work in general, because the new book is much more orientated that way.
Well, this is where I don’t want to sound too woo-woo.
It’s O.K., we’re in New Mexico. You can sound a little woo-woo.
But I asked, “What should I write next?” And I heard, “Prayer.” And I thought, Oh, my God. No. I’m not a religious person. It was frightening. And I thought, Who am I to write about prayer? But I think that, when you make something, you wake up to a benevolent something. And you may not call it God. You might call it sunspots.
But don’t you think people are looking for practical advice over spiritual advice?
I would say spirituality is very practical. You become more productive. You become more enthusiastic. You become more lively.
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Julia Cameron: How Creativity Enhances Your Spiritual Life
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2017-08-02T20:58:58+00:00
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Best-selling author of The Artist's Way is back with a new book, Life Lessons: 125 Prayers and Meditations, and shares tips on how to connect to God through creativity.
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https://guideposts.org/inspiring-stories/stories-of-faith-and-hope/julia-cameron-how-creativity-enhances-your/
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Julia Cameron, international best-selling author of 40 books, is best known for her book, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Although it was published more than 25 years ago, it continues to help artists from many different fields connect to God and get their art into the world. Her latest book offers a different approach to the spiritual life. In Life Lessons: 125 Prayers and Meditations, she tries to help readers hear the voice of God in their times of need.
“We have a yearning for a compassionate voice and I think when we read [Life Lessons], we hear a kindly voice,” Cameron tells Guideposts.org of her intentions behind writing her latest book. “My hope with this book, I wouldn’t say, ‘God told me [what to write]’; I listened and tried to transcribe what I heard.”
Cameron hasn’t always heard the voice of God so easily in her life. The 69-year-old teacher, filmmaker, playwright and journalist was about 30 years old, divorced from filmmaker Martin Scorcese and a single mom of one daughter when she hit rock bottom with her alcoholism and drug abuse and decided to make a change.
“I was told to try and work with a creative force of the universe,” she says. “If I could make a spiritual connection to God, I would have a chance at staying sober.” An agnostic at the time her sober partners shared this advice with her, Cameron was skeptical. But she’d been a writer since 18; she could at least believe in creative energy, so she started her sober journey from that point. “That spiritual connection curtailed my alcoholism.”
That’s when her relationship with God started to open up and develop. “When my alcoholism was arrested, I found myself thinking maybe there really is a God. Being in touch with how much trouble I was in and being in touch with how I had been rescued gave me a feeling of gratitude and I think it’s that gratitude for the tiny things that create a sense of faith.”
Sober writers then encouraged her to incorporate God in her writing. “They said, ‘Try to let God write through you.’ And I said, ‘What if God doesn’t want to?’” But she decided to give it a try, praying, “Okay, God. You take care of the quality, I’ll take care of the quantity.” She began teaching writing courses and helping other writers get unblocked in their creative process by practicing gratitude as soon as they wake up with a writing exercise she calls “Morning Pages.” As she helped her students clear out the clutter of their thoughts through writing their morning pages, her faith in her own writing and the idea of allowing God to write through her were strengthened.
The more she learned about the divinity of creativity–“the voice of the soul,” as she calls it–the more she wanted to share with the world a spiritual path to unlocking creativity. In 1992, after 10 years of teaching and 2.5 years of writing the book, she published The Artist’s Way.
Cameron had no idea the impact her book would have. Instead, she says, “I was trying to get my ego out of the way. I was trying to be of service.” That, she says is the key to writing impactful books. “When I wrote trying to be of service, I wrote freely. When I wrote trying to be thought brilliant, my writing became tighter.”
She’s now written 4 prayer books and shares her secret for hearing God’s voice: “It’s a matter of listening,” she says.
“I pray for what I’m supposed to do next and then I listen, I get an intuition or a hunch.” Cameron felt such a hunch when working on Life Lessons while living up in a mountain in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“I was living in a little adobe house and I was frequently lonely. I would say [to God], “I’m lonely,” and then I would listen. Writing this prayer book was a lot like taking dictation. I would write these prayers [from God] and they would calm me down.”
That feeling of calm and peace is what she hopes readers find when they read through Life Lessons, a book written like the Psalms. “Little one, there is a place for you, safe and protected,” she writes in one of her prayers. “Feel my security. I prosper you. You are my child.”
She discerns the voice of God from her own voice by listening for the tone. “I wanted [readers] to feel that there is a benevolent force that intends us good. I think if it’s a good prayer, it calms you down and grounds you and makes you feel centered. If it’s a voice of the ego, it’s a little more harsh and strident.”
There are 4 questions she asks her students to think about when trying to hear God’s voice and find direction in life—questions she asks herself as she writes her books, as well. “What do I need to know? What do I need to do? What do I need to try? And what do I need to accept?” Then, she says, “you listen for the answer.”
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https://readtowritestories.com/2020/03/19/new-mexican-books-to-read-while-self-isolated/
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New Mexican Books to Read While Self-Isolated
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2020-03-19T00:00:00
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As part of my job as Community Schools Coordinator at Peñasco ISD in Northern New Mexico, I recently attended an Equity Council workshop hosted by the New Mexico Public Education Department. One of the big discussions was on changing the narrative in our schools, which can mean a lot of things and be applied differently…
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en
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https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/63fcda38577bea3f1f2bf44d6a0d045f0ad76a9019835965d4340001e80a8e80?s=32
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Read to Write Stories
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https://readtowritestories.com/2020/03/19/new-mexican-books-to-read-while-self-isolated/
|
As part of my job as Community Schools Coordinator at Peñasco ISD in Northern New Mexico, I recently attended an Equity Council workshop hosted by the New Mexico Public Education Department. One of the big discussions was on changing the narrative in our schools, which can mean a lot of things and be applied differently in every school. But, one thing it almost certainly requires is giving our students, teachers, parents, and communities the opportunity to tell their own story rather than having it told to them by others. As both a writer and teacher of both writing and literature, I’m a firm believer in the power of books to shape our narratives of who we are and the nature of the world we live in. So, since we’re all self-isolating, I thought I’d offer a list of recent books that are either set in New Mexico or by New Mexican authors (or, in some cases, with a close, New Mexico-adjacent focus). All of these books were published within the past few years, reflect the people who call New Mexico home, and are excellent reading and great for teaching. The list includes picture books, middle grade, young adult, horror, mysteries, fantasy, poetry, and nonfiction.
I’ve listed the books in alphabetical order by author. All links are to Albuquerque’s BookWorks, which is offering free shipping during the month of March. I’ve surely left off some great books, so please respond with suggestions for titles in the comments!
Fiction
Vincent Ventura and the Mystery of the Chupacabras / Vincent Ventura Y El Misterio del Chupacabras by Xavier Garza
El Paso native Garza writes the sort of kids books that you still remember as an adult, a comic mixture of folklore, mystery, and The Twilight Zone. His latest series features the boy detective Vincent Ventura encountering the legends of border tales. These books, written in both Spanish and English, have at their center the essential goal for all books: to provide pleasure. Learning is fun, and so are these novels.
I’m Not Missing by Carrie Fountain
Las Cruces native Fountain is perhaps best known as a poet (this outstanding poem has been making the rounds on social media), but her debut young adult novel reveals the breadth of her talent. During her senior year, Miranda Black’s best friend, Syd, runs away—suddenly and inexplicably, leaving behind nothing but a pink leopard print cell phone with a text message from the mysterious HIM.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Jones is Blackfeet, from Texas and Colorado, and one of the pre-eminent masters of horror in the United States. His latest novel, out in May, follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way
If that’s too bloody for you, try his novella, Mapping the Interior, a tender (seriously) story of a boy who suspects his trailer is haunted by the ghost of his father.
The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami
This novel retells one of the foundational narratives of the Americas, the travels of the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca through what is now Florida, Texas, Mexico, and New Mexico. Only four members of the expedition survived, one of whom was Mustafa al-Zamori, called Estebanico. This novel, mixing adventure tale and social commentary, tells the story of the expedition from his point of view. The book is one of the most exciting, most enjoyable I’ve read in the past decade—but it also has some scenes that feel uncomfortably relevant.
Lowriders in Space by Raúl the Third
This graphic novel tells the story of three friends who enter a contest that will take their lowrider into space. El Paso/Juarez native Raul the Third’s illustrations resemble ballpoint-pen-and-Sharpie desk-drawn doodles, and the story is sketched with Spanish, inked with science facts, and colored with true friendship. For younger readers, Raúl the Third wrote and illustrated ¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market. His books will remind you of your friend back in the day whose drawings cracked everyone up and could have made a career out of them—Raúl the Third actually did it!
Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Few authors have exploded onto the literary scene quite like northern New Mexico’s Roanhorse. She’s written an urban fantasy series set on a post-apocalyptic Dinétah (Roanhorse is indigenous and married into a Navajo family), a Star Wars novel, and the middle grade novel Race to the Sun, about a 7th-grade Diné monster hunter (published by Rick Riordan presents, of Percy Jackson fame). Her story, “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™,” available online, won pretty much every award possible in science fiction/fantasy.
A note: Some Dinè writers have taken issue with Roanhorse’s use of Diné narratives. You can read their objections here in Indian Country Today. And you can read a response by Northern Cheyenne Two-Spirit Journalist Adrian L. Jawort here in the LA Review of Books.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
El Paso’s Benjamin Alire Sáenz has been winning awards for decades, and this young adult novel is as beautiful a book as you’re likely to find. Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime.
Trust Me by Richard Z. Santos
This debut novel takes the political intrigue and suspense that we’re used to finding in Washington D.C. and transplants it to the land battles of New Mexico. A skeleton unearthed at a Santa Fe construction site sets off an exploration of innocence and guilt, power and wealth, and the search for love and happiness. The novel is published by Arte Público, the press that first published Sandra Cisneros and remains the oldest and largest Latinx-publishing house in the United States. This novel is so good—so intrinsically tied to the people and politics of New Mexico—and for that reason, perhaps, it never struck a nerve with big New York publishing houses. But, trust me (ha ha), it’s excellent.
The Tombstone Race by José Skinner
Set in places as diverse as Fort Sumner, Taos, Chimayó, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Clovis, the fourteen stories in The Tombstone Race explore the surprising connections and disjunctions between rich and poor, urban and rural, old and new, ugly and beautiful. Based in part on the author’s experiences as a Spanish/English interpreter in the criminal courts of New Mexico, Skinner’s stories navigate the state’s changing cultures with humor and heart. These are stories that have no interest in the tourist’s view of New Mexico but dig into the complex experience of living the many lives that exist outside the tourist spots.
Retablos by Octavio Solis
El Paso’s Solis is a famous playwright, but he turns to fiction and memoir in this collection. The New York Times directs readers to Retablos if you want to know “what’s life really like on the Mexican border. Solis grew up just a mile from the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, and he tells stories about his childhood and coming of age, including his parents migration to the United States from Mexico, his first encounter with racism and finding a Mexican migrant girl hiding in the cotton fields.” If you’re a teacher and love Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, this is the book you should be teaching with it.
All Who Enter Here by Erika Wurth
This novel offers a contemporary, New Mexican version of the famous novel The Outsiders. Matthew escapes a life of misery in Farmington only to find himself initiated into one of Albuquerque’s gangs. His new friend decides that their little Native American gang deserves to be as big as the Mexican gangs in Albuquerque, bringing in new business from deep inside Indigenous communities in Mexico. This is a tough novel but also one of beauty and compassion.
Poetry
A Poetry of Remembrance by Levi Romero
Romero is the 2020 New Mexico Poet Laureate. In his most famous collection, he takes readers through familiar details–leaking faucets and lowriders, chicharrones and chicken coops–and remembers familia, comunidad, and tradiciones from his upbringing in northern New Mexico’s Embudo Valley. Alongside his training and jobs in the building trades and the architectural profession, and now a teacher, his writing has maintained and nurtured his connection to the unique people and land he knows so well and that have seldom been represented in American poetry. The book’s a decade old, but since Romero is the state’s first poet laureate, it remains an absolutely current read.
Whereas: Poems by Layli Long Soldier
Oglala Lakota citizen and Arizona native Long Soldier has deservedly received a lot of attention for this book of poetry. Whereas confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, she creates a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations.
Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers: Poems by Jake Skeets
Diné poet Jake Skeets’s collection is an unflinching portrait of the actual west and a fierce reclamation of a living place―full of beauty as well as brutality, whose shadows are equally capable of protecting encounters between boys learning to become, and to love, men. Its landscapes are ravaged, but they are also startlingly lush with cacti, yarrow, larkspur, sagebrush. And even their scars are made newly tender when mapped onto the lover’s body.
Nonfiction
The Book of Archives and Other Stories From the Mora Valley, New Mexico by A. Gabriel Meléndez
A native of Mora with el don de la palabra, Meléndez mines historical sources and his own imagination to reconstruct the valley’s story, first in English and then in Spanish. He strings together humorous, tragic, and quotidian vignettes about historical events and unlikely occurrences, creating a vivid portrait of Mora, both in cultural memory and present reality. More than a century ago, villagers collected scraps of paper documenting the valley’s history and their identity–military records, travelers’ diaries, newspaper articles, poetry, and more–and bound them into a leather portfolio known as “The Book of Archives.” When a bomb blast during the Mexican-American War scatters the book’s contents to the wind, the memory of the accounts lives on instead in the minds of Mora residents
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxane Dunbar Ortiz
Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire. For younger readers, Jean Mendoza and Nambé Pueblo citizen Dr. Debbie Reese have co-written an adaptation, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer
The received idea of Native American history—as promulgated by books like Dee Brown’s mega-bestselling 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee—has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did one hundred fifty Sioux die at the hands of the U. S. Cavalry, the sense was, but Native civilization did as well. As anyone living in New Mexico surely knows, this is nonsense. In this book (a finalist for the National Book Award) Treuer, Ojibwe from the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota, blends memoir, history, and reporting to tell the story of struggle and thriving success of tribes and their citizens across the country. An entire section is focused on the Pueblo tribes.
A teacher at the Equity Council workshop told a small group that no state in the U.S. can match New Mexico’s rich and textured history. The books on the list reflect a great many aspects of that history and the ways that it’s reflected in the lives all around us. Read these books, share them with others, and discuss them with friends, family, and students. Then, if you feel so moved, start writing or telling your own story!
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Review Essays
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[
"Anthony Alan Shelton",
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2023-07-01T00:00:00
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Reviews are one of the chimeras that exhibitions leave behind along with, if we are lucky, archives, visitor books, and catalogs that record and imperfectly reinvoke their transient existence, the scholarship and resources that conjured them into being and the responses they elicited. Reviews have value, even when published after an exhibition closes, not only in its assessment, but as an integral part of its archive. The exhibition Arte de los Pueblos de México: Disrupciones Indígenas marks a turning point in public scholarship on the history and interpretation of what has variously been described as “artesanias,” “arte indigena,” and “artes populares,” which most assuredly warrants being widely recorded, remembered, argued over, and incorporated into the annals of critical museology, much as its curators, Juan Rafael Coronel Riviera, Octavio Murillo Álvarez de la Cadena, and Lucía Sanromán Aranda, and the director of the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Miguel Fernández Félix, surely intended.
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en
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/fileasset/favicon.ico
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Berghahn Journals
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https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/museum-worlds/11/1/armw110118.xml
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Reviews are one of the chimeras that exhibitions leave behind along with, if we are lucky, archives, visitor books, and catalogs that record and imperfectly reinvoke their transient existence, the scholarship and resources that conjured them into being and the responses they elicited. Reviews have value, even when published after an exhibition closes, not only in its assessment, but as an integral part of its archive. The exhibition Arte de los Pueblos de México: Disrupciones Indígenas marks a turning point in public scholarship on the history and interpretation of what has variously been described as “artesanias,” “arte indigena,” and “artes populares,” which most assuredly warrants being widely recorded, remembered, argued over, and incorporated into the annals of critical museology, much as its curators, Juan Rafael Coronel Riviera, Octavio Murillo Álvarez de la Cadena, and Lucía Sanromán Aranda, and the director of the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Miguel Fernández Félix, surely intended.
Arte de los Pueblos de México: Disrupciones Indígenas is the first major exhibition on Mexican “popular” art that in part is organized as a critical history of past approaches to its display and interpretations, and in part as a comprehensive panorama of cultural and material expressions including recent texts, poems, songs, and soundscapes produced by Indigenous and African-descendent artists and knowledge holders. It breaks new ground as a trilingual exhibition in Spanish, Nahuatl (central Highland valleys dialect), and English (via QR codes), and, in addition, it further expands access by incorporating sign language. Indigenous makers and artists are named when known, and throughout the exhibition works made by historical makers intermingle with those by contemporary practitioners working in diverse media including ceramics, wood, basketry, textiles, poetry, painting, photographic prints, film, and more besides. Most significant of all, the exhibition is intended to signify a sea change in methodology and perspective, one, moreover, hosted by the nation's most prestigious art museum, backed by the Ministry of Culture, which many scholars and critics once thought would always be impervious to Indigenous arts.
The exhibition was timed, although a month late, to coincide with the bicentenary celebration of Mexican independence, and the centenary of the earlier, much acclaimed Exposición Nacional de Artes Populares that opened at 85 Avenida Juárez on September 1921. Like its predecessor, with which it establishes a dialog, the 2022 exhibition celebrates its own revisionist view of Indigenous creativity based on a rearticulation of the relationship between the state, national identity, and the role of the arts, while at the same time acknowledging México's irreducible cultural diversity, artistic originality, and the inalienable rights, including that to self-expression, of Indigenous people and descendants of the African diaspora.
The new approach is signaled immediately by the first work the public encounters and by a powerful series of subsequent Indigenous statements. Salvador Xharicata's installation, “Jakeúrakua,” a composition incorporating a simple altar on which lie different colored ears of maize juxtaposed against Yoreme, Yoeme, and Makurawe masks and a banner reading “No nacimos ayer, no nacimos apenas hoy: Nacimos antes” (We are not born yesterday, we are not born just today, we are born before). This clearly sets the discursive frame of the exhibition and proclaims the ancient origins of Indigenous cultures and civilizations and the preeminence of maize and its impact in shaping their mode of life and political and territorial struggles.
Following this powerful statement, there is a first-voice assertion by Teófila Palafox, an Ikoot (Huave) weaver and México's first Indigenous woman filmmaker: “A veces no somos reconocidos, estamos como un papel archivado en un lugar, no se dan cuenta de nosotros; necesitamos abrir ese archive” (Sometimes we are not recognized, we are like a document that has been archived somewhere, they don't recognize us, we need to open this archive). Her words could be understood as positioning the subsequent works as documents or records, and the exhibition itself as the archive finally prised open. This interpretation is backed by the P'urhépecha artist, Mario Augustín Gaspár, for whom: “El artisano es un historiador, pero no escribimos libros, escribimos la historia de nuestros pueblos en nuestros trabajos” (The craftsperson is an historian, but we don't write books, we write the history of our people through our works). The exhibition could be seen, therefore, to correspond to the role of an open archive embodying different Indigenous “things” and voices, although the curators are never far away, discreetly shaping its narrative structure. Interpretive texts clearly reinforce the desired paradigmatic shift, which at one point calls on Indigenous peoples to represent themselves from their own points of view and in their own voices. The search for the common spiritual essence, which its curators believed to lie beneath the diversity of the country's “popular” arts displayed in the 1921 exhibition and in its catalog, is here abandoned in favor of a historical and sociological appreciation of each community's singularity and the irreducibility of the experiences and creativity of their artists, writers, critics, and performers—although many such voices never escape from being imbedded and enunciated within a new curatorial narrative.
Some positions, like the rejection of the Western linear view of history, implicit in Salvador Xharicata's, Noé Martínez's, and other Indigenous works, go uncommented. Despite this, the sheer incommensurability and sense of historical bewilderment cast by some of the extraordinary, seldom seen objects, such as the Comcáac and Kumial capes and immense seed baskets, the Chapey Kwapa bark painting, and more remarkable still, the tunic made from six bird skins, collapses any simple timeline and sense of place some visitors might once have cherished. There are other inspired curatorial choices too, like the powerful wooden deities in a box from the Winik atel (Tseltal) and O'de pict (Zoque) regions of Chiapas, which, if not for the labels, would have defied many of us, myself included, to assign them provenance or date. This encyclopedic coverage of Mexican Indigenous art, displaying works from communities from the extreme north to the south of the country, was only dreamt of by Jorge Enciso, Roberto Montenegro, and Dr. Atl, the curators of the 1921 exhibition, who, with their own limited knowledge and the help of the ethnographer Miguel Orthón Mendizábal, were nearly entirely dependent on whatever information and goodwill state governments and local officials provided them. Having failed to present an encyclopedic coverage in the 1921 exhibition, scholars had to wait a century before Arte de los Pueblos de México achieved those grand ambitions. Through the intervening years, though, far from such a panorama supporting the then-illusion of their supposedly shared spiritual and aesthetic unity, the artists and curators of Arte de los Pueblos de México confirm instead their irreducible diversity.
The exhibition, organized in a spatially confusing and disjunctive fashion, across four galleries on different levels, can be divided into two parts. The first part, divided into five periods, deconstructs what by now is a well-established periodization of the history of interpreting Mexican Indigenous arts and cultures. After providing a background summary of the Porfiriato (1876–1911), the exhibition focuses on five periods: first, the post-revolutionary period between 1917 and 1940; second, the period of Indigenismo during the decade of the 1940s, marked by the foundation of the Instituto Nacional Indigenista in 1948; third, the ethnographic turn, reflected in the opening of the Museo Nacional de Antropología in 1964; fourth, the decade of the 1980s and the surge of the vanguard movement represented by Guillermo Bonfil Batalla and the establishment of the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares in 1982; and fifth, the period of acute commercialization characteristic of the last decades of the twentieth century.
During the Porfiriato, the government adopted an evolutionary model of development, based on progress, measured by European industrial, commercial, and scientific innovation and advancement. Evolutionism, when applied to culture, marginalized the achievements of all but Western civilizations, and in México also provided an argument for dissolving the legal foundation of Indigenous communities and denying their inhabitants’ artistic capabilities, while, paradoxically, it simultaneously instigated the beginning of scientific archeological excavations and exalted a romanticized image of the Indigenous past and its residual antiquities. This model was punctured by the Revolution (1910–1917), which, after the social and political violence had subsided, consolidated the power of new elites, some of whom worked on the much-studied formation of a national identity based on a pastoral image of Indigenous peoples and rural laborers. The beginning of the post-Revolutionary period began to revise the centuries of prejudice against Indigenous people. No longer, the 2022 exhibition argues, were the rural poor thought backwards or inferior, as their arts and social and religious organizations were redeemed to furnish the icons of national identity.
This change in sensibility was crystallized in the influential 1921 Exposición Nacional de Artes Populares, which recognized differences in aesthetics and values and interpreted works as the “life expressions of Indigenous peoples,” with the hope that some at least might be commoditized and become marketable. After the 1921 exhibition, smaller displays were mounted, especially in the US, to promote México as a secure and prosperous country, making it attractive to investors and tourists alike. This was also the period when painting, literary work, music, cinema, and photography in Mexico celebrated Indigenous peoples as “the heroes of history” and provided the inspiration for the muralists and other artists and movements. By the 1940s, the growth of Indigenismo, championed by the anthropologist and politician Manuel Gamio, refocused attention on ways of assimilating Indigenous people into the wider society, effectively depreciating their culture and exacerbating the transformation of their arts into marketable commodities. The state slowly established local museum networks, schools, workshops, competitions, and a chain of shops to market Indigenous works. Craftspeople were encouraged to sign their works, thereby differentiating them from one another, and qualitative “expert” evaluations were introduced, which substantially altered the production, quality, and sometimes the style of popular arts and converted them into more “beautiful” commodities and more appropriate “emblems of Mexico in a globalizing world.” It is worth noting that similar romantic notions of Indigenous civilizations were also being elaborated elsewhere at this time in the Americas, such as in Argentina, based on the folklorization of the Andes, and in the United States, focused on the exoticization of the Indigenous peoples of New Mexico and Arizona.
The exhibition's articulation of these initial two periodizations is evoked through pottery, photographs of the excavations sponsored by Porfirio Díaz, and early books on Mexican archaeology. These two sections are more fully captured in the reproductions of some of the vitrines of the 1921 Exhibition, which grouped objects by materials and techniques. The reproductions made for the 2022 exhibition often use similar contemporary pieces to those displayed in 1921, which are critically juxtaposed with original works and photographs of the original cases. Books are displayed to capture the era's excitement and achievements, including the highly influential works by José Vasconcelos, Manuel Gamio, Adolfo Best Maugard, and Anita Brenner, which established the intellectual legitimations and aesthetic style of Indigenismo. There are also idealized photographs of Indigenous people by Luís Márquez Romay, Edward Weston, and the later work of Graciela Iturbide and Ruth Lechuga. These, as well as paintings belonging to the same romantic genre by Julio Castellanos, Rosario Cabrera, Diego Rivera, Julia López, Olga Casta, María Izquierdo, and Luis Nishizawa, are shown with pottery from old established villages, such as Azompa, Coyotepec, Izúcar de Matamoras, Acatlán de Osorio, and Metepec in Oaxaca, Puebla, and México. Exhibits include beautiful trees of life by Aurelio Flores and a magnificent candelabra by Herón Martínez Mendoza, both now sadly deceased.
The ideological role of interpretation in these first three historical periods in which Indigenous arts were clearly appropriated and subordinated to political projects and different inflexions of modernism have long been accepted in academic literature but have seldom influenced exhibition narratives; neither have they been so clearly articulated and projected into the public sphere as they are in this exhibition. Furthermore, what makes the exhibition different from most of those that preceded it are the number of Indigenous voices, the inclusion of modern and contemporary artistic works to evoke eras, and the reproduction of vitrines from the 1921 exhibition, which taken together explain how Indigenous peoples and arts have been incorporated and rearticulated as part of wider intellectual and cultural configurations and subordinated to revolutionary nationalism.
The fourth and fifth periods treated in part one of the exhibition are understandably less conclusive than those that preceded them. They seemingly refer to the period between the 1960s and the final decades of the twentieth century, and set the scene for the exhibition's second half that focuses on unsettling these representations using subsequent Indigenous practices. These final two sections of the exhibition's first part aptly remind us of the hybrid nature of sixteenth-century Spanish society composed of Islamic, Judaic, and medieval Christian worldviews, values and technologies that were violently implanted in the Americas and informed what has become “Indigenous art.” Later, other outside influences were channeled, in part, through the galleons that ploughed the sea between Manila and Acapulco bringing exotic Oriental imports, which were sometimes copied or found their way into Indigenous manufactures. The forced contribution of Africa through slavery to the colony's arts and material cultures unfortunately receives scant attention, as does the slavery forced on native Americans. Instead, the curatorial narrative makes a long jump from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century to note that the end of Spanish colonialism coincided with the birth of the Industrial Revolution that converted the newly independent México into a market for European goods, forcing the Indigenous population to adopt their wares accordingly. The narrative in this section notes the common pre-Hispanic heritage underlying all Indigenous societies, but nevertheless acknowledges constant social flux and transformation and the transmission of materials, technologies, and iconographic motifs across cultural borders.
None of these perspectives are particularly new in academia, but their dissemination to a wider public is to be welcomed. That noted, the absence of documented examples or case studies leaves the vast generalizations less convincing and sometimes disappointingly glib. It is also somewhat false to invoke a common pre-Hispanic heritage, because societies ranged from cosmopolitan city states and subjugated metropoli to tropical riverine settlements and desert hunters and gatherers. What we are given in place of textual explanation is instead an assortment of exceptionally well made objects that demonstrate externally derived techniques, imported styles, and foreign iconographies all recast into superb pots baskets, stamps, painted and lacquered gourds, masks, images of saints, crosses, and musical instruments. Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder where are the objects not made for gods, markets, or homes, but which were forged in the heat of violent struggles to provide spiritual advantages (the talking crosses of the Yucatec Maya “guerilla” saints and protective images and the communicating apparatuses of prophets and seers), regalia, weapons, cartoons, counter hegemonic monuments, laser prints, photographs, and films?
The importance of indigenous agency, although on display throughout the exhibition, especially embodied in the contemporary artworks, is largely missing from the narrative. Market-oriented descriptions often surreptitiously insinuate a deterministic narrative, which I assume the exhibitionary approach would want to supersede? Perhaps, if the category of “Indigenous art” had been widened to include more overtly political works that express trauma, struggle, and loss, the vitality and agency behind a rather different genre of Indigenous art might not so easily have been lost or forgotten. An exception to this is Noé Martínez's two large drawings paired with poems in Spanish and Nahuatl, which are part of a series of 26 drawings and collages, Las razones de mi nombre (2021). Inspired by deep contemplation of the transformation of the Indian body and the way it has been trafficked for more than half a millennium (enslaved, exchanged for domestic animals, raped, and mutilated), the work further raises questions about the construction of history, the classification and naming of ethnicities, and the unacknowledged role of Indigenous slavery in building New Spain.
Behind what I take to be a second unintended effect of this revisionist curatorial narrative is a further equally serious ellipsis. I was unable to find any mention in this exhibition of the internal struggles within the new nation for Indigenous self-determination or their mobilization against imperial aggression. Neither, despite the concept having its origin in Rodolfo Stavenhagen's mid-1960s work, are the effects of internal colonization and the dependent relation between the Mexican state and Indigenous communities ever mentioned. While Teofila Palafox commends the exhibition on the Museum's official Facebook account and her work appears in the gallery, there is no mention of the current land problems and assassination of compatriots currently taking place in her natal community of San Mateo del Mar. This is disappointing, because having presented a critical history of the period 1876–1970s, the curatorial narrative seems to stutter, apart from a later reference to the influence of the Zapatistas, and lose much of its self-reflexivity and criticality when confronted with the last half-century and the continuing abuse of the rights of Indigenous peoples, even though in 2007 Mexico adopted the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). It is revealing that no mention of UNDRIP is made anywhere in the exhibition.
Before leaving the five historical sections contained in the exhibition's first part covered in galleries 1 and 2, exhibition text reaffirms the aesthetic independence of local artist-based practices and the important role of historical singularity and linguistic influences. Many languages, the exhibition texts reveal, have terms for similar aesthetic concepts as those in the European Greco-Roman lexicon, but they emanate from different lived experiences, different practices and alternative collective exchanges across cultural boundaries and between other knowledge holders and institutions. Beauty, the curators insist, resides in each case in a complex of interrelated factors and histories that are not easily accommodated in Western art history and have neither been synthesized or systematized by their own practitioners.
The second part of the exhibition opens with Arte para la vida. In this section the view is conveyed that art is made for life and not contemplation. This seems contradictory when compared to the ensuing statement that tells us Indigenous art is meant to be felt through all the senses, which instead suggests it provides one of the most intensively contemplative experiences possible. It is nature, not culture, it is argued, that is constantly active and is related to humans through principles of reciprocity. Objects have personalities and sacred essences but, as always, they may still be adapted to external markets and tastes. The next section presents the film by O'de pict artists Saúl Kak and PH Joel, Solos con Náwayomo (2021), described in label text as a “cinematic ritual” related to the torrential rainfall and the political effects of Hurricane Eta on parts of Chiapas in 2020. Other powerful works include the three deities in their wooden case (previously mentioned); a petrified Wixarika (Huichol) ancestor and an image of Tatewarí, their creator and fire deity; incense burners and candlesticks; and Náayari (Cora), Yokot'an (Chontal), and Nahua masks, including a COVID embroidered mask.
The final gallery, Resistencia y Resonancias is in some ways the most disappointing. It begins with the promising affirmation that the arts have provided mediums for the expression of resistance, negotiation, and liberation. They have themselves been spaces of Indigenous struggle over how they are named, preserved, and used, and by whom. This is inscribed as a colonial struggle, again eluding the political and economic conditions of the Independence period, and especially the past 50 years with the Salinas and subsequent presidencies, when México embraced neoliberalism. All we are told is that, currently, the situation between neocolonial practices, corporations, and governments and the Indigenous struggle for collective rights and self-determination is “tense”—a massive understatement given the unending threats against Indigenous lives, properties, and rights over their own cultures. The narrative goes on to acknowledge that within the wider struggles for rights over land, language, and justice, precipitated by the Zapatista uprising (EZLN), Indigenous artists have appropriated hegemonic art practices that they have used for experimentation and innovation, which have enabled them to insert themselves into the Western art market. We are told they use disruptions and contradictions between and within Indigenous cultures and the wider world to confront the global art system, but in ways we are left to guess—in Carmen Vázquez Hernández's unfinished woven rebozo or Octavio Aguilar's wonderful, finely textured white “huipil de la reina” (the Queen's blouse). Other artists and practices are burdened with still heavier obligations, required to confront racism, discrimination, and exoticization, reject knowledge extraction and aesthetic appropriation, and provide alternative intellectual categories to Western binary and hierarchical classifications. Here we are presented with Elvira Palafox's powerful film exerpt, Teak Monterok, The Story of the God of Lightning, Hilán Cruz's digital images, and Baldomero Robles’ La casa del viento (the House of the Wind), but it is not always clear how all these works fulfill the weighty obligations assigned to them.
Without doubt, this is a broad and ambitious exhibition that, despite my more critical comments, should encourage the curation of new genres of Indigenous and multiculturally curated exhibitions and the development and growth of Indigenous art history in México. Without it, the questions others and myself have raised in relation to Indigenous arts might not have been articulated in the same way; ideas for some future exhibitions might never be stimulated nor promoted outside the acute problematics raised by Arte de los Pueblos de México, Interupciones Indígenas. Without doubt, the exhibition marks a turning point, but having failed to breach the division between art production and reception and politics, it falls short of presenting a wholly new paradigm, as it so yearned to achieve. In many ways, the exhibition should have begun with its final section, Resistencia y Resonancias, and then worked systematically to illustrate, using concrete examples, each of the important statements contained in this part of its narrative.
I am reminded of Laura Osorio Sunnucks’ 2018 exhibition, Arts of Resistance: Politics and the Past in Latin America (UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver), whose curatorial project began by asking: what is popular art today, and what is its purpose and significance after globalization and President Salinas de Gortari's neoliberal reforms (1988–1994) that dislodged revolutionary nationalist ideology as the core of the nation's foundation myth and collective identity? Mexico's membership of NAFTA in 1994, the constitutional reform of article 27, in 1991–92 (which deregulated the protection of communal lands), and the almost three decades of neoliberal government, having broken with the previous nationalist regimes, has not only made the established cultural policies based on the singularity of the Mexican Revolution redundant, but also discarded the sentimental art history that had long supported it. Osorio began her analysis in Mexico and then extended it to Latin America. She incorporated the Oaxaca mural-artist collective Lapiztola, whose large-scale, stenciled installation with Indigenous women bearing guns protested the introduction of genetically modified maize; an amatl painter who focused on the preparations for an election, with lorries loaded with beer, drinking and dancing while the politician sits in the municipal hall collecting ballot papers; the so-called Codex Ayotzinapa, belonging to the families and friends demanding justice for their 43 disappeared children and friends; and two groups of Teloloapan and Tocuaro devil masquerades, each displayed on pink dissecting tables, to open discussion on attitudes to exploitative foreigners in Latin America. What, I wonder, would Arte de los Pueblos de México have looked like if it had been curated at a more critical cultural institution like the Museo Universitario del Chopo, or for that matter at the Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT) on the Mexican/US frontier, or even the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, renowned for its interdisciplinary critiques of institutional and political cultures, or better still if variants of the Palacio's exhibition, employing different curatorial teams, had opened in all three venues simultaneously?
Curiosity notwithstanding, I find this to be an astounding and important exhibition that clamors for a change in museum and gallery approaches, as well as for much more in-depth studies of distinct types of Indigenous arts in the context of their specific aesthetic systems and political histories. This is an exhibition that needed to be curated and has, as a result, made the discipline of museology more lucid and public awareness of Indigenous art more astute.
Anthony Alan Shelton
University of British Columbia
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https://www.bigbangpoetry.com/2021/06/more-new-mexico-poems-from-our-guy/
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More New Mexico Poems From Our Guy
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2021-06-22T10:34:10+00:00
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Jimmy Santiago Baca on desire, justice and one's own ragged heart.
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Big Bang Poetry
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https://www.bigbangpoetry.com/2021/06/more-new-mexico-poems-from-our-guy/
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I've read one other Jimmy Santiago Baca book before, seen him read live at CNM, am a big fan of his biopic. But I hadn't really had an a-ha moment with his poems yet.
Part of this had to do with when I read what I read. Timing is important. I had meant for this book to be included in the New Mexico set I recently blogged about. But I didn't finish it in time. But when you think about New Mexico poets (and poets writing about New Mexico), Jimmy Santiago Baca is a big deal. He's one of the most successful exports we have in poetry. And I don't think I appreciated his scope and vision until I read this collected set, which ranges from his first prison writings through his greatest hits.
Years ago I did a review of an anthology of poems about sex that were surprisingly unsexy in hindsight. Although duly noted everyone wants something different in their sex poems. But I was also disappointed in Erica Jong's collected poems (and what was sexier to passionate teen girls in the 1980s than 1970s Eric Jong novels?).
Anyway, this is all to say there are some prison letter poems that begin this anthology in "Excerpts from the Mariposa Letters" that are crazy, NSW sexy. Probably because they were part of prison letters and no-holds-barred desire. The fact that Jimmy Santiago Baca can merge ideas of lustiness and the New Mexico landscape is also appreciated. If you're at all squeamish about explicitness, skip this section. But if not, here's my dogeared copy.
This poet has been through a lot, and he's particularly good at investigating his own hardness and anger. "Looking" is a good example of this: "I feel something in me/move–/one movement in particular/crawls out of the dark in me,/a dead hand on bloody drugged knuckles/unfolding/coming to life."
A good example of the landscape/love intersect is the poem "My Heart" – "A hungry river basin/at the wind's edge/my desires sleep/like hot sunstones,/until the rain/awakes them." He's very good at creating a very particular physicality for emotions like this example are these excerpts from "The Dark Side,"
"My soul
falls like a black oak tree cracked by an ice storm.
It stares up with a skull's nightmare grimace
of cruel suffering on its frozen face.
….
I draw the curtains of my life shut,
a silent stranger to myself
chewing on the maddening, shredded remnants of my heart.
Accepting it as part of me, loving it,
not afraid of feeling its pain, understanding
how I always contradict myself,
I succumb to passion,
even indifference,
roar my loss and abandonment,
bell-bellow my cathedral soul…"
Wow. "Bell-bellow my cathedral soul." Good stuff. He's also good at this sort of purgatory of feeling, like in these lines from "Your Letter Slips Through the Opening in My Heart,"
"I pause home again: you are not here.
I pick warm left over words from your letter,
like last crumbs scraped from the dinner table,
place them in a tattered cloth
and fold in in my coat pocket.
I turn and close the paper, shut the envelope,
and walk down a dark hallway,
past sleeping rooms and down endless stairs
until my feet pause, and I stand staring at your address."
There are lots of New Mexico moments, "In the Foothills" which starts at the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Sandia poems like in "It's an Easy Morning" where he is "exhorting me to write/as real as the sand my feet print."
There are poems that are full life sweeps, like "With Paz By the Fire Last Night" and "Set This Book on Fire!" that trace his experiences as a reader and writer and issues of class in academia.
There are also some great social justice poems here, full Ginsberg-like sprays of issues of the day and the suffering caused by those in power. "With My Massive Soul I Open" is a good example and the long poem "This Disgusting War!"
The long poem "Rita Falling from the Sky" is another good example of the literal trek for justice. It's also full of horny toads, coyotes, weather, cacti, agave hearts, chili powder, cedar, juniper, cottonwoods, sage, mesquite, tortilla, corn, beans, maize, quelites, an exploration of what thirst for truth/thirst for water is.
There's also a moving poem about a transvestite prostitute in "Smoking Mirrors" created for a project with James Drake's photography.
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Liberal Arts College with a World-Class Faculty
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2024-06-21T19:11:06+00:00
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At our rigorous liberal arts college, St. John's College, students read and discuss the Great Books in small discussion classes with a world-class faculty.
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en
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https://www.sjc.edu/
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Genevieve DeMajistre’s (A22) internship with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) was conducted both online and in person. Her assigned project primarily involved data analysis, and the remote aspect made it easy for her to attend mandatory seminars and optional coding workshops. While physically present, she assisted colleagues with a range of projects, including measuring the heights and widths of specific plant species to calculate biomass across varying conditions during the growing season. DeMajistre’s St. John’s education prepared her well for the experience. “Comprehending the research papers was much like reading the documents from lab,” she says. “After so much critical reading it was easier to identify what was important, what I needed to be able to define, [and] the consequences of what was being said.” She was drawn to the internship for data analysis, but her interest has since broadened to include setting up experiments, constructing their sites, and collecting data.
Apurva Sharma (A23) interned under Dr. Prakash Paudel at one of Nepal’s leading hospitals for neuroscience, where she shadowed physicians in consultations and daily rounds, entered data during out-patient consultancies, worked with other interns to create discharge reports, and attended weekly presentations, among other tasks. Her multidisciplinary St. John’s education inspired her to look at scientific topics from different points of view. “I kept being drawn to ask questions regarding the mind through a more spiritual lens and comparing that to the doctors’ technical idea of the brain,” she says. “Engaging in this sort of speculative dialogue only made me more inquisitive about how the human mind works.” Viewing CT scans and MRIs, Sharma says, “felt strange for some reason. Perhaps because I’ve been engaging in the idea of the mind as a metaphysical one.” She found the internship experience “transformative in all respects,” and it it reinforced her desire to work in neuroscience while providing a glimpse into the day-to-day life of health professionals.
A concern for political transparency and freedom of the press in his home country led Kasparas Adomaitis (A23) to intern at the investigative journalism division of Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT). Working within a team of five, he helped conduct, write, and present a range of investigations, one of which involved perusing the state archives to uncover how certain Lithuanian state property was privatized after the fall of the Soviet Union. For another, Adomaitis made English translations of ongoing investigations to be shared with foreign media outlets. “My most memorable project was investigating the migration networks of people from the Middle East through Belarus into Lithuania,” he says. “I interviewed Kurdish migrants who had crossed the Lithuanian border into detention centers.” He appreciated the welcoming support his of his mentors and notes that “having always found it difficult to find a career path that would genuinely interest me, this internship made me realize that I could pursue journalism and be good at it.”
Chinazor Ike-Njoku’s (SF23) desire to pursue a career in psychology was reinforced when she took a seven-week intensive course at Harvard, which has one of the nation’s top programs. Introduction to Psychology led by neuropsychology professor Dr. Elizabeth Phelps, encompassed the history of the discipline and current studies on a range of subfields. Ike-Njoku has always had a passion for mental health. “Having grown up and lived with several people who suffer(ed) from mental health disorders, I developed an interest in how the brain functions and how certain attitudes and behaviors can alter its functioning for better or worse,” she says. In addition to convening twice a week on Zoom, she and her classmates participated in ethical psychological research studies. Ike-Njoku felt well-prepared by her St. John’s education to tackle the course’s challenges and noted: “My professor commended my critical-thinking skills and my ability to proceed from fact to judgment. I could not have imagined a better summer.”
Lydia left the New York Times in 2017 to be editor in chief of HuffPost, leading a team of hundreds of journalists publishing 16 editions across the globe in nine languages. She returned to the Times in 2022.
At the Times she served as deputy international editor and bureau chiefs for West Africa, South Asia, and Johannesburg—and received the 2006 George Polk Award for foreign reporting and the 2008 Livingston Award for international reporting. In early 2020, she left HuffPost to become head of content at Gimlet Media, an award-winning narrative podcasting company.
A 2008 National Book Award finalist and author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Volunteer and The End, Salvatore Scibona (SF97) serves as the director of the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. As director, he cultivates and supports the work of internationally renowned writers and thinkers and creates programming that enriches the broader NYPL community. As a novelist, he continues to write exceptional works of fiction.
During her long career as a vegan baker, chef, cookbook author, and entrepreneur, Miyoko Schinner (A79) has revolutionized the vegan food industry; most recently by bringing vegan cheese into the mainstream with the award-winning vegan food company she founded and runs, Miyoko’s Creamery. “We’re not a company with a mission, we’re a mission with a company,” she says. “I am trying to revolutionize the food system to create a world that is more equitable and just, not only for humans but for all living beings.”
Michael Fausnaugh (SF11) is an astronomical researcher advancing the frontier of our understanding of planet formation, supernovae, and strong gravity environments around black holes. Fausnaugh currently works on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), planning observations, monitoring instrument performance, and assuring the quality of TESS data released to the public. “Results from the TESS mission have the potential to transform humanity’s understanding of the Earth and our place in the universe,” he says. “It is exciting and humbling to be part of this research and to enable the astronomical community to pursue these questions.”
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https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Way-Parents-Creative-Children/dp/0399163727
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Amazon.com
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https://rjthesman.net/tag/julia-cameron/
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Julia Cameron – RJ Thesman
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RJ Thesman
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https://rjthesman.net/tag/julia-cameron/
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Someone recently asked me, “What do you do to find rest?” My oxymoron reply, “I have to intentionally work to find rest.” Except for the times when life throws me in bed with an illness or unresolved grief, I have to plan for rest. My strong work ethic was forged on the family farm where …
Hope Searches for Rest Read More »
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity. Partly because I’ve started a new group called Creative Connections. Partly because I learned more about creativity through the books and presentation of Julia Cameron. And partly because I like the topic. After pondering about creativity, I’ve come up with two definitions: Writers understand the whole making-something-out-of-nothing …
Creativity Spawns Hope Read More »
Stuck. Between the third and fourth chapter of the gazillionth revision of my novel. A segue exists somewhere, but I CANNOT find it. I know it will come…“Somewhere over the rainbow.” But the frustration of the moment calls for a break from writing. A massive piece of comfort chocolate. A gap of time to contemplate …
Hope Fills in the Gaps Read More »
While meeting with my spiritual director, she suggested I consider the questions, “What if?” In one of the workshops I teach, the “What if?” question is presented as a fear tactic artists sometimes use to procrastinate. But in this instance, I was to think about the “What if?” as a possible direction, even a vision-making …
Hope Digs Deeper Read More »
Isn’t it interesting how we can tell others what to do but not apply that same wisdom to ourselves? With my writing clients, I often ask, “What are you doing for an artist date?” The artist date comes from Julia Cameron and her best-selling book, The Artist’s Way. An artist date is an intentional setting …
Hope Sets Healthy Creative Boundaries Read More »
Many of my friends choose a special word for the year. It helps them focus on annual goals and gives them the motivation they need every day. For some reason, the word of the year has not worked for me. Instead, I hang on to a verse for the year. During the last weeks of …
Hope Finds Reality in a Verse Read More »
As I walked out of Hen House with my groceries, he was loading his trunk with food supplies. He smiled, then asked, “Are you from New Mexico? He pointed toward the tag on my car: “New Mexico — Land of Enchantment.” “No,” I said, “but I’d like to be. It’s on my bucket list to …
Enchanting Hope Read More »
A national magazine asked me to write an article about becoming emotionally overwhelmed. So I hammered out 1600+ words. Yet, even as I wrote, another reminder of self-care affected my thought processes. It has taken me so many years to believe and write this truth. But one purpose of a blog is to be forthright …
Hope Embraces Self-care Read More »
The month of February has always been difficult for me. Usually, the cold and flu bugs continue their romp so the air is filled with germy spores. This year, we are still in the grip of the insidious COVID-19 pandemic. February’s weather is too cold for leisurely walks, and the ground too frozen for gardens. …
How to Find Hope in February Read More »
When I first read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, an a-ha flashed. Through its pages I learned creativity is a gift, a blessing from the Creator to each of his beloved children. The more I recognized my own gift of creativity, the more I began to nurture it. Artist dates, inspired by Julia, became …
Hope Creates Read More »
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What to Write About When You Have NO IDEAS
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Feeling blocked? Julia Cameron shares 4 tools to unlock your creativity and unleash your most important, magnificent ideas â fast.
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Julia Cameron:
And I was told, "Put up a little sign, Julia, that says, 'Okay, God, you take care of the quality. I'll take care of the quantity,' and then try writing and letting that creative energy write through you." And I said, "Oh, but what if it doesn't want to?" And they said, "Well, just try it."Â
â
Marie Forleo:
Today's guest is one of the most prolific writers of our time, and she is personally responsible for reigniting the creative passions and output of literally millions around the world. Hailed by The New York Times as the queen of change, Julia Cameron is credited with starting a movement in 1992 that has brought creativity into the mainstream conversation. She's the bestselling author of more than 40 books, both fiction and nonfiction. She's also a poet, a songwriter, filmmaker, and playwright. The Artist's Way has been translated into 40 languages and sold over 5 million copies to date.
â
So Julia, it is such an honor to have you on the show. I've got to be honest, I was like a little kid at Christmas all day, and honestly all week thinking about having the chance to talk to you. I'm going to hold these up, not to embarrass you, but just to show you like, these are just... I have six of your books right here, and that's not even the whole collection. Before we get into questions and conversation, I just want to say thank you for being you and thank you for your decades of creation and your commitment to helping people get unblocked, because you have made such a difference in my life. I am just so honored and excited that we get to have this conversation today.
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, I'm delighted to be here and it's delightful that you have a stack of my books. I feel that we can go topic to topic as it suits you.
â
Marie Forleo:
Absolutely. Let's take it back to the beginning. Tell us how this all started and how you became as The New York Times has called you, the queen of change?
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, I found that I could help people. I found that the tools that I was using myself were potent for other people, and I found I was doing my Morning Pages, taking my walks, doing my artist dates. And I started to write little essays and I thought they were just to help a few of my friends who were blocked. And so I thought when I wrote The Artist's Way that I was writing it for me and 10 people. And of course, the message of The Artist's Way that we are all creative and can all become more creative with the use of a few simple tools, resonated with many, many people.
â
Marie Forleo:
5 million and going strong. I mean, I have recommended The Artist's Way to so many people and I have done Morning Pages for years. I'm excited to get into the tools, but I want to talk about something else first. You've written about performance anxiety, specifically when it comes to writing. And this is something that I personally have suffered with. You said that creativity is an awful lot like sex. What do you mean by that? And I can go into it if you don't remember exactly the passage you wrote, but it had me laughing out loud because it was so truthful.
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, what I meant was that the littlest touch begins the flow and that we often think, "Oh, I'm not in the mood", but then once we get started, the mood overcomes us.
â
Marie Forleo:
That's right.
â
Julia Cameron:
And so I do feel that creativity is a lot like sex where we may feel, "Oh, I have nothing to say." And then we think, "Oh, I have a little to say." And that's like the first stroke.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes. And I love that you also shared if it always has to be great, that creates a certain amount of performance anxiety. If you're holding yourself to such a high level in your writing, that it has to be brilliant, that you have to perform at this level all the time, all you're going to do is feel anxious. And I realized Julia, that when I was working on my last book, my goodness, I tortured myself so much. And I felt so blocked because I had this inner fear that it wasn't going to be great. And that just lock-jammed everything.
â
Julia Cameron:
Yes. I think trying to be brilliant rather than trying to be of service is a key. When I started writing and I was still drinking, when I was writing and drinking, I was trying to be brilliant and every line had to be perfect. And then when I was struck sober and told to pray and to try and be of service in my writing, I found myself untangling and the resultant prose was much better.
â
Marie Forleo:
I think that shift is so powerful. This shift from trying to be brilliant versus just being of service, and trying to get it right versus you just want to be useful or helpful. And I loved that you talked about, and you always talk about in your work, invoking a higher power and how that impacts your flow.
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, I think what happened for me, I think we are going ahead a little bit now to talk about the book Seeking Wisdom. It's my new book. And in it, I talk about the power of prayer to impact creativity. And I found myself asking in my Morning Pages, "What should I write next?" And getting the answer back, "Prayer." And I was horrified and I said, "Prayer! I'm not holy enough to write about prayer. That should be for somebody much more spiritual than I am." But the guidance insisted, "You will write about prayer." And I found myself saying, "Oh, maybe I should tell them the beginnings of my story so that I wasn't standing on some pedestal lecturing down." And I talked about being cornered into prayer and I got sober and I was told, "Now, if you want to stay sober, you'll need to pray." I said, "You don't understand. I have 16 years of Catholic education. I don't like prayer." And they said, "You don't understand. You must believe in something."
â
So I asked a girlfriend of mine what she prayed to, and she said, "Oh, I pray to Mick Jagger." And I asked another girlfriend, "Well, if you don't pray to Mick Jagger, what do you pray to?" And she said, "Well, I pray to sunspots." And then I thought, "Well, I must believe in something." And I realized that I believed in a line from the poet, Dylan Thomas, "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower." That creative energy that was very powerful and very specific. And I thought, "Well, maybe I could pray to that energy." So I started praying to that energy and I found myself thinking, "I want to stay a writer. I don't want to be struck a waitress. I don't want to be struck a saleswoman. I must have something that I can hold onto."
â
And I was told, "Put up a little sign, Julia, that says, 'Okay, God, you take care of the quality. I'll take care of the quantity,' and then try writing and letting that creative energy write through you." And I said, "Oh, but what if it doesn't want to?" And they said, "Well, just try it." So I began to try to pray to let the creative force write through me. What happened is that I began to be led a step at a time toward unblocking myself, and I was told, "Try and help others." And I thought, "I don't want to help others. I want to help me. Me, me, me." But I was sent another writer who was blocked. And so I said to him, "Well, you might want to try letting that creative force write through you. You might want to try being a channel or a conduit." And he said, "This all sounds too woo-woo." And I said, "Well, it may sound woo-woo, but it might work." And what happened was he used the tools and he became unblocked.
â
Marie Forleo:
So you've got four core tools for creative recovery. For those, and I don't know who these people would be, who may be unaware of your work, but I think for the purpose of this video and this interview, it would be awesome if we could walk through the tools and I kind of want to go deep on two of them: Morning Pages and asking for guidance. Let's start with Morning Pages. For those that don't know, what is that tool and how would they begin to use it?
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, Morning Pages are three pages of long-hand morning writing that you do first thing on awakening. You write them on 8.5x11 paper, and you write, "This is what I like. This is what I don't like. This is what I want more of. This is what I want less of." And it's as if you're sending a little telegram to the universe, and you're saying, "Here is my precise position. Here is how I authentically, actually feel." So it's a form of prayer and meditation and you don't show them to anybody. They're top secret. And they are done long hand rather than on a computer because what happens when we write long hand is that we go deep. And what happens when we write on the computer is that we may go whizzing past something important.
â
So Morning Pages are a tool of expansion. You start to write them and you are given a dare and the pages say, "You might want to try X." And you find yourself thinking, "I can't, that's too threatening. I don't believe I can do that." And the pages are stubborn and they say, "You will do that." In my case, it was writing music. I was 45 years old. I was raised as the non-musical one in a very musical family. And the pages kept saying, "You will be writing radiant songs." And I kept thinking, "Not bloody likely." But what happened was they were persistent and I found myself going to visit a girlfriend and complaining bitterly to her, "I've been praying for what to do next. And I'm told I'm going to be writing music, radiant songs. I don't think it's possible. I think if I were the least bit musical, I would know it." And she said, she lived up in the Rocky Mountains, she said, "Why don't you go sit down by the stream?" And she pointed me down the slope to where a little Rocky Mountain stream would run through her property.
â
I went down to the stream and I sat down on a boulder and I was sort of half-assed meditating. And all of a sudden I heard, (singing) âMy green heart is filled with apples. Your dark face is filled with stars. I am the one that you forgotten. You are the one my heart desires. So dance when you think of me, sing to remember me, sing âtill your heart can see who we are. Dance when you think of me, sing to remember me, sing âtill your heart can see who we are.â
â
And I thought, "I think it's a song. Oh my gosh."
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes.
â
Julia Cameron:
And I went racing back up the hill and she said, "Here, sing it into this little tape recorder." And I sang it into the little tape recorder. What happened after that was that I had 60 pieces of music come through me.
â
Marie Forleo:
Wow.
â
Julia Cameron:
And so now if you go to my website, juliacameronlive.com, there's a section that's called Julia's Art, and there's a section in that on music. And it has three musicals that I've written and many flower songs that are just sort of delightful little didees.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes. I've listened to some. They are magical.
â
Julia Cameron:
So I feel like Morning Pages dared me to become larger and I eventually took up the dare. So that's Morning Pages. And at the end of⦠In The Artist's Way, I talk about asking for guidance and could I have guidance about X? And then I listen. And, so people will say to me, "Julia, you've written 40 books. Why are you now suddenly talking about guidance?" I've realized that I've been using guidance for 30 years, myself, and I used it so frequently that it was invisible to me. And then I realized, "Well, I need to make it visible and accountable for my students. So I asked them to inquire, "What should I write next? What should I do next?" And listen for guidance. They were often saying, "Well, Julia, what if it's just my imagination when I hear something back?" And I say, "Well, if it is your imagination, your imagination is much more powerful and benevolent than you had previously thought. So more power to it."
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes. I've got to tell you just quickly, I practiced asking for guidance this morning at the end of my Morning Pages. It was the first time that I did it in the fashion that you lay out for us, which is, you had given the example that you'll write LJ for Little Julia. So I wrote LM for Little Marie, and I asked probably five or six questions this morning when I did my Morning Pages at the end. And I will tell you, the answers were simple and straightforward. They felt wise and truthful and it was fantastic.
â
Julia Cameron:
So I think I want everybody to experiment with asking for guidance and I have been told it doesn't have to be difficult. The answers are simple, straightforward, loving, encouraging.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes.
â
Julia Cameron:
And that sounds like that's your experience.
â
Marie Forleo:
Oh, I've experimented with a form of guided writing, doing a bit of a meditation, asking a question and then almost doing like stream of consciousness. But what I love about your method of asking for wisdom, it's like a Q&A. It is so conversational and so direct and so right there, what should I do about... I'm working on a new writing project. I was asking about a piece of real estate. Then I was asking about... I went all over to the different nooks and crannies of my life from the big stuff to the tiny stuff and it flowed. So I just want to give that texture so that anyone listening, if they think like, "Oh my goodness, Julia Cameron hears guidance, but I don't know if anyone else could." I just want to give that further encouragement of how profound and fun and simple and easy it was. I want to thank you for that because it's brilliant.
â
Julia Cameron:
You're very welcome.
â
Marie Forleo:
I would love to talk, if you're open to it, about the productivity of creativity. And this is just me being curious, because, as a writer myself who loves your work so much, do you outline your new books before you start writing? Do you work from a table of contents or are you in such a flow now, Julia, after so many decades that you just sit down and you're just like, "I'm going to write and it'll be complete when it's complete?â
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, that's a good description of how I do it. I do not write from an outline. I do not write from a table of contents. I sit down and I ask, "What next?"
â
Marie Forleo:
Wow.
â
Julia Cameron:
And then I listen. The pages seem to come one right after another, the words come one right after another. And I believe that all of us can have this experience and that what happens with Morning Pages is that it trains you to stand to one side and let a flow move through you. So I think we should say that when we do Morning Pages, we may encounter our critic who says, "You're boring. This has been done before. What are you doing?" And what we learned to say to our critic is, "Thank you for sharing." And then we keep right on writing Morning Pages. This is a portable skill. And so when we sit down to do our "serious writing" and the critic shows up, we say, "Oh, thank you for sharing." And it goes from being a large, overbearing ogre, to being a weak peeping cartoon character.
â
Marie Forleo:
Isn't Julia just amazing? Now, if you want to write more consistently and have the right words just flow out of you, go to thecopycure.com and sign up for our free seven-day writing class. Just pop in your first name and your email, and you will get lesson number one instantly. You're going to love this. So head on over to thecopycure.com and sign up for your free writing class now.
â
Staying on process just for a few more minutes, I read somewhere when I was doing my research to talk with you that when you are doing a first draft of your next book, that you actually aim for about three pages a day, which will get you about 90 pages a month. Is that, again, just in that flow of like, you'll write for about three pages, have you ever been the type of writer who feels like you want to stretch or say, "Oh, I'm supposed to reach a certain word count," or working on deadlines? Or again, is it just a different kind of experience for you?
â
Julia Cameron:
I think it's a different kind of experience for me. I write my Morning Pages, three pages of morning writing. And then later on in the day, I sit down to write on my "real project.â
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes.
â
Julia Cameron:
And one more time, I find that three pages is a manageable amount.Â
â
Marie Forleo:
Yeah.
â
Julia Cameron:
I don't try to do more than three pages because I don't want to strip my gears.
â
This brings us to an artist date. So every day you write your Morning Pages, that's a daily practice that you do despite resistance. And when I'm teaching and I say, "I have a tool for you. It's a nightmare. You'll have to get up 45 minutes early and work." People will say, "Work! Oh, I get it. I'm going to work on my creativity." So they're quite willing to do the work of Morning Pages. But then I say, "Now, once a week, I want you to go out by yourself, do something incredibly interesting, friendly, frivolous, fun." It's a sort of an assigned play. And what happens when I start to talk about do an artist date, take your creative consciousness out for a little expedition, people say, "Oh, I don't see what play has to do with working on our creativity." And they cross their arms and they tilt their heads and they get very skeptical. I say to them then, "Well, we have an expression, the play of ideas. And we don't realize that it's actually a prescription. Play and you'll get ideas."
â
I think what happens when we are working on a project is that we start fishing from an inner well. And what happens is that we hook images, we hook ideas, we hook concepts. And what happens then is sometimes people will say, "Julia, I was doing so well and then it dried up." And I say, âWell, it up because you overfished your inner well. You hooked too many ideas without replenishing the flow of images." So artists' dates replenish the inner well. And if you're working flat out, I sometimes say, try to take two artist dates in a week, but that's usually not necessary. Usually people can get by taking one artist date a week.
â
My favorite artist date is going to a pet store where they have a big giant bunny named George. And I go to the pet store and I ask the owner, "Can I pet George?" He says, "Well, that's up to George." But I have found that George likes to be petted, and it gives me a sense of whimsy, expansion4, delight, sensuality. I find that an artist date that has all those factors in it refills my inner well.
â
Marie Forleo:
Okay. We've covered three of our core tools, Morning Pages, artist date, and asking for guidance. Shall we talk about the final tool of the four?
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, I think we're talking now about walking.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes.
â
Julia Cameron:
And I think walking is something that is so simple that we tend to overlook it. What I have found is that if you go out a couple times a week for 20 minutes at a crack and walk by yourself, you wake up to a sense of benevolence. I've had people say to me, "Julia, I think I felt God." And they're sort of marveling at the connection that they feel when they walk. So we recently lost a wonderful Buddhist teacher named Thich Nhat Hanh.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes.
â
Julia Cameron:
He was a great believer in walking. And he said, "Try and walk as if with each foot fall you're kissing the earth."
â
Marie Forleo:
So beautiful. I was just in Costa Rica a few weeks ago, and I thought of you because I had my last morning there before I was jumping on a plane back to New York, and I got up early, I did my Morning Pages. And then I went for about a 30-minute walk into the forest and into the jungle without my phone, without anything. And it was so incredibly healing, and it made me think I need to do more of this. I need to do more of this where I live and wherever I am. And I think, and please correct me if I'm wrong, when we go walking for this purpose, leave your phones, don't listen to anything, don't bring anyone else. It's not for pets. It's not for companions. It's for you and the creative force. Is that right?
â
Julia Cameron:
That's exactly right.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yeah.
â
Julia Cameron:
And sometimes people will say, "Oh, but I'd like to listen to music." And then I say, "Well, then you're listening to the composer's walk."
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes. Yes.
â
Julia Cameron:
Or they say, "I want to take my dog." And I say, "Well, if you take your dog, your dog is going to start saying things like, 'Oh, look at that handsome Rottweiler. Oh, look at that adorable Cocker Spaniel.'" And you find yourself taking your dog's walk. So it's something that's done solo, just you and your creative consciousness.
â
Marie Forleo:
Let's talk about the power of making lists. I know one motivated your cross country move. I think you lived in New York for many, many years, and then you moved to Santa Fe and I believe it was following an exercise from one of your books about listing just 25 things that you love. Do you want to talk about the power that sometimes lists can have in unearthing our next moves or something that we may want to go explore?
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, I think they're very powerful. I think for me, I had been living in New York and I did... It's an Artist's Way exercise of listing 25 things you loved. And I started listing and I listed, "Well, I love mountains. Well, I love golden chamisa bushes. Well, I love green chili. Well, I love black beans." And I'm looking at this list and I'm going, "Nowhere on here does it say the Empire State Building?" I found my list was that I was living in New York, but my heart was in the Southwest. So that became the impulse that moved me to Santa Fe.
â
Marie Forleo:
If anyone listening or watching right now feels like they just don't have any idea of what they could write about. They feel completely like a blank slate. What would be something that you could suggest for someone to get their creative juices flowing? And we know we've got the tools under our belt, but is there anything that you would say to someone who's just like, "I have no idea what to write about right now?â
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, I think what you're asking me for is there a secret final tool? And the answer is there is no secret tool. The tools are the tools that are explained at great length and Morning Pages will give people a clue as to what to write about.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes.
â
Julia Cameron:
Another thing I would say, the power of the list. Write 25 things you love, and then look down the list and see if something sort of gently beeps at you. I believe in coaxing ourselves forward, not in flogging ourselves forward. So if we coax ourselves forward, we may find ourselves saying, "Oh, I'm living amid skyscrapers, but I'm missing mountains."
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes. Julia, this is just such a powerful conversation. I am so grateful for your continued contribution. Is there anything that you want to leave people with as we wrap up today on the power of creativity, consistency, continuing to show up for yourself, anything that you want to share?
â
Julia Cameron:
Well, I think the power of creativity is the power of consistency, is showing up for yourself. So I would gently say to people, please, I'd like you to try Morning Pages. I'd like you to go on an artist date. I'd like you to take a walk. And I'd like you to ask for guidance about what it is you should do next. And then listen. So I think a great deal of what I'm talking about is the power of prayer, where we say, "Dear God, please guide me." And the power of listening for the guidance that we hear. I think we are led. I believe that. So I think we should say that this is the 30th anniversary of The Artist's Way.
â
Marie Forleo:
Wow. How incredible?
â
Julia Cameron:
It has been climbing best seller lists. After 30 years, it's number three in Los Angeles. And I think that the power of the pandemic cracked many of us open to spiritual ideas.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes.
â
Julia Cameron:
I think The Artist's Way has been enjoying a renaissance because it's a proven, gentle path for expansion.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes.
â
Julia Cameron:
And I think that's what many of us have been looking for. If people will go to juliacameronlive.com, they will find lots of art and it's for free. And I think I'd like to read a poem if we could.
â
Marie Forleo:
Yes. Of course.
â
Julia Cameron:
This was a poem that... Many times people believe creativity is born out of pain, but I have found that creativity is born out of joy. So this is called, âJerusalem Is Walking in This World.â
â
âThis is a great happiness. The air is silk. There is milk in the looks that come from strangers. I could not be happier if I were bread and you could eat me. Joy is dangerous. It fills me with secrets. Yes, hisses in my veins. The pains I take to hide myself are sheer as glass. Surely this will pass. The wind, like kisses. The music in the soup. The group of trees laughing as I say their names. It is all hosannah. It is all prayer. Jerusalem is walking in the world. Jerusalem is walking in the world.â
â
Marie Forleo:
So beautiful. Thank you so much for that.
â
Julia Cameron:
You're welcome.
â
Marie Forleo:
For anyone who's interested, go to juliacameronlive.com and you can enjoy so much beautiful music and artwork and poems from Julia, in addition to seeing the over 40 books that she's produced, all of which are absolutely brilliant. Julia, I adore you. I thank you. And we so appreciate you making the time today.
â
Julia Cameron:
You're very welcome. It's a pleasure to talk to you.
â
Marie Forleo:
I've got a question for you. Do you ever wish that you could just write faster? Well, I have got the next episode for you that you've got to watch right now. It's How to Write Fast: 8 Secrets to Better, Quicker Content Creation. Click on it now, you're going to love it. You want to think about your end result. What is the thing that you want your reader to walk away with? What action, if any, do you want them to take? Then you have to reverse engineer your content to get them there.
|
||||||
695
|
dbpedia
|
2
| 6
|
https://historyinsantafe.com/new-mexico-writers/
|
en
|
Literary Pursuits in New Mexico
|
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2021-02-23T10:37:00+00:00
|
New Mexico, especially Santa Fe, has a long list of notable authors. It all began with with Gaspar Perez de Villagra in 1598.
|
en
|
History in Santa Fe
|
https://historyinsantafe.com/new-mexico-writers/
|
New Mexico, especially Santa Fe, has a long list of notable authors. It all began with with Gaspar Perez de Villagra. He was the solider/scribe who wrote the epic poem La Historia de Nuevo Mexico. His 1598 narrative chronicles the journey of Juan de Oñate and the first European founding of America.
Writers of the 20th Century
By the early 20th century Santa Fe had an abundance of writers in both Spanish and English. Felipe M. Chacon wrote poetry and fiction, and was also the editor of several Spanish language newspapers, including Santa Fe’s El Nuevo Mexicano. Mary Austin co-authored the book Taos Pueblo with Ansel Adams. Oliver La Farge and Willa Cather both won Pulitzer Prizes for their writings during their time in Santa Fe.
A Hometown Hero
The book, Origins of New Mexico, by Fray Angelico Chavez, to this day, remains the “bible” for genealogists. The Fray Angelico History Library at the Palace of the Governors bears his name. For decades Marc Simmons has provided generations of readers with the history of New Mexico through his historical column Trail Dust. Alice Khan Laddas, the author of the New York Times best-selling book, The G Spot and Other Discoveries about Human Sexuality, lives in Santa Fe. As does Jacqueline Dunnington, the Marion scholar, who received two Apostolic Blessings from the Vatican for her books on Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Documenting Native American Life
Joe S. Sando was the first Native American to document Pueblo life in New Mexico. Evan s. Connell wrote the stories Mr. and Mrs. Bridge which became a movie starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Nasario Garcia received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Historical Society of New Mexico for his books. Martha Egan, Pedro Ribera Ortega and George Tate, are some of the other writers that that have lived, wrote and made an impact in Santa Fe.
|
|||||
695
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 59
|
https://www.stagemilk.com/essential-practice-for-actors-morning-pages/
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en
|
Essential Practice for Actors: Morning Pages
|
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2023-06-13T05:42:32+00:00
|
In this article, I talk through my favourite techniques from Julia Cameron's 1992 book "The Artist's Way" and how they help me as an actor.
|
en
|
StageMilk
|
https://www.stagemilk.com/essential-practice-for-actors-morning-pages/
|
Being an actor can be disheartening: it’s practically part of the job. If you’ve spent some time out there cutting your teeth like the rest of us, you’ve probably had a handful of wins and a barrelful of losses. And that’s perfectly normal. A big part of what will make you successful in this industry is finding ways to roll with the good and bad. In this article, I want to teach you a simple exercise you can put into practice tomorrow morning to help with all that bobbing and weaving. Here is a simple exercise you can put into practice tomorrow morning to help with all that bobbing and weaving you’re no doubt already doing so elegantly.
Writing Morning Pages is an exercise from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. As a daily ritual, it helps you connect with your inner artist and quiet any voices within that might shout you down in your acting career. Given the sheer amount of uncertainty and rejection faced by actors every day, addressing negativity and building resilience are important parts of any actor’s skillset.
Firstly, if you haven’t already encountered it, put The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron at the top of your reading list. The method I’m going to tell you about comes straight out of this brilliant book, which is a must-read for any would-be artist. And this technique is just one of many you might want to fold into your own acting process.
That Annoying Little Voice
When I came out of drama school, I was pretty disillusioned about just how much of a stamina game being an actor really is; I learned very quickly that most of the time the biggest threat to your endurance is yourself. We all know the voice in our head that loves to tell us nasty little things about ourselves as actors:
“You’re not talented/good-looking/smart/funny enough to be an actor, why are you even trying?”
Horrible. And the more auditions we get that end with a no or radio-silence, the louder the voice becomes:
“You didn’t even get a call-back. Sally got a call-back, and she didn’t even do acting in high school. Why are you even trying?”
Firstly, good for Sally—I hope she got that role! But not so good for us. This annoying little voice is hard to ignore and even harder to shut up, but there is a way. Let’s start by learning this voice’s name.
The Censor
In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron calls this little voice ‘The Censor’. It lives in the left side of our brains. This is our analytical, logical half that helps us solve problems and it usually does this by recognising patterns. If we are auditioning for projects and getting knocked back repeatedly, as is typically the case, our brain starts to pick up on the emotional response we are having to being knocked back and tries to find solutions. The brain’s simplest solution for most things is to tell us to stop doing the thing that is making us feel bad.
That’s why The Censor starts talking: to try to make us stop. But The Censor ends up doing more harm than good because, hopefully, we don’t want to stop being an actor and going for roles. So when we resist, The Censor really can get nastier and nastier for the sake of achieving its goal.
The Artist Brain
The antithesis to The Censor is ‘The Artist Brain’. This is the part of our brain that might look at a tree and imagine that it’s an alien lifeform that sprung forth from the bowels of the earth and those branches aren’t branches but long, winding tendrils that are reading the thoughts of anyone within a five-kilometre radius. It’s the part of our brain that is most active when we are children. Sadly, it becomes increasingly repressed as we grow older. A key part of acting well and without inhibition is to reconnect with your Artist Brain so you can better imagine what the shoes of the character you’re playing might feel like.
As you might expect, The Censor is out to get The Artist Brain, and The Censor also talks a lot louder. All its angry, spiteful thoughts drown own out our Artist Brain unless we do something about it. Thankfully, Julia Cameron knows exactly what that something is.
Morning Pages
The truth is you can’t stop The Censor. Not completely. What you can do is quieten it down by giving it a chance to yell and kick and scream and have a tantrum so that it tires itself out for the day and lets The Artist Brain have its fun. You can do this with a practice called Morning Pages. Here’s how it works:
Each morning, when you wake up and get out bed, sit somewhere where you won’t be interrupted and write three A4 sized pages of whatever you can think of. Anything that comes into your mind. Angry thoughts, jealous thoughts, happy thoughts, sad thoughts; all of it belongs on the page. It could be what you did the day before, what you’re planning on doing today, anything. If you can’t think of anything to write, write that down, over and over if you have to. You’ll be surprised at what kind of things emerge from “I don’t know what to write, I don’t know what to write” after a few lines. The pages don’t have to make sense and they probably won’t. They should be ugly, disjointed, bizarre and nonsensical because they are for you and you alone. No one else will ever see your Morning Pages, so go wild!
Why it’s Awesome
Julia Cameron spent some years living in Taos, New Mexico. Multiple screenwriting projects of hers had fallen through and she was left feeling down about her career and the industry in general. She lived in a small adobe home next to Taos Mountain and every morning she would wake up, sit at her desk near the window facing the mountain and write three pages without stopping. After writing like this for a while, she gradually started to ask the mountain questions in her pages. She didn’t get any answers until a character called Johnny waltzed into her pages and became a sort of guide, helping her puzzle out the mysteries of the mountain and suddenly she was writing a novel.
She has continued this practice for over 20 years now.
While you may not pen your magnum opus, what Morning Pages will do is help you reconnect with your creativity by calming The Censor and letting The Artist Brain pipe up. The practice will also help chart a map of your mind’s landscape and lead you towards a greater sense of self, which is imperative for any artist. It will also lead you towards constructive action instead of leaving you dwelling in the difficulties you are facing, showing you solutions that you hadn’t even considered.
And if you do fancy giving writing a go (which we always recommend here at StageMilk), then this is the perfect place to start!
Conclusion
Long story short: do your Morning Pages. The more skeptical of them you are, the better. You’ll be even more surprised when they start working their magic. Do them every morning, don’t skip them or skimp on them. And remember that there is no right or wrong, and that it may take time before you start to notice something happening. But trust that it is happening.
I hope this was helpful, see you around the traps!
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New Mexico ‑ Santa Fe, Roswell & the Manhattan Project
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[
"New Mexico - Santa Fe, Roswell & the Manhattan Project",
"History.com Editors"
] |
2009-11-09T14:22:44+00:00
|
New Mexico became a U.S. state in 1912. It was the site of the first nuclear bomb test and drew attention for alleged alien activity near Roswell.
|
en
|
HISTORY
|
https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/new-mexico
|
New Mexico Native American History
Some of the first evidence of early humans in North America, including spearheads and other tools, were discovered in Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1930s. Archaeologists used their findings to date human occupation back to the last Ice Age, at least 20,000 years ago, when nomadic people crossed the Bering Strait.
By about A.D. 400, these hunter-gatherers started permanently settling in the area now known as New Mexico. Around the end of the 13th century, a major event—possibly a drought—caused them to abandon their settlements and relocate to agricultural communities in New Mexico’s river valleys. When the Spanish arrived in New Mexico, they called these Native American settlements and the people who lived in them “Pueblos,” which means “village.”
Between 200 and 1300, the Navajo (Diné) also migrated into the southwestern United States and developed a rich culture in New Mexico starting at around 900. The Apache arrived in New Mexico around 1300.
The arrival of Spanish and then American settlers led to conflicts with these communities, resulting in the deaths of many Indigenous people and the loss of their lands.
Pueblo Revolt
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was the most successful uprising of Native Americans against colonists in North America. In the 17th century, Spanish missionaries came to New Mexico to convert the Pueblo people to Christianity, sanctioned by the Spanish government. They were accompanied by Spanish settlers, some of whom imposed forced labor on Indigenous people. The local Native American population declined due to violence, famine and disease from 80,000 at the start of the 17th century to about 17,000 by the late 17th century.
The Puebloans grew to resent the oppressive colonial policies. The situation reached a breaking point in 1670 when the Spanish governor of New Mexico ordered several Pueblo men executed and others publicly whipped. One of those men, Po’Pay, organized an alliance of Indigenous people throughout New Mexico, including such diverse tribes as the Hopi, Keres and Zuñi, to revolt. In 1680, the Pueblo people pillaged Spanish haciendas, burned down missions and killed 401 settlers and 21 Franciscan priests. The Spanish fled to Texas and didn’t return to New Mexico for another 12 years.
Geronimo
The Apache in New Mexico also fought back against Spanish settlements and forceful relocation to Native American reservations in the 19th century, famously led by Chiricahua Apache leader Geronimo. He and his people fought for more than 30 years to protect their homeland, finally surrendering in 1886 and ending the so-called Indian Wars in the American southwest.
As part of the terms of surrender, 300 Chiricahua Apache were forcibly removed to Florida. After 27 years of imprisonment, they were set free in 1913. Two-thirds returned to settle in New Mexico; the Mescalero Apache are their descendants.
The Long Walk
In the late 1700s, the Navajo (Diné) fought with the Spanish, who allied with rival tribes and enslaved the Navajo they captured. Conflict reignited in the early 1860s as more American settlers of European descent began moving into Navajo territory. In 1863, the U.S. military, led by Lt. Colonel Kit Carson, launched a scorched earth campaign across the Navajo homelands—burning villages, killing livestock and demolishing water sources until the Navajo surrendered.
In January 1864, Carson and his troops forced more than 8,000 Navajo men, women and children from Arizona and New Mexico to walk or ride more than 300 miles from Fort Canby, New Mexico, to a reservation near Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This “Long Walk,” as it became known, resulted in the death of an estimated 300 Navajo due to starvation or exposure. The goal of the internment was to force the Navajo to adopt the Western culture, but many resisted assimilation. Four years later, the U.S.-Navajo Treaty of 1868 allowed the Navajo to return to a sliver of their homeland in Arizona and New Mexico.
Today, there are 23 federally-recognized Native American tribes in New Mexico, including 19 Pueblos, three Apache and the Navajo Nation. More than 228,400 Native American citizens comprise almost 11 percent of the state’s population.
New Mexico's Spanish Explorers, Colonists and Missionaries
Spanish Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition arrived in the area now known as New Mexico in 1540 on a quest for gold and silver. They found Native American settlements but no treasure and left. Other expeditions over the following decades failed. In 1598, supported by the Spanish state, Juan de Oñate led a group of soldiers, cattle and Franciscan priests into New Mexico, creating headquarters for the new colony at San Gabriel.
The fledgling colonists clashed with Indigenous people, who resented the colonists’ encroachment on their lands and their attempts to Christianize their people. In 1610, a new governor, Pedro de Peralta, established the first Spanish settlement at Santa Fe. The settlement grew to a population of 1,000 by the end of the century. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 led the Spanish to abandon New Mexico for El Paso, where they remained for more than a decade.
In 1693, Diego de Vargas secured the cooperation of a number of Pueblo people. He returned to New Mexico the following year with 800 settlers and 100 soldiers to reestablish a settlement at Santa Fe. The settlers again clashed with the Native Americans in the region, including a major uprising in 1696. Weakened by war and disease, the Pueblo people eventually forged a weak alliance with the Spanish to fend off other enemy tribes, such as the Navajo.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Spanish colonists throughout New Spain began to struggle for Mexican independence. The Mexican War of Independence began in 1810. In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain, and New Mexico became a part of Mexico.
U.S. Territory and Statehood
In 1846, the Mexican-American War began when the United States declared war on Mexico over a disputed boundary in Texas. The war ended in 1848 with an American victory. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States paid Mexico $15 million in exchange for 525,000 square miles of land making up much of the present southwestern United States, including parts of New Mexico. The victory enshrined the concept of Manifest Destiny in American beliefs.
Tension continued between the two countries until the Gadsden Purchase finalized in 1854. The United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for 29,670 square miles of land that became part of New Mexico and Arizona.
The New Mexico territory slowly assimilated into the United States, initially offering to join with Arizona as a single state—a move rejected by Arizona voters in 1906. It wasn’t until January 6, 1912, that New Mexico was finally admitted to the Union as the 47th state.
Role in World War II
New Mexico played a significant role in the United States throughout World War II. Around the start of the war, the military began looking for an indecipherable code language to transmit messages. They settled on the Navajo language, spoken by fewer than 30 Navajos in New Mexico and Arizona at the time due to an early 20th-century American policy of forced assimilation. The first Navajo Code Talkers attended a training camp in May 1942. More than 400 code talkers were eventually deployed throughout the war, especially in the Pacific, and the code was never broken by enemy forces.
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1942 declaring the western United States a “war zone,” leading the way for the internment of people with Japanese ancestry. Three Japanese internment camps were created in New Mexico, with more than 4,555 Japanese-Americans interned at a Santa Fe camp between 1942 and 1946.
On July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb was tested at the Trinity Site in central New Mexico. The bomb was the creation of the Manhattan Project, which was commissioned to build a nuclear weapon in 1942 after receiving intelligence that Germany was developing an atomic bomb of its own. Residents reported seeing the 18.6-kiloton explosion as far as 200 miles away.
Tourism and Economy
After World War II ended, the federal government claimed millions of acres of land in New Mexico to build bases, missile ranges and research and development facilities. Los Alamos National Laboratory, established in 1943 for developing and testing atomic bombs during World War II, continues to serve as one of the country’s foremost research institutions.
Tourism is another major driver of the New Mexico economy. Roswell, New Mexico remained a tourist destination for people interested in extraterrestrials after a rancher discovered unusual debris, including what some people claimed were alien bodies, in a pasture outside the city in July 1947. Air Force officials claimed it was the remains of a crashed weather balloon. The theory was finally put to rest in 1997 when the U.S. Air Force released a 231-page report on Roswell. The report explained that the “alien bodies” found at the crash site were government test dummies designed to improve pilots’ chances for survival when falling from high altitudes.
Originating in 1972, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each October who come to witness more than 600 colorful hot air balloons ascend into the air over nine days.
Date of Statehood: January 6, 1912
Capital: Santa Fe
Population: 2,117,522 (2020)
Size: 121,590 square miles
Nickname(s): Land of Enchantment
Motto: Crescit Eundo (“It Grows as it Goes”)
Tree: Piñon Pine
Flower: Yucca
Bird: Greater Roadrunner
Interesting Facts
Constructed in 1610, the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe is the oldest seat of government in the United States.
White Sands National Park contains the largest gypsum dune field in the world. The result of water evaporating from transitory lakes with high mineral content, gypsum deposits are windswept into picturesque white sand dunes spanning 275 square miles.
The Spanish language spoken by close to a quarter of a million people throughout New Mexico and southern Colorado is an ancient dialect that is largely Castilian in origin.
Sources
Smithsonian Magazine, The Clovis Point and the Discovery of America’s First Culture.
New Mexico Tourism Department, The Story of the Clovis People.
Smithsonian Magazine, Riddles of the Anasazi.
New Mexico Office of the Secretary of State, About New Mexico: Native Americans.
The New York Times, Why New Mexico’s 1680 Pueblo Revolt Is Echoing in 2020 Protests.
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, A Brief History of the Pueblo Revolt.
National Park Service, Historic New Mexico Spanish Missions.
National Park Service, Visiting New Mexico Pueblos.
Tourism Santa Fe, Native American Culture and History.
New Mexico Indian Affairs Department, New Mexico’s Twenty-Three Tribes and the Indian Affairs Department.
National Park Service, Apachean.
National Park Service, The Apache Wars Part II: Geronimo.
National Park Service, Post Apache Wars.
Mescalero Apache Tribe, Our History.
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. The Long Walk.
National Park Service, Kit Carson.
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, The Long Walk.
Utah American Indian Digital Archive, History: The Navajo.
National Park Service, New Mexico, 1536-1680.
Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Spanish New Mexico.
City of Albuquerque, Parks & Recreation, Colonial New Mexico.
National Park Service, The Mexican-American War.
National Archives, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848).
PBS, The Mexican-American War.
United States Senate, States in the Senate, New Mexico Timeline.
U.S. Department of State, Gadsden Purchase, 1853–1854.
U.S. House of Representatives, Overview of New Mexico Politics, 1848–1898.
National Archives, Manhattan Project Notebook (1942).
Los Alamos National Laboratory, About the Lab.
United States Air Force, Trinity: World's First Nuclear Test.
Atomic Heritage Foundation, World War II and New Mexico.
The Washington Post, 75 years ago, Roswell ‘flying saucer’ report sparked UFO obsession.
City of Roswell, Our History.
Associated Press, Untitled.
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, History.
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Final Numbers 2017.
National Trust for Historic Preservation, Palace of the Governors.
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Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79) was one of the most important and innovative photographers of the 19th century. Criticised in her lifetime for her unconventional techniques, she is now celebrated as a pioneering portraitist. 2015 marks the bicentenary of Cameron’s birth and the 150th anniversary of her first museum ex
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Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79) was one of the most important and innovative photographers of the 19th century. Criticised in her lifetime for her unconventional techniques, she is now celebrated as a pioneering portraitist. 2015 marks the bicentenary of Cameron’s birth and the 150th anniversary of her first museum exhibition – the only one in her lifetime – held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1865.
Drawing on the V&A’s significant collection, which includes photographs acquired directly from Cameron and letters she wrote to the museum’s founding director, Curator Marta Weiss tells the story of Cameron’s artistic development. She also presents, for the first time, a group of photographs recently revealed to have belonged to Cameron’s friend and mentor the artist G.F. Watts. This discovery sheds light on previously unacknowledged aspects of Cameron’s experimental approach.
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Julia Margaret Cameron
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Julia Margaret Cameron (June 11, 1815 – January 26, 1879) was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of her day, and for Arthurian and similar legendary themed pictures and tableaux.
Cameron's photographic career was short (about 12 years) and came relatively late in her life. Her work had a major impact on the development of modern photography, especially her closely cropped portraits, a photographic convention that remains very popular today. She was not interested in photographic sharpness or realism, but instead tried to capture or depict the "inner" or "spiritual" aspect of her subjects.
Her house, Dimbola Lodge, on the Isle of Wight, can still be visited.
Life
Julia Margaret Cameron was born Julia Margaret Pattle in Calcutta, India. Her father was James Pattle, a British official of the East India Company, and her mother was Adeline de l'Etang, a daughter of French aristocrats. Julia Margaret was part of a large family, the fourth of ten children. In turn, after her marriage, she had a large family of her own. She was part of the upper class, and enjoyed a rich life. Because of her social status and prominence she was able to make the acquaintance of a significant number of famous people. She came from a family of celebrated beauties, and was considered an ugly duckling among her sisters. For example, each sister had an attribute which she used as a nickname. Her sisters had nicknames such as "Beauty." Julia's nickname was "Talent." This instilled in Julia an obsession with idealized beauty.
Julia was educated in France, but returned to India in 1834 when she was nineteen. In 1838, she married Charles Hay Cameron, a jurist and member of the Law Commission stationed in Calcutta; he was twenty years her senior. In 1848, Charles Hay Cameron retired and he and Julia and their family moved to London. Cameron's sister, Sarah Prinsep, had been living in London and hosted a salon at Little Holland House, the dower house of Holland House in Kensington, where famous artists and writers regularly visited. In 1860, Julia visited the estate of poet Alfred Lord Tennyson on the Isle of Wight. She was taken with the location, and the Cameron family purchased a property on the island soon after. They called it Dimbola Lodge after the family's Ceylon estate.
Photography
Cameron's career as a photographer began in 1863, when she was 48 years old, while her husband was away on a trip. To cheer her from her loneliness, her daughter gave her a camera. Cameron began photographing everyone in sight. Within a year, she became a member of the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland. In her photography, Cameron strove to capture what she regarded as beauty. She wrote, "I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied."
Photography as a practice was then new. Cameron was able to make her own rules and not be bound to convention. She was not interested in the kind of images being made by other photographers at the time, most of whom were concerned with capturing sharp and detailed images. Instead, she was bent on capturing another kind of photographic truth. Instead of being concerned with capturing the accuracy of sharp detail, she wanted to depict the emotional state of her sitter.
Her neighbor on the Isle of Wight, Alfred Lord Tennyson often brought friends to see the photographer.
Cameron used large wet glass plate negatives, a technique that was usually used to shoot landscapes. Using this technique for making her images required long exposure times because of the low sensitivity of the plates, which meant that her sitters to sit still for long periods of time during the exposures. Since sitting still for such long periods was difficult for the sitters they often moved during the exposures, and thus Cameron's images often came out soft and out of focus. But she liked these soft focus portraits and the streak marks on her negatives and chose to make these irregularities part of her pictures. Although her photographs lacked the detailed sharpness that other photographers at the time aspired towards, they did succeed in conveying the emotional and spiritual aura of the sitter. Cameron's ambition as a photographer, as she put it, was to "secure [for photography] the character and uses of high art by combining real and ideal, and sacrificing nothing of truth by all possible devotion to poetry and beauty."
Cameron was noted for great enthusiasm, passion, and even obsessiveness for her photographic work. At her Dimbola house, she converted an old coalhouse into a darkroom, and made a glass chicken house into a studio with windows that allowed her to regulate the light. Her subjects often had to sit for countless exposures in the blinding light as she laboriously coated, exposed, and processed each wet plate. The results were, in fact, unconventional in their intimacy and their particular visual habit of created blur through both long exposures where the subject moved and by leaving the lens intentionally out of focus. This led some of her contemporaries to complain and even ridicule the work, but her friends and family were supportive and she was one of the most prolific and advanced of amateurs in her time. Her enthusiasm for her craft meant that her children and others sometimes tired of her endless photographing, but it also means that the modern world is left with some of the best of records of her children and of the many notable figures of the time who visited her. Her pictures give one of the best windows, today, into what the people of the Victorian Era looked like, especially its prominent ones.
During her career, Cameron registered each of her photographs with the copyright office and kept detailed records. She was also a determined promoter of her own work. In 1865, she had the first one person exhibition of her photographs at Colnaghis in London, and also presented a folio of her work to the British Museum. Her shrewd business sense is one reason that so many of her works survive today. Many of Cameron's portraits are also especially significant because they are the only existing photograph of that historical figure. Many paintings and drawings of those figures exist, but, at the time, photography was still a new, challenging medium for someone outside a typical portrait studio.
In 1873, Cameron sent her sister Maria (Mia) Jackson a photo album that was partly empty. She asked her sister to collaborate with her on the proposed project in the years to come by adding images to the album, as she sent them, in the places and the sequence she described. The album had two parts. The front part had photographs and portraits Cameron took of her family and friends, both candidly posed ones and others that acted out staged tableaux. The second half of the album contained pictures by some of Cameron's contemporaries such as Oscar Gustave Rejlander and Lewis Caroll, plus numerous photographs of paintings and drawings.
Most of Cameron's photographs are portraits of members of her family, concentrating on their faces. She wanted to show their natural beauty, and she often asked female sitters to let down their hair so she could show them in a way that they were not accustomed to presenting themselves. Judging by the number and quality of photographs she made of girls and women, she shows evidence of being especially attuned to photographing them and showing their inner qualities.
The bulk of Cameron's photographs fit into two categories: Closely framed and evocative portraits of both male and female subjects, and illustrative allegories and tableaux based on religious and literary works. In the allegorical works in particular, her artistic influence was clearly Pre-Raphaelite, with far-away looks, limp poses, and soft lighting.
In Cameron's posed photographic illustrations she frequently photographed historical scenes or literary works, often using forms of staging and imaginative posing that had become conventions in oil paintings. However, she made no attempt at hiding the backgrounds in her pictures. Cameron's friendship with Tennyson led him to ask her to photograph illustrations for his Idylls of the King. These photographs are designed to look like oil paintings from the same time period, including rich details such as historical costumes and intricate draperies. Today, these posed works are sometimes dismissed by art critics. Nevertheless, Cameron saw these photographs as art, just like the oil paintings they imitated.
Both kinds of pictures are contained in the Mia Album, and it contains some of her most famous pictures. One is The Kiss of Peace, a portrait of a mother and child based on the gospel story of the Visitation. The child gazes down and the mother's lips rest casually on her brow. This can be seen as a quiet image depicting maternal love. Most of Cameron's photographs are peaceful and romantic and have have a spiritual sensibility, with a sombre and contemplative mood. Cameron tried to capture what she saw as the essence of the subject, and she did not photograph action or take much care with backgrounds.
Some Cameron portraits
Cameron's sister ran the artistic scene at Little Holland House, which gave her many famous subjects for her portraits. Some of her famous subjects include: Charles Darwin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, John Everett Millais, William Michael Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Ellen Terry, and George Frederic Watts. Most of these distinctive portraits are cropped closely around the subject's face and are in soft focus. Cameron was often friends with these Victorian celebrities, and tried to capture their personalities in her photos. The pictures give evidence that she usually succeeded in doing so, as much as could be done in photography by using the techniques and materials she had available in her time.
Later life
In 1875, the Camerons moved back to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Julia continued to practice photography but complained in letters about the difficulties of getting chemicals and pure water to develop and print photographs. Also, in India, she did not have access to Little Holland House's artistic community. She also did not have a market to distribute her photographs as she had in England. Because of this, Cameron took fewer pictures in India. These pictures were of posed Indian natives, paralleling the posed pictures that Cameron had taken of neighbors in England. Almost none of Cameron's work from India survives. Cameron died in Ceylon in 1879.
Legacy
Cameron was seen as an unconventional and experimental photographer during her time. Now her images are understood as having an important place in the history of photography. Her family albums are both documents of a family's history and a source of insights into Victorian society, manners, ways of dress, and methods of presentation of the human self to the world. Some of her pictures of famous or important Victorians are the only existing photographs of them.
George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, holds some 163 of Cameron's pictures, some of them printed by photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn around the year 1915, from copy negatives of Cameron's work. Coburn's work is in numerous other museums, including the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California, the National Portrait Museum in London, the University of New Mexico Art Museum in Albuquerque, and others. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, with some 250 of her pictures, contains what may be the world's largest collection of Coburn photographs.
Cameron's niece, Julia Prinsep Stephen née Jackson (1846–1895), wrote the biography of Cameron which appeared in the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography, 1886.
Julia Stephen was the mother of Virginia Woolf, who wrote a comic portrayal of the "Freshwater circle" in her only play Freshwater. Woolf edited, with Roger Fry, a collection of Cameron's photographs.
However, it was not until 1948 that her photography became more widely known when Helmut Gernsheim wrote a book on her work.
Today Julia Margaret Cameron is usually considered by historians, connoisseurs, and critics of photography to be one of the world's most important past masters and users of the photographic medium.
References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Cameron, J. M. P. 1875. Illustrations by Julia Margaret Cameron of Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King and other poems. Retrieved March 24, 2008.
Cameron, J. M. P. 1889. Fragment of exhibition catalog, Annals of my glass house by Julia Margaret Cameron. Retrieved March 24, 2008.
Cameron, J. M. P. 1973. Victorian photographs of famous men & fair women. Boston: D.R. Godine. Retrieved March 24, 2008.
Cameron, J. M. 1975. The Herschel Album: An Album of Photographs. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975. ISBN 0442301332
Cameron, Julia Margaret, text by Violet Hamilton, Annals of My Glass House. Claremont, CA: Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, 1996. ISBN 0295976020
Cameron, J. M. and C. Ford. 1975. The Cameron Collection: An Album of Photographs. Wokingham: Van Nostrand Reinhold for the National Portrait Gallery.
Cameron, J. M. P. and M. Weaver. 1986. Whisper of the Muse: The Overstone Album & Other Photographs. Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 0892363746
Cameron, J. M. P. 1994. For my Best Beloved Sister, Mia: An Album of Photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron: An Exhibition of Works from the Hochberg-Mattis Collection Organized by the University of New Mexico Art Museum. Albuquerque: The Museum. ISBN 0944282172
Ford, Colin. Julia Margaret Cameron: A Critical Biography. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003. ISBN 0892367075
Lukitsh, Joanne. Cameron, Her Work and Career. Rochester, N.Y.: International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, 1986. ISBN 0935398139
All links retrieved October 4, 2022.
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James Navé
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https://www.jamesnave.com/coaching
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Coaching with James Navé
Your first session is always free!
Manuscript Coaching
Are you struggling to get your manuscript off the ground? Are you unsure of what story you’d like to tell? Do you have difficulty in organizing your thoughts and creating a coherent structure for your work? Do you struggle to stay motivated and on track with their writing goals? Are you wondering if should self-publish or try to sell you manuscript to a publisher? Whatever your issue, you don't have to go it alone. I can help you transform your ideas and stories into publishable pieces of writing your readers will appreciate and enjoy.
As your manuscript coach, we'll work together to identify the areas where you need the most help and develop a plan to address them. I'll provide honest, constructive feedback on your manuscript, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses and offering suggestions for improvement.
Why work with a writing coach? The answer is simple: writing can be a lonely, frustrating process, and having a supportive collaborator can make all the difference. As a manuscript coach, I'm committed to helping you achieve your writing goals. So why not take the first step and reach out for a consultation today? Together, we can turn your writing dreams into a reality.
Manuscript Coaching Inquiry
Name *
Email *
Phone
Optional, if you'd like to receive a call back.
What kind of writing help do you need? *
I have a manuscript idea and need help getting started.
I'm working on a manuscript but struggling to complete it.
I have a manuscript draft and need help crafting it.
I've finished a manuscript and don't know what to do with it.
Other (describe below)
Tell me more about what you're looking for from a manuscript coach. *
Thank you!
Presentation Coaching
Do you have a passion for speaking in public but need more confidence to deliver a successful presentation? Let me help you! Whether you've had previous experience presenting or not, developing the following steps can make a big difference in your public speaking skills:
Set aside your ego
Relax and have fun
Create a well-organized and effective outline
Practice and rehearse consistently
Learn to read your audience and tailor your presentation to meet their expectations
Be prepared to adjust your presentation to unexpected events or spontaneous audience participation
Engage and connect with your audience using practical communication skills
Manage your time well
Hone your emotional intelligence to create a positive and engaging atmosphere
Use relatable stories to capture your audience's attention and drive your message home.
If you want to work with me, we can customize a series of sessions to hone your presentation skills and tailor your approach to feel comfortable and confident in front of any size audience. We can also work on specific presentation topics like storytelling, keynote speeches, and more.
By the end of our sessions, you'll have the skills and confidence to deliver successful presentations. Don't let your public speaking skills hold you back. Take the first step toward unlocking your full potential.
Presentation Coaching Inquiry
Name *
Email *
Phone
Optional, if you'd like to receive a call back.
What kind of presentation help do you need? *
I want to work on my public speaking skills in general.
I need help preparing for a specific presentation.
Other (describe below)
Tell me more about what you're looking for from a presentation coach. *
Thank you!
Creativity Coaching
based on The Artist's Way with Julia Cameron
Welcome to my Artist's Way creativity coaching services. If you looking for new ways to bring your creative ideas and dreams to life, expand your creative community, and identify the many opportunities that await you, you’ve come to the right place. Regardless of your stage in life, it's never too late to make significant changes.
With its advocating artistic philosophy and powerful creative tools, the Artist's Way approach is the perfect support system to bolster your courage and give you strategies to turn your creative dreams and desires into finished realities.
As an experienced creativity coach, I have been teaching Artist's Way creativity courses since Julia Cameron and I first co-produced The Artist's Way Creativity Camp in Taos, New Mexico starting in 1995 and running until 2001. Since then, I've taught hundreds of Artist's Way classes, from small two-hour workshops to weekend retreats, to 12-week courses based on The Artist's Way and other books by Julia Cameron.
I've witnessed firsthand how The Artist's Way's evergreen approach to unblocking creativity works. I've lost count of how many people I've helped achieve their dreams while working with The Artist's Way.
When we work together, you'll start and finish The Artist's Way Course which will ground in the Artist's Way tools: morning pages, artist's dates, and walks. Then, as we continue, you'll redefine perfectionism, overcome creative blocks, and develop a strategy to push your artistic work forward with a sense of drive and purpose. Finally, we'll design a manageable creative strategy to support your sense of purpose, vitality, and confidence as you build your creative projects into the world.
Remember, it's never too late to begin again. I look forward to talking with you. Your first Artist’s Way session is free. Let's talk and see if our styles fit.
Creativity Coaching Inquiry
Name *
Email *
Phone
Optional, if you'd like to receive a call back.
Tell me more about what you're looking for from a creativity coach. *
Thank you!
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This category has the following 9 subcategories, out of 9 total.
Pages in category "Writers from New Mexico"
The following 63 pages are in this category, out of 63 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.
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https://extraordinaryroutines.com/musings/the-artists-way-complete-guide
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Everything I learned from (finally) completing The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron — Extraordinary Routines
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"Madeleine Dore"
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2019-10-05T14:05:25-04:00
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Here’s everything I learned about finally completing Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way – and notes on change, creatives ruts, and finding joy.
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Extraordinary Routines
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https://extraordinaryroutines.com/musings/the-artists-way-complete-guide
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Five years ago, while on a break after finishing studies I bought the Kindle version and began the week by week tasks with gusto, filling three pages with stream-of-consciousness writing each morning and taking myself on artist dates. By week three it came to an abrupt stop.
It’s difficult to determine why I didn’t keep stumbling through – perhaps it was feeling daunted by the “homework” or the religious undertones that didn’t resonate. In the proceeding years, I would stop and start the habit of the morning pages, what Julia Cameron describes as the ‘primary tool for creative recovery’.
With a particularly rocky start to the year, I had decided to be more diligent with filling three pages of brain drain each morning, but hadn’t yet picked up the text I put down five years ago. It wasn’t until an afternoon spent reading by the pool with a dear friend that I spotted her copy of The Artist’s Way and began to flip through the pages again. Snippets like “get out of the way, let it work through you” and “you have to stop telling yourself it’s too late” were a balm for this particular period of stuckness I was experiencing.
It was time. I moved into a new sublet in Melbourne and with the new environment came a clean slate to create new habits. I found a copy in a second-hand bookstore, the owner tapping on the cover saying “now this, this will change your life” while she put it through the cash register. Later that evening, I began from the beginning, the homework now viewed as a bedrock for a new routine, and the religious undertones swapped out for words like ‘flow’ and ‘energy’.
Twelve weeks, a dozen artist dates and three Moleksine journals filled with morning pages later, I closed the final page of The Artist’s Way and find myself in New York City.
I’m completely changed, and simultaneously unchanged. That, to me, is the wonderful thing about it – change is imperfect, it’s two steps forward and one step back, and often vice versa. When it's lasting, it's almost undetectable as your new self and your old self merge and stroll and stumble together.
I learned what can only be learned through going inward, even if that means looking like you’re doing nothing from the outside.
Here are my week by week notes and learnings – from listening to yourself to reframing lost opportunities – from the book I encourage any individual feeling blocked to dip into.
Lessons from making it all the way through The Artist’s Way
Week 1: Progress not perfection
The first time I began The Artist’s Way it helped spark the idea for my labour of love, Extraordinary Routines. This second attempt is exactly five year’s after the first interview was published in 2014.
So many of this week’s lessons resonate with what I’ve unearthed in the conversations I’ve had with creatives and own personal principles – creativity’s chief need is support and the key is to keep trying and experimenting.
I’m stuck by the description of ‘shadow artists’ – those that are drawn to other artists, but are blocked artists themselves and “caught between the dream of action and the feature of failure.”
I’ve spent been five years of inspecting how other people are creative and yet I haven’t written that book I wanted to write, or launched that podcast I wanted to launch. I can’t linger on that point for too long without spiralling.
“Very often audacity, not talent, makes one person an artist and another a shadow artist – hiding in the shadows, afraid to step out and expose the dream to the light, fearful that it will disintegrate to the torch.
While I’ve possessed audacity in some areas – launching an event series and my freelance writing for example – I can see how a lack of it has let certain projects languish.
I haven’t been audacious enough – I have failed. This is a belief, not a fact. “We are the thinker of the thoughts, not the thoughts,” as Julia writes.
We can get trapped in either/or thinking instead of taking things gently and slowly, and moving towards being unblocked. “Nurturing is key. To recover, we need solitude, self-nurturing, self-intimacy.”
I take myself to Readings bookshop, to relish in the solitude and the self-intimacy of walking and thinking and looking and flicking through pages and ideas.
Taking note of Julia’s words ‘progress not perfection’, I make a list of my project timeline for the podcast and do a callout for test listeners on Instagram. Beginning feels good.
Week 2: People can be blocks
This week I’m confronted by feelings of envy, self-doubt and feeling like I’ve missed certain opportunities. “Erratic is part of getting unstuck,” Julia writes. “Do not let self-doubt turn into self-sabotage.”
Unblocking also comes with big changes, and we see how our personal lives might contain traces of being stuck. We can attach ourselves to what Julia refers to as ‘crazymakers’, or people who we choose (perhaps subconsciously) to act as blocks for ourselves and our creative desires. It’s easier to obsess about someone who broke your heart or annoys you at work than to think about your own creative potential.
This week, I opened the door to my ‘crazymaker’ who I had been caught thinking ‘what if, what if, what if’ for a few months while my book proposal gathered dust. The door was swiftly shut again later that week and this romantic obsession had come to a final end just when I was reading this very chapter. The book describes this as synchronicity and a sign of unblocking and the syncing between the chapters and my everyday life happened time and time again as I read the book.
The day after things ended between myself and my ‘crazymaker’ for the second time, I get a cold – what Julia describes as a Kriya, or “the bad case of the flu right after you’ve broken up with your love. It’s the rotten head cold and bronchial cough that announces you’ve abused your health to meet an unreachable work deadline.”
There is no longer a fantasy of what could, would or should be with this person, no longer an addiction to the fantasy.
It hurts, but the antidote to the pain of letting go is opening up to what delight there is in your life.
“The quality of life is in proportion, always to the capacity for delight,” writes Julia. “In the exact now, we are all, always, alright.”
I now have autonomy with my time and a capacity for paying attention to something else, something delightful, something that I feel truly connected to. Maybe even that book proposal.
Week 3: Anger and jealousy are a map
When you feel like you are sliding backwards, remember that growth occurs in spurts. We take one step forward and two steps back and that’s okay – we cannot change through judgement but self-love.
Emotions that might feel counterintuitive such as anger are actually a map. “It tells us we can’t get away with our old life any longer. It tells us that old life is dying,” writes Julia.
What angers us can also guide us if it is acted upon, it can help us say no, speak up, or create in response to something that has been stirred within us – anger is an invitation to take action.
It also points us towards what we want to do, and as Julia Cameron writes, “the how follows the what.”
We cannot obsess over how we will make something happen, we just need to say what we are doing, and take action. “Action has magic so simply begin,” writes Julia.
This week, I record my first interview for the podcast and put together a pitch deck for a podcast producer.
Week 4: “If you want to work on your art, work on your life” – Anton Chekov
In order to shake a creative rut, we must puncture the denial and refuse to keep saying it’s okay that we haven’t attended to our most important work. It’s no longer okay that we have allowed for distraction, interruption, or being led by someone else’s agenda.
This week was about tossing out the old and unworkable, and noticing changes in tastes, judgments and personal identity. For me, I found myself leaving a talk I wasn’t enjoying when previously I would have continued to sit through out of politeness.
I found that I surprised myself with my actions or with my responses in conversations, which is a sign of starting to shake the habits and trappings that can keep us stuck.
“You are no longer stuck but you cannot tell where you are going,” writes Julia.
Week 5: open up to opportunity
Often we experience doubt because we do not take ourselves seriously enough, writes Julia, but I also find that taking myself too seriously or things too personally can present a block.
I can easily put things into the “impossible” category, but as this week explored, often something is impossible only because we are looking too ahead or too narrowly at the things we desire.
“Very often, when we cannot seem to find an adequate supply it is because we are insisting on a particular human source of supply,” writes Julia.
Tasked with asking myself what next steps I am evading, I realised I had to make decision about a trip to New York City I had talked about since the beginning of the year. Money, timing, and fear all got in the way, but the next step was to decide, so I booked the flight.
“Find the river and say yes to the flow,” writes Julia, and so the river will be NYC.
Just like the bends of a river, things don’t pay off in a linear fashion – there is no neat sequence of events once you’ve made a step, but the important thing is to become internally clear on dreams, desires and delights.
Working out my dreams, desires and delights is still a work in progress, but from this week’s readings I know I need time, space and quiet to become clear on those – and that often means saying no to others or to our own expectations and too-rigid plans.
It can difficult to say no, especially to people we love, but it’s an important practice. “Many recovering creatives sabotage themselves most frequently by making nice,” as Julia writes.
We need to protect our solitude and flow when we are unblocking. “We strive to be good, to be nice, to be helpful, to be un-selfish. We want to be generous, of service, of the world. But what we really want is to be left alone. When we can’t get others to leave us alone, we eventually abandon ourselves. To others, we may look like we’re there. We may act like we’re there. But our true self has gone to ground.”
Week 6: Money anxiety and wasted time
This week, I committed to writing a short article every day to test the idea of taking care of the quantity and letting an external force take care of the quality.
Each time I sat down to write I took note of an internal objections and negative beliefs the subconscious mind blurts out. One reoccurring blurt was “I should be working” – even though I was writing, it felt like I wasn’t work because it wasn’t paid work.
It didn’t feel like enough to simply write for my own sake, as if there has to be some other external recipient of the words rather than my own contentedness in writing them.
“What we really want to do is what we are meant to do,” writes Julia. Why do I so often deny myself the luxury to do what it is I want to do?
Often it’s my anxiety around money that presents a block – self-conscious about earning less than many of my peers means that even when I might have the time, space and quiet to write, there is a lingering shame or guilt in using that time when I really should be trying to make more money.
While I might earn comparatively less, what we need is entirely subjective and I’m privileged to be able to cover my living expenses. As Julia writes, we ‘deny ourselves the luxury of time’ – money anxiety is the excuse I use to erode my spare time.
Week 7: perfecting perfectionism
While I love lists, I can also be entrapped by them. “Art is about getting something down, not planning,” writes Julia.
Often planning for me is a symptom of perfectionism, which we can have false ideas about. “Perfectionism is not a quest for the best, but a pursuit of the worst in ourselves.”
This week, my artist date was to go to The Moth storytelling event solo, and I was in awe of how strangers got up on stage and told a story with no notes and full hearts. They were funny, touching, imperfect and the embodiment of the question in this chapter: “What would you do if you didn’t have to do it perfectly?”
Often we wait for the perfect time, the perfect condition, the perfect state because we think it will lead to a guaranteed success or some sense of safety and security, but as the book explains, “safety is a very expensive illusion.”
Waiting for perfect can lead to things like jealousy and envy, where we see others doing what we know we can but have kept a wish or pipe dream. As Julia Cameron, “Blocked artists deny success from ourselves and others.”
The antidote is to take a risk and focus on the doing. “A risk is worth taking simply for the sake of taking it.”
I open up the first test podcast and begin to stumble through the editing software I have no experience with. I judge it as bad, unworkable, and un-shareable – I still have a long way to go with my perfectionism it seems.
Week 8: Real change occurs in tiny increments
For me, this chapter was the most mind altering of all and I continue to return to it because the lesson that comes from this will take a long time to fully inhale.
As previously described, when commencing the twelve weeks, I internalised a lack of audacity as a personal failure, when perhaps more accurately, criticism pinches at our audacity reserves.
Throughout the creative process, Julia explains, artists face loss of hope, money and self-belief, and it is encouragement that can so often help pick us back up.
With encouragement – from others and importantly ourselves – we can begin to reframe any loss, rejection of criticism.
“Every loss must be framed as a potential gain, every end a beginning,” writes Julia.
This week, I get an email from my book agent to say that she is moving to a different company and can no longer represent me. The previous week, I received news that my regular newspaper will no longer run. Other freelancing ties seemed to be losing momentum – I felt like I had lost what I’d built over the last few years in one fell swoop.
This words could not have come at a better time: “Stop complaining about the lousy curves you get thrown and stretch, reach for what you really want,” writes Julia.
Instead of ‘why me’ I needed to ask what next. I needed to see the potential of these endings and what could be opened up in their place – a fresh start, a shake-up of my routine, and push from complacency.
“Creativity is in the doing, not the done,” writes Julia.
I often focus on the done – the book only when it gets the deal, the columns being published, the podcast being praised when it’s launched. I had ignored the doing, the writing, the recording and learning that all these dream projects contained. I’d skipped over process and progress, straight into perfection.
“Focused on process, our creative life creates a sense of adventure,” writes Julia.
Instead of thinking about the big end goal or outcome, I needed to focus on the next small step and swap ‘what’s the use’ for ‘what is next’.
“Most of the time, the next right thing to do is small: washing out your paintbrushes, stopping by the art-supply store and getting your clay, checking the local paper for a list of acting classes… as a rule of thumb, it is best to just admit that there is always one action you can take for your creativity daily. This daily-action commitment fills the form.”
But yet, here is where our minds can play tricks – instead of taking a small step, we become anxious over the big ones. “One of our favourite things to do – instead of art – is to contemplate the odds,” writes Julia.
This is often called anxiety in the lieu of action. “Watch yourself for a week and notice the way you will pick up an anxious thought, almost like a joint, to blow off or at least delay, your next creative action.”
I do this incessantly – worry about the big project rather than pause my thoughts to take a small step. I see with full clarity my addiction when I read Julia’s words: “Most blocked creatives have an active addiction to anxiety. We prefer the low-grade pain and occasional heart-stopping panic attack to the drudgery of small and simple daily steps in the right direction.”
I logged my anxious thoughts for one day and it was helpful for staying focused on the task at hand – redoing my chapter outline for the book.
Work begets work and taking one small step in action instead of indulging in the big questions can help us further along.
Week 9: Fear is not laziness
I often joke that I’m a lazy-overachiever, but after reading this week’s chapter I wasn’t sure if I was really either. “Blocked artists are not lazy, they are blocked,” writes Julia.
We spend energy on self-doubt, self-hatred, regret, grief, jealousy and think in terms of great big scary impossible tasks.
My high expectations and lofty plans often mean that I want to leap over the small, incremental steps and dive straight into the impossible tasks. “The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce at all,” she writes.
We can also fall into asking what’s the point and berating ourselves for only just starting, worrying that everyone is so much further ahead, we will never quite catch up.
When I don’t succeed or finish my to do list or meet my ideals, I call it laziness, ignoring the fact I set myself up to fail – perhaps out of self-protection or self-sabotage.
‘Do not call the inability to start laziness, call it fear,’ writes Julia.
This fear can often come in the form of a ‘Creative U-Turn’, and it’s best to reach out for someone who can help when you are stuck. “The glare of success can send the recovering artist scurrying back into the cave of self-defeat.”
To tackle fear, we need to use love – not pushing or hustling but rather leading from joy not duty.
When we start with joy, the discipline will follow. The question bubbles up again – what do I enjoy? What do I desire? Why does this continue to elude me? This week felt like a lot of question-asking and meetings, but no step taking. Does this mean I am searching for the joy?
Week 10: overwork v. zestful work
“When we are clear about who we are and what we are doing, the energy flows freely and we experience no strain,” writes Julia.
I still don’t feel clear on what I am doing – am I writing a book? Am I building on a freelance career? Am I making a podcast? Am I growing an event series? I spend a lot of time thinking about the doing in most of the aforementioned cases, but have no idea overall what I am doing. Do people actually know the answer to this?
I’ve removed blocks, in particular I have removed alcohol after seeing how it had a negative domino effect on my daily habits and haven’t had a drink for almost five months by this point in the book.
I take this as a clear sign of the beginning of my unblocking. “When we become unblocked, we will experience a withdrawal from our old life and what has kept us stuck – habits, workholism, relationships, addictions. We find that we are able to articulate our own boundaries and desires and become less malleability to the whims of others,” writes Julia.
Even without alcohol, there is still room for improvement in respect to how I’m using my time – which is often being the busy worker bee and feeling overwhelmed or worries about money rather than attending to important creative work.
As Julia writes, “It is more likely that you have the time and are misspending it.”
I don’t feel particularly busy, I feel overwhelmed by what feels like a lack of zestful work. I know what I need to do, but I still feel stuck, unable to move towards it. As Julia puts it, I am in a creative drought.
What do we do when we are in the drought? We stumble through because it is “the time in the desert brings us clarity.”
Sometimes it is our expectations that has created a drought. We have to watch for delusions such as fame and external validation which are often short-cut to self-approval. “The desire to be better than can choke off the desire to be,” writes Julia.
What we return to is the process of creating itself rather than the outcome, because “wanting more will always snap at our heels, erode our joy at ours or another’s accomplishments.”
Once again, it’s joy. “Only when we are being joyful creative can we release the obsession with others and how they are doing.”
Week 11: The true purpose of exercise
A resounding message throughout the chapters has been that it’s important to experiment with what works for you.
For me, that’s been experimenting with not drinking, it’s been doing the morning pages diligently, it’s been taking myself on artist dates, and it’s been running.
When starting out, I could run for less than five minutes on a treadmill. By week eight of the book, I hit my goal of running 5km without stopping. When you try something and keep trying, it might just work. I reached that goal, and I keep running, for clarity and focus and steadiness.
“We learn by going where we have to go. Exercise is often the going that moves us from stagnation to inspiration, from problem to solution, from self-pity to self-respect. We learn we are stronger than we thought. We learn to look at things with a new perspective. We learn to solve our problems by tapping our own inner resources and listening for inspiration, not only from others but from ourselves. Seemingly without effort, our answers come while we swim or strike or ride or run. By definition, this is one of the fruits of exercise: the act of bringing into play or realising in action,” writes Julia.
Rather than a tool for vanity, exercise teaches us about the rewards of the process, not the outcome.
As Julia writes, “Any regular, repeatable action primes the well” and for me the seemingly non-creative act of running puts me into step with myself.
Each time I tell myself I will run and then I take action and do it, I am building self-respect, which comes from doing the work.
I’ve also learned that the goal is not the point, it’s the running. Once I reached 5km, the treadmill did not evaporate – opportunity to keep running, keep taking strides remained.
“When we get ‘there’, there disappears” writes Julia, so we may as well focus on the running, not the end.
Week 12: Letting go
It’s the final chapter of the book and I have arrived in New York City with the intention of setting aside three months to work on the personal projects that I have carried with me the last few months – the podcast and the book.
I expect to hit the ground running immediately, but I can hear a familiar voice inside my mind telling me this has been a mistake, that I can’t afford to be here financially, that I’ve taken a wrong turn and I should focus on finding a job, a real job.
“We throw up roadblocks to maintain a sense of control,” writes Julia. In place of trying to grasp time, I need to take myself more lightly and less seriously.
“To be creative is to be productive – but by cooperating with creating, not by forcing it.”
Gentleness, and trusting in the darkness, the unknown, is what I’m really here to learn. It’s what the twelve weeks have led me to and I change my phone background to say “let go.”
Cooperation with our creativity takes time, and we have to remember that we can often sense our own changing and experience a sense of grief for our old life. There’s something new opening up, I just don’t know what, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s extraordinary.
Where to from here? Notes on the elusiveness of delight and desire
It’s been three weeks since I finished The Artist’s Way. I have kept the habit of the morning pages, I take myself on artist dates in New York City, and I continue to explore what it is that delights and brings joy, because in truth I’m not quite sure – I often still feel like I’m in the creative desert, even though I’m in the most creatively vibrant city in the world.
I want to watch for what delights me, I want to be alive to joy, I want to pay attention, I want to experiment and see if Julia Cameron’s resounding message is true.
“The quality of life is in proportion, always to the capacity for delight.”
“Become internally clear on dreams, desires and delights.”
“When we are clear about who we are and what we are doing, the energy flows freely and we experience no strain.”
“What we really want to do is what we are meant to do”
“Only when we are being joyfully creative can we release the obsession with others and how they are doing.”
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https://painterskeys.com/crisis-confidence/
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Crisis of confidence
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Dear Artist, Lately I've been studying the plight of several painters who claim to be having a "crisis of confidence." All of them began painting in their youth, sold work in their teens, had at le...
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https://painterskeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/favicon.ico
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The Painters Keys
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https://painterskeys.com/crisis-confidence/
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Previous LetterFighting the after-show blues
Next Letter How galleries succeed
Crisis of confidence
Dear Artist, Lately I’ve been studying the plight of several painters who claim to be having a “crisis of confidence.” All of them began painting in their youth, sold work in their teens, had at least one hyper-critical parent, enjoyed moderate success with their art, and now find themselves, in mid life, “losing it.” While there are variations in their styles, media and techniques, all three suffer from indecision, dissatisfaction and overworking. All are having trouble finishing, signing, and getting work off to shows or galleries. I’m not going to dwell on all the possible reasons. Suffice to say they may include too many works under the belt, knowing too much, thinking too much, lack of joy in life, the misplacement or loss of the inner child, the feeling of never being satisfied, health issues, economic pointlessness, boredom and other depressing thoughts. A thorough vacuuming is nevertheless in order. Here’s a little program that can play out over a week or so: Line up a hundred or so small inexpensive panels, papers or canvases and have them ready to go. Give yourself a more limited palette — perhaps half your normal range. Put all reference material and prior works out of sight. If this is not possible, work in a new environment such as a hotel room or friend’s cottage. In preparation for starting the program, bring yourself to a mentally uncluttered, dream-like state. Now, over a relatively short period of time, fill the first support with a limited number of strokes. Get your subject matter from the deep well of your memory. Don’t finish, move on to the next. Even though you may consider yourself a real pro, try not to lean on what you know, but rather take yourself back and try to paint as if you were four years old. For some folks, this can be mighty difficult. Persist. Keep in mind that the exercise has nothing to do with creating great art, but is rather a ruse to free yourself from an all too common crisis. You’ll be temporarily re-routing tried-and-true habits and exchanging them with temporary new ones. The program is based on, “If what you’re doing right now isn’t pleasing you, try something else.” Anything goes. For the sake of the program, the wilder the better — the more childlike you are, the more confident and fresh your regular work will become. Best regards, Robert PS: “It takes a long time to become young.” (Pablo Picasso) Esoterica: Here are a few predictions: The first few attempts will be filled with timidity and resistance. But because there are so darned many of them, you’ll find the middle ones getting more and more cursory and loose. Then, toward the end, you’ll feel yourself tightening up and incorporating some of your treasured knowledge. At the very end you’ll become thoroughly wild and unruly, partly in the knowledge that the program will soon be over, and partly because you have learned something and know that you could go on like this forever. Some pieces you’ll want to frame. If you do, that won’t be bad either. Embrace the creative performance by Rick Austin, Fort Mill, SC, USA I have been painting professionally for close to 40 years and have experienced most of the artist downers that life can throw at you. I’ve found solace in a few simple realizations. Artists are a unique breed of performers. Yes, performers. We are compelled to act out our creative addictions in the hopes of finding release. We outwardly ‘perform’ by physically creating our own kind of art, and who do we do that for ‘just us?’ I think not. Musicians, dancers, actors, etc., need an audience to find validation. We remain behind a veil as though the creator and the created were distinctly separate from each other. Imagine going to hear a concert and not see the performer? We would feel cheated. Doesn’t the stage performer need the audience as much as the audience needs the stage performer? I’ve observed that most people have little or no concept of our creative blood, sweat and tears. They assume that, “it must just comes naturally”! Or, my favorite, “Oh my gosh, did you paint that!” (my response, “yes, but I hid all of the numbers! — talk about being under-valued” ? Perhaps if we embraced the creative performance, we might find we like the applause. There are 4 comments for Embrace the creative performance by Rick Austin Get shoveling by Diane Weintraub, San Diego, CA, USA Robert Motherwell did that… took a stack of papers and his usual limited palette of black, white, red and yellow-ochre. It was hot in NYC that summer. As Motherwell tells it in that great video on him, he took his shirt off and went through over 100 sheets of paper trying to get at something. Finally there came the breakthrough he’d been looking for. Then later he heard that his good friend David Smith had died that day. As the old joke goes: the kid said, “With that room so full of manure there’s gotta be a pony in there somewhere!” Sometimes it takes shoveling through a lot of manure to find your pony. Take the program into your being by Haim Mizrahi, East Hampton, NY, USA Your suggestions make sense, but you are leaving out the most important aspect which is that the exercise you offer as a tool to expedite the “going back to normal” should be what people need to consider as a way of life, as a given in the realm of constant creative engagements, as an attitude builder to face the one dimensional society we live in.. I work with kids and I realize that they can really relate to complex subject-matter by mixing it with their adamant beings. It fortifies the durability needed for any and every creative interaction. We waste our time with 80 percent of verbal garbage, 10 percent sorting through the crap and finally, maybe, the rest that applies to a real coming together with a powerful pleasing force, i.e. the free flying of pathetic encounters that speak the language of the era that changes daily and therefore encountering all the syllables as a language of its own. I think it is a no-brainer to understand the secrets and beauty of the alternative. I will leave it up to you which avenue you are going to use getting there. Find again the boyness by Charles Peck, Punta Gorda, Florida, USA Robert you hit a home run this time. Not just for those with this “crisis of confidence” you speak of or worse yet those, up against the wall of painter’s block, but for everyone who paints — those who have been at it for several decades and earning their sustenance from it as well as those still relatively new at their painting pursuit. Haven’t done it yet in as complete a way as you describe but I commonly have an extra surface about to “get loose on” when doing something else to “tune myself up” during the process. It is my way of fighting anal retentiveness and its dastardly staining of an image. While reading your letter I sensed I need to do this. So I shall get my pieces lined up (center cut-outs from mats) and find the way back to my inner/larger self even if the boyness can’t be found alive and well. Loosened fatigue and tension by Gillian Hanington, Ajijic, Mexico In an attempt to deal with the tail end of a similar sort of funk last November I got a pad of watercolor paper and told my unconscious it could paint the pictures and “I” would stay out of the way. Actually I am not a painter. I make glass sculptures. Putting myself into “a dreamlike state” I started to paint. I put music on to distract my intellect and over two months painted a series of strange and wonderful pictures, many of which were mandalas. They used different colors than “I” do, and the designs and subject matter were different. Once when my intellect was trying to take over and THINK about what I was doing I kept having spasms in my arm which jerked the paint out of the carefully defined boundaries I was trying to maintain, and I realized that someone inside was saying “Hey, you said I could do this.” So I got out of the way again and let it continue. I have made no attempt to analyze these things in any way, but they freed me up and loosened up the fatigue and tension in my heart and now I am eagerly awaiting a turn in the weather so I can return to my outdoor glass studio refreshed and full of new ideas. And they were fun! I was always so curious to see what would come out. Creative rebound triggered by sound by J.R. Baldini, Niagara Falls, ON, Canada When I experienced this condition, it lasted for close to 5 years. During that time, there were multiple personal situations that I had little control over. I did not choose to ride it out, I just eventually went with the flow. What turned the tide for me, was when I went back to painting outdoors. I have since realized that even though I am a painter, I am an Audio. That is the sense I lead with. The other two being Visual and Kinesthetic. We’re all a combination of all three with one being dominant. It was not enough stimulation for me creatively to paint in the studio. I truly come alive creatively, when I can hear the ocean, the birds, the wind and feel totally in synch with my world. When I don’t get outside to paint for an extended period, I get grumpy and my husband will remark, “Why don’t you go out and paint?” There are 13 comments for Creative rebound triggered by sound by J.R. Baldini Using The Artist’s Way by Lanie Frick, Licking MO, USA Your painting program sounds like so much fun Robert that I’m going to do it even though I’m not experiencing the same art career issues as those you refer to here. Another helpful breakthrough program is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. When I was in a very stuck place in my life and art The Artist’s Way was given to me by a friend. I followed the Julia’s program, completed the exercises and made some big creative breakthroughs. I went through it by myself but the author recommends going through it with fellow artists. In fact, three other artists and myself are meeting next week to begin the course together. Revisiting for me, new for them. Wow, wonder what might happen doing your painting program and The Artist’s Way at the same time? Think I’ll try it. There are 3 comments for Using The Artist’s Way by Lanie Frick Child not easily found by Andrew Baker, South Downs, UK This method is familiar to me. I ran a ‘Big Draw’ event here in the UK where 200 people came of the street and ‘Take a line for a walk’ many would preface their start with ‘I haven’t done this for years.’ The results were astounding to all and a rediscovery was made of earlier delights in this instinctual activity. More importantly, watching a group of about 12 people around one table, children, grandparents, unemployed, the well healed, wrapped in full silence, creating, was a powerful experience. I know the importance of this method because it is a lesson that I have to learn and relearn often. I need this now as lack of esteem which is at the root of our issues of motivation, (Doing something for me) is hard and confounds our adult best sense. Only playing! by Gary Hiscott, Wales, UK I enjoyed your most recent post not because I find myself at a point of lack of confidence but because I have just decided after a long run of painting ‘a series’ of paintings, to do something out of my normal range. I have been painting over paintings that have not worked, or have gone past their best stage. I have experienced such joy in launching out into the deep, not quite knowing where I was going, changing course mid-stream and ending up somewhere very beautiful I didn’t even know existed. Being ‘playful’ in this way started to bring about feelings of ‘will THEY like it — will they tick the NO THANK YOU box.’ It was good to become aware of these feelings, aware of the way perhaps I was beginning to paint …and still carry on working regardless, after all I’M ONLY PLAYING! I keep getting ideas during the day for starting points — but I know that is all they will be for in play the elephant can easily turn into an aeroplane, the orange carrot into a red setter or beetroot! Daily art plus Facebook by LeEtta LaFontaine, Prince George, BC, Canada My own self-imposed criteria for this exercise were: using my non-dominant hand, min 20 minutes, min 8×10 inch any medium. Then I needed to journal about how I felt doing each piece, connect on the internet in some form as well. I chose to open a page on Facebook to make my journey and comments public which has certainly helped me keep up my commitment. I’m really enjoying the freedom of making mistakes, because after all I am using my left hand. The feedback that I receive is fun and inspiring. I hadn’t considered that others would enjoy my journey with me, I had only thought about what it would do for me. eeeYup! The usual… “it’s all about me” to start with. This process is giving me a freedom of expression that I’ve not given myself before and the opportunity to just be on paper is wonderful. I hope that others take you up on your suggestion because it is so worth the time it takes to help shift the boredom into a new dimension of discovery! There are 2 comments for Daily art plus Facebook by LeEtta LaFontaine Breakout technique after travel by Carol Mayne, Leucadia, CA, USA I’ve just returned from 4 weeks in India, and your Crisis of Confidence hits a nerve for me. The contrasts of opulent jewel-encrusted marble of the Taj Mahal, silk-work that goes beyond timelessness, to the stark primitive existence of those living and squatting on the side of the road, to the burning ghats on the Ganges, all stirred gently with cell phone consciousness, and driving on roads where there are no rules for cows, camels or cars. These sights and feelings have asked me to dig deeper into my psyche and go past ‘pretty things’ in my paintings. I trust these kinds of breakout techniques you outlined will usher a new paradigm in perspectives to add to my tool kit! I’m ready for the next leg of my journey and will take whatever time is necessary to open up. Light! Love! Namaste. Forgetting and not forgetting by Warren Criswell, Benton, AR, USA There’s another instance of this in Phillip Roth’s last novel, The Humbling, about a formerly great actor who has lost the ability to act. He can’t lose himself in a role anymore. He and his skill, his experience, his knowledge is always there, like a wall blocking his entry into the character. When I’m painting I often have the feeling of complete ignorance, like I’ve never done this before, so that every brushstroke is a new discovery. I almost have to have this feeling in order to paint — or sculpt or whatever. Richard Foreman, the New York writer and director, put it this way: “There are writers who despair that a gap exists between the self and the words that come, but for me that gap is the field of all creativity — it’s an ecstatic field rather than a field of despair… It’s the unfathomable from which everything pours forth.” That gap is created by forgetting. When we study art or science, the focus on what’s known gives us the impression that almost everything has been discovered. With art you can make a good case that “There is nothing new under the sun.” But the physicist Richard Feynman wrote that science creates an “expanding frontier of ignorance,” where most discoveries lead to more questions, and I think it’s the same with art. This is what intrigued me about Husserl’s phenomenology. Husserl wanted to set aside, or bracket — which is another way of saying forget — everything you know about an object or a process, and concentrate on the immediate phenomenon itself. Reading Husserl and Heidegger led me into still life painting for the first time. I abandoned all thoughts of a narrative or any associations the objects might have for me and tried to look in complete ignorance at the visual phenomena in front of me. I can never plan or set up a still life, I have to be ambushed by it. In this way, things I’ve seen all my life come to me as fresh and mysterious discoveries that lead to more questions, as Feynman said — like how do I paint this? … The upshot of it was that everybody but me saw narratives in the work! In fact I’ve been told by more than one viewer that some of my still lifes are my most intimate self-portraits. Because, as Jung says, we don’t really forget anything, we just exile it temporarily into our unconscious. It comes back in dreams, psychosis or during the creative process. Only in retrospect do you realize it’s you after all. There are 2 comments for Forgetting and not forgetting by Warren Criswell [fbcomments url=”http://clicks.robertgenn.com/crisis-confidence.php”]
Featured Artist: Karla Bogard
Venice
oil painting by Karla Bogard, CA, USA
You may be interested to know that artists from every state in the USA, every province in Canada, and at least 115 countries worldwide have visited these pages since January 1, 2013. That includes Deborah Tidwell Holtzscheiter of Aiken, SC, USA, who wrote, “Take a class painting in a different way, paint with a friend and try it their way or, as I did, spend some time with an artist friend and see what she does.” And also Gena Courtney of Macon, GA, USA, who wrote, ” ‘Nevertheless’ Thank you for using this word. It’s my favorite.”
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http://www.johnbartontherapy.com/blog/category/politics
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Category: Politics
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My Dad died recently. He’d been bedbound for the better part of a year, and he was unhappy about that, and he was suffering a great deal at times. At the age of 98, he’d had enough. We had a few...
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JOHN BARTON THERAPY | CENTRAL LONDON
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http://www.johnbartontherapy.com/1/category/politics
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Are you a good person?
Are you kind to fellow humans—and all creatures great and small?
Do you support worthy charities, help those in need, and do good work?
Or do you have a dark side? Is there part of you that wants to lie and cheat and manipulate situations to your advantage? Are you interested in enriching yourself—even if that comes at a cost to others?
The answer is: All of the above. In the fine words of that great philosopher Paul McCartney: There is good and bad in everyone. Humans are capable of astonishing acts of courage and bravery, but under certain circumstances we might be utterly spineless, cruel, greedy or depraved. To deny these things in you—what Carl Jung called the shadow—is to project them unconsciously onto others.
“I’m a good person,” a client said. But all around her—her husband, her children, siblings, parents, neighbours, immigrants, foreigners—were bad. This construction of the world left her lonely and disengaged, holding on only to her sense of superiority. She came to therapy when it came crashing down.
“I’m the bad guy?” says Michael Douglas at the end of the movie Falling Down. Robert Duvall, the cop aiming his pistol at him on the Santa Monia Pier, nods.
“How’d that happen?”
A few weeks ago my therapist sent me a link to an extraordinary song that explores these themes. Hi Ren went live on YouTube on December 15 last year. When I first saw it, it had surpassed 5 million views. Today it’s reached 8.2 million and it's rising super fast. Word of mouth: This is the song of our time; a human anthem.
It starts with Ren, wearing a hospital gown, being wheeled into a semi-derelict room by a man with a pig’s head and a bloodied butcher’s apron. Ren is obviously a patient. He too is perhaps feeling derelict and abandoned—and powerless too in the hands of those charged with his care.
He starts playing the guitar.
It’s beautiful. An acoustic guitar. A pleasing melody. The incongruity of the surroundings. But he’s tugging at the nylon strings a bit hard. A bit twangy. Aggressive considering the sweet Flamenco notes that fill the room.
Then Ren opens his mouth and the melody is joined by a wail of wild, high-pitched half notes. It is otherworldly. It is perhaps something like the human mating call before we learned to speak, or the dawn chorus in Hades. We are drawn to this—we willingly enter his beautiful madness.
And then the rapping starts.
In his famous Red Book Jung attempts to commune with his own soul.
“ ‘My soul, where are you? Do you hear me?' he starts. 'I speak, I call you – are you
there?’ ”
In this piece of work, Ren opens with a salutation from his shadow to his ego.
“Hi there, Ren,” he hisses. “It's been a little while, did you miss me?”
This is the opening salvo in a blistering verbal assault from Ren’s inner critical voice.
Replies Ren:
“I’ve been taking some time to be distant,” he explains.
“I've been taking some time to be still.
“I've been taking some time to be by myself since my therapist told me I'm ill.
“And I've been making some progress lately,
“And I've learnt some new coping skills”
The critical voice is extremely skeptical:
“Ren, you sound more insane than I do,” he says.
He mocks Ren for imagining that some standard course of treatment—take another pill, the sound of white noise, a 10-step program—will make any difference, and ridicules his musical ambitions.
The argument hots up until the critical voice thunders his authority. He is the snake in Eden. Lucifer. Antichrist. Mephistopheles. Satan.
“I am you, Ren, you are me.”
Who is Ren actually, this Keats-with-guitar? Where did this guy come from? You could be excused for imagining he just picked up a guitar one day in a psych ward and discovered his madness instinctively knew how to play and had something to say.
Ren Gill was actually a talented musician in his youth. He started out making beats in his bedroom at 13, then went on to Bath Spa University to study music performance. One day in 2009, busking in his hometown of Brighton, he was spotted by a talent scout and snapped up by Sony Records.
The childhood dream swiftly turned into a nightmare however. Ren woke one morning feeling utterly lethargic, drained, and aching all over. He started having panic attacks. He’d stay in bed. He said: “My life changed overnight, I woke up one morning feeling like I'd been spiked—my personality disappeared.”
He entered the mental health system. He was put on antidepressants. Antipsychotics. It's not hard to imagine the kinds of interpretations psychology offered up for his illness—he was probably told for example that he was depressed, suffering from low self-esteem, bipolar, afraid of success, delusional, paranoid, mad. In some cultures he would be considered possessed, in need of an exorcism.
The truth, discovered many years later, was that he had a longstanding untreated case of Lyme disease, the complications of which still impact him today. Ren’s health problems were perhaps not manifestations of some inner psychic conflict. He was bitten by a tic.
He has struggled. But perhaps the struggle, the suffering, is integral to his genius.
In the final stanza, Ren refuses to back down, and stands to face his demon:
“I go by many names also,
“Some people know me as hope,
“Some people know me as the voice that you hear when you loosen the noose on the rope.”
I’ve watched Hi Ren countless times now, but this passage, this lone shriek in the cold, silent void of a long and desolate night, this absolute guttural refusal to quit, still reverberates. This is courage. And if you going to live, stand in the fire, sing at the top of your lungs! Ferocious, persistent, immortal!
The Hollywood movies might leave it there. The good guy narrowly defeats the bad guy, the evil forces are vanquished, and the credit roll as a beautiful melody transports us back to our lives.
Critical self
I have worked with many clients whose lives are made wretched by an invisible sargeant major who subjects them to a permanent harangue of negativity. It can come as quite a shock to discover that some of the nicest people are often subject to a totalitarian inner form of government—a brutal, relentless inner monologue that is with them 24 hours a day.
Perhaps it is an internalised strict parent, sibling, school bully, racist, sexist, homophobe, ableist. The child who is abused by a parent may conclude that love and abuse are indivisible. Lorna Smith Benjamin describes masochism as a gift of love to the original abuser.
Perhaps you experienced a traumatic event or time in your life, one that was so terrible it couldn’t be processed so was instead dissociated, divided up into images, sensations, stray thoughts and emotions. You bury these fragments in a deep hole at the far end of the garden, but to your great dismay they keep coming back. The past reverberates in the present. Time in itself does not necessarily heal.
I’ve also met people who might have had perfectly idyllic childhoods yet still berate themselves mercilessly for every bone-headed move, bad-hair day or dumb remark. Perhaps your critical voice starts out by alerting you to where you might have room for improvement, acting in your best interests, but over the years it can become domineering and disempowering.
Incidentally, if “the voice” is more than a thought or a feeling but is experienced as an actual, heard voice, some people might conclude that you must be mad, possessed and probably dangerous. And while such voices may point to the consideration of psychosis, it does not prove it. Many people hear voices at times for a variety of reasons.
Therapy might enable a client to develop a greater awareness and understanding of their inner critic. We might imagine it is an actual person—what age, gender? Remind you of anyone you know? The client might have a conversation with their critical voice. It can be useful to think of humans as being made up of multiple “selves,” lots of disparate strands in the tapestry. They all inhabit our being in a loose confederacy. And the client might find some other sentiments in this “community of selves” that can challenge and counter the inner bully.
The shadow
Sometimes, however, therapy attempts to go too far in expunging any negativity or nastiness. Jung argued we not born pure, but whole. We cannot edit ourselves to be merely good. We can never be untethered from our shadow. In Memories, dreams, reflections, Jung called the shadow—“everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge” about themselves (1995: 418).
Pure goodness becomes insipid. Heaven, with no shade, is no place for humans—a place, as David Byrne sung, where “nothing ever happens.”
Anyone who denies their inner propensity for evil as well as good will find that it manifests itself in unanticipated ways.
To make light—to live—is to cast a shadow. This is a chiaroscuro world.
Artists, poets, writers, musicians, comedians, people who bring light to the world, must also experience darkness.
And the shadow, by the way, doesn’t always have to be something bad. You might disavow your own brilliance, or talent, or potential for success. The more a person identifies with and invests in one polarity, the greater the opposite polarity grows in the shadow.
We don't like bad stuff. The child who has not yet learned to tolerate and accept anger will hand it off, screaming at the grown-up: “Why are so angry with me?"
Any emotions, beliefs or characteristics that don't fit with your carefully-crafted, social media-ready self-image are simply projected onto others. Your partner—that's the easiest place to start. Then there are family members—one sibling is often cast as "the bad one"—neighbours, that asshole at work, men, women, black people, white people, those people over there, others.
The targets for projection and scapegoating are plentiful. Twitter is a very shadowy place indeed.
Writes Robert A. Johnson in Owning your own shadow: “Probably the worst damage is done when parents lay their shadow on their children...If a parent lays his shadow on a young child, that splits the personality of the child and sets the ego-shadow warfare into motion." (1991: 34).
So how do you find your shadow? Ask yourself: Who do you judge? Your enemies, the people you dislike the most, have much to teach you. For they are you.
Projecting your shadow isn't just bad for others. It's bad for you too. Continues Johnson: “To refuse the dark side in one’s nature is to store up or accumulate the darkness; this is later expressed as a black mood, psychosomatic illness or unconsciously inspired accidents. We are presently dealing with the accumulation of a whole society that has worshipped its light side and refused the dark, and this residue appears as war, economic chaos, strikes, racial intolerance. The front page of any newspaper hurls the collective shadow at us. We must be whole whether we like it or not” (1991: 26).
You want world peace? To start with, stop pointing accusatory fingers every which way, and instead take a look inside.
If we can own our shadow we can develop some conscious control over it, rather than have it unconsciously express itself in disastrous ways. And if we can accept that we are all flawed, vulnerable, insignificant, ignorant, that life is hard but also beautiful, that not one person on this planet knows how or why we are here, then we can perhaps be more empathic, more forgiving, kinder. We can greet each other. The words “human” and “humility” come from the same root, the Latin word “humus,” meaning earth or ground. We are not celestial beings. We return to the earth. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
”No one can escape the dark side of life,” writes Johnson. ”The balance of dark and light is ultimately possible—and bearable” (1991: 15).
Let's dance
At the end of Hi Ren, this remarkable young man puts the guitar down, looks right into the camera and delivers a powerful soliloquy.
“It wasn't David versus Goliath,” he says, “it was a pendulum eternally swaying from the dark to the light. And the more intensely that the light shone, the darker the shadow it cast.
“It was never really a battle for me to win, it was an eternal dance, and like a dance, the more rigid I became, the harder it got. The more I cursed my clumsy footsteps, the more I struggled. And so I got older and I learned to relax, and I learned to soften, and that dance got easier. It is this eternal dance that separates human beings from angels, from demons, from gods. And I must not forget, we must not forget, that we are human beings.”
My Dad died recently.
He’d been bedbound for the better part of a year, and he was unhappy about that, and he was suffering a great deal at times. At the age of 98, he’d had enough.
We had a few brief conversations about death. He was driven by fact and reason and was not a religious man — “when you die, that’s the end of it,” he would say. But even without the prospect of being greeted by heavenly cherubs or reunited with my dear old Mum or any kind of afterlife, he so wanted to go. He would wake from a doze and shake his head in disbelief that he was still alive. In a recent Christmas card — his home-made cards, marvels of eccentric design, were legendary — he wrote simply: “Still here. I know not why.”
My Dad’s early life was a combination of great privilege coupled with extraordinary privation. He was born into a world of colonial excess. From 1903 to 1938, his father — described by a colleague as “small, active, rubicund with a choleric eye” — managed a 1,700-acre tea plantation in Assam. The household included a domestic staff of 18 people, and life revolved around golf, tennis, polo, bridge and hunting parties. Pandit Nehru came by for tea. My dad remembers climbing trees to pick lychees and sweet red bananas, sailing on the mighty Brahmaputra, and once, being driven home after dark by his parents, seeing a huge tiger up close, eyes burning bright in the headlights.
But at 6, this princeling life came to an end when he was sent to boarding school in England, as was his sister, Ann, who was just 5. For the rest of their childhood, they didn’t see their parents very much. The hardships of English boarding schools between the wars and too many school holidays and Christmases spent in the company of strangers were never mentioned, though Dad did record in his self-published memoir: “I remember Fellowes who was a bully; I broke a window throwing a shoe at him.” Later, at Wellington College, Dad writes: “I once, in a spirit of rebellion, smoked a cigarette in full view of everyone and was duly beaten with a cane by one of the prefects, called Fraser, who seemed apologetic about the whole affair.”
A bath at Wellington was to take no more than 3 minutes, including filling and emptying. Occasionally a “double bath” would be permitted: 6 luxurious minutes!
In preparation for World War Two, the pupils were put to work digging trenches and air raid shelters. One October night in 1940, the headmaster was too slow to heed the air raid siren: he was killed by a bomb. Well into old age, the sound of a siren would still send a lurching spasm through Dad’s stomach.
Jungian analyst Joy Schavieren describes “boarding school syndrome” (2011) — the trauma of being sent away comes with the imperative to show no feelings, so these infants learn to cut off their reactions or bury them deep — a kind of emotional circumcision. They can grow into adults who remain wounded by their early broken attachments, divorced from themselves, capable only of superficial relationships. To an extent this is how all boys are raised.
“We create numb, inarticulate loners," I write in “The Humanity Test" (2022). “We idolise flinty, monosyllabic killers played by John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone.
“Men are taught to be tough; to win, not love. We don’t know how we feel. We certainly don’t know how others feel. We are raised to be expendable cogs in a loveless machine."
Pathological humility
One day in the Prospect of Whitby pub in London’s east end, Dad’s and Mum’s eyes met for the first time across a crowded room; their hearts soon followed. In her he found someone who shared his experience of a childhood starved by parental absence. In 1940, my Mum, aged 10, was evacuated from rural Suffolk to America — Suffolk was the kind of place kids from London were evacuated to — and for the remaining five years of World War Two saw her mother not at all and her father only for one weekend in 1942, when his troop ship docked in New York.
These early experiences forged in both my parents a curious mixture of confidence and resilience — a kind of superiority even — yet coupled with an almost pathological humility.
They loved babies and dogs and they loved each other; outside of the family, however, any other actual adult humans on the whole were likely to be problematic, and best avoided. Dad believed in thrift, logic, hard work, self-reliance, independence. He was unfailingly polite and considerate. On holiday, whatever the time of day, we children learned to shuffle silently down hotel corridors — still do — because, Dad said, “people might be sleeping.” Once in his late 80s, he tripped over backwards in his yard and gashed the back of his head on a concrete ornament. Later, we asked him how long it took for an ambulance to arrive. “Oh I didn’t bother with that,” he said. “I’m sure there’s someone who would have needed it more.”
There was a time when sons would work alongside their fathers, in the fields, on the farm or in the family business, within a wider community with village elders, mentors, apprenticeship and ritual to help usher young men into adulthood. But the industrial revolution and the wheels of capitalism have spirited our fathers away from us; the village is long gone. The father is absent, or an exhausted ghost-like presence who will not speak and then disappears once more, like Hamlet’s murdered father.
I don't ever recall discussing a personal problem with my Dad, or getting advice. I never saw him cry. It's obvious he loved his children, but saying it out loud was unthinkable. A hug? No thank you. For much of my life, I never really understood what Dad did for a living. A lot of what I now know about him today comes from a presentation and slide show about his life that he gave to his fellow care home residents, five years ago, when he was 92.
Intergenerational trauma
There may not be many words in the space between fathers and sons, but it is far from empty. Much is communicated; family culture is handed down. Words are the least of it.
There’s a lot of research and theory on the effects of intergenerational trauma and what unparented parents bring to their own children (eg. Julia Samuel, 2022). The day before Dad died, I watched excellent presentations online from Dr Oonagh Walsh and Dr Michael O’Loughlin on the long shadow cast by the Irish potato famine and its effect still today on loss, grief and healing in the Irish diaspora. We inherit a lot of the pain of our ancestors. My Dad had a mother who lost two brothers and a fiancé to World War One, and a third brother to the Russian Civil War in 1921. She carried them with her into old age — she died in 1963, 8 days after I was born.
None of these stories, or my parents’ childhood separations, were discussed at home or for a long time even known to my siblings and I. It's hard to talk with a stiff upper lip. My Dad was mystified by the idea of therapy. I tried to explain it to him — and why I, his youngest child, followed a meandering career path that wound up with me choosing to become a therapist. “Hmmm," he said one time, “Most peculiar.”
Finding the father within
According to another Jungian, James Hollis, each man “carries a deep longing for his father and for his tribal fathers.” He concludes that healing only comes when men “activate within what they did not receive from without.” We each must be a father to ourselves. Jung said he learned more from his father in death than he ever did in life. Whoever our real father was — or wasn't — the world offers up to all kinds of other father figures, in all kinds of guises.
I was lucky to have Dad for so long. And if it’s true that we inherit our ancestors’ pain, we must surely inherit their joy, too. Perhaps by way of compensation for all the suffering, or perhaps because the two things go hand in hand, Dad also had a great sense of fun, enjoyment and absurdity. He was really a bon viveur — he loved, food, wine, cars. He loved stuff — Dad was the first person I knew to own a pocket calculator, a videocamera, an email address. He loved to travel, roaming all over Europe by car with friends as a young man — including completing the 1954 Monte Carlo Rally in a Ford Zephyr — and all over the world by plane as a family and in his work as an engineer. On a flight to Tunisia in 1969, the pilot announced that humans had landed on the moon. We looked out of the window of the plane and there it was: A dazzling beautiful full pearl-white moon. A couple of years in the Navy on the Adriatic had given Dad a great, lifelong love of Italy (which I share). His enthusiasm, commitment and belief in his ability to speak Italian never once dimmed for a moment despite his glaring inability to speak Italian. Another thing we both loved but were bad at was golf, and I consider myself so fortunate to have spent so much of my youth with Dad, roaming the finest fairways at home and away, engaging in titanic Oedipal battles, then laughing at ourselves over drinks in the bar afterwards. We disagreed on practically everything — politics, colonialism, Brexit, climate change — but it never seemed to matter. We never really debated these things or allowed them to intrude on our relationship.
I last saw Dad a few days before he died, in his care home in Canterbury. He had a clean shirt on, there were hits from his youth playing on Alexa, and he seemed reasonably content. He wasn’t fully conscious and it wasn’t clear if he knew I was there. When “Walk like a man” came on, I asked him if he remembered it. He started singing — albeit a different song.
I asked him if he could imagine sitting beside a pool with a glass of chianti on a warm day in the Italian lakes and — almost imperceptibly or perhaps not at all — he nodded and smiled.
I thanked him for everything he has given us and told him how glad and lucky and grateful I feel that he is my father.
I don’t know if he heard any of it. But it was nothing he didn't already know.
I wrote in our group family email: “It really feels like he is ready.”
People often call a death like this “a blessing.”
When we were little, Dad used to take us on epic road trips — to see family in Scotland, or sometimes to France and beyond. He'd always want to set off freakishly early; 4am was his preferred starting time. And so it was that at 4am one chilly Friday morning in January, Dad departed this life, alone and without fanfare or fuss, finally freed from his tired, worn-out body. I imagine he was thinking: “About bloody time!” If there were cherubs, the first thing they would have heard from Dad was a strongly-worded complaint.
A blessing.
Still, the news hit hard.
A punch in the face.
Even after all these years, it’s just so shocking how people that you love leave this earth.
Love you Dad.
X
References
Barton, J. (2022). The humanity test: Disability, therapy, society. PCCS
Hollis, J. (1994). Under Saturn’s shadow: The wounding and healing of men. Inner City Books
Samuel, J. (2022). Every family has a story: How we inherit love and loss. Penguin Life
Schaverien, J. (2011). Boarding school syndrome: Broken attachments a hidden trauma. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 27(2), 138-155.k here to edit.
As I set up my voice recorder on Donald Trump’s desk, my hand was shaking. “Sorry about my hand,” I told him. “I have Parkinson’s.”
“Oh that’s great,” said the future U.S. president. “That gets better as you get older, right? Some of my friends have it—they do great with it.”
Of all the many varied and sometimes baffling reactions from people to news of my neurological ill-health, Trump’s was the most remarkable. Parkinson’s is degenerative? Fake news.
It was July 2014 and I was in Trump’s gilded office, high above New York’s Fifth Avenue, to interview him for the American magazine Golf Digest. I spent 90 relentless minutes in Trump’s PR wind tunnel, blasted by bluster, amplification and foghorn declarations of greatness.
It starts with extreme, absurd flattery: He introduced me to some men in suits as “the finest journalist ever to come out of the U.K.” It swiftly moves on to Trump: “There is nobody more aesthetic than me”; “There’s nobody more environmental than me”; “I have the greatest brand in the world.”
These audacious, breathtaking assertions perhaps explain Trump’s success: “Trump” is a fantasy world where anything is possible, dreams do come true, you will be rich, end everyone loves you—apart from a few “losers and haters.”
But it also perhaps contains the seeds of what will surely be Trump’s eventual downfall. Norman Vincent Peale was a friend of Trump’s parents, a pastor and the author of “The Power of Positive Thinking.” He had a huge influence on Trump from an early age.
Positivity is great—to a point. Over time, however, the positive thoughts can become tyrannical. They turn into exaggerations, spin, irrational optimism, delusions and lies. You start to believe in your own bullshit. You malign and punish anyone who disagrees with you—anyone who dares to say that the emperor has no clothes. You become divorced from reality (for catastrophic examples, see subprime mortgage crisis, Bernie Madoff, Brexit, much of U.S. foreign policy and Trump’s bizarre magical-thinking response to the coronavirus). Your lies drown you.
Who lies?
The truth about lying is that it is and always has been a quintessential element of being human. Kids learn to lie as soon as they learn to talk. As adults, research shows that we lie on average once or twice a day, and while most lies are modest edits to make life’s narrative flow a little better, we do occasionally tell some whoppers too, most commonly to the person that we're closest to. Eighty-five percent of job applicants lie on their resumé.
All governments lie.
Lying is greatly reduced by guilt and the belief that honesty is a good thing, but lies can beget lies can beget bigger lies: With compulsive liars, the brain gets used to dishonesty. We expect people to be generally trustworthy and honest; we are therefore gullible. These realities are magnified enormously by social media (see The Great Hack for a chilling insight into how elections are manipulated). Beliefs in lies that accord with our worldview—including fantastical conspiracy thories—are retained even when proven false; sometimes those beliefs even harden on being disproved.
In July, it was reported that Trump had told more than 20,000 lies since he took office, and has averaged 23.8 lies per day since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the U.S. He does not so much lie, perhaps, as regard the quaint notion of truth as an irrelevance.
But it isn’t.
It’s not true: Parkinson’s doesn’t get better as you get older. No, Mr. President, your inauguration crowd wasn’t bigger than Obama’s (and Obama by the way was born in the United States). No, you can’t buy Greenland, or get Mexico to pay for your wall, or ask Ukraine to help your election campaign. No, global warming is not a Chinese hoax, wind farms don’t cause cancer and no, you definitely can’t treat coronavirus with bleach.
I asked Trump about his controversial golf course in Aberdeen—“one of the greatest courses ever built in the world”—and his strong-arm tactics in buying the land and overturning environmental opposition.
Trump replied: “Yeah, look, what people don’t know is that a poll came out, which said I had a 93 percent approval rating in the area. There have been stories about how incredible this has been for Aberdeen. It’s been a huge, huge success for Aberdeen. Everyone’s doing well, because of my golf course. It’s so successful, and the people love me over there. Aberdeen is booming because of me. You can’t get a hotel room because of me. The course is full, by the way, it’s doing record business. I can’t get friends of mine on the course. Look, 93 percent of the people in Aberdeen love me.”
The 2010 BBC documentary All-American Billionaire shows several clips of Trump trumpeting this 93 percent approval rating in a series of interviews. Despite repeated requests, the program’s producers never could find the source of the figure; nor could a spokesman for the Trump organization; nor could I.
And I called the course the next day, claiming to be a golfer from Edinburgh enquiring about booking a round on the course later in the year. “Come tomorrow if you want,” I was told. “Or come at the weekend. We’ve got plenty of times available.”
A favourite tactic of trumpology is to cite unnamed sources who affirm his brilliance. He referred to some “very important and very powerful political people” in Scotland who told him that Trump is the best thing to happen to Scotland in years.
At one point, growing weary of the unrelenting sales pitch, I decided to employ a bit of trumpery on Trump by citing unnamed sources who disagree with him. I told him that I had asked a few people in the golf industry what they thought the Trump brand stood for, and that one had said: “Ostentatious wealth coupled with poor taste.”
Well, he didn’t like that. The hot air turned cold. He demanded who had said such a thing. Trump said “if you put that in, it’s no longer a good story, it’s not even a fair story.” He added that the unnamed person was “gutless” for not going on the record.
"You can do anything"
Trump said he thought golf should be an elitist, aspirational pursuit, a reward for being rich, despite its origins in Scotland as a game of the people. He took a business call (“Absolutely…have them do something incredible there”). He repeatedly chided me for my earlier impertinence, which he described as “do-you-beat-your-wife” journalism. There was a brief visit from his eldest son and family, Don Jr., the one who likes conspiracy theories and killing rare animals.
Then it was time to go. We walked out to the reception area and posed for photos in front of a wall covered in framed magazine covers of Trump. Trump showed me the glossy 2014 Miss USA brochure—he bought the rights to it and Miss Universe in 2002—leafing through the pages, pointing out some contestants that caught his eye.
In his book Think Big he writes: “The women I have dated over the years could have any man they want; they are the top models and most beautiful women in the world. I have been able to date (screw) them all because I have something that many men do not have. I don’t know what it is but women have always liked it.”
Trump then proceeded to rub the side of his head against the chest of one of his secretaries, half-closing his eyes and making cooing sounds as he did so.
Many women have come forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault; in the famous “locker room banter” tape, he brags about his misconduct.
“You can do anything,” he says.
He can say anything too, whitewashing his at-times open racism with statements such as "no one has done more for black people than me."
Many have questioned Trump’s sanity.
More than 70,000 mental health professionals signed a petition declaring “Trump is mentally ill and must be removed from office.”
The main Trump diagnosis from afar has been narcissism or, specifically, Narcissistic Personality Disorder: “A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy.”
Others have diagnosed Trump as a psychopath or having Antisocial Personality Disorder: “A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others.” One Oxford professor used a psychometric scale to conclude that Trump is more of a psychopath than Hitler.
Mary L. Trump, a clinical psychologist and also Trump’s estranged niece, is scathing in her assessment of her uncle, who she called on to resign. In her book, Too Much and Never Enough, published last month, she writes about the “malignantly dysfunctional” Trump family, especially Donald’s parents who were by turn self-serving, absent or cruel.
Trump’s own self-diagnosis is that he is a “very stable genius.”
The best diagnosis, perhaps, is that he has a full-blown, chronic case of being Donald Trump.
Trump is a kind of parody of tycoonery, distillation of capitalism, an extrapolation of what you get when society genuflects at its altar; when the law of the jungle trumps human qualities like kindness, empathy, compassion, trust, integrity, vulnerability, fairness, sharing—and love.
In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, the ruthless pig Napoleon engineers a coup against his fellow revolutionary leader, Snowball. He invents the lie that Snowball—the hero of the Battle of the Cowshed—is in fact a traitor, and that he, Napoleon, is the real hero (Napoleon was nowhere to be seen during the battle). The propaganda, masterminded by the pig Squealer, is successful: Snowball is driven off the land by Napoleon’s dogs, and all the bleating sheep, now living in squalor, see Napoleon as their true leader. Orwell intended the book to be a warning: Beware the megalomaniac who lies, cheats and manipulates his way to the top, spreading fear and manipulation along the way, while lining his pockets, furthering his power, and in his wake leaving any concept of society in tatters, with the populace divided, bitter, afraid and impoverished.
Trump is not the first megalomaniac, narcissist or psychopath to occupy the White House. But he might perhaps be the first president to regard himself as bigger than the presidency.
If he loses this election—“you’re fired”—he will not go gently into a retirement of golf, opening libraries and doing good charitable works; perhaps an annual Christmas selfie with Melania offering goodwill to the world. There may be outrageous legal challenges, injunctions and counteractions. Increasingly paranoid, incoherent tweets. In the Hollywood version, Trump is led away in cuffs, unshaven, his once resplendent mane now a sudden shock of white.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
“I'm just like my country, I'm young, scrappy, and hungry, and I'm not throwing away my shot”
--a rapping Alexander Hamilton in the musical, “Hamilton”
In a fractious, divisive America, on the eve of a presidential election, there is at least one thing the Democratic and Republican Parties can actually agree on: the United States should be governed by a really old, white man.
Donald Trump, 74, was the oldest ever president to take office when he won the election four years ago. (Ronald Reagan was the oldest ever president: he was two weeks shy of his 78th birthday on leaving the White House, after two terms in office, in 1989.)
The Democrats had an opportunity to nominate someone “young, scrappy and hungry,” a new JFK to inspire a nation, build bridges instead of walls, and give Trump a simple message: “You’re fired.” Instead they picked someone even older. Joe Biden turns 78 next month.
The unseemly first presidential debate between Trump and Biden was like watching footage of a thrashing, groaning fight to the death of the last two dinosaurs on earth. Why must the president be a geriatric patriarch—in a youthful, optimistic, idealistic land of exuberant energy, innovation, creativity, diversity, opportunity, a land where a rallying cry of a generation was once “never trust anyone over 30”?
Father hunger
“America is a mistake,” Sigmund Freud told a friend on his return from a trip there. “A giant mistake.”
It was Freud’s sole visit to America—he was invited to introduce psychoanalysis to the New World in a series of lectures in 1909. It wasn’t a happy experience. He didn’t like the food, the informality, the unfamiliar surroundings. He couldn’t sleep. Perhaps he felt ill at ease among “an alien people clutching their gods.” Freud regarded any god as an illusion, a fantasy born of an infantile need for a father figure. America is an outlier in this regard: In one survey 60.6 percent of Americans said they are certain “God” exists. For the British the figure is 16.8. (Others results include France: 15.5; Norway: 14.8; Denmark: 13.0; Sweden: 10.2; Japan: 4.3.)
Freud would likely see the current presidential race as further evidence that America has daddy issues; specifically a chronic case of “father hunger.”
There is a “father absence crisis in America,” according to the National Fatherhood Initiative. One in every three American children are now growing up in a home without their biological father. According to the US Census Bureau, only 17 percent of custodial parents are fathers. Of the fathers who live apart from their children post-divorce, 27 percent have no contact with those children at all. One study reports that just 17 percent of American men had a positive relationship with their fathers.
In “Under Saturn's Shadow: The Wounding and Healing of Men," Jungian analyst James Hollis writes that when a parent is absent, the child “carries the deficit throughout his life. He longs for something missing, even as he might carry a vitamin deficiency and crave a certain food…all men, whether they know it or not, hunger for their father and grieve over his loss.”
Father hunger in women causes actual hunger, according to Margo Maine’s book of the same name, giving rise to “unrealistic body image, yo-yo dieting, food fears and disordered eating patterns.”
Americans look for father figures in teachers, preachers and self-help gurus; in famous athletes, tough guy movie stars, eccentric TV detectives. They turn for reassurance to the “founding fathers,” those quasi-dieties who united the early states, freed them from British rule, and wrote the Constitution.
And they look for a father-in-chief in the White House, in men like Bill Clinton, who never met his father, or Barack Obama, who never knew his, or Joe Biden, whose father struggled at times with poverty and unemployment but was a loving, constant father to the boy. Earlier this year, Biden wished his late father a happy Father's Day, saying, “As my father believed, there’s no higher calling for a woman or a man than to be a good mother or a good father."
Or in Donald Trump.
Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoons, likened the last election to a choice between mum and dad, and predicted Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton. “The thing about dad is that dad is kind of an a-hole,” Adams told CNN. “But if you need dad to take care of some trouble, he's going to be the one you call. You know, if there's a noise downstairs, you probably are not going to call mom, even if she's awesome. You're probably going to call the biggest person in the room, you're going to call dad. So in our irrational minds, if the world is exploding and we're still talking about nuclear terrorism, I think people are going to say, maybe you want the most dangerous person to protect us.”
Psychic mutilation
“What is it with men?” a client said to me recently. Another relationship had ended in disappointment; she was being “ghosted.” Her father vanished years ago. She’s had no contact at all since childhood.
Three-quarters of American men are circumcized, subjected as babies to a barbaric mutilation that belongs in another, more primitive century. The emotional circumcision swiftly follows. Writes bel hooks: “The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves.”
The Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler argued that men will often overcompensate for their fear of vulnerability with a lurch toward stereotypical male aggression and competition. What Jung called the anima, the feminine, is denied; the animus is embraced. (To be whole, said Jung, both must be integrated.) The boy-man is pure animus—animosity—shorn of anything that might be considered anima—the animating effects of emotion, creativity, compassion, collaboration. The most macho are the most afraid.
Adler called this the “masculine protest” and regarded it as an evil force in history, underlying for instance the rise in fascism in the 20th century. To be taken seriously as a leader one must appear devoutly unempathic, unfeeling, uncompromising, unflinching (this is especially true of women, “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher being the obvious, almost-cartoonish example).
We tell our sons to man up or, in the absence of fathers, father figures or modern-day tribal elders, they are told nothing at all; they feel nothing, say little and become numb, inarticulate loners, expendable cogs in a loveless machine. Men make up 93 percent of American workplace fatalities and 99 percent of American combat fatalities. Men are three times more likely than women to take their own life, three times more likely to have an addiction, and they live shorter lives than women—on average a whopping five years shorter.
In many families, the father (if there is one) is like a shy, possibly mythic woodland creature: sightings are rare, and fleeting. Or they become the hapless chump of the household, the doofus dad who just doesn’t get it and can’t do DIY; the lovable loser who is part of the furniture of the great sitcom that is America. He is neutered, like the family pet. He dreams of making his own declaration of independence—of kicking over the saloon tables and riding off into the sunset, leaving women to clear up the mess. Sometimes, he actually does it.
Jung's father
Accompanying Freud on his trip to America was his young Swiss protegé, Carl Jung. Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was something of a father figure to Jung. Jung’s real father had passed away a decade earlier, when Jung was just 21. Paul Jung was a pastor who was plagued by doubts about his faith and was something of a disappointment to his son as a spiritual guide.
Six weeks after he died, he appeared to Jung in a dream, telling his son that he was better now and was “coming home.”
For Jung the dream was “an unforgettable experience” that forced him “for the first time to think about life after death.” From that night forward, Jung’s relationhip with his father took off. He learned more from him in death than he ever did in life. Death shall have no dominion.
Freud found such magical thinking intolerable. The two men became adversaries. Having discovered his father, Jung no longer needed a surrogate.
New world order
There’s a small but growing number of young female heads of state who manage to combine caring with capitalism, super-smart social democratically-minded pragmatists who are creating fair, functioning societies and by all accounts have done much better job of responding to the coronavirus than the US or UK. People like Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), Mette Frederiksen (Denmark), Erna Solberg (Norway), Katrín Jakobsdóttir (Iceland) or Sanna Marin (Finland).
Perhaps America, too, is ready for such a president of the future rather than a relic of the past, someone smart, tough, fair, ambitious and multicultural—someone like America itself—someone like Biden’s running mate, California senator Kamala Harris, or, the next generation, 30-year-old New York Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a bartender who took on the Establishment and won (see the excellent Netflix documentary “Bringing Down the House").
The father within
Father hunger is far from a uniquely American phenomenon. It is perhaps the wheels of capitalism that mostly spirit fathers away from their sons and daughters. We used to work to live; ever since what Polanyi called the “great transformation,” we tend to live to work, enslaved to a rapacious, introjected Faustian machine. Fromm argued that we are now mere robots, compliant cogs in the machine, concluding: “in the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.”
A pre-coronavirus survey in January showed that three–quarters of UK workers felt stressed about work, almost two-thirds complained of feeling they are always on duty and cannot switch off, with 64 per cent reporting that their job had damaged their sleep patterns.
I see plenty of clients who never met their fathers, or never really knew them, or had fathers or stepfathers who they wished had been absent rather than violent, excessively demanding or abusive in other ways.
Many who have done everything they were supposed to do wind up in therapy in midlife because they feel like dead men walking. Success stories on paper, in person they are ghosts. They are absent from their own lives, never mind anyone else’s.
As Hollis points out, what a father cannot access in himself cannot be passed on.
Jung's “father hunger” was not satiated until he found within himself an inner father, an archetypal energy to protect, guide and offer spiritual wisdom.
Donald Trump is not your father. Nor is Joe Biden. Nor is Boris Johnson (actually he might be: His Wikipedia entry on his children simply says “at least six”).
Your father is you.
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart,” wrote Jung. “Without, everything seems discordant; only within does it coalesce into unity.
“Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside awakes.”
• RELATED:What can we learn from Donald Trump?
At night, the silence from the deserted streets and boarded-up bars in my neighbourhood in London feels ominous and dangerous. Out there in the darkness, unseen, the Corona virus continues its hideous invasion. It is efficient and unwavering in executing its sole purpose: to infect, to replicate, to spread, to grow.
With astonishing speed, it has taken over our hospitals, our conversations, our news feeds. It has closed our schools and factories, bankrupted businesses, ruined lives. It has made a mockery of our sophisticated systems, our plans, our hopes and dreams. It dominates, controls and threatens our very existence. It is coming for you and coming for me. It lives on death.
Never before has something so large—human civilization—been felled by something so small. Corona is a mini-vampire, sub-microscopic, a life form a hundred times tinier than even bacteria.
The only thing more viral than the virus itself is the fear that it evokes. Fear can divide and diminish us. But when we fight and conquer it together, fear can enlarge us. The age of Corona: the best of times, the worst of times.
In this way, the human reaction to Corona has similarly been one of extremes: either very small or very large. On the one hand, never before have people been so selfish and stupid, ignoring infection-limiting guidelines, panic-buying loo rolls, even abusing and attacking people suspected of being Chinese. Yet the crisis is also bringing out the best in people. Our doctors and nurses face the daily apocalypse with selfless care, kindness and good cheer. People around the world are volunteering, donating, checking up on the vulnerable, doing what they can.
We are completely alone, quarantined, forced into self-isolation and social distance, yet at the same time perhaps never before have we felt so connected, and in need of each other. Family and community matter more than ever. And increasingly, our family is humans and our community is planet Earth.
We truly are all in this together. However bad we feel today, however afraid, anxious, depressed or bereaved, we are actually not alone. Instead of “othering” we might focus on “togethering.” Instead of hating, we can choose to love. We can reach out and reach in. We can give and receive.
Wouldn’t we expect grown-up leaders to do the same? To share knowledge, ideas, information, best practices, resources? To build bridges, not walls? To unite to fight Corona, not each other?
At such times, nationality recedes. Corona isn’t interested in your country’s borders, its reputation, history or your culture. It doesn’t carry a passport nor respect your own.
Global problems need global solutions.
Yet some see this pandemic human tragedy not as an opportunity for solidarity but its opposite. At a time like this, it’s pitiful for governments to blame each other, for the far-right as usual to blame everything on migrants, or for Trump to blame China, Obama, Millennials, the media, and anyone else he can think of. It’s hard to imagine what kind of person responds to the current devastating death toll in Italy with celebratory, deranged Brexiteering.
While politicians prevaricate, bluster and blunder, the virus goes on killing.
History apparently teaches us nothing. The so-called Spanish flu—which probably originated in Kansas—infected a quarter of the world’s population between 1918 and 1920, and killed tens of millions of people—more fatalities than the entire First World War.
Humans and chimpanzees are 96 percent the same, according to DNA studies. How similar then are humans to each other? What is perhaps so striking about our species is not what divides us but what unites us. We are a family. We should act like one. We should respect each other and our planet. We should tackle common problems together. We should care about family members who aren’t doing so well. We might then feel compassion and concern that 70 million of our brothers and sisters are forcibly displaced people, including 26 million refugees, half of them children. We might not feel great about a world where 42 individuals have the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity, 3.7 billion souls.
In the words of Al Pacino, “Either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.”
Sometimes, it takes a sickness for healing to happen.
Inauguration Day USA.
The time has come for the 45th president, Donald Trump, to take the oath of office. The property developer and reality TV host is one of the richest people in the world and, at 70, the oldest president to be elected.
But what do we really know about the man beyond the biographical facts and his rather cartoonish public image?
Underneath all the bluster, self-promotion and insatiable hunger for power, wealth and women, is there a sensitive, damaged soul? A conscience? An inner life? Or just the sound of a chill wind whistling through empty, dark chambers of the Trump machine, bereft of emotion, spirit, light or love?
Who is Donald Trump?
What is his psychology?
Narcissistic personality
Three prominent American psychiatrists wrote to president Obama in late November stating that Trump suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder and was thus unfit for office.
“Professional standards do not permit us to venture a diagnosis for a public figure whom we have not evaluated personally,” stated the letter, which was made public. “Nevertheless, his widely reported symptoms of mental instability — including grandiosity, impulsivity, hypersensitivity to slights or criticism, and an apparent inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality — lead us to question his fitness for the immense responsibilities of the office.”
The diagnosis of NPD—also the conclusion of five therapists in a story in Vanity Fair—is summarised by the industry standard reference book, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), as: “A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.
3. Believe that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with other special or high-status people (or institutions)
4. Requires excessive admiration
5. Has a sense of entitlement
6. Is interpersonally exploitative
7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.
9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.”
Worse than Hitler
Others have meanwhile diagnosed Trump as a psychopath. One Oxford professor used a psychometric scale to conclude that Trump is more of a psychopath than Hitler.
Psychopaths, which I have written about previously, are usually not chainsaw-wielding serial killers but are instead the kind of driven, high-functioning, succeed-at-any-cost characters who can be found in all walks of life. In his 1993 book Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, Robert Hare estimated there were at least 2 million psychopaths in North America, and by that measure there are likely 400,000 in the UK.
Hare identified 20 characteristics of psychopaths that are used in his diagnostic test, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), such as: Glibness/superficial charm; Grandiose sense of self-worth; Pathological lying; Cunning/manipulative; Lack of remorse or guilt; Shallow emotions; Callousness/lack of empathy; Failure to accept responsibility for own actions; Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom; Impulsivity; Early behaviour problems; Promiscuous sexual behaviour. (Take this quiz if you want to find out your level of psychopathy.)
Psychopathy isn’t a recognised disorder in the DSM—it only gets a brief mention in the description of Antisocial Personality Disorder.” ASP is defined as “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others” and includes ego-centrism; self-esteem derived from personal gain, power, or pleasure; goal-setting based on personal gratification; lack of empathy, incapacty for intimacy; manipulativeness; deceit; callousness; hostility; disinhibition. Criminal activity is also among its diagnostic indicators (eg. “Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors”).
I have met Trump on more than one occasion and in 2014 interviewed him for an hour and a half in his Fifth Avenue Trump Tower office for the American magazine Golf Digest (you can read it here). So as a qualified psychotherapist, what’s my professional opinion: NPD? Or ASP?
Neither.
Why?
Firstly, there’s the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule” which stipulates that its members should not make a diagnosis of someone who they have not examined face-to-face; nor should they publicly discuss the mental health of anyone without their consent.
The rule takes its name from the 1964 election, when Fact magazine reported psychiatrists’ opinions—not “facts”—about the mental health of the Republican nominee Barry Goldwater, describing him as “warped,” “narcissistic,” “impulsive,” a “paranoid schizophrenic,” with much condemnatory armchair speculation as to his psychobiography, motivation and overall mental health. Goldwater lost the presidency but won a lawsuit against Fact for libel.
Many practitioners have broken the Goldwater Rule—desperate times apparently call for desperate measures. And there is no explicit equivalent of the rule to be found among the ethical guidelines of British psychotherapy professional bodies like the UKCP and BACP. But mental health professionals’ urge to diagnose public figures from afar is to be resisted. Anyone is free to have an opinion about a public official and express it, within the bounds of libel law--calling someone for instance a lying, power and money-hungry sexist racist bigot. But using your professional position to label any human being—yes, Trump is human—with a specific clinical diagnosis without their input and consent is an an act of violence to that person and to the absolutely vital notion of confidentiality which underlies the profession.
For me, however, a bigger concern with branding Trump as an NPD or an ASP is with the validity of such diagnostic labels.
There is an obsession in western psychiatry with attempting to apply a medical model to mental health, as if all psychological distress can be divided up into a textbook of discrete, objectively-measurable, uniform conditions, as if terms like “depressed” or “schizophrenic” or “narcissist” were something more than broad adjectives that mask vast individual differences, experiences and meanings.
This return to a reductive conception of mental illness has been driven by political and economic forces. There is much commerce in pathologising aspects of the human experience that are deemed problematic, itemising them according to their supposedly reliable patterns of symptoms, ascribing biological causes to those symptoms, then prescribing drugs which promise to reduce or eradicate them.
The DSM is a kind of license to medicate. By 2005 for instance, facilitated by enormous amounts of sponsored “research” and marketing, one in 10 Americans had a prescription for an antidepressant. “Shyness” is now considered an unacceptable sickness. The diagnosis of “bipolar” has risen by 4,000 percent since the mid-1990s.
This is not to say that mental illness is a myth, a mere social construction, a form of political control, as the “antipsychiatrists” like Laing and Szasz claimed.
Nor is it to say that there is no place for medications and biological considerations of the psychological, or that the DSM has no value—it does provide a framework and a language; a shorthand that facilitates communication among colleagues, and clues about treatment direction.
But to pretend that there is such a uniform, distinct condition like NPD or ASP that descends on the unwitting, passive recipient as might measles or tuberculosis, is ridiculous. Our psychology affects how we live our lives, and how we live our lives affects our psychology, leading to an infinite branching of the tree of function and dysfunction. The complexity of humans and the diversity of their distresses defy neat pigeonholing.
So what can we say about Trump?
The most accurate “diagnosis” of the new president is that he has a very extreme case of being Donald Trump. Society has richly rewarded him for that. He represents a kind of extrapolation of the laws of the jungle, a quintessence of capitalism, where there is no place for doubt or indecision or self-reflection; no let up. Like a hungry shark, Trump is always swimming, alone, and everything else in the ocean is viewed solely in terms of opportunity and threat. In his get-rich, self-help, self-homage book Think Big, he writes: “The world is a vicious and brutal place. We think we’re civilised. In truth, it’s a cruel world and people are ruthless. They act nice to your face, but underneath they’re out to kill you.”
A psychologist in the magazine The Atlantic last year concluded: “It is always Donald Trump playing Donald Trump, fighting to win, but never knowing why.”
New Yorker writer Mark Singer memorably described Trump’s life as “an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul.”
In my interview with him, I concluded by asking Trump if there was ever a pause in the relentless self-promotion and salesmanship:
Q: Does it ever stop? Do you ever switch off?
A: Um, probably, but... not too often.
Trump looks puzzled, as if this notion had never occurred to him. He laughs.
Q: Yeah.
A: I don't know.
Q: What would happen if you did?
A: I don't know. It might be a disaster. I think it could be a disaster.
No.5: REUNIFICATION
The new client, United Kingdom, shuffles into the room and slumps down uncomfortably in the chair. There is no eye contact. We sit in silence. Finally there is a cough and a muffled voice, a sort of low growl: “Don’t really need to be here. Just been feeling a bit down lately.” Another silence. A tear rolls down from Scotland and lands somewhere near Darlington.
Yes, if countries were people, the UK might be looking for a therapist right about now.
It has been having a hard time of late. It was a summer of discontent. Before the Brexit referendum, this was a largely peaceful, united land that prided itself on never losing its great sense of humour, come what may—the land of Monty Python, Alan Partridge, the Office, Mr Bean. A nation that believed in fair play. A creative, resilient, quirky place that didn’t just tolerate difference and eccentricity but embraced it. The land of Churchill (half American), fish and chips (brought here by Spanish jews), beer (probably middle Eastern), sliced bread (American), England’s St. George (from Cappadocia, never visited our islands), Morris dancing (originally “Moorish”), the Queen (at least a little but German). The country whose two favourite dishes are chicken tikka masala and Chinese stir fry. The country that fought fascism and won.
We used to be mostly in the middle, proud of our patchwork cultural history, a big-tent bell curve of British decency, tea and sympathy.
Post-referendum, the bell curve has been turned on its head. The centre has been vacated, and you’re either jeering from the terraces on the star-spangled blue side, shouting “You idiots—what have you done to our future?” or you’re on the other side, amid a sea of red-and-white-painted faces, chanting “Get over it, we won.” With added swear words from both sides, obviously.
The UK is at war with itself. When a person feels like that, in crisis, the old ways of doing things no longer work, and nothing seems to make sense any more. Time to take stock—with the help of a therapist, ideally—turn the spotlight on you and your life and, fortified by knowledge and love, make some changes.
With a bit of luck, the breakdown turns into a breakthrough.
The root of the problem
It can be a small thing that triggers such a crisis. Someone inexplicably bursts into tears getting dressed for work, or their boss finds an empty vodka miniature in their desk, or they shout at a little old lady fumbling in the checkout queue, and their world unravels. It of course can be a big thing, too: illness, redundancy, divorce, trauma, bereavement.
The UK’s problem—manifested by the referendum—began as a squabble within the Conservative Party. Since World War Two, there has been a growing chorus of Tory backbenchers—big and small “c” conservatives—who decry the rise of the European Union. They have tended to see Britain in heroic, benighted terms, as a proud, fiercely-independent land, in living memory the supposedly-magnanimous, beating heart of the biggest empire the world has even seen, shining the light of civilisation into the dark corners of the world and teaching them how to play cricket. The idea of being told what to do by the French, or the Germans, was beyond the pale. Who won the war anyhow? These nostalgic, elegiac chords were played at full volume by the likes of Enoch Powell, Margaret Thatcher and ... Nigel Farage.
When traditional Tory voters began to flee to UKIP, the eurosceptic harrumphs turned into howls.
PM and former PR man David Cameron was facing a mutiny. He hoped to quash it by calling the rebels’ bluff. He called for backup; he took it to the nation, gambling his job, career and the nation’s future.
The referendum took on a life of its own. It grew. It turned into a referendum on everything.
• Was it about the EU? Yes, although three recent consecutive eurosceptic Conservative Party leaders, William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard, failed to gain any traction among voters on the issue. And in the immediate aftermath of the vote, an awful lot of people in the UK Googled “What is the EU?”
• Was it about democracy? Yes, although shouldn’t Brexiteers also therefore be tirelessly campaigning to end the monarchy, abolish the House of Lords, the cronyism of the honours system, the influence of the City on domestic policy, and of Washington DC on foreign policy?
• Was it about immigration? Yes, although overall immigrants are net positive contributors to the British economy, and since the days of the Normans, the Saxons, the Danes and the Hugenots, Britain, British culture and British people have been forged from outside influences.
Perhaps what the referendum mostly was about was dissatisfaction with the status quo. As with the unfortunate American embrace of Donald Trump, Brexit was a protest vote against hard times and the struggle of life—exacerbated by a government policy of austerity that crippled poorer parts of the nation—with the finger of blame pointing every whichway: at politicians, the EU, immigrants, refugees, Muslims, “experts,” the Establishment, the media, old people, young people, rich people, poor people.
Let’s hope the sunlit uplands of prosperity that the Brexiteers voted for come to pass. Regrettably, however, it seems more likely that there will instead be much more dissatisfaction to come.
Cameron didn’t expect to lose. There was no plan. More than two months later, there seemingly still isn’t. No one seems to know how or when Brexit will happen or what it will look like. But hey, great news: our passports are going to be blue!
The person in charge of implementing Brexit—the unelected pro-Remain Theresa May—has to get on with it now, directing enormous time and resources to extricating the UK from the EU and disentangling decades of legislation, and trying to set up new trade deals around the world with countries for whom the post-Brexit UK is, according to some, something of a laughing stock, and who are in the strong bargaining positioning of knowing, and knowing that we know, they we need them more than they need us. The PM also has to deal with all the domestic fallout: the possible disintegration of the UK, businesses threatening to make their own Brexit and head to the Continent, a tanking pound, the rise of racism.
We might spend years at the side of the road, wiping all the mud off our weary old boots while other countries sprint by in new hi-tech gear that was probably made in China.
In the hot seat
The new client, United Kingdom, looks tired, broken, but still proud. It hasn’t been sleeping. It’s been drinking too much. Some mornings it can barely get out of bed. In despairing moments it can scarcely see the point of carrying on.
Some therapists might spend a few sessions interrogating the hapless client, offering a battery of questionnaires and tasks in hope of arriving at a diagnosis. They would discuss the UK with their supervisor and proffer labels like “depression,” but perhaps also “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” (feel small, act big), or “Antisocial Personality Disorder” (doesn’t play well with others), or schizophrenia (signs of psychosis include delusion and paranoia). Maybe some early indications of dementia.
Such labels can be helpful. They normalize the client’s reality, and provide access to resources, support and other sufferers. But they can also unhelpfully delimit and incorrectly define a client, masking over the subtleties of their unique experience, or else be so broad as to be almost meaningless. One person’s “anxiety” or “bipolar disorder” or “schizophrenia” might be quite different to another’s.
Clients might be living in extremely difficult circumstances, or have relationship problems, or terrible backgrounds. Often they are living at the mercy of a highly problematic interior system of government. Freud’s 1923 “structural model” is useful—he likened the internal conflict between id, ego and super-ego to a legendary 5th century battle between Attila and the Romans and the Visigoths.
For many clients, an internal dictator has taken over. They are stressed, overworked, overcommitted and run ragged by a kind of sergeant major—a relentless, joyless bully who loudly barks criticism of everything about them, in every way; a superego which Freud said “rages against the ego with merciless violence.” Other clients are similarly out of balance in the other direction, at the mercy of their id: their desires, pleasures and passions seemingly cannot be contained.
Freud’s model is simplistic. A useful construct is to think of humans as being made up of a committee multiple “selves”; there are lots of versions of you, each with a seat on the board (including some, from your “shadow,” that you may deny, disown, or project onto others).
Therapy is not simply a process during which a client fires the sergeant major, discovers the inner hippy sitting barefoot on the floor in the lotus position and lives happily ever after. It is in therapy that ALL the parts of ourselves can be safely aired, explored, understood and accepted. No one team member is bigger than the team. The sergeant major and the hippy and all the other players have got to learn to get along and pull together.
We are able to “feel like one self while being many” as Philip Bromberg writes: “Health is the ability to stand in the spaces between realities without losing any of them.”
The 5 stages of Brexit
Pyrrhic victory
Meet Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, who inspired the phrase "Pyrrhic Victory"
Definition: A victory that is offset by staggering losses. King Pyrrhus defeated the Romans at Asculum in BC 279, but lost his best officers and many of his troops. Pyrrhus then said: “Another such victory and we are lost.”
Right vs Left
For countries, the internal battle is not quite id vs. super-ego, but rather left versus right. Which voice should prevail—which is correct?
Attempts to deconstruct voter preference are always problematic. One large study, for instance claims that lower intelligence is more likely to be correlated with prejudice and right-wing voting. Another theory is that voting is determined by your overall worldview. As a species, we are capable of unbelievable kindness, generosity, altruism, creativity, diligence, resilience and love. We also can be very good at being selfish, telling lies, cheating, manipulating and stealing. Because of our individual biology, childhood, life experiences, relationships and education—and probably many other factors—each of us tend to resonate more with one or the other, the good or the bad, trust or mistrust. As a piece of research from the Royal Society puts it: “Greater orientation to aversive stimuli tends to be associated with right-of-centre and greater orientation to appetitive (pleasing) stimuli with left-of-centre political inclinations.”
In very broad terms, this idea claims that the Righties generally want society to be about law and order, border controls, defence spending, monoculturalism, punishment rather than rehabilitation, limited benefits, competition that rewards the “winners.” They look to all that’s good in the past. The Lefties want society to be about caring and sharing, cooperation, equality, diversity, multiculturalism, rehabilitation rather than punishment, a welfare state, redistribution that benefits the underdogs. They look to all that’s good in the future.
The Righties accuse the Lefties if being hopelessly naive, out of touch, idealistic, “soft.” The Lefties accuse the Righties of being greedy, uncompassionate, small-minded, dogmatic, “hard.”
But of course these characterisations are hugely simplistic, as are the caricatures of the Remainers and the Leavers. The former included the young, ethnic minorities, urban lefties and the Scots, but also big business that benefits from cheap labour and free-market fundamentalists. The latter included the working class in disenfranchised former industrial towns, but also wealthy retired traditional county conservatives and a lunatic fringe of far-rightists and racists.
The referendum result does not mean that the Leave position is vindicated and the Remain voice should ever more be silenced. Both voices are vital, ensuring a system of checks and balances. We need both walls and bridges; defence and offence. And both voices are in fact each a vast choir. To be whole, all the voices need to be heard.
The way forward
The evolution of national systems of government starts with warring tribes and feudal empires, moves to totalitarian, authoritarian or dictatorial regimes, then onto the 20th century representative democracy of the UK today. But people do not feel represented. Politicians are the least-trusted people in the nation. Brexit at least partially have been a vote of no confidence in the current system. Instead of entrusting politicians to do the right thing, might we herald the birth of a new, fairer social democracy that better involves the populace, and better serves them, too? If there were a referendum about having more referendums, wouldn’t the likely response be a resounding “yes”?
Consider these points (from an earlier post: Does your government make you happy?):
• The Scandinavian system or “Nordic model” of government features high taxes, a large, well-run welfare state, a high standard of free education and healthcare, and low levels of inequality. The machine works for betterment of the people, not the other way round. (In John Rawls “A Theory of Justice,” he demonstrates through his “original position” experiment that if people don’t know how they will end up in an imaginary society, they will generally opt for a fair, redistributive political and economic system that treats all fairly, maximising the prospects of the least well-off.) The Nordic model is a system that appears to make people happy: Denmark and its close cousin Iceland, plus Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands, are all in the top-8 happiest nations in the world. Why isn’t such a superior form of governance the rule rather than the exception? (“Yes,” people say, “but these are countries with small populations and low immigration”—as though water, sunlight and soil were only good for some trees but not others.)
• According to the World Happiness Report: “66% of respondents in the Netherlands and 61% in Sweden answered that most people can be trusted, compared with just 35% in the US and 28% in Russia. Moreover, comparing the extent of trust in the 1981-84 sampling period with the recent period, trust rose in Sweden (from 57 to 61%), while it declined in the United States (from 45 to 35%).”
• Scandinavian cities tend to do well in the famous “lost wallet” experiments in which full wallets are left lying around to see how many get returned or handed in.
• The happiest nation, Switzerland, meanwhile, is the closest state in the world to a direct democracy. There are referendums on town, city, district and national level. They don’t just scrawl an X on a ballot paper once every 5 years. The Swiss really have a say in how their country is run. They are invested in their government, and vice versa.
The times they are a’changing. Donald Trump’s fearmongering, xenophobia, and foghorn declarations about the virtues of greed are like the terminal groans and expirations of a witless dinosaur, ignorant of his impending extinction.
Whether you are a Leaver or Remainer, Brexit showed that the British are hungry for democracy. We want to be heard. Brexit was a crack in the walls of the house that was built on the old order of patronage, privilege and politics as usual—a crack that lets in the light.
Primitive societies kill people, then evolve to enslaving them, then to giving them the vote. The next stage is to listen to them.
After a few months of hearing all the differing viewpoints and “standing in the spaces” between them, the client, our dear old friend UK, started to feel much better. The therapy came to a natural end. “It’s all about considering all the different views, and being fair,” said Scotland, speaking for the whole person, who now was sitting tall and proud and relaxed. “The more we listen to all the voices, the better we feel.”
The cure for a sick democracy, it turns out, is more democracy.
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https://ruthnuss.com/10-things-i-learned-from-the-artists-way-by-julia-cameron/
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10 Things I Learned from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
|
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"Ruth"
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2022-06-30T23:27:53+00:00
|
I read The Artist's Way by Julie Cameron this year and it changed my life. Check out my review and a list of things I learned from this book.
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en
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Ruth Nuss
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https://ruthnuss.com/10-things-i-learned-from-the-artists-way-by-julia-cameron/
|
Today I’m doing something new and deep diving one of my now-favorite books of all time: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
This book has made such a difference in my life this past year, so I wanted to give it its own blog post and highlight some of the most monumental lessons I learned from it.
Julia Cameron is an author, playwright, filmmaker, and poet who spent years coaching artists and helping creatives get “unblocked.” She wrote the renowned bestseller The Artist’s Way in 1992. The book has been a perennial seller ever since, inspiring creatives around the world to get out of their heads and into their art.
I recommend this book to everyone, really, but in particular those who are toying with the idea of a creative pursuit. Or perhaps you have writer’s block or are feeling uninspired or unmotivated or just plain scared. I’ve made pit stops at all of the above at some point in the last few years. This book, while cheesy at times, helped me reframe my entire identity as an artist and gave me the tangible tools to become a practitioner.
And it’s not to say that I’m some big success (or even a small one), but that’s kind of the point of the book: falling in love with the process.
Though writing is my own personal passion, the book’s philosophy applies to any and all creative endeavors. I think she does a good job of incorporating a host of examples through the chapters.
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is meant to be treated like a 3 month course: it’s divided into twelve chapters or “weeks,” each covering a different topic, accompanied by a set of writing prompts and a weekly “check in” at the end.
This format, at first, struck me as a little too structured. The weekly exercises took me much longer than the given time to get through, so I decided to just take it at my own pace and work through a little at a time. It took me almost 9 months to get through the entire book.
In hindsight, I can see the value in keeping the designed pace and treating the entire experience as a “bootcamp” of sorts. For my current life stage, though, moving through the content slowly and intentionally was much more beneficial.
I’m normally not much of an underliner/annotator, but I did mark this book up like a workbook which I think just goes to show the value it brought me.
Hopefully this post will inspire someone to pick the book up themselves, but at the very least I hope to impart a few things I’ve learned. This book has emboldened and empowered me, and I just want the same for others too!
Julia Cameron just has this way of communicating the idea of creativity that I found both inspiring and practical. It was very easy to put together this list.
Here are ten things I learned from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron:
We were created to be creative; creativity is an act of praise.
“Looking at God’s creation, it is pretty clear that the Creator itself did not know when to stop. There is not one pink flower, or even fifty pink flowers, but hundreds. Snowflakes, of course, are the ultimate exercise in sheer creative glee. No two alike. This creator looks suspiciously like someone who just might send us support for our creative endeavors.”
I’ve always known this: mankind was made in God’s image. But to see it spelled out in such a way that directly applies to me was a big turning point. God created us to be creative. Embracing this, in whatever fashion that brings us the most joy, is in and of itself an act of worship.
There is no quick fix for creative recovery. It takes discipline.
I think everyone heads into these sort of books with the secret hope that there will be some easy-peasy tip in store to help them uncover the life they’ve dreamed of. Julia Cameron is very clear: when it comes to creativity (and life?), discipline is what sets you free.
Daily practice of the Morning Pages
The main pillar of her course is the daily practice of what she refers to as the Morning Pages. This is basically a brain dump, a chance to empty our souls and minds before we begin the day. The assignment is simple: write three pages of total, utter nonsense each morning. Just whatever comes to mind, write it down–fast.
This might sound crazy, but consistency with the Morning Pages has changed me as a person and a writer this year. Just putting pen to paper in such a rote, routine way has allowed me to release my anxiety and clear my head each morning. I feel one million times better in every aspect of life when I do this.
(I wrote about how I’ve incorporated this on my morning routine blog post).
Treat your inner artist like a child.
“Judging your early artistic efforts is abuse.”
The author encourages everyone to treat our inner artists like a small children, with words of affirmation, investment in high quality supplies, and most importantly, lots and lots of grace.
We would never look at a small child and say “that painting is bad, so you shouldn’t keep painting.” We need to reframe the way we treat ourselves and our art, take the stress and weight out of it! Progress, not perfection, is the point here.
Being creative with an abundance mindset
“Since everyone can draw on the universal supply, we deprive no one with our abundance. Once we learn to think of receiving God’s good as being an act of worship..we can begin to let go of sabotaging ourselves.”
There is no shortage of creativity: every person is creative. Looking back, a lot of my negative self-talk growing up came from a scarcity mindset, and I think I carried a lot of this into adulthood. God gives us everything we need to be creative, and there is room for everyone’s art.
Serious art is born from serious play.
Cultivating a beautiful life full of little luxuries helps foster an artist’s flow. Allow yourself to play and laugh and try new things. Buy yourself flowers, take yourself to a museum, dabble in a hobby that forces you to be creative in a way you’re not used to. Cooking and gardening have been big outlets for me this year, and I even forced myself to take my first dance class in over 8 years!
Art is about getting something down, not thinking something up.
“Move out of your head and into action.”
I think I used to be under the impression that if I just thought hard enough, I could muster up ideas of what to write. The author gently suggests reframing the way we think about what creativity even is. It’s not this strained period of twiddling our thumbs waiting for our brains to kick it into gear. Rather, we follow inspiration and move on ideas with faith. Commit to the daily grind of practicing our art, and eventually we will get to a place where our practice is merely a conduit, an act of listening and recording.
This chapter reminded me a lot of Liz Gilbert’s Big Magic, another book that I absolutely love.
Jealousy is a map, a mask for fear.
“The desire to be better than can choke off the simple desire to be.”
Jealousy distracts us from what’s actually going on in our hearts and forces us to ruminate and obsess over someone else’s success. Jealousy tells us that there is only room for one writer/painter/singer/dancer. Jealousy plays to our insecurities and strips us of our will to act. I had never thought about it in these terms before.
We’ve all heard it a million times: comparison is the thief of joy. I’m learning to rewire my feelings of jealousy or tendency to compare and use that for fuel, as a roadmap on my own creative journey.
Every end is a beginning.
Humans are, by nature, self-sabotagers. We react in the face of loss and block ourselves, an easy way to protect ourselves from further pain. Cameron coaxes her readers to understand that every failure is a gift, the chance to start anew.
Creativity is oxygen for our souls, its own reward.
“Just when we get there, there disappears.”
Perhaps the most important lesson of all is that creativity is its own reward. I will probably not publish a novel anytime soon, but I have learned that the real joy comes from the art of writing itself. After all, what is success anyway?
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron has helped me unlock–free, even–my creative side. This book isn’t about results; it’s about the process, the journey, the falling in love with your art.
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https://nmwriters.org/who-we-are/
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Who We Are
|
[
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2023-11-26T23:33:23+00:00
|
Who We Are New Mexico Writers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and connecting the state’s literary community. Our annual dinner, now in its sixth year, brings established and aspiring writers together to celebrate and inspire each other. In addition to the annual dinner, we publish a monthly newsletter that features literary happenings throughout […]
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en
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New Mexico Writers
|
https://nmwriters.org/who-we-are/
|
New Mexico Writers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and connecting the state’s literary community.
Our annual dinner, now in its sixth year, brings established and aspiring writers together to celebrate and inspire each other.
In addition to the annual dinner, we publish a monthly newsletter that features literary happenings throughout the state, including book releases, readings, workshops, grant opportunities, and more.
We’re also working to strengthen collaborations with state government, schools, and other entities who can help us connect the state’s literary community and its aspiring writers.
In today’s world, literary voices are more important than ever. New Mexico Writers is committed to supporting the diverse and original writers who populate our state and to continuing its long tradition of literary excellence and creative community.
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dbpedia
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https://www.hiddennewmexico.com/about
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en
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Hidden New Mexico author qualifications — Hidden New Mexico
|
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Join Lynne Sturtevant, travel professional and published author, as she explores New Mexico. Travel tips recommendations hotesl restaurants historic sites legends ghost stories
|
en
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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/587263e0bebafb08e6a6daf8/1483897221210-FIRG49ZGLZEJXUQTJA82/favicon.ico?format=100w
|
Hidden New Mexico
|
https://www.hiddennewmexico.com/about
|
Something hidden.
Go and find it.
Go and look behind the Ranges.
Something lost behind the Ranges.
Lost and waiting for you.
Go!
~ Rudyard Kipling
What do you think of when someone mentions New Mexico? Here are a few possibilites to stimulate your imagination.
I’m just getting warmed up.
My name is Lynne Sturtevant and I invite you to join me as I explore New Mexico’s history, culture, cuisine and glorious scenery. I'll be visiting world famous destinations like Santa Fe and Taos, of course, but I’m also looking for the hidden, special places known only to local folks. Along the way I’m taking pictures. Lots of pictures.
You’ll find detailed descriptions of the sights, sounds and tastes I discover as well as links, directions, contact information, business hours and other practical details. I will also be sharing hotel and restaurant reviews, interesting historical tidbits, recipes, ghost stories, fragments of ancient legends and the occasional UFO report.
I am new to New Mexico having moved to Albuquerque in 2016. But I'm not new to travel or to writing.
My career began in 1986 when I became a travel agent booking airline tickets and Disney World vacations. Within a few years I owned a successful agency in the heart of Washington, DC.
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https://newmexicopresswomen.org/new-mexico-communication-contest/zia-book-award/
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en
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2018 Zia Book Award Contest
|
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2013-12-03T12:43:30+00:00
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Zia Book Award Women writers living in New Mexico are invited to submit books for consideration for the Zia Award, given each year by NMPW at the annual spring conference. Each year the award rotat…
|
en
|
New Mexico Press Women
|
https://newmexicopresswomen.org/new-mexico-communication-contest/zia-book-award/
|
Zia Book Award
Women writers living in New Mexico are invited to submit books for consideration for the Zia Award, given each year by NMPW at the annual spring conference. Each year the award rotates to one of three categories: children’s literature, non-fiction and fiction. To accommodate this schedule, a book published in the last three years is eligible.
Finalists will be invited to attend the Zia Award Luncheon on April 28, 2018, in Santa Fe and speak about their books. Finalists will receive either the Award or an Honorable Mention. To be eligible for the Award, the author must attend the luncheon.
The 2018 award is open to nonfiction books published in 2015, 2016, or 2017. The entry fee is as follows:
NMPW members: $20 (entry postmarked by December 31, 2017) then $25 (postmarked by February 3, 2018)
Nonmembers: $25 (entry postmarked by December 31, 2017) then $30 (postmarked by February 3, 2018)
Submissions can be made by the author or by someone else on behalf of the author, such as a publisher. Membership in New Mexico Press Women is not required, but the writer must be a woman who lives in or has a strong connection to New Mexico. The book may be published anywhere.
To submit for consideration for the Zia Book Award, send a copy of the book along with a brief cover letter including complete contact information, the author’s biography (including her connection to New Mexico), and a description of the book to:
Bill Diven
Zia Book Award Chair
PO Box 1007
Placitas, NM 87043
The entry fee may be paid by including a check payable to NMPW with the submission or paid online at squareup.com/store/new-mexico-press-women. Dues may be also paid on the same page.
Book entries are considered a donation to the organization and are not returned. The books will be part of the silent auction held at the spring conference to raise scholarship funds.
For more information on the contest, send correspondence to the address listed above or e-mail Bill Diven at MediaPlacitasLLC@gmail.com.
###########
2017 Zia Book Award Results
Four outstanding New Mexican writers were honored for their work in children’s literature at the 2017 NMPW conference when their books were recognized in the prestigious Zia Award program of New Mexico Press Women.
Finalists (runners-up) and the winner (first place) for this year and previous years can order stickers for books.
Joan Livingston was named Second Runner-Up for The Cousins and the Magic Fish/Los Primos y el Pez Magico. Cousins Diego and Sofia go on magical adventures with their Grandpa Roberto. This time they catch a talking fish, which grants them a wish after they let it go. In the end, the cousins and their grandfather choose the wisest wish. Teresa Dovalpage did the Spanish translation: Los Primos Diego y Sofía se embarcan en aventuras mágicas con Abuelo Roberto. En esta ocasión atrapan a un pez parlante, que les concede un deseo cuando lo dejan irse. Al final, los primos y el abuelo escogen el más sabio de los deseos.
Caroline Starr Rose was named First Runner-Up for Blue Birds. Alis and her parents make the long journey from England to settle the New World. But it doesn’t go as planned and Alis, her parents, and the others of their small community soon find themselves at odds with the Roanoke tribe. As tensions rise between the settlers and the Native peoples, twelve-year-old Alis forms an impossible friendship with a Roanoke named Kimi. Despite language barriers, the two become as close as sisters, risking their lives for one another until Alis makes a decision that will change her life forever.
Cynthia Reeg won the 2017 Zia Book Award for From the Grave. Monster is as monster does, but Frankenstein Frightface Gordon is totally the wrong shade of ghastly green—pale, baby blue, in fact—and he’s more concerned with keeping his pants neat and tidy than scaring the pants off his victims. But when a new law is passed to rid Uggarland of misfits such as Frank, he must decide if he will become the monster his parents can be proud of or be the monster he can be proud of. Trusting the monsterliest monster he knows, Frank looks to the grave and his dead grandmother to make his choice, entering into an adventure that will either seal his doom or prove he is truly monster enough.
Betsy James received a special Chair’s Award for Roadsouls. The book explores the power of art and creativity for transforming not only one’s own life but also the world one lives in. Timid Duuni has spent her life as abused and guarded property. Blind, arrogant Raím is determined to be again what he once was: hunter, lover, young lord of the earth. Desperate to escape their lives, the two lift up their hands to the passing Roadsoul caravan, and are flung together naked. Each of them soon learns that saying yes to the Roadsouls is more than just accepting an invitation to a new life–it’s a commitment that can’t be reversed. For Duuni and Raím, nothing is as it was. Lost to their old lives, hating each other, they are swept out of their cruel old certainties into an unknown, unknowable, ever-changing world of journey and carnival, artists and wrestlers and thieves. Behind them, inexorable, pads a lion. Inexorable, too, is Duuni and Raím s inevitable encounter with it, an encounter that will change everything.
The 2018 Zia Book Award will be given to one or more women authors of an outstanding nonfiction book. Eligible titles will have been published in 2015, 2016, or 2017.
###########
Three New Mexican women were honored for their outstanding fiction books at the New Mexico Press Women annual spring conference, held this year at the Bosque Conference and Retreat Center in Albuquerque where the theme was “Shaping the Future of New Mexico: Our role as citizens and journalists.”
The Zia Award is given annually to one or more woman book author who lives in or has ties to New Mexico. Each year the contest focuses on one of three genres: fiction, children’s literature or non-fiction.
Receiving the 2016 Zia Book Award for fiction was Denise Chávez for The King and Queen of Comezón, her novel about the fictional border town of Comezón “Itch” New Mexico where the denizens work through their dreams of longing. The “Itch” refers to longstanding desires that will never be fulfilled.
“It is my manda, my mandate to write about our borderland corridor and the stories that inhabit our reality,” Chávez said.
The story is both hilarious and melancholy, and captures the life of a small community between the time span of two fiestas, Cinco de Mayo and Deis y Seis de Septiembre, in a multicultural setting that is found in many areas of our enchanted and beloved state.
Diane Thomas was named First Runner-Up for In Wilderness, her novel that is set in the Appalachian Wilderness and explores the power of nature to heal. In the winter of 1966, suffering from a mysterious illness, 38-year-old Katherine Reid moves to an isolated cabin where she plans to hole up until death finds her. Eventually she realizes she is not alone in the wilderness. Watching her every move is Danny, a 20-year-old Vietnam Nam veteran suffering from PTSD. When these two souls collide, passion is ignited, as well as obsession.
Lisa Lenard-Cook received an Honorable Mention for Dissonance, her reissued paperback novel about Anna Kramer, a Los Alamos piano teacher who inherits the journals of a composer and Holocaust survivor.
“Of my many novels, Dissonance is the one of which I am proudest,” Lenard-Cook said in a written statement. “My intention for the book – that it explores love, war, prejudice and forgiveness without preaching – became a reality through the leitmotif that music theory provided. “
A native New Mexican, Chávez was born and raised in Las Cruces where she still lives. Her other novels include Loving Pedro Infante, The Last of the Menu Girls, and Face of an Angel, and her non-fiction books include her memoir Taco Testimony: Meditations on Family, Food and Culture. Chávez was the Executive Director of the Border Book Festival for 20 years. She currently owns the Casa Camino Real Book Store & Art Gallery in Las Cruces.
“My life has been spent seeking and understanding the nature of mercy and love,” Chávez said. Her novels and books, “attest to my deep interest in all that binds us together as sentient beings in the glorious world that is New Mexico.”
The King and Queen of Comezón was published by University of Oklahoma Press and is Volume 13 in their Chicana & Chicano Visions of the Américas series.
A Georgia native who moved to Santa Fe in 2009 from the mountains of north Georgia, Thomas first novel was The Year the Music Changed: The Letters of Achsa McEachern-Isaacs and Elvis Presley. In Wilderness, published by Bantam Books, was recently released in paperback and has received a number of accolades including being selected by Entertainment Weekly as one of 10 great thrillers for beach reading. It was named an Amazon “Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Best Book” and a Random House Australia Book of the Month. Thomas has worked for the Atlanta newspaper The Constitution and the Atlanta magazine Atlanta.
Lenard-Cook has lived in the Albuquerque area continuously since the late 1990s, and she has set both of her published novels Dissonance and Coyote Morning, as well as her upcoming novel, Her Secret Life in central and northern New Mexico. She is a popular conference faculty member who also serves clients as a writing teacher and coach. Lenard-Cook has published two writing guides, The Mind of Your Story: Discover What Drives Your Fiction and Find Your Story, Write Your Memoir, with Lynn C. Miller. Dissonance was published in paperback by the Santa Fe Writers Project, who will also publish her upcoming novel. Coyote Morning is a previous finalist for the Zia Book Award.
The 2017 Zia Book Award will be given to one or more women authors of an outstanding children’s book. Eligible titles will have been published in 2014, 2015, or 2016.
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Harper Collins New Zealand
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https://www.harpercollins.co.nz/search/
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Showing results 1-10 of 104481 Advanced Search
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https://awritingroom.com/home/
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A Writing Room
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2023-06-23T03:38:55-04:00
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en
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A Writing Room
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https://awritingroom.com/home/
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Fall 2023 Retreat - All Replays Included
Register now to watch all 3 days of replays
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dbpedia
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https://www.grammarly.com/blog/mexican-authors-who-changed-history/
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7 Notable Mexican Authors Who Changed History
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"Shundalyn Allen"
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2017-09-16T05:00:49+00:00
|
Which Mexican authors do you admire? Let’s talk about seven significant writers and why you should know them on Mexican Independence Day.
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https://contenthub-static.grammarly.com/assets/img/0638f2d0bab8ecad9de6e464b3b80670/favicon.ico
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7 Notable Mexican Authors Who Changed History | Grammarly
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https://www.grammarly.com/blog/mexican-authors-who-changed-history/
|
You should know these seven authors: Luis Spota, Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo, Jaime Sabines, Martin Luis Guzmán, and Valeria Luiselli.
As you drive down streets in Mexico, you will notice that many roads bear the names of famous people. In particular, you will find neighborhoods that honor authors and poets in the names of their streets. Let’s find out a little more about some of the most celebrated Mexican authors and their work.
Here’s a tip: Want to make sure your writing always looks great? Grammarly can save you from misspellings, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and other writing issues on all your favorite websites.
Luis Spota
What does the president of the World Boxing Council have in common with an author whose books inspired at least two films? They are the same man—Luis Spota. He wrote more than thirty books in Spanish. Don’t worry, you can find many of them translated into English. Are you wondering about the films? One film, Más cornadas da el hambre (Wounds of Hunger) is about the dangerous world of bullfighting. Another, La sangre enemiga (The Enemy Blood) features a group of clowns who perform on the streets. His work is a dynamic and interesting perspective into the societal and political scene of Mexico’s biggest cities.
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes was born in Panama while his diplomat father was serving there. Back in Mexico, he studied law and wrote novels and poetry. His first attempt, La región más transparente (Where the Air Is Clear) was about a revolutionary after the Mexican Revolution who became a successful financier.
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz was born in 1914 in Mexico City. In 1934, he won the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship to study poetry in the United States. He founded and edited many Spanish-language magazines and authored poems that earned him a Nobel Prize. According to the Nobel website, “his poetic corpus is nourished by the belief that poetry constitutes ‘the secret religion of the modern age.’”
Juan Rulfo
This photographer and screenwriter was also a short story writer and novelist. The Burning Plain and Other Stories is an English translation of some of his short stories. He is famous for capturing Mexican idiosyncrasies in the backdrop of universal humanity.
Jaime Sabines
This poet, born in 1926, addressed deep themes in his emotional poems. Love, death, loneliness, can they be expressed in simple words? If you read the work of Jaime Sabines, you may find that the answer is yes.
Martin Luis Guzmán
Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1887, Martin Luis Guzmán studied law before joining the Mexican Revolution under Pancho Villa. Later, he lived in Spain and the United States. He recorded his experiences from the revolution in a biographical memoir of Pancho Villa and is considered one of the founders of the revolutionary genre, which depicts life during this time period.
Valeria Luiselli
What about history in the making? Valeria Luiselli is a contemporary Mexican author who resides in New York. She writes novels and nonfiction essays. She is a recent winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction for her novel Faces in the Crowd.
Are you interested in Mexican culture? Are you looking for writers with interesting perspectives? Try reading the books and poems of these seven authors. You will see why they earned those street signs along with their many other honors.
|
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Reviewed Elsewhere
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Contributing editors Nell Altizer, Patricia Angley, Alana Bell, Judith L¨utge Coullie, Michael Fassiotto, Marie-Christine Garneau, Théo Garneau, Douglas Hilt, Noel Kent, John W. I. Lee, Gabriel Merle, Dawn Morais, and Barbara Bennett Peterson, contributed the excerpts for this issue.
Publications reviewed include the American Quarterly, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, Far Eastern Economic Review, French Review, French Studies, (Toronto) Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Le Monde des Livres, New York Review of Books (NYRB), New York Times Book Review (NYTBR), Le Nouvel Observateur, Pacific Historical Review, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Studi Francesi, Times Literary Supplement (TLS), Washington Post National Weekly Edition (WP), and the Women's Review of Books; and from South Africa, the African Book Publishing Record; AllAfrica.com, ArcaMax, Beeld, Books & Leisure, Books/Learning Curve, Die Burger, Cape Argus, Cape Times, Grocott's Mail, Jewish Affairs, Mpumalanga Mirror, Sowetan, The Sunday Independent, Sunday Times, True Love, and The Witness.
Abbey, Edward
Postcards From Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast. Ed. David Peterson. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2006. 296 pp. $24.95.
"If few surprises are embedded in this trim selection of letters, edited by Abbey's pal David Peterson, it's because Abbey, on the page, was always Abbey: free ranging, cymbal crashing, an anarchist in mind as well as politics, encased throughout his life in an ever-shaken snow globe of contradictions, provocations, bathroom-wall jokes and fortissimo declarations.
Jonathan Miles. NYTBR, Nov. 19, 2006: 23.
Abraham
Abraham, ou la recréation du monde. Raphael Drai. Paris: Fayard, 2006. 592 pp. Euro26.
Is it possible to write a life of Abraham, considering that nobody knows whether that great figure existed in places outside of the Bible? Reading the portrait drawn by Raphael Drai, who is neither historian nor exegete, some will denounce an imposture. But Drai is a man of faith and science for whom skepticism would be tantamount to bad "cartesianism." His merit is to make Abraham alive as if he were one of us. We hear Abraham walking, thinking, working, doubting, and conversing with God. The force of the book is in that unceasing murmur between the Lord and his servant. For a long time a source of division between the three monotheistic religions, Abraham has [End Page 241] paradoxically become a kind of bridge between them. A subject of meditation in a time of generalized fundamentalisms.
Henri Tincq. Le Monde des Livres, Jan. 5, 2007: 10.
Abramoff, Jack
Heist: Superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, His Republican Allies, and the Buying of Washington. Peter H. Stone. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2006. 214 pp. $23.00.
"But for all the value of a concise account of their misdeeds, what 'Heist' is missing is the broader context. Jack Abramoff was not a lone scoundrel—or one of a narrow band of individual scoundrels. He was part of an organized effort to transform Washington, to bend it to the will of one party, with the aim of creating a self-reinforcing loop, where a majority could use its clout to dominate all of Washington, work alliances with moneyed interests who would pay to get their way, provide campaign cash to keep their friends in power and benefit from the majority's policy largesse along the way."
Norman J. Ornstein. NYTBR, Jan. 14, 2007: 25.
Addams, Charles
Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life. Linda H. Davis. New York: Random House, 2006. 382 pp. $29.95.
"Students or ardent fans of the artist will most likely want to get hold of 'Charles Addams,' which, in addition to the facts, has a generous assortment of Addams cartoons and a number of funny unpublishdd self-portraits. But I direct the rest of the world to the magnificent 1991 collection 'The World of Charles Addams,' which, as Wilfrid Sheed wrote in his introduction, is 'the best possible biography of Charles Addams.' The book is scandalously out of print, but the last time I checked, 13 used copies were available through Amazon.com, for $13.98 and up. Hurry!"
Ben Yagoda. NYTBR, Dec. 3, 2006: 62.
Albertyn, Tertia
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So, yeah, I met Julia Cameron (in the flesh!): The power of story, dialectics and the creation of god
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2019-10-15T00:00:00
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I’ve left paradise and I’m in a crowded parking lot. It’s tucked between the Ukrainian Catholic Church that, I guess, presumes to be a conduit to paradise for its worshippers, and the cultural centre it runs as both a community service and a modest revenue stream. Even churches need to keep the lights on, somehow.…
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https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/f53e6553d488468e2038c98a6d06b4cd1bc5548e2b499676a075a5afe5146b40?s=32
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Nothing By The Book
|
https://nothingbythebook.com/2019/10/15/so-yeah-i-met-julia-cameron-in-the-flesh-the-power-of-story-dialectics-and-the-creation-of-god/
|
I’ve left paradise and I’m in a crowded parking lot. It’s tucked between the Ukrainian Catholic Church that, I guess, presumes to be a conduit to paradise for its worshippers, and the cultural centre it runs as both a community service and a modest revenue stream.
Even churches need to keep the lights on, somehow.
The Church is St. Basil’s, an unusual and beautiful name that always makes me think of both Sherlock Holmes and John Cleese (and OMG, people, John Cleese playing Sherlock Holmes, why has that not been a thing?).
(Excuse me—I’m googling “Has John Cleese ever played Sherlock Holmes?”)
(OMG, people, John Cleese played Arthur Sherlock Holmes, the grandson of the great detective, in a 1977 British film called The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It, and you can watch it for free on Open Culture.)
(Back to regularly scheduled programming…)
I’m here because in 2015, then-Conservative MLA for Edmonton-Decore, Janice Sarich, lost her job.
Follow me for a while; I’ll explain.
I’m actually here for Julia Cameron’s first Canadian appearance in more than 20 years. Julia Cameron is the author of The Artist’s Way—and more than 40 other books, several musicals, plays, screenplays, etc. She’s also the director of an art film, the creation of which is a study in synchronicity, serendipity, and also, perseverance past the point of reason.
Julia has been my writing teacher and creativity coach for five years. Today is the first day we are to meet. And when I say meet, I mean, I will be in a church hall with 300 other people while she talks. It’s not going to be a particularly intimate experience. But still. We will be in the same room, I will have seen her, truly, “live,” and this brings me much anticipatory happiness.
Back in 2014, when I was drowning (metaphorically, although the flood was real enough), The Artist’s Way threw me a lifeline and turned Cameron into my first real teacher, and the one I keep on going back to, again and again and again.
And again.
I don’t like her.
Let’s make this clear right away, so that you are not expecting a hagiography. We are not friends, Julia and I. I do not have a rose-coloured schoolgirl’s crush on her. I am neither the Peter nor Paul to her Jesus, nor the Mardana to her Guru Nanak.*
* You can google Mardana and Guru Nanak. Or, you can read The Singing Guru, a marvellous novel by Kamla K. Kaur (also author of Ganesha Goes to Lunch and Rumi’s Tales from the Silk Road), about the life of the founder of the Sikh religion—that’d be Guru Nanak—and his faithful companion, Mardana.
If we were closer in geography and fame, we would not be friends, meeting for a coffee and a chat. I don’t accept Julia’s tools and wisdom uncritically, as gospel. Frankly, I argue with her, fight her every step of the way. I call her names—throw her struggle with alcoholism and co-dependent romantic relationships in her face (repeatedly and unkindly). Tell her that if she spent less time gazing out her window and writing Morning Pages and more time perfecting the craft and refining technique, maybe she’d be famous for her poetry or her musicals. Or her novels would be, like, good, and they’d sell.
I am mean to her, so mean to her.
I hate her.
She is my most beloved teacher.
My refusal to be an uncritical acolyte notwithstanding, I’m here to pay homage. I’m quite aware of this, long before I get into my hic-cuping (Please don’t die!) 2007 Nissan Versa (grey) (I’m telling you this because Julia likes specificity, just as much as Writing Down the Bones author Natalie Goldberg does) at 5:30 a.m. that morning to drive the 300 km that will take me to St. Basil’s Cultural Centre in Edmonton.
I know I am here to give gratitude and pay homage long before Julia Cameron enters the hall and I leap to my feet, giving her a standing ovation before she utters a word, because, fuck, Julia, there you are, after all these years, in the flesh, you’re real, would I be where I am, who I am, right now if you hadn’t been thrust upon me back in 2014?
Julia Cameron is 71 now, and an old 71, a frail 71. My mother is 68 and a) she looks much younger and prettier and b) she could easily take Julia in a fight. Janice Sarich—the organizer—warns us before the Godmother of Art, the Midwife of Creation enters the hall that Ms Cameron has health issues, and because of them, there are some rules we need to follow. We are not to badger her, approach her, crowd her—there’s a red velvet rope strung as a barrier to separate us from the lectern and we are not to cross it. There will be no book signings or requests for selfies. We are here to get what she is willing to give us—and to demand no more.
I know from her books that Cameron is a highly introverted, very sensitive and anxious—neurotic really—and has suffered at least two nervous breakdowns.
Those are all the things about her that annoy me when I read her (Could you be a little less neurotic, Julia?), those are all the things that make her such a sensational teacher.
If I am a doubting Thomas and a pre-conversion St. Augustine—maybe even a Rene Descartes, who, had he lived half a century earlier may well have been burnt at the stake—the woman who brought Cameron to Edmonton—to me—is a less critical disciple. Former MLA Sarich is in the honeymoon phase of the student-teacher relationship, you know, when Socrates can do no wrong in the eyes of Plato, when Jung nods his head enthusiastically at every word Freud utters… even though, if he lets himself think, he’ll see that actually, um, ah, I dunno, maybe the old man got it just a little wrong?
I’ve never had that phase with Cameron. I’ve never had that with anyone. Hero-worship, goddess worship—I envy it when I see it.
Sarich lost her job at the Alberta Provincial Legislature when my socialist, progressive, feminist, “Damn straight I will dance at the Pride Parade!” premier unseated the oligarchy that had been lording it over the province for 44 years. So as soon as Sarich introduces herself and her story, I know some pretty core philosophical differences separate us. In 2015, I celebrated with abandon—if not precisely her loss, then my premier’s win. When the Conservatives returned to power in 2019 under a reprehensible platform that offended virtually all of my values as well as my reason, I mourned.
But when I talk to Sarich, all I feel is gratitude and admiration. Because she turned her tragedy and trauma—and job loss is traumatic, no matter how common in the modern economy—into this opportunity, not just for herself, but for me and for 300 other people. To meet Julia, to work with Julia.
For an emotionally exhausting eight hours.
At 4:30 p.m. that day, I revise my estimation of Julia as old and frail. Fuck, the woman might be 71 and battered by life, but she’s also tough and committed. She might have health problems. She may pause at the lectern for a long, long while here and there, to catch her breath or to recall her train of thought. But she gives us her all for the entire day, shepherding her energy carefully, resting in-between when we break off into our mini-clusters—but, at the end of the day, still giving it all, as fully engaged, as fully present as she was at its beginning.
I bow my head and come the closest to hero-worship, goddess worship I will ever feel.
There are several points during the day when I wish I hadn’t come. The first happens early in the day, during one of our first break-off clusters. The workshop for 300 of Julia’s biggest fans is surprising intimate, because Julia (clearly, she’s done this before) speaks for a little bit, gives us a written exercise, then has us break off into clusters of three, four or two. Each time, we are to connect with new people; each time, we are to share ourselves with strangers.
I fucking hate this. There is immense creative power in being vulnerable, open, exposed. I know—I’ve just come off a 10-day stint in Paradise in which I gave myself like that, completely. And I am still so very vulnerable and leaking tears and love. But these people, here? I don’t know these people at all.
And this is a fact, not an opinion: being vulnerable and open with people you don’t know and trust is stupid.
This is also a fact, not an opinion: The Artist’s Way exercises Julia is leading us through are useless unless one is stupid and open. I mean, vulnerable. Ugh.
I hate her. I wish I hadn’t come. Fine, Julia. I’m here. For you. My stupid list… numbered one to five. Things people in my family thought about Art. Imaginary lives. Things I’d do if I knew I didn’t have to do them perfectly. U-turns…
My first two clusters are marvelous. The women—the audience is 90 percent female, and also, 95, 99 per cent white, and this is sadly relevant—are all also open and vulnerable and loving. And so they set me up for what happens next.
Fine. No blame. I set myself up. I relax into the vulnerability. I start to feel safe.
Bam!
Julia says, she’s going to dictate some questions for us, and we are to answer them in our best Obi Wan Kenobi impersonation. I’m not a Star Wars fan, and while I know the difference between Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda (Yoda’s the green one, right?), I’m not sure which one of them it is who says, “There is no try. There is only do.” But I think that’s what she’s asking for. Right? Anyway. Jedi master advice to the Padawan. This much I know. Jedi, wise.
She dictates.
What do I need to do?
I write:
Write and build.
She says:
What do I need to try?
I write:
Rejuvenate, recharge, restart.
(I actually think, “I need to let go,” BUT I AM NOT LETTING GO OF ANYTHING, analyze that!)
Number three, says Julia:
What do I need to accept?
Motherhood is forever.
Corners of my eyes tingle, sting.
Number four:
What do I need to grieve?
I don’t want to do this fucking exercise.
But I write:
Loss of freedom. And time.
Tears stream down my face, hot and sticky.
Last one.
What do I need to celebrate?
This one’s hard. But I find the words.
Love. And my talent. I’m fucking amazing and I’m still here.
My face is wet, soaked when we break off into the clusters. Fuck you, Julia, I wasn’t quite ready for that. Fuck honesty. Sometimes, a little bit of distance and delusion is good. And now, in this state, I need to be with people? Why would you do this to me?
We’re a group of four, a young stay-at-home mom, a woman who could either be my age or be a decade my senior, hard to tell, and a post-menopausal matriarch. And, me.
I want to stay to stay open, so I tell them the exercise really triggered me and I was crying and I pretty much can’t stop. They make supportive noises. We share our lists, without details, context, backstory. Then, the matriarch starts asking questions. Who, what, why. She likes to be in charge. The young stay-at-home mom says something about motherhood, challenges, sacrifices. “You will never regret this time,” the matriarch says authoritatively. “There is so much time to do everything you want after…” And she launches into the story her of her perfectly sequenced life.
I can’t bear it. Because sometimes there’s no time, there’s no more time. Sometimes, just as you think there’s more freedom, more time, everything comes crumbling down, and then what? Is it still worth it?
Right now, to be perfectly, brutally honest, I don’t know. I don’t know if it was worth it. Maybe I should have been more selfish, more focused on what I needed back then. I’ve lost so much time, I’m losing so much time now, I’m wasting the time I do have…
What happens when you find out there will not be more time, more freedom? And you will never get back what you lost, and you have to figure out how to work with what you have?
And what is it with this crap of telling women—sacrifice everything you are, everything you want now, because sometime in the future, when nobody needs you anymore, you can do the things that you…
Fuck that shit.
My tears come again. Hot.
What do I need to accept?
Motherhood is forever.
What do I need to grieve?
Loss of freedom. And time.
I don’t want to out Flora, her story, her struggle to strangers.
But they are looking at me, confused, but, I think, also, compassionate.
“I have a sick child,” I say by way of an inadequate explanation. “I don’t have more time, now, that she’s older. My challenge is to figure out how to work with the time I have.”
I don’t add that I’m having a really hard time making use of what time I do have. That I spent most of it exhausted, non-functional.
The matriarch looks at me. I don’t really expect words of wisdom. Just, what? Acknowledgment? That it’s hard.
“I know this couple,” she says. “Married thirty-two years. Never a cross word between.”
There’s no more to her story, although her mouth keeps on moving and she’s making words. I excuse myself and go cry in the washroom for a while.
I’m not angry. Just unsupported. And reminded that it is stupid to be vulnerable in front of strangers.
I recover sufficiently to be present and to listen to Julia. But I know that even though I carry out the exercises, between myself and the page, fairly honestly, I will not be naked to strangers again today.
This is not unfortunate. It’s smart, safe, necessary. Just as necessary as, when walking home late at night, choosing the well-lit paths or opting to call an Uber instead of taking a shortcut through the dark alley or ambush-point filled urban park.
The next point of pain comes during the Q&A on Morning Pages. The Morning Pages, if you’re not an Artist’s Way acolyte, are the primary tool Julia gives us for creative recovery—and perseverance. Three pages, written in longhand, first thing in the morning. Other than those guidelines, anything goes.
In my Morning Pages, I often tell Julia she’s an idiot and this is a stupid exercise, and surely there’s a more productive, creative, enjoyable way with which to start my mornings?
But it’s been more than five years now and I’ve missed perhaps five days. The Morning Pages have given me three novels. Renegotiated most of my existing relationships, opened me to new ones. They are saving me, keeping me anchored to life and why I want to live it during this latest, shittiest chapter of my life.
They work.
They work, very very well, for writers.
Julia prescribes them for everyone.
The question, asked by a woman I don’t really see, but the top of whose head suggests she might have African roots, is this:
“The Morning Page tool is so powerful. But it’s all about writing. Is there way for people or cultures without writing traditions, to use it?
Julia answers it like a 71-year-old white woman.
The first part of her answer is ok. She says that she’s a writer and she comes at this process from that lens and she doesn’t have any experience elsewhere.
Would that she just stopped there, it would be ok.
But she doesn’t. Her next sentiment, communicated as much by tone as actual words, comes across as, “I’m not interested in making my tools work for non-writing cultures.”
Bang. Ouch. Wah.
I can’t tell if the woman asking the question is African or indigenous—she’s far, the room is crowded, I’m blind (I meet her later, she’s a Canadian with Jamaican parentage), but OMFG, Julia, how could you?
Well.
She’s no goddess, she’s no hero, she’s blinded by her class and her privilege, and she’s a product of her time.
She’s also a product of her culture, which has over-privileged writing as a cultural and communication form almost since it invented it.
And it’s so weird, really if you think about it at all.
This urge to write shit down. Not even important shit. Just… anything that happens to you. Or crosses your mind. Imagined shit. Stories about robots and unicorns and alternate universes. Murders that didn’t happen. Love affairs that go right or wrong—but that don’t actually exist.
How weird is that?
Nothing natural, inevitable about any of it, right?
What would all we writers be doing if we were born into a pre-literate age?
We would be… story tellers. Song makers. Poem reciters.
Writing is a tool, a technology, a cultural invention we use to express, communicate both the very mundane (“Sold three sheep for two wheat barrels”; “Pick up toilet paper and eggs on your way home, will you love?”) and the absolutely divine…
“The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.”
― Rumi (Coleman Barks translation)
The Morning Pages are magical for writers. My non-writing son finds a similar peace and cleansing when he runs. His father finds it in meditation (which Cameron near-dismisses during the workshop, wilfully misunderstanding what it is that happens in meditation—“You meditate until you push the problem away,” she says—as most failed meditators and non-meditators do).
My great-grandmother found it in prayer or the rosary.
I find it in the Morning Pages.
But that doesn’t mean everyone will, everyone should.
Julia. You too old to be open-minded?
Sigh.
My last moment of pain comes when Julia wants to talk about God. She’s a highly spiritual person and this, and her highly personal relationship with an anthropomorphic God the Creator, God the Artist permeates all her work. It is another point of contention between us. I’ve had to “get over” Julia’s god thing to work through her books. Don’t laugh. It’s possible. You can read both the New Testament and the Q’ran for life lessons and reject the existence of both Jesus’s God the Father and Muhammad’s Allah. Ditto the Vedas and the Upanishads. You can learn from the Bhagavad Ghita without praying to Krishna, you know?
Siddhartha Gautama, the “first” Buddha, figured it out—he also realized the average person needs God and I don’t expect he’s surprised either by his own deification or the veneration of Boddhisatvas and statues that make some schools of Buddhism look as theatrical as Roman Catholicism. But I digress, yet again. Point: Julia loves God and trusts that he’s running the show.
I think it’s… well, now, occasionally, I think it’s nice. Why not? Whatever gets you through the days and keeps you sober. But I can’t join her there. Not even because, Syrian civil war, genocide in Rwanda, the Jewish Holocaust, and also, the disease my daughter is battling. Just because… it seems so infantile.
Fake.
In the workshop, we first deconstruct, as a group, the idea of god we grew up with. I’m silent. I’ve put the pedophiliac “You are born in sin and you will die in sin” anthropomorphic, misogynist God the Father of my childhood religion away a long time ago. So I think, anyway. Many of the people in the group though had a similar experience. They share it. I don’t understand why anyone would worship, deify, believe in such an entity past the age of reason. Well. I do. Children are impressionable, life is uncertain.
Worship is seductive.
Next, Julia wants us to construct a joyous God the Creator, God the Artist. “What sort of God do you, as an artist, want?” she asks. “Let’s make him!” The room enters into the exercise enthusiastically. I’m silent again. I think making art to celebrate a thing that doesn’t exist is, while not as evil as making war in the name of a thing that doesn’t exist (“She was a virgin mother!” “No, she wasn’t!” “He was the son of God!” “No, he was just a prophet of God!”) is just as pointless.
But because I’m not busy building false deity, I am looking inward, and when I look inward, the “Why? to what purpose?” question inevitably looms large.
And because “it’s god’s plan” is not an answer available to me, I must find the answer myself, in myself.
This is hard to do when one is empty…
Julia ends the section, and the workshop, by asking us to first, write a letter from ourselves to this god we create, and then a response from him. (Yes, it’s a him. Of course, no gender neutral pronouns for Julia. We don’t get into it. But I feel we would fight about that too. Anyway, I don’t think she’s thought about it very deeply. Her god has a definite, also material penis. Or so I think as I seethe at her. I told you. I don’t like her. This is not a hagiography.)
At the beginning of the workshop, she introduces us to two characters who will accompany us on the journey, the Tyrant and the Rebel.
The Tyrant is also, I think, the Inner Critic. My Aunt Augusta. “Your list of five imaginary lives is so stupid.” “See, you couldn’t come up with 25 things that you love. I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it, because you suck. You’re stupid.”
The Rebel says, “The teacher is so stupid. Why is she making us do this shit?”
My Rebel is rising, but as I have done since I’ve first started working with Julia five years ago, I acknowledge that she, the Rebel, is absolutely right—but we’re going to do this stupid exercise anyway.
I write:
Dear Creativity God,
You don’t exist because, well, you don’t. I don’t believe in you, or ghosts. But Julia Cameron exists—she is very real, right here, and I believe in her. And in myself. And I believe—most of the time—that my urge to create, to write, to put all these stories down on paper is a worthwhile one. It’s important to bear witness. To document.
Look at that. This is how Jesus and the Buddha became gods.
Julia calls time. Now, it’s time for the Creativity God to write back.
Jesus.
For three minutes, I need to write in the voice of something I don’t believe in, that doesn’t exist. Fun.
Fine.
When I commit to doing something, I do it.
I write.
Yes, M., you’re absolutely right. It’s important to bear witness, to document, to interpret, even. How did you put it in that love letter to your crew? To make sense of the world and share it with other people. Not everyone can see either the whole, or the unique angle with which you can illuminate the most ordinary experience. And so, yes. Believe in your urge and in yourself and in its value. Believing in me is not necessary. Unlike Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, I exist whether you believe in me or not.
Well, fuck what the hell is this?
I hate Julia Cameron.
I love Julia Cameron.
Both statements are true. That’s dialectics, that’s where all the best ideas happen.
(Note to self: re-read American Gods soon. I love Neil Gaiman. But it’s his wife Amanda Palmer who is, occasionally, my teacher.)
We give Julia Cameron a standing ovation to close the day and then, I end up at dinner with three other fascinating attendees, including the woman who asked the question about non-literate people and cultures. (She’s brilliant, Julia, working on a doctorate on how we can use art to heal trauma—you really should have paid more attention to what was behind her question).
We de-brief, dissect. I am very pleased to find myself talking with critical thinkers, not mindless acolytes.
I love Julia, I hate Julia—I think the reason my work with The Artist’s Way has been so fruitful for me is because I fight with Julia, argue with her almost every step of the way. Resist and then surrender, for a little while. Fight some more, grow some more.
She is my most beloved Teacher.
Thank you, Janice Sarich, for giving me this time with her.
xoxo
“Jane”
PS In case you forgot where we started: John Cleese + Sherlock Holmes = The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977). Give it at least 13 minutes before giving up. The 1970s were a different time: people still expected/accepted awkward foreplay in their books and films.
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New Mexico as "Wild West"
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Along with creating the conditions in which Navajos and Mescaleros were able to return to a portion of their respective homelands, the close of the Civil War created an influx of immigration to New Mexico from the east. Men who had served on both sides of the conflict either came alone or brought their families to the territory in search of the opportunity to start over and, hopefully, make a fortune by exploiting New Mexico’s lands, resources, and people.
New Mexico’s territorial status facilitated such ambitions. By keeping the area under the direct jurisdiction of Washington, D.C., longstanding New Mexico residents were allowed only second-tier U.S. citizenship. As voiced with much vitriol and racism by South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun regarding the addition of the Mexican cession to the United States, “Ours, sirs, is the Government of a white race. The greatest misfortunes of Spanish America are to be traced to the fatal error of placing these colored races on an equality with the white race.”24 Despite vocal criticism of Calhoun’s position, notably from Representative Joseph M. Root of Ohio, a majority of U.S. Congressmen actively worked to ensure that the inclusion of nearly 100,000 former residents of Mexico would not end white Americans’ domination over those they referred to as the “colored races.”
Within such a context, Anglo newcomers to New Mexico, whether government appointees to territorial office or immigrants, manipulated territorial politics with ease. A string of presidential appointees to the governor’s office proved to be more concerned with their personal enrichment than with the needs of the territory. Under the territorial system, democracy was virtually non-existent. Nearly a century earlier, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had established the protocol for the governance of new lands, as well as the process by which they could enter the Union as full-fledged states. The Compromise of 1850 added certain stipulations for New Mexico’s territorial system, including the presidential appointment of New Mexico’s entire judicial branch.
No matter the dealings in Washington, D.C., New Mexicans, Pueblos, and the territory’s indigenous peoples were coerced U.S. citizens—they did not choose to belong to the United States. However amiable their relations to U.S. officials might have been, from the arrival of Kearny’s Army of the West, they were forced at bayonet point to join the nation. Congress looked down on them, and believed that it was the steward of the people of the New Mexico Territory.
The territorial government was always a government of outsiders. The governor, territorial secretary, federal justices, attorney general, U.S. marshal, and commissioner of the land office were presidential appointees. Such officials came and went, depending on the whims of the electoral cycle and the administration itself. According to U.S. precedent, the only elected body was the territorial legislature. Territorial status greatly limited the potential for democracy and allowed unscrupulous people to take advantage. Tellingly, the position of territorial delegate to Congress—effectively a representative that lacked the ability to vote on any measure taken up by the national legislature—garnered the most political prestige during the territorial period.
Territorial constraints, coupled with the rise of a Gilded Age in the United States at the national level, paved the way for the rise of a political machine known as the Santa Fe Ring. Despite its ubiquitous appearance in territorial newspapers, existence of the Ring is a matter of dispute among modern historians. Of the very few books on the topic, only one, Chasing the Santa Fe Ring, by David L. Caffey, has been published recently (2014). As Caffey points out, part of the reason that doubts about its existence persist is the fact that adversaries of alleged Ring members conjured the term in an attempt to attack the actions of their political opponents. Indeed, territorial newspapers cast the Ring as either “a systematized organization of rascality” or as a body that advanced “individual interests at the expense of the general welfare.”25 Neither depiction was particularly flattering.
As Caffey has also shown, academic historians have all too frequently taken at face value the partisan accusations levied in the territorial press. Although monographs on the Santa Fe Ring are few and far between, many historians of the territorial period mention the political machine as a powerful and negative force in nineteenth-century New Mexico. Of course, the Ring itself never published its minutes, never announced its incorporation. Neither did its alleged affiliates ever publicly acknowledge its existence. Its members were far too smart for that. Instead, we are left to infer the Ring’s actions from what we know of the American Gilded Age and of New Mexican politics in the late-nineteenth century. Similar political machines surfaced in the Utah, Colorado, and Arizona Territories, but none has garnered the romanticized legacy of the Santa Fe Ring.
All of that is owed, at least in part, to Thomas B. Catron—recognized ringleader of the New Mexico political machinery. After fighting for the Confederacy, he relocated to Santa Fe based on favorable reports from his former college roommate, Stephen B. Elkins. Not long after his arrival in Santa Fe, Catron opened a law practice and he immediately made important connections to key powerbrokers in the territorial government. In 1866 he was appointed to serve as District Attorney for the Third Judicial District in Mesilla, yet not until the following year was he admitted to the bar. This backwards series of events was suggestive of his future political and legal doings in the territory.
By 1872, Catron had received appointment as U.S. attorney, and he used his post as a means of acquiring power and wealth. In New Mexico, wealth was measured in land. In order to increase his control over lands, most of which were apportioned as Spanish or Mexican Land Grants protected under the provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Catron needed connections to powerful people in the territorial power structure. The shadowy Santa Fe Ring provided precisely the types of ties that he coveted.
In 1860 Congress established the legality of Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in its settlement with Juan Bautista Vigil and his claim to one such grant. To address the problem of overlapping claims and contested boundaries, Congress also established the Office of Surveyor General for the territory. The Surveyor General was to investigate disputes and offer solutions that would then require approval from the General Land Office and, finally, Congress itself. As with most other territorial offices, that of Surveyor General was an appointed position subject to the whims of patronage politics. Quite often, the Surveyor General was under the thumb of the Santa Fe Ring.
Under Spanish and Mexican administration, the grants had established a form of common-property land tenure. Under U.S. law, however, land claims were based on private-property forms of ownership. Despite the provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and Congress’ settlement of Vigil’s claim, that key difference in legal recognitions of land tenure provided an opening for litigation that dispossessed New Mexican land grant heirs of their claims. When litigation against a particular grant was filed, the heirs typically did not have a strong enough command of the English language or the U.S. legal system to represent themselves in court. At that point, lawyers like Catron stepped in and promised to serve as counsel for the grantees. In a few noted cases, such as that of the Mora Grant, Catron disingenuously promised them that they needed to “temporarily” transfer their deeds to him in order for him to secure their grants. In other cases, land was the only means of payment available to the grantees.
By the end of his life, Catron acquired at least partial interest in no fewer than thirty-four different land grants. For a time, he owned more land than any other single person in the United States. His connection to the Maxwell Land Grant in north central New Mexico and the Carrizozo Ranch in Lincoln County highlight the ways that affiliates of the Santa Fe Ring promoted organized violence to acquire property and protect their interests. In the cases of the Colfax County (1875) and Lincoln County (1878) Wars, Catron, Elkins, and other prominent Ring affiliates did not directly commit acts of violence. In fact, they never did. Instead, others who hoped either to capitalize on their connection to the Ring or who stood in opposition to the political machine fought the battles.
Interestingly, the Santa Fe Ring, the Colfax County War, and the Lincoln County War were natural outgrowths of the attempt to establish American-style capitalism in New Mexico. The national and international press tended to paint the territory as a lawless place dominated in the 1870s and 1880s by bandits like Billy the Kid. By most reports, the accused bandits on horseback bore the blame for perpetuating lawlessness and violence. Their actions certainly did nothing to alleviate the situation, but the reality was that those who were supposed to bring law and civilization to the territory actually intensified its violent and unsettled conditions. Modernization, manifested as capitalist, private ownership of land and resources, compounded corruption and violence.
The Maxwell Land Grant was the linchpin of troubles in and around Colfax County. In 1864, Lucien B. Maxwell bought out all other heirs to the grant, most of whom were his in-laws, in order to become its sole owner. After only three years he decided to sell the tract and he requested a survey in order to determine its exact boundaries. Congress’ 1860 decision in a claim against the Ramón Vigil Grant upheld the provision of Mexico’s 1824 Colonization Law that limited individual grants to 97,000 acres. The Maxwell Grant was therefore set at 97,000 acres in size.
None other than Catron served as Maxwell’s legal advisor in 1869, and he persuaded the grant holder to sell to a group headed by Colorado politician Jerome Chaffee. Subsequently, Chaffee’s group created the Maxwell Land Grant and Railway Company to administer the grant, with Stephen Elkins as its president. With deed to the tract in hand, the Company hired W. W. Griffith, U.S. deputy surveyor, to conduct a new survey. Griffith’s survey redrew the tract at 2 million acres—a claim more than ten times the size of the original survey’s decision. Over the next few years, as the Company hoped to capitalize on the expansion of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, they attempted to sell the property at a large profit to English investors. By the time competing survey claims finally established the tract at 1.7 million acres, the British syndicate had collapsed. In the spring of 1879 Catron himself purchased the massive tract for a vastly reduced price.
As all of the wrangling over the size and ownership of the grant played out, homesteaders attempted to stake their own claims. In many cases, they built homes, barns, and fences on lands they believed to be adjacent to the Maxwell Grant. Jicarilla Apaches, nuevomexicanos, and Anglo miners had long inhabited the region. Most had amicable relations with Lucien Maxwell. He understood the reciprocal responsibilities that a traditional patrón provided to those that lived on and near his lands. Inhabitants of the area were indebted to him for their place on the land, but they also relied on routines and norms that had never been guaranteed on paper.
The Maxwell Land Grant and Railway Company and the English syndicate, however, relied on deeds and other tangible evidence of their right to transform the patterns of life that had long existed on the grant. As a private property regime worked to replace communal systems, conflicts erupted that resulted in murders and patterns of vengeance. No longer could locals expect redress from their patrón. Absentee company officials made decisions that impacted their access to vital resources without their input. Additionally, dissenting members of the Company began to resent the influence of the Santa Fe Ring. William R. Morley and Frank Springer emerged as the most prominent among them.
Palpable tensions erupted into violence over a seemingly petty matter in April of 1875. Catron charged Ada Morley, William’s wife, with mail fraud because she intercepted a letter that her mother had mailed at the Cimarron post office. Her mother, Mary Tibbles McPherson, noticed the cycles of corruption that marked territorial dealings during a visit from her home in Iowa. The letter was a denunciation of such activities to Washington officials. Catron tenaciously pursued what most locals considered to be an unjust prosecution of Ada Morley.
In the process another opponent of the Ring, Reverend Franklin J. Tolby, became increasingly more vocal. On the morning of September 14, 1875, as he traveled back to his home at Cimarron after completing worship services in Elizabethtown, an unknown attacker shot him twice in the back. His murder shocked the local community, and his friends and family members held partisans of the Santa Fe Ring responsible.
As the investigation played out, some of Tolby’s friends vigorously questioned and then murdered Cruz Vega, the regular letter carrier between Elizabethtown and Cimarron, for his alleged complicity in the killing. From Vega, they learned of others who had been involved in the reverend’s murder. Several were reportedly connected to the Santa Fe Ring. The last shots of the Colfax County War rang out in November after Manuel Cárdenas, an associate of Vega, testified that men with purported ties to the Ring had ordered Tolby’s murder. As he was transported away from the courthouse, Cárdenas was killed from ambush.
In an attempt to calm the situation, Governor Samuel Axtell ordered troops from Fort Union to maintain order in Cimarron. Yet Axtell was a known friend of the Ring so his actions, as well as the decision early in 1876 to attach Colfax County to Taos County for judicial proceedings, indicated how pervasive the power of the political machine had become. To many locals, the killings indicated just how far the territorial political machine was willing to go in order to control wealth and power in Colfax County.
The events of the Lincoln County War are more widely known, and more heavily romanticized, due to the involvement of Billy the Kid. In the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s, Lincoln County comprised nearly the entire southeastern quadrant of New Mexico Territory. Sheep-herding and cattle ranching dominated all other economic pursuits, and contracts to deliver cattle to reservations, such as Bosque Redondo, proved quite lucrative.
Irish immigrants Emil Fritz, Lawrence G. Murphy, and James J. Dolan built a commercial empire in Lincoln based on the success of their government contracts at Fort Sumner and Fort Stanton (the Mescalero Agency after 1865), and Murphy and Dolan’s L. G. Murphy & Company held a commercial monopoly over Lincoln County. With their stranglehold on the economy came virtual control over the county’s government and political systems. Indeed, their operation was known to locals simply as “the House,” named for their imposing headquarters in Lincoln.
The mid-1870s brought perilous times for the House as several of its banking, mercantile, and ranching enterprises began to falter due to a nationwide economic downturn. In order to salvage the businesses, Murphy and Dolan secured loans from Catron. His loan of $20,000 saved part of the Murphy-Dolan empire, but a few of their holdings reverted to Catron when they failed to return to profitability. The store in Lincoln, some tracts of land, horses, hay, grain, and cattle herds, along with a tract near Roswell, were among them.
Such business dealings convinced residents of Lincoln County of the close ties between the House and the Santa Fe Ring. Once again, evidence of the Ring’s activities came through those who were most vocally opposed to it. In the case of Lincoln County, the opponents were John H. Tunstall, a London native who arrived in the United States in 1872 looking to make a fortune, and Alexander A. McSween. Tunstall made no secret of his ambition to grab as much land as possible in the West. He hoped to control a ring of his own. Indeed, Murphy and Dolan’s grip on Lincoln County was something he envied.
McSween was a lawyer who had worked as bill collector for the House before throwing his support behind Tunstall. Little of McSween’s personal life prior to his move to Lincoln is known, but he and his wife Susan arrived in Lincoln in 1873. His ties to the House fell apart, however, following the death of Emil Fritz in June of 1874. Tasked with collecting Fritz’s $10,000 life insurance policy, he traveled to New York in the fall of 1876. After paying fees on the policy and subtracting his own expenses, only about $3,000 remained. Rather than turn the money over to Murphy and Dolan, McSween deposited it in his personal account.
During McSween’s trip back east, in February of 1877, Tunstall had arrived in Lincoln and acquired land on the Rio Feliz. The following summer he opened up a mercantile in town in direct competition with the House. Those actions alone were enough to gain the ire of Murphy and Dolan, yet Tunstall hired McSween to represent him in legal matters. In order to chip away at the brash Englishman’s gains, Murphy and Dolan persuaded Fritz’s heirs to charge McSween with embezzlement. As a result, McSween was arrested and he appeared before Judge Warren Brisol and District Attorney William L. Rynerson, both known associates of Catron.
Legal proceedings against McSween carried on between February and April 1877. Sheriff William Brady, a reliable associate of the House, carried out the Bristol’s decision to confiscate McSween’s property to pay the $8,000 bail. Like most Lincoln residents, Brady assumed that McSween and Tunstall were partners so he took control of the Tunstall store as well, the total far exceeding the $8,000 figure. Then, he moved to confiscate the Englishman’s cattle along the Rio Feliz.
McSween was a man who abhorred the House and wished to erode the power of Murphy and Dolan, but he equally abhorred violence. He never carried a gun, despite living in a time and place in which most people did. Tunstall, on the other hand, was not shy about the use of violence to achieve his ends. Although he dressed and spoke differently than most locals, anyone not aligned with the House tended to like him because they hoped that he could bring down Murphy and Dolan.
Tunstall therefore hired ranch hands that were not only hard workers, but who could also fight and handle a pistol. In the fall of 1877 an eighteen-year-old known then as Billy Bonney joined his payroll. Billy was born Henry McCarty, probably in New York, although some writers have variously posited his birthplace as Ohio, Illinois, or Indiana. Some have said that his birthdate was November 23, 1859, but that point has not been verified either. It is known that he moved with his mother, Catherine McCarty, to New Mexico territory where she married William H. Antrim in 1873. Catherine died of tuberculosis in the fall of 1874 in the family’s new hometown of Silver City.
After his mother’s death, accounts differ about young Henry’s stepfather. Some suggest that William Antrim was hardworking, but largely absent from his stepson’s life. Others indicate that the stepfather abandoned Henry. Although he had seemingly loved his life in Silver City, attending fandangos with the town’s Spanish-speaking residents and gaining a reputation for his charm, he fell into trouble and eventually made his way to Arizona and then to Lincoln County. By the time he found work with Tunstall, Billy was known by several aliases, including Kid Antrim and Billy Bonney. Not until his association with the violence of the Lincoln County War did he earn the moniker Billy the Kid.
Billy developed an intense level of respect and loyalty for Tunstall who, at the age of twenty-four, was just a few years his elder. After all, Tunstall was the first person to give Billy a legitimate chance to settle down and make a living. Billy joined others under the employ of Tunstall along the Rio Feliz in February 1878 to defend their employer’s cattle, and over the course of several days the Tunstall faction had several gunfights with members of Sheriff Brady’s posse. Then, on the evening of February 18, Brady’s deputy Billy Matthews and a few others encountered Tunstall and shot him down.
Matthews and Brady claimed that Tunstall was killed because he resisted arrest. Given the ongoing conflict between the two sides and the shaky legal ground that Brady used to justify his actions, however, most historians agree that Tunstall was murdered in cold blood. Billy certainly felt that way. Tunstall’s murder intensified the feud between the House and its enemies and initiated the Lincoln County War.
Over the course of the spring and summer of 1878, Billy led Tunstall’s men, known as the Regulators, against associates of the House and Sheriff Brady. Based on McSween’s experience with territorial and local authorities, the Regulators believed that there could be no justice in Lincoln County unless they made it for themselves behind a gun. Although Murphy and Dolan continued to back their network of gunslingers, their financial woes had worsened in early 1878. Strapped for cash, they mortgaged land and property, including the Carrizozo Ranch, to Catron for $25,000. As fighting intensified, Dolan dissolved the House and Murphy fled Lincoln and subsequently died in October of 1878 of alcohol-related complications.
Violence hit its crescendo in July. Between July 14 and 19, Regulators holed up in the Tunstall store, and then the McSween house, as open gunfire rattled the streets of Lincoln. In scenes that have been embellished and made legendary in films such as Chisum and Young Guns (among others), McSween ended up dead in the center of town and his house burned to the ground. During the “big killing,” as that week in July came to be known, Billy rose to prominence as the primary leader of the Regulators. Although the most intense fighting in Lincoln had come to a close, he helped the Regulators escape Dolan’s men, soldiers, and law officers for the next couple of years.
New Sheriff Pat Garrett located Billy the Kid at the Maxwell residence at Fort Sumner in July of 1881, after the fugitive endured a broken promise of amnesty from the territorial governor, court appearances, and a bold escape from the Lincoln jail. Other Regulators had fled the territory, but Billy remained behind. Most researchers believe that he refused to flee because he was in love with Paulita Maxwell, daughter of Lucien Maxwell. Her brother, Pete, did not approve of the relationship, and he alerted Garrett of Billy’s presence at Fort Sumner. In the dead of the night, Garrett took Billy by surprise as he went to cut himself a slab of beef on the Maxwell’s porch. Realizing that he was not alone, an alarmed Billy pulled his pistol and repeatedly asked “¿Quién es?” (“Who is it?”) in the dark. No answer came except for the bullet from Garrett’s gun that killed him.
Billy the Kid looms large as a legend of the Wild West, and he has come to mean many different things to different groups of people since his short lifetime. Numerous authors and filmmakers have alternatively sought to find the man behind the myth or to advance legends about the Kid. While he was still alive he became something of a hero to nuevomexicanos and Mescaleros in Lincoln County. He spoke fluent Spanish and he challenged a legal and economic system that threatened to dispossess both groups of people of their lands and resources.
Following his partner’s death, Dolan continued the enterprise in Lincoln although the power of the House was forever diminished by the Lincoln County War. Susan McSween lost her husband, but was able to rebound and gain a reputation as the “Cattle Queen of New Mexico.”26 For his connections to the conflict that came to light during federal investigations of the events in Lincoln, Catron lost his position as U.S. Attorney. Yet he retained the land and property he had acquired from Murphy and Dolan, and his nefarious Santa Fe Ring remained intact.
Historian Kathleen P. Chamberlain has argued that Catron did not “truly represent the forces of modernization” because “his own interests often dominated to the detriment of the territory.”27 If we see modernization as the events and trends that solidified the hold of capitalism, private property, and U.S. party politics on the territory, however, Catron was instrumental in the modernization of New Mexico. Although it is easy to take modern systems of economics and governance for granted, many scholars have emphasized the reality that various processes of “creative destruction” or “original accumulation” must destroy former ways of regarding things like land tenure or economic exchange to open space for their successors. Violent events like the Colfax and Lincoln County Wars were part and parcel of that process.
Territorial status structured all political, economic, racial, and social interactions in New Mexico between 1848 and 1912. Miguel A. Otero, Stephen B. Elkins, and other delegates to the U.S. Congress understood that their principal duty was to negotiate support for statehood. Before any real progress toward that end could be made, however, Congressmen and other powerful Easterners sought evidence that New Mexico territory was a modern, American place. Terms like “modernization” and “Americanization” lack precise and consistent definitions; they are largely subjective. Yet in the late nineteenth century, both were tied up in the notions of capitalist economic systems, the rule of U.S. legal precedents, speaking the English language, and adherence to the Christian faith.
Bishop Jean B. Lamy arrived in New Mexico for the express purpose of normalizing and Americanizing Catholic practices in the Territory. Yet as was the case in attempts to militarize the territory, remove its indigenous peoples, and assert new modes of land tenure, nuevomexicano Catholics pushed back. As in the earlier period of Spanish colonization, American colonization of New Mexico inspired much resistance. Measures intended to stamp out the territory’s dominant cultures were never fully successful. As we will see in the next few chapters, attempts to modernize and Americanize New Mexico Territory came in various cultural and entrepreneurial forms. In response, nuevomexicanos and indigenous groups found unique means of resistance and cultural resilience.
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I was first introduced to the writing of Julia Cameron decades ago with her ground-breaking The Artist’s Way. I have read several of her other books through the years, and they always have the same effect on me. They soften me, making me feel vulnerable and strong at the same time. She has a way of wiping away all the things that don’t matter and reminding me of what’s important, what’s possible, what’s meaningful to me. As I read her latest, Seeking Wisdom, I found those old tears welling back up, reminding me of what it is to be human.
In this 6-week program, you’ll find all your old friends. There are admonitions to do your Morning Pages, 3 pages of longhand writing first thing in the morning where you can get out all your worries, your hopes, your dreams, you fears. And there is the Artist Date, a weekly date you go on by yourself to find your joy. There are the walks you take by yourself, to seek out insights by communing with nature. And since the original Artist’s Way, she has added going to the page and asking for guidance and writing down what you hear.
The weeks themselves are a study in prayer. As Cameron shares her own prayers and answers, some of which are yes and some of which are no or not yet, she also shares a peek into her own life, her own struggles, her own fears, her own vulnerabilities. Most of this book was written during a particularly cold and snowy winter at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and she talks a lot about what is happening in her backyard. She has a pinyon tree whose branches fill with small birds when the snow starts. It protects them from the weather. And there are ravens and squirrels who gather around the bottom of the tree to feed on the nuts, carefully watched by her dog inside.
Repeatedly, Cameron comes back to this vision of her tree, a strong structure that offers protection and sustenance for those who come to it. It stands there, rooted deeply, stretching towards the sun, towards the stars, offering up what is has to those who need it. It’s like the prayers that Cameron talks about, the ones that keep her rooted and allow her to grow tall, the ones that offer her protection from her worries and food for her hunger.
Seeking Wisdom is a 6-week course in prayer, in learning to pray in the morning and at night, in learning to ask for help and express gratitude. It’s not about religion or churchiness. She just wants you to believe in and pray to a power that is higher than you are, a benevolent creative source that has your back in this world. She speaks to many of her friends throughout these weeks, from a wide variety of backgrounds and religions, and she finds out how they pray and how praying helps them in the big things and the small things.
If you’re wondering how this fits in with the creative recovery that Cameron is known so well for, you will see how her spirituality and her creativity are connected. The more she grounds herself in prayer, the more she goes back to the page to write. She writes this book. She starts a new play. She writes letters to her friends, and she writes about the guidance she finds in her prayers. Her prayers and her creativity are on full display, and her journey leads the way for anyone wanting a refresher on living the artist’s life she talks about in all her books, or for anyone interested in living a prayerful life.
Seeking Wisdom is more than a 6-week course in becoming more creative. It’s a course in becoming more human. It’s very personal, but it’s also universal. Working through these six weeks on prayer, questioning all the beliefs you have about prayer and finding yourself reaching out in prayer in new ways, you will find your spirit opening up in response. At least, I did. And I hope you find the same kind of experience when you encounter Seeking Wisdom.
Egalleys for Seeking Wisdom were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.
Seeking Wisdom by Julia Cameron brings a new 6-week program known as the 6 week Artist's Way program. This program builds on the previously published program in The Artist's Way and now highlights the importance of creative prayer.
Creative prayer requires calling on the help of a higher power during the creative process and is key to creative unblocking. The author shares 3 main types of prayer in this book: 1) prayers of petition; 2) prayers of gratitude; and 3) prayers of praise. This consistent with Christian faiths like Catholicism and likely exist in some form for other faiths. Interestingly, this program is much more faith-based than I previously thought. One chapter argues that spirituality and creative are deeply linked and that relying on and trusting in a higher power can improve your creativity. For example, the chapter asks you to respond to questions such as "I pushed God away when...", "If I believe that god could help me i would...", etc. As someone who is spiritual, this is certainly helpful for me. However, for those who adamantly do not believe in some higher power, this may not necessarily be the best fit.
This book also offers a bountiful amount of tips to try that make it easy for the reader to implement the work concretely. However, on top of that numerous anecdotes are provided that help push this further. In many ways, I could relate to some of the stories the author shared about her own experiences when writing. I think if someone wants to understand concepts such as Morning Pages and Artist Dates, I recommend the reader read The Artist's Way before reading this. However, for spiritual individuals needing an extra push in their creative pursuits, I highly recommend this!
Many thanks to the publisher St. Martins Press and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.
Fans of Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and other titles related to unleashing blocked or unexamined creativity will enjoy her latest, which is an exploration of the power of prayer. SEEKING WISDOM: A Path to Creative Connection (A Six-Week Artist’s Way Program) revisits some of Cameron’s recommended practices, such as Morning Pages and Artist Dates, which will be familiar to her longtime readers.
For this study of prayer, Cameron interviewed several friends and colleagues working in creative endeavors who maintained spiritual practices. Most of them had experienced some type of disillusionment with traditional religion but came to see prayer as essential to their creative work. She also documented the ups and downs of her journey in the writing of this book over a snowy winter at her home in New Mexico.
There is valuable discussion of prayers of petition, gratitude, and praise in its pages. Cameron’s sign at her desk, “Okay, God, you take care of the quality and I’ll take care of the quantity” is a wonderful reminder that writers need to just write. A lot. The spiritual exercises will make readers consider questions like “If it wasn’t too late, I’d try …” and “If I had no fear, I’d make ….”
Some readers who are more aligned with traditional religion may find her personal and intimate notion of God not to their liking, but I appreciated her explanation early on in the book of how for many of us, our vision of God is punitive and not loving and patient with our failings. By intentionally re-envisioning God as a loving force who wants us to create and give and reach out to others, we can maintain focus on the guidance spirituality offers and grow in both creativity and wisdom.
I grew distracted by the repetitive nature of both the interviews and the mountain home scenes in which Cameron voices her frustration with being confined due to winter storms but then observes her piñon tree/her dog/the ravens in the yard/phones a friend and consequently comes to term with her (temporary) isolation. It was hard not to imagine just how claustrophobic she must have felt during the early days of the pandemic, which during the writing of this book had yet to reach the US.
Every writer has their own voice and idiosyncrasies that appeal to their readers. But by the time I was on the third chapter, I was reading not like a reader but like an editor and becoming increasingly frustrated that the interviews with her friends and colleagues at various cafes over breakfast or lunch were described spoon by spoon, drawing my attention away from the experiences the interviewees recounted and focusing on their posole or oatmeal.
Although I understand the desire to create context, this wasn’t context that was particularly helpful. I came away feeling like the writing of SEEKING WISDOM had been a struggle for Cameron and probably for her editor as well. For this reason, I’d prioritize other titles of Cameron’s for my library, rather than SEEKING WISDOM.
As a longtime fan of Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way," I eagerly welcomed Cameron's latest effort "Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection."
The book is a six-week program largely grounded upon "The Artist's Way" with a specific focus on prayer and its relationship to one's expression of creativity.
As someone who is both a minister and a creative type, "Seeking Wisdom" feels like a natural fit for me and how I live my life.
However, sometimes a book just doesn't click. For me, "Seeking Wisdom" just never quite clicked as I simply couldn't find Cameron's unique rhythm and could never quite immerse myself in the world she's trying to create with "Seeking Wisdom."
"Seeking Wisdom" isn't a bad book. It's a book, perhaps, best suited for those relatively new toward viewing life and creativity through a more spiritual lens and learning how to tie that lens into their creative lives. As I already do this quite easily, "Seeking Wisdom" felt incredibly fundamental and almost paint-by-numbers.
"Seeking Wisdom" kicks off with Cameron's own personal reflections about her early days of creativity and how it was really seeking sobriety that triggered her exploration of spirituality and its tie to creativity. Instead of experiencing a creative decline as she reached for sobriety, Cameron discovered the opposite and found that her creative life, specifically her writing, began to be expressed in new and exciting ways.
From this discussion, "Seeking Wisdom" immediately leaps into Cameron's six-week program with each week devoted to simple exercises around prayer, spiritual exploration, and Cameron's well known Morning Pages, Artist's Dates, and Walks. Rather than offering a formal structure, "Seeking Wisdom" is mostly organized around Cameron's personal reflections and a series of "Try This" opportunities she introduces throughout the book along with chapter-ending check-ins.
Cameron's approach to prayer and spirituality is rather open. She intentionally widens the spiritual lens here and seems to be very intentional about not necessarily revealing her own specific path or if she even has one. She's very clear that spirituality is at the center of who she is - she simply doesn't necessarily define an organized expression of that spirituality. This works incredibly well for the book at times, though there are other times when the book's language feels overly ambiguous and, well, more than a bit airy-fairy.
Cameron's first three weeks largely center themselves around "types" of prayers. The final three chapters build upon this basic knowledge and more fully pursue applicability and immersion in prayer. I will confess I didn't always resonate with Cameron's views on prayer and found them, more specifically, a little too self-centered rather than God or Higher Power-centered. Prayer, for me, is more about relationship with God - it is in that relationship that creativity becomes fully expressed. As written in "Seeking Wisdom," prayer feels less about relationship and more about personal manifestation.
I simply don't resonate with that at all.
I found much of "Seeking Wisdom" centered upon Cameron herself. While many of Cameron's stories certainly connect to her teachings here, I found myself often wanting more "spiritual path" and less "personal story." I'm honestly not even sure I'd say that "spiritual path" is an accurate way to fully describe this program as it is nearly entirely grounded upon prayer which is, of course, only one aspect or expression of spirituality. While "Seeking Wisdom" offers many wonderful "Try This" moments, I found they didn't always have a natural flow that then led to creative connection.
Overall, it may seem as if I'm particularly low on "Seeking Wisdom." This isn't really accurate. I will admit that I find myself disappointed, an unexpected resulted considering this is an author who's long influenced my creative life. It's more that "Seeking Wisdom" still feels like a work-in-progress and there were times I found myself thinking to myself "Julia, get out of your own way here." There are times that "Seeking Wisdom" feels overly intellectual when it needs to surrender more to spirituality.
There will be, no doubt, those who resonate greatly with "Seeking Wisdom" and who will view Cameron's six-week program and it's familiar structure and guided moments with a friendlier lens. Indeed, there's most certainly an audience for "Seeking Wisdom."
I'm simply not it.
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Julia Margaret Cameron's working methods · V&A
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Find out about Julia Margaret Cameron's unique style of portrait photography
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Victoria and Albert Museum
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https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/julia-margaret-camerons-working-methods
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Julia Margaret Cameron was 48 when she received her first camera, a gift from her daughter and son-in-law. She soon transformed her home to accommodate her new pursuit:
I turned my coal-house into my dark room, and a glazed fowl-house I had given to my children became my glass house!
Julia Margaret Cameron
Before then, Cameron had compiled albums and experimented with printing photographs from negatives. On one occasion she printed a negative by the pioneering Swedish art photographer O.G. Rejlander, surrounding the portrait with ferns to create a photogram frame – a combination of an image made in a camera and a camera-less technique. It shows Cameron's experimental nature and provides a glimpse of her photographic practice before she acquired a camera of her own.
When Cameron took up photography, it involved hard physical work using potentially hazardous materials. The wooden camera, which sat on a tripod, was large and cumbersome. She used the most common process at the time, producing albumen prints from wet collodion glass negatives. The process required a glass plate (approximately 12 x 10 inch) to be coated with photosensitive chemicals in a darkroom and exposed in the camera when still damp. The glass negative was then returned to the darkroom to be developed, washed and varnished. Prints were made by placing the negative directly on to sensitised photographic paper and exposing it to sunlight.
Each step of the process offered room for mistakes: the fragile glass plate had to be perfectly clean to start with and kept free from dust throughout; it needed to be evenly coated and submerged at various stages; the chemical solutions had to be correctly and freshly prepared.
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Yet Cameron quickly devoted herself to photography and within a month of receiving her camera, she made the photograph that she called her 'first success', a portrait of Annie Philpot, the daughter of a family staying in the Isle of Wight where Cameron lived. She later wrote of her excitement:
I was in a transport of delight. I ran all over the house to search for gifts for the child. I felt as if she entirely had made the picture.
Julia Margaret Cameron
From her 'first success' she moved on quickly to photographing family and friends. These early portraits reveal how she experimented with soft focus, dramatic lighting and close-up compositions, features that would become her signature style.
From life not enlarged
In the summer of 1865, Cameron began using a larger camera, which held a 15 x 12 inch glass negative. She used her new camera to begin a series of large-scale, close-up portraits, which she saw as a rejection of conventional photography in favour of a less precise but more emotionally compelling kind of portraiture. She wrote to Henry Cole, the director of the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), that she intended this new series to "electrify you with delight and startle the world".
One photograph in this series, entitled Head of St. John, was a portrait of Cameron's niece May Prinsep. Lit from the side, with her hair loose, Prinsep appears androgynous, like a male saint. Cameron inscribed this photograph, 'From life not enlarged', to emphasise that the head was nearly life-size.
Cameron also produced a series of 12 life-size studies of children's heads with her new camera. These were intended as artistic studies, made with intensity and tenderness.
Her mistakes were her successes
Cameron included imperfections in her photographs – streaks, swirls and even fingerprints – that other photographers would have rejected as technical flaws. Although criticised at the time, these imperfections can now be appreciated as ahead of their time. In her work Iolande and Floss, for example, swirls of collodion used during the photographic process merge with the swirls of drapery, enhancing the dreamy, ethereal quality of the image.
We don't know if Cameron herself embraced these 'flaws' or if she simply tolerated them. We do know, however, that she sometimes scratched into her negatives to make corrections; printed from broken or damaged negatives and occasionally used multiple negatives to form a single picture, which tells us that she didn't mind a certain level of visible imperfection, at the very least.
One of her most extreme examples of manipulating a negative can be seen in a portrait of Julia Jackson. Cameron scratched a picture into the background of this pious portrait of her niece, to create a hybrid photograph-drawing. The drawing of a draped figure in an architectural setting evokes religious art.
She was not happy, however, with one type of imperfection: the appearance of cracking. She wrote to Henry Cole complaining that cracking had ruined some of her most "precious negatives", including a photograph entitled The Dream. She blamed her photographic chemicals for the cracks, while members of the Photographic Society suspected the damp climate of the Isle of Wight. Today's theory is that a failure to thoroughly wash the negatives after fixing them caused the cracking. She seemed not to be bothered, however, by the two smudged fingerprints in the lower right of The Dream.
Defective impressions
Our Julia Margaret Cameron collection includes 67 photographs that once belonged to her friend and mentor, the artist G. F. Watts. Watts wrote to Cameron:
Please do not send me valuable mounted copies… send me any… defective unmounted impressions, I shall be able to judge just as well & shall be just as much charmed with success & shall not feel that I am taking money from you.
G. F. Watts
His request for "defective unmounted impressions" explains why this group includes numerous examples of Cameron at her most experimental: figures stand out starkly against black backgrounds caused by missing collodion, faces swim in swirling chemical mists, or are framed by the lines of a cracked negative. Many are unique, which suggests that Cameron was not fully satisfied with them.
Viewed alongside those prints that we acquired from Cameron herself, the photographs she sent to Watts shed light on Cameron's working process and personal standards. They can be understood as unfinished sketches that she sent to Watts for comment as part of her process. The very 'defectiveness' of these prints suggest Cameron was a more discerning artist than assumed by critics, both in her own time and after.
Portraits, Madonna groups and fancy subjects
Cameron described her photographic subjects in the categories 'Portraits', 'Madonna groups', and 'Fancy Subjects for Pictorial Effect'.
For portraits, she often photographed her intellectual heroes such as Alfred Tennyson, Sir John Herschel and Henry Taylor, saying that she wanted to record "the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man". Selling prints of these photographs also offered the opportunity to earn money, since her family's finances were precarious. Within her first year as a photographer, she began exhibiting and selling through the London gallery Colnaghi's, where she used the subjects' autographs to increase the value of some portraits.
One of Cameron's earliest celebrity portraits is of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate and one of the most famous writers in England at the time. He was also Cameron's close friend and neighbour on the Isle of Wight. Tennyson moved slightly during the exposure, resulting in a doubling that gives the portrait a sense of vitality.
Another prominent sitter was the naturalist Charles Darwin, who had rented a cottage with his family on the Isle of Wight from the Camerons in the summer of 1868. Due to his celebrity, Cameron later had this portrait reprinted as a more stable carbon print.
The largest proportion of Cameron's portraits still featured members of Cameron's family and household. The powerful portrait of her niece and goddaughter Julia Jackson, depicted as herself, rather than a religious or literary character, is one of a series of portraits in which the dramatically illuminated Jackson fearlessly returns the camera's gaze.
In contrast to her portraiture of individuals, Cameron looked to painting and sculpture as inspiration for her allegorical and narrative subjects. She made some works as photographic interpretations of specific paintings by artists such as Raphael and Michelangelo. In others she aimed to create more generally what she described as 'pictorial effect'.
In aspiring to make this kind of 'high art', she also wanted to make photographs that could be uplifting and morally instructive. She was a devout Christian and also a mother of six, so the motif of the Madonna and Child was particularly significant for her.
The South Kensington Museum purchased many of Cameron's 'Madonna groups', depicting visions of the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ. Her housemaid Mary Hillier posed as the Virgin Mary so often that she became known locally as 'Mary Madonna'.
When she acquired her larger camera in 1865, Cameron continued to make narrative and allegorical tableaux, which became larger and bolder than her previous efforts. Her maid Mary Ryan posed as the title character of Tennyson's poem 'The May Queen' in the photograph May Day, which shows the English rural custom of crowning a young girl as Queen of the May on the first of that month. Cameron would later revisit this theme in two volumes of illustrations to Tennyson's poems.
Throughout her career, Cameron continued to work interchangeably between portraits, Madonna groups and 'fancy subjects for pictorial effect', moving comfortably between photographing her wider social circle and her closer world, including members of her family and household. Our collection of Cameron's prints is representative of her wide range of subject matter as well as the forward-looking and experimental nature of her working process.
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dbpedia
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https://libguides.nmstatelibrary.org/NMAuthorsBooks
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LibGuides at New Mexico State Library
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LibGuides: New Mexico Authors and Books: Classics
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Abbey, Edward (1927-1989)
Abbey is a well-known nature writer, best known for Desert Solitaire. He wrote two books set in New Mexico: Fire on the Mountain and The Brave Cowboy.
Anaya, Rudolfo (1937- 2020)
Anaya was an extremely versatile and prolific writer. He is the author of the quintessential New Mexican work, Bless Me, Ultima, which is always included in lists of the best New Mexican books. He has written children's and young adult books, the Sonny Baca mystery series, short stories, plays and poetry. In 2001, he was a recipient of the National Medal of Arts award. In 2015, Anaya was awarded the National Humanities Medal. The Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico has the Rudolfo A. Anaya Papers, 1960-2004; and also has made available the Rudolfo A. Anaya Digital Archive.
Austin, Mary Hunter (1868-1934)
Austin was a novelist, poet, playwright and essayist, who moved to Santa Fe in 1924. Austin wrote 35 novels, and is best known for The Land of Little Rain, set in California. She wrote one novel set in New Mexico, Starry Adventure (1931). Austin collaborated with Ansel Adams on Taos Pueblo (1930).
The Swiss-born archaeologist is better known for his archaeological publications, but authored a work of fiction: The Delight Makers.
Bradford, Richard (1932-2002)
Bradford is best known for his 1968 novel Red Sky at Morning, a coming of age story set in New Mexico. He was a staff writer for El Palacio magazine.
Cather, Willa (1973-1947)
Cather's 1927 novel Death Comes for the Archbishop is a work of historical fiction about territorial New Mexico, based on Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy's work building the Diocese of Santa Fe.
Chavez, Fray Angelio (1910-1996)
Fr. Chavez was a native New Mexican priest, artist, and historian. He is known for his historical and genealogical writing and also wrote fiction, short stories and poetry. The Fray Angélico Chávez History Library at the Palace of the Governor's in Santa Fe is named for him.
Chávez, Denise (1948- )
Chávez is a novelist, poet, playwright and educator who lives and works on the U.S./Mexico borderland corridor in southern New Mexico. She is a native of Las Cruces and is active in the arts community there. The King of Queen of Comezón won a 2016 Zia Book Award.
Church, Peggy Pond (1903-1986)
Church is a native New Mexican poet and author known for her evocative writings capturing the landscape and character of New Mexico. Her father operated the Los Alamos Ranch School which later became the site of Los Alamos National Laboratory. The House at Otowi Bridge is a both a memoir and biography of her friend Edith Warner that witnessed the changes on the Pajarito Plateau.
Evans, Max (1924- )
Evans, a former cowboy, is a painter and author who grew up in Lea County and lives in Albuquerque. He writes novels and nonfiction about the West, often set in northeastern New Mexico. His novels The Rounders and the Hi-Lo Country have been made into films. Evans' had two novels on 2012's 100 Best Books in NM: The Rounders and Bluefeather Fellini.
Hillerman, Tony (1925-2008)
Hillerman is an award-winning author best-known for his Navajo mystery series featuring Navajo detectives Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. The books are characterized by cultural sensitivity and accuracy regarding Navajo traditions and culture. Hillerman was born in Oklahoma, and attended a boarding school for Native American girls; he was one of the few boys at the school. This experience fostered an cultural understanding of Native American traditions and life. Hillerman was a decorated combat veteran in World War II; in 1952, he moved to Santa Fe and was a journalist at the New Mexican. He credited Santa Fe, with its rich artistic tradition, of inspiring him to become serious about writing fiction. Hillerman received a master's in creative writing at the University of New Mexico and joined the UNM faculty. Hillerman's papers are at the Center for Southwest Research at UNM. The UNM University Libraries also publishes e-Hillerman: The Tony Hillerman Portal, which includes curricular materials. His daughter, Annie Hillerman, is continuing the series.
Horgan, Paul (1903-1995)
Horgan won the Pulitzer Prize for history for Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History (1955) and Lamy of Santa Fe: His Life and Times (1976). He wrote more than 40 books of fiction and nonfiction. Most of his fiction is set in the Southwest. Horgan moved to Albuquerque with his family in 1915, and attended the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. He was later the librarian at the New Mexico Military Institute. His papers are at the Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music.
Jaramillo, Cleofas (1878-1956)
Jaramillo was a native New Mexican who was born and raised in Arroyo Hondo near Taos. She was a founder of La Sociedad Folklorica de Santa Fe (Folklore Society of Santa Fe) with the mission of preserving the traditional Spanish folklore and customs of New Mexico. Her books include The Genuine New Mexico Tasty Recipes/Potajes Sabrosos (1939), Spanish Fairy Tales/Cuentos De Hogar (1939), Shadows of the Past/Sombras del Pasado (1941), and her autobiography Romance of a Little Village Girl (1955).
La Farge, Oliver (1901-1963)
La Farge was an anthropologist who became familar with the Southwest through his fieldwork. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1930 for the novel Laughing Boy, about a Navajo silversmith. He moved to Santa Fe in 1946, and wrote for the New Mexican.
Martin, George R.R. (1948- )
Martin is of course best-known for his Song of Ice and Fire series, the basis for HBO's megahit Game of Thrones television series. Martin lives in Santa Fe, and is active in the community. He owns the Jean Cocteau Cinema, and is a supporter of Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and Meow Wolf.
McCarthy, Cormac
McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize for The Road and the National Book Award for All the Pretty Horses. He lives in Santa Fe.
McGarrity, Michael
McGarrity is a former Santa Fe County deputy sheriff. He is the author of the Kevin Kerney series, whose protagonist is a law enforcement officer. The series often features different ares of New Mexico.
McKenna, James A. (1851-1941)
McKenna's Black Range Tales: Chronicling Sixty Years of life and Adventure in the Southwest are stories of prospecting and mining in late 19th century New Mexico; features the Black Range, the Mongollon and the Gila. Considered a work of nonfiction, although poetic license likely taken.
Momaday, N. Scott (1934- )
Author and poet Momaday was born in Oklahoma to Kiowa-Cherokee parents. His parents taught at Pueblo, Navajo and Apache reservations in New Mexico and Arizona. After graduation from the University of New Mexico with a BA in political science, Momaday began writing. In 1969, Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for House Made of Dawn, which is set in New Mexico and California, and draws on his experience living at Jemez Pueblo. In 2007, Momaday was awarded the National Medal of Arts for his novels and essays celebrating Native American art and oral traditions. Momaday has taught at the University of New Mexico and the University of Arizona. He is an artist in residence at St John's College in Santa 2014-2016.
Nichols, John (1940- )
Nichols moved to northern New Mexico in 1969, and is best-known for his novel The Milagro Beanfield War, which was made into a movie directed by Robert Redford. Nichols has published 20 books. Author's website
Sides, Hampton
Sides 1986 work of narrative nonfiction, Blood and Thunder, tells the story U.S. Army's conquest of the American West. He recounts the details of Kit Carson's involvement in "resettling" the Navajo from their lands in New Mexico and Arizona. Sides is an editor at Outside magazine, based in Santa Fe, and was a 2015 Miller Scholar at the Santa Fe Institute.
Silko, Leslie Marmon (1948- )
Silko is a novelist, poet, and essayist, perhaps best known for Ceremony and Laguna Woman. Silko grew up on the Laguna Pueblo, and is the daughter of the renowned photographer Lee Marmon. Her often cited quote is "I am of mixed-breed ancestry, but what I know is Laguna." Silko is a graduate of the University of New Mexico. She is a winner of the McArthur Fellowship and the American Book Award.
Van Gieson, Judith (1941- )
Van Gieson has published two mystery series. The Claire Reynier series features an archivist at the University of New Mexico; the Land of Burning Heat is a personal favorite of the author of this guide. The Neil Hamel series features an Albuquerque lawyer, and two of the titles in the series, Ditch Rider and The Wolf Path, are on the list of 100 Best New Mexico Books.
Wallace, Lew (1827-1905)
Wallace was Territorial Governor of New Mexico from 1878 to 1881. While in residence at the Palace of the Governor's, he wrote the novel Ben Hur. He is also well-known for this quote about New Mexico: "All calculations based on experience elsewhere fail in New Mexico."
Waters, Frank (1902-1995)
Waters is a writer with deep roots in the Southwest. He was born in Colorado and lived in Taos and Santa Fe (and out of state). He was friends with Mabel Dodge Lujan and worked at Los Alamos National Lab. The Man Who Killed the Deer: A Novel of Pueblo Indian Life is considered his masterpiece.
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https://awanderingjewess.com/tag/julia-cameron/
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en
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Julia Cameron – A Wandering Jewess
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2016-09-01T04:12:59+00:00
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Posts about Julia Cameron written by LesleyPearl
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en
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https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/654232f79f17f105fa64196157b5f66be8dd99390d1b87973700b0105c6bec08?s=32
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A Wandering Jewess
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https://awanderingjewess.com/tag/julia-cameron/
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Many thanks to those who have supported my Go Fund Me campaign, “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain” — a post-divorce narrative of how 52 Artist Dates healed my heart and pointed me in the direction of my dreams –- and my goal of manifesting blog into book deal. It is a joy to share your stories in mine.
4 August
My friend Bob Conlin recently invited me to join a group challenge called 100 Days of Greatness.
Each of us chooses something, anything, we want to do for or achieve in 100 days. We answer a couple of questions about what we want to do, why we want to do it and how we will measure success. And then update the group at least once a week.
My 100 Days of Greatness? 100 Days of Writing and Editing “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain.”
My update:
“Day One. Forty-five minutes on manuscript. (I promised 30.) Setting a timer helps. Don’t feel like I made much progress … but I honored my commitment. Brava!
“When I was writing regularly the words seemed to fly off my fingers. The process, joyous. I am reminded of these words from my meditation teacher … ‘Our mind wanders, and we gently return to the mantra.’
“And I gently return to the page. The practice.”
Practice builds muscle. Momentum. And action begets action. I’ve been seeing this in my campaign. As I continue to commit to “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain,” others do the same.
Like the mother of a long-time friend from college (who wishes to remain anonymous). She’s been one of my biggest fans since I began blogging from Rwanda in 2012. She sent a donation earlier this week, adding a note that read, “I believe in you.”
Like my dear friend Kip Helverson, who in the swirl of life’s unexpected also found time to make a contribution. And Laura Silverman, whose own round-the-world adventures inspired my own. “Can’t wait to read it!” she wrote, along with her donation.
Many thanks to each of you, for your support — both financial and energetic. Seems there’s a place on the shelves for one more happy ending. — a post-divorce narrative where the protagonist sweeps herself off her own feet. (And without even trying … isn’t that always the way with romance?!)
5 August
“It’s not about the money….”
I’ve heard these words more times than I can count. In work. In divorce. In marriage. In financial decisions. My experience is, the moment I say “It’s not about the money …” it IS about the money.
And yes, this IS a fundraising campaign.
And yet, I have been delighted by the non-monetary gifts that have come from this effort. They are:
1. I’m having fun! When I’m writing my blog, a paid-assignment, or a piece to submit for publication, I toil. Considering each and every word. Not so here … Much to my surprise, I write these updates right on the Go Fund Me site. No cutting, pasting, perseverating, or wringing of hands. It’s an update or a thank you. Nothing more. An unexpected exercise in keeping it light!
2. I continue to gain clarity about my vision. Every time I write an update, I need to answer the question, “What is ‘They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain’ about anyway?”
It’s my story. About how I found healing after my divorce, not through the love of another person. But by romancing myself. That by committing each week to doing something fun, interesting, inspiring or different — Alone! — I began to see clearly who I was. What I liked. What I didn’t. And was able to step into a life I’d been dreaming of. A life as a writer. A life overseas.
Or, for the purposes of keeping it the length of an elevator ride, “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain” is a post-divorce narrative — told through a series of weekly “Artist Dates” — that offers a different option for a happy ending. One that doesn’t require a Prince or Princess Charming. But instead, where the heroine rides off into the sunset on her own white horse.
3. I’m not doing this alone. I do my best growing in groups. Weight Watchers. Twelve Step. My Artist Dates are solo. But publishing a book doesn’t have to be.
5. I’m connecting with all sorts of people from my past and present. Among them, David Hicks. I haven’t seen David or his wife since I left Oakland in 2007. And, truthfully, I’m not exactly sure when or how we met. What I do know is the connection was easy and true. And it still is.
Thank you, David for supporting my vision from across the miles!!
10 August
Sunday night. I am stretched out on the couch, laptop on my lap, considering digging into my past. Actually, not so much digging as reaching into … or reaching out to.
I would … except I’m not certain the interaction will give me what I want or need. Clarity. And a sense of connection.
So I connect to myself instead — writing.
(This logic of turning inward to get what I crave outward reminds me of what Woody Allen said about masturbation, “Don’t knock it — it’s sex with someone I love.”)
It can be any writing. Journaling. Blogging. In this case, penning A Go Fund Me update. As long as it brings me back to myself. To my life. The life I want. The life I am creating.
I hit “Post My Update,” feeling infused, inspired … and not the least bit interested in digging around in my past.
Funny thing happens … my past comes to me. Not in the form I think it might. But in contributions and sweet notes from people from my past, who are still part of my present.
Among them, my high-school creative writing teacher, Jan Mekula. Strangely, I don’t remember a thing I wrote in her class. (I do in others.) What I do remember is feeling incredibly safe in her classroom. (I didn’t in many.) Seen, honored and valued as a person.
Sharing my post on her Facebook page, she wrote, “My former student, a fine writer and amazing fierce brave human being.”
My heart swells and my eyes get teary.
I wake up the next morning to three more donations. (I’ll be thanking the donors individually.) It feels like a nod from God. “You’re on the right/write track. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
Like working on my manuscript — “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain.” A post-divorce narrative of how 52 “creative dates” (aka Artist Dates) healed my heart and pointed me in the direction of my dreams. A year living abroad. A life as a writer.
Thank you, Jan Mekula!
(Photo: Outside hotel in the South of France where F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald took up residence. Apropos for honoring my high-school creative writing teacher? )
Want to know more about “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain” — how 52 Artist Dates saved my soul after divorce and landed me smack in the middle of my own life — or how to contribute to my Go Fund Me campaign? Click here.
More words of thanks for those who have supported my Go Fund Me campaign, “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain” — a happily-ever-after, after divorce story … one that offers the possibility of joy without partnership –and my dream of manifesting blog into book deal.
29 July
Today I secured a freelance writing assignment … in the bridal space!
The universe has a sense of humor.
I was a little worried when I applied for the position as my most recent published work (Washington Post, XO Jane ) has been about divorce. I assured my new employer I would be delighted to write “from the other side” for a change.
Maybe I’m getting ready to pen “a new chapter?” Or perhaps it’s just a nod to my moniker as writer, a reminder that I have lived and can tell many tales. And that I am a fun and flexible storyteller … like my friend Tanya Gazdik.
Many thanks Tanya for your generous support of the “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain” campaign. And for your unyielding support of my writing for the past 25 years (Tanya was my first newspaper editor!) and my journey.
(The State News — where Tanya and I worked together.)
31 July
Early memories of writing …
First grade.
Journals on lined paper. I told my teacher, Mrs. Blum, the words I wanted to say. She wrote them and I copied them on the line below. A sentence or two. Sometimes I would draw a picture … me in my pink ballet shoes. My mother saved all of these until I was 25 and she and my father sold my childhood home. I insisted they had to go. But first, we read each of them.
A book on Paul Revere. We glued wallpaper scraps onto cardboard to create the cover and stitched the binding by hand. “One if by land, and two if by sea …” I had a tough time drawing a horse.
Third grade.
Letters to my aunt in California. She owned a stationery store and sent beautiful cards and paper for me to write on. She was my first (and only) pen pal. I often wonder what I wrote. And marvel at her commitment to corresponding with an 8 year old.
Several years later, upon my graduation from university, she sent me a Waterman pen. A luxurious elegance celebrating my commitment to my craft.
Yesterday, I received her donation to my “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain” campaign, along with a note: “No gift needed. The gift will be knowing that you will fulfill your dream (and a book).”
Thank you to my “somewhat anonymous aunt” … for supporting me in every step of my writing journey.
“They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain” — a post-divorce confessional, offering a contentedly solo happily- ever-after ending — promises to be a bit juicier than my 8-year-old letters or retelling of the ride of Paul Revere … but hopefully, equally heartfelt and true.
(Photo taken the same year I wrote about Paul Revere.)
1 August
Around the time I was leaving Chicago — for the first time, in 2011 — my friend Lisa said to me in passing, “I think you’re going to write a book.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“Because I do.”
Lisa has an economy of words that I am in awe of. She is a careful listener. Has (clearly) good intuition, the patience of Job, and a big, shiny heart.
Many thanks Lisa for your generous donation to my “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain” campaign, and for helping me tell the story of how 52 Artist Dates saved my soul, my sanity and my serenity after my divorce. How 52 Artist Dates gave my life creative structure, taught me how to really be okay with being alone and led me to a life I had only dreamed of. A life as a writer. A life lived overseas.
(Me and Lisa … before I left Chicago, the first time.)
Want to know more about “They Don’t Eat Alone in Spain” — how 52 Artist Dates saved my soul after divorce and landed me smack in the middle of my own life — or how to contribute to my Go Fund Me campaign? Click here.
I have not waited tables in more than 20 years. Until today.
As expected, not a lot has changed. Waiting tables remains a satisfying exercise in short-term relationships, being sassy and being shiny. Except orders go in via computer now as opposed to directly on the rail.
And my body has something to say about it.
After six-plus hours on the floor, I hurt in all the places I expected to. And some I didn’t.
My shins ache. And although I haven’t eaten in hours, I’m not hungry.
In about 18 hours I leave for Tennessee to visit my mother. I haven’t packed.
And yet, I am flying down Lincoln Avenue in a red and white polka-dot skirt, Fly London Wedges and bubble-gum pink lipstick. My bike lights are on. My heart is full. I feel happy.
Art trumps fatigue. Friendship trumps fatigue. Commitment trumps fatigue.
And so I land here, in a seat at the Steppenwolf Theatre. Artist Date 4.2 (or 120, depending on how you count).
It is the student showcase – the culmination of 10 weeks of classes at the School of the Steppenwolf Theatre. My friend Tom, one of the students, mentioned this a week or so ago. I penciled it in my book and assured him I’d be there.
Tom has built me a dining room table. Installed my air-conditioner. And is also a fan, dare I say devotee, of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.
I was never not going to be here.
Even though I thought about it. Even though my shins had other ideas.
One-hundred twenty Artist Dates under my belt and I’m still shocked how every single one shifts me. That the commitment in my calendar means something. My commitment to my blog. To myself. And in this instance, my friend.
That every time I begin, I feel delighted. Joyous. Like my heart might burst. No matter how or what I was feeling 20 minutes earlier.
That it really takes so little to make me happy … other than me treating me. Leaving behind the shoulds and have-tos for a little while.
Like when my aunt whisked me away on a few hours shopping excursion during a lull in the weekend of my brother’s Bar Mitzvah celebration. She thought perhaps a certain 10-year-old with a Dorothy Hamill wedge might enjoy one-on-one attention, and some fancy new duds for middle school – which she had gift-wrapped after we picked them out.
Going on an Artist Date is like that. Like being Aunt Ellie to my 10-year-old self.
Except I’m 46. My shins hurt. And I’ve grown up enough to have space and attention for the person on stage.
I didn’t for my brother. I was only 10.
But I do for Tom.
When the lights go up and the entire ensemble takes a bow, I jump to my feet along with half of the audience. Clapping wildly. Tears streaming down my face.
Pride? Joy? For someone else’s joy? Someone else’s accomplishment? Someone else’s art? Someone else’s heart?
I think Tom sees me – wet-faced and flared nostrils – but really, I’m not sure. It doesn’t matter. Because I can see him. All of him.
Because when I care for myself, I can care for and about others.
And unlike waiting tables … that has changed.
Every fiber in my being is telling me to go home. To send resumes. Work on my manuscript.
That I’ve been downtown too long already. Eating lunch. Shopping for sunglasses. Having fun.
That I don’t “deserve” it. That I better get back home and get cracking. Find a job and start making money. And until I do, I have no right “playing” like this.
It’s an old message.
The first time I heard it I was in my late 20s, when my event-fundraising contract was not renewed.
“Enjoy this time,” my therapist said. “Go to matinees. Museums. Walks in Golden Gate Park.
“Soon enough you’ll be working again and you’ll regret not taking advantage of this time … Trust me, I know.”
And she did. It had happened to her.
But I didn’t much enjoy that time off. Or all the other times I’ve been unemployed or underemployed since.
Not until a couple of years ago, when I took on the challenge of the Artist Date — the weekly, solo flight of fancy as prescribed by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way.
Until then, time not working meant time I scrambled. Wrung my hands. Ran the numbers. Sat in front of the computer. Somehow equating worry with work.
It didn’t work. And it didn’t bring me work. Just suffering. Which I seemed to somehow think I deserved.
When I took on The Artist’s Way as if it were my job, I saw the folly of my constant motion. And I learned, albeit slowly, to enjoy my underemployed status.
Friends marveled at my charmed life. Museum lectures. Book stores. Dance classes. Opera. I did too.
But deep down, a part of me didn’t believe I deserved it.
Perhaps it still doesn’t.
It is the voice that shames me for returning to Chicago after a year abroad and finding myself, once again, underemployed. And reminds me that unlike the years of 2012-2015, I am no longer receiving alimony. It says, “Be afraid.”
Even though I am doing all the right things. Sending resumes. Writing cover letters. Incorporating edits and feedback.
Registering with temp agencies. Seeing massage clients. Applying for non-career jobs.
Babysitting.
It insists it’s not enough. That I should go home and do more. As if the one hour I have set aside for my Artist Date – number 3.2 (119) – will somehow make a difference in my ability to secure full-time work.
Even though I have enough money for today. And even tomorrow.
I tell this voice to “fuck off!” and walk down Washington and into the Chicago Cultural Center. “Which, by the way,” I tell it, “is free.”
The effect is immediate. What I used to get from that first gulp of booze. What I used to think was magic in a bottle. Relief.
My chest feels flushed, my heart full. The voice is quiet. I am smiling.
I’ve been here dozens of times but today I am particularly struck by the beauty of the former public library. So much so I never make it to the exhibit on the fourth floor.
Glittering tile work. Quotes carved in marble. In English. Hebrew. Arabic. Chinese.
Light shining through the recently cleaned stained-glass cupola.
A poster that reads, “There are no degrees of human freedom or human dignity. Either a man respects another as a person or he does not.” James Cone.
Equally lovely.
I’d add, “…respects himself, or herself, or does not … enough to say ‘fuck off.’ ”
“Hello, old friend…”
I whisper the words to no one in particular. Smiling as I take a seat in front of Marc Chagall’s “America Windows.” Moments ago, the bench was occupied, but serendipitously it is free… as if waiting for me.
My friend Colleen invited me here – to the Art Institute of Chicago – to catch up over coffee and “peel off for our independent Artist Dates.” Number 2.2 (118) for me.
She knows me. The sacredness of my weekly solo sojourn.
We breeze through admissions and before entering the exhibit –“America After the Fall: Paintings in the 1930s”– (my choice), I kiss her on either cheek, holding fiercely to the traditions of my year in Spain. I wish her joy on her Artist Date and thank her for bringing me here.
Here. This place that used to feel like my home. But that I am acutely aware I am a visitor in.
Colleen’s visitor.
I used to be a member.
I loved sitting in on mid-day member lectures … the youngest in attendance by several times around the sun. Taking advantage of early viewings, free coat check, and complimentary coffee and tea.
But most of all, I loved the freedom to just “pop in” at any time … never worrying about “getting my money’s worth.”
I would always end up here. In front of Chagall’s Windows.
Usually I’d stand up close, looking for new details I might have missed. But today I find myself sitting back. Taking it all in. The whole of it.
It is a metaphor for the day.
The AIC is busy and the exhibit feels congested. I’m somewhat surprised as it has been up for almost two months now. There are a lot of children. And a lot of loud Midwestern accents.
It does not feel like mine anymore.
I snap photographs.
“American Landscape” by Charles Sheeler. Grimy and distinctly Midwestern. Something I kind of romanticized while living abroad. Kind of.
The frame from Grant Wood’s “Young Corn” which reads, “To the Memory of Miss Linnie Schloeman Whose Interest in Young and Growing Things Made Her A Beloved Teacher In Woodrow Wilson School.”
The rolling hills that make up the naked, female form in Alexandre Hogue’s “Erosion No. 2 – Mother Earth Laid Bare.”
The cartoonish characters and cartoonishly thick pain in William H. Johnson’s “Street Life, Harlem.”
I wander out of the exhibit and take a photograph of the words on a door across the hall – “A Lot of Sorrow.”
Yes, there is. And I am.
Moving is hard … even when I choose it. The place that was mine has changed. I knew it would. It did before. There are new inhabitants. There always are.
And yet, if I look I can still find myself here.
In the words leaping from the panels introducing the exhibit. Eerily appropriate today.
“The title of America after the Fall refers in one sense to the (stock market) crash, but is also aptly describes the pervasive concern that the nation had fallen from grace.”
“Regardless of style, many painters hoped their art could help repair a democracy damaged by economic and political chaos. The diversity of approaches made the 1930s one of the most fertile decades of American painting.”
In Archibald Motley’s “Saturday Night,” which I saw for the first time a little more than a year ago. On another Artist Date, at the Chicago Cultural Center. The date before the date – the one with the man who would become my lover for the months leading up to my departure for Spain. I smile and my heart aches just a little.
On the bench in front of “America Windows,” where today I see nothing new at all. The sameness – both beautiful and comforting.
“Hello, Old friend.”
My commitment to the Artist Date began as a response to pain. To a man I affectionately referred to as the Southern Svengali and the short, sweet romance after my divorce that I couldn’t let go of. I sometimes forget that.
I forget because the weekly, solo play date as prescribed in the book The Artist’s Way, healed me from obsession I only hesitantly admitted.
I forget because two years of creative commitment, coupled with other work, allowed me to release him. Us. And my ideas about the way we should be in one another’s lives. (Which looks dramatically different than I had imagined. And while our contact can now best be described as sporadic, the connection remains strong … sweet and satisfying to both of us.)
I forget because it gently nudged me into becoming the kind of woman I dreamed of being. A woman engaged in life in interesting ways. Who does interesting things. Who has interesting conversations about more than relationships.
But today, I remember.
I remember as I find a hole in my schedule and watch my mind like a rubber band – snapping back to thoughts of the man I dated before I left for Madrid.
While I know there is no slipping back into one’s life as it once was, I had hoped we might explore dating again when I returned. But it hasn’t turned out that way. And in these quiet, alone moments, I find myself once again struggling with letting go. Of him. Us. And my ideas about the way we should be in one another’s lives.
And so it is grace when I hear the whisper that perhaps now is a good time to re-commit to my creative self again. That an infusion of new stimuli might once again quiet my mind and lead me back to the woman who has interesting conversations about more than relationships.
(While a year in Madrid seemed to have the makings of one grand, extended Artist Date, my days were filled with the stuff of life. All occurring in a language not my own. And Artist Dates became, unfortunately, sporadic.)
I peruse the movie guide — more concerned with time, location and the act of going than what will be projected on the screen – and choose a film.
I cut short a phone call. Say no to a text from a friend asking if I would like company. Both occurring after I’ve made the decision to go. The universe seeming to ask, “Are you sure?’
And I am.
I hop on my vintage 3-speed cruiser and pedal to the Music Box Theatre. Artist Date 1.2. (Officially, number 117 … renamed for congruence with my rededication to the practice and my return to Chicago.)
Grinning ear to ear, I purchase my ticket. Giddy to be with me.
This has always been the magic of the Artist’s Date. A turning inward. A return to myself.
Ironic, as the movie I have chosen – Life, Animated – is a documentary about Owen Suskind, a young man with autism and the tools he and his family use to pull him out from his personal world.
How Walt Disney movies become the lens and the lexicon for connection. The language for articulating what we all want. Friends. Romantic love. Work. A sense of purpose. And what we all feel from time to time, what Owen calls “the glop.” The inevitable pain when the things we want elude us.
We join him in watching scenes from Bambi on his first night alone in his independent living apartment – after his mother and father have left. And later, The Hunchback of Notre Dame when his girlfriend of three years ends their relationship.
Heartbreaking moments punctuated with joy and hope, most evident when Owen connects with his own passion and a sense of purpose. His “Disney Club” – where he and other adults with developmental disabilities view and discuss their favorite films. And experience an unscripted visit from Gilbert Godfrey, the voice of Iago from the movie Aladdin.
I sob witnessing their squeals of laughter, excitement and disbelief … as I am reminded that the universe is full of surprises. That it is always willing to conspire with us. And that our greatest joys often come packaged in a way dramatically different than we might imagine them.
That gorgeous moments of serendipity occur when we turn first turn inward – connecting with our tenderest truths – and then out – vulnerably sharing them. We allow the world to join our party. And sometimes even Gilbert Godfrey shows up.
I appreciate a good distraction.
It’s Tuesday and today I find out if I’ve been accepted to the Yale School of Divinity. Of course, “today” is five hours earlier in New Haven, (Spain has not yet turned its clocks forward for spring.) so while it is nearly 7:30 p.m. in Madrid, it is only 2:30 p.m. in Connecticut. And, not surprisingly, I don’t know yet.
I mention this to Gordon, who is sitting next to me, and who expresses surprise when I tell him I have not been checking my phone every few minutes to see if the email has arrived.
I am equally surprised as I have vivid memories from not so long ago, of sitting at my desk hitting refresh on the computer every few minutes, waiting for I-don’t-know-what to happen. Not unlike my wandering into the kitchen to check the refrigerator every few minutes – each time imagining I might find something new added to the shelves since my last look.
Except I will receive something new via email if I wait long enough, whereas the contents of my refrigerator will remain static unless I leave my house and bring in something new. Which is essentially what I am doing now – once again filling my creative coffers. Artist Date 116. A distraction.
My friend Spencer developed the Unamuno Authors Series, bringing poets from around the world to Madrid. Tonight Mark Doty will read his work.
My friend Julie counts him among her favorite writers. A portion of her “fan letter” is included in the paperback version of Doty’s book, Dog Years. Later I will take a selfie with him and send it Julie via Facebook. But for now, I’m just waiting.
For Doty.
Not for Yale.
Because at this point I’ve turned off the sound on my phone. I don’t want to hear it. Or look at it. Or be reminded of it. My phone. Or Yale’s decision. Because I’m not sure if I can stay present in this moment knowing it. So I choose to remain in delicious, hopeful, not knowing.
Doty is a perfect distraction. Engaging. Both serious and playful as he reads his own words about dogs and fish, AIDS and murder. His mouth is tight, his words clipped with a “Locust Valley Lockjaw.” I wonder if anterior neck work (massage) might change the sound of his delivery.
My musings are interrupted by a poem about Doty’s old lover, gone now. He questions why he can no longer conjure up his face without first looking at a photograph. Feel the warmth of his brown skin against his own.
And why can’t I? D is neither dead nor even gone from my life. He is merely far, far away.
We haven’t seen one another in nearly eight months. Since I left Chicago. We do not Skype or FaceTime. This is his choice, not mine, and I do not argue it.
However, as the pages of the calendar turn over onto themselves, I have a harder time recalling his smell, his voice, and yes, even his face, without the aid of photographs and voicemails. I do not want to lose these palpable memories but it seems almost inevitable unless, until, we find ourselves in each other’s presence again.
I recall some years ago, speaking on the telephone with Stu, and then later, Jason – men I had dated when they were little more than boys and I, little more than a girl.
“Oh…that’s what you sound like,” I said upon hearing each of their voices. I had forgotten.
Perhaps this is the brain’s wisdom – making room for new smells, news sounds, new faces. Allowing us to move forward…from a relationship that ends in death, or in distance. From disappointment, words we’d rather than not read or hear.
“The Admissions Committee at Yale Divinity School has completed its review of your application. I am sorry to inform you that unfortunately, we are unable at this time to offer you a place in the Fall 2016 entering class.”
It is nearly midnight when I log on to the Admissions Page. After my Artist Date. After dinner with Spencer and Doty and his partner.
I think that I shake a little reading the email and that my breath catches – stuck in inhalation. That I cry a little too. But already, I don’t remember exactly.
I send Spencer a text, telling him the news, and I go to bed – too tired to do anything else.
And in the morning, I am again waiting. This time for a decision from Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music – my top choice for graduate school. I am assured it should arrive within the next few days.
Until then, I remain in delicious, hopeful, not knowing – distracting myself with dogs and fish and conjured up memories of old lovers. With art and words and daily life. With moments of presence.
Note: The entire time I was writing, I was certain the Katherine Mansfield quote referenced was “The heart I am in love with has to be a little bit wild.” It was only when I placed the photograph (above) into this post that I realized my error. That the quote was, “The mind I love must have wild places.” I am choosing to leave the essay as it was written, assuming it is the truth of my subconscious…that the heart I am in love with has to be a little bit wild…and honoring it.
“The heart I am in love with has to be a little bit wild.” (incorrectly attributed to Katherine Mansfield.)
The words are written on a wooden bookshelf with black Sharpie marker. I smile as I snap a photo to send to D – as requested – proof that I, this little bit wild heart he once loved, made it here. To Desperate Literature, Artist Date 111.
This mostly used, mostly English-language bookstore is about a seven-minute walk from my house – the other two locations are in Brooklyn and Santorini, Greece – but I’m only just now finding it. That’s how Madrid is. Lots of windy paths, disguised as roads, bumping into one another. Arteries and veins, as I like to call them.
There is an economy of space here, and it’s easy to miss so much as there are no familiar grids to zig up and zag down. One either stumbles onto a place or is told to go there.
In this case, the latter.
First by Naked Madrid – a must-read blog for non-natives looking for a local experience. And again by my friend E after she attended its “The More Eggnog the Better” Christmas party.
It’s noon – still fairly early for a Sunday “morning” in Madrid – when I stumble in and am greeted by a small man wearing small, round John Lennon-style glasses.
“Please excuse me for just a moment,” he says in a proper Londoner’s accent. “My father just texted, insisting I call him.”
I am charmed by his BBC accent. His familiar greeting. His use of the phrase “excuse me” – words I so rarely hear here, either in English or Spanish. It is simply not a part of the culture. Instead, it is common for Madrileños to push against one another on the metro and in the streets. The lack of “perdon” or “con permisso” considered neither rude nor noteworthy.
There are “Books for When You are Bored” here. “Sexy Books.” “Boozy Books.” (Which come with a shot of whiskey.) “Books for When you are Desperate.”
A vintage typewriter with onion-skin paper slipped through the scroll and a hand-made sign taped to it that says, “Write the poem.” Not A poem. THE poem.
A chess board with the words “play me,” written on it – also in black Sharpie marker. A copy of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass on the nearby shelves.
A small, children’s mattress stacked on top of a wooden bench built into the wall – the ultimate reading nook for anyone under the age of 10. Forty-six, I nonetheless settle in with a handful of books and consider the possibilities of words.
Meanwhile, the owner returns offering me a cup of ginger tea and an update on his father – seems he’s getting married for the fourth time – while characters from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, painted on the wall opposite of me, return my gaze.
I open Bill Bryson’s Notes From a Big Country. Four handwritten messages are scrawled inside the front cover. Among them, “Adios, hijo de puta. Que te rompan el culo en NY. Peter.”
And while I am still a Level A – beginner— in Spanish, I do know the meaning of “hijo de puta.” (My teacher Diego just taught it to me last week.) And I smirk.
I lean into Bryson’s first essay, “Coming Home”– about his return to the United States after a 20-year sojourn in England – and well up. I’ve been here just six months but wonder if I too will struggle to find the words I once knew, like spackle and anchor. Already I grasp for language, ultimately feeling like I speak neither Spanish nor English very well. I am told this is not an uncommon experience.
It feels like a nod from God…that I am supposed to be here.
As does Lefty Frizzell piped through the speakers, singing about Saginaw, Michigan – my mother’s hometown.
As does the copy of The Artist’s Way, propped up behind the front counter. The book that introduced me to the Artist Date. That I was looking for a copy of last week – my dog-eared copy tucked away in an attic in Chicago – to cite in my graduate-school application.
As does the Katherine Mansfield quote on the bookshelf.
Somewhere at my mother’s house there is a photograph of me sitting in Mansfield’s husband’s (Irving) lap in Beverly Hills. I am five-years-old, wearing a brown and white, gingham-checked bikini with cherries on it. My hair is wet and we are smiling big – both of us, in love with my little bit wild heart. The same little bit wild heart that brought me here.
I am sitting in a café in the old Jewish Quarter of Prague. I have just visited the Pinkas Synagogue where the name of every Czech and Moravian Jew who perished during the Holocaust is painstakingly painted on the walls, and art created by children from the ghetto at Terezin is kept on the second level.
Spencer leans into the table separating us. “I’ve been trying not to say anything, but…I still think you should be a rabbi,” he says. I am not surprised. We have discussed this many times. Probably as many times as I have considered it over the past 10 years. But something deep within me keeps me from it, continuing to say “no,” or “not yet.”
“Or, you could do what I did and go to the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale,” he says casually, continuing on to tell me about the program, his experience of it, and how and why it would be a good fit for me.
Hearing his words, my spine aligns. I am suddenly sitting a little more upright. I’m pretty sure I hear a puzzle piece fall into place and my whole body screams “yes.”
I feel like a bird of “pray”– that I have been circling this all of my life, or at least since I was 17, nearly 30 years – but that I only just now know what this is.
I have been circling this ever since my cousin handed me a copy of the Tao Te Ching the summer after my graduation from high school.
I have been circling this ever since I enrolled in my first religious studies course – a survey of Eastern religions – and met the instructor who would help guide my studies for the next four years. Who, when I called to say I had accepted my first journalism job – as a beat reporter with a Jewish newspaper – replied, “Of course you did. You’ve been seeking everywhere else. In India. In China. In Japan. It’s time to look in your own backyard.”
And so I did. First, as a curious observer – never quite stepping into the traditions and calling them my own – a “professional Jew.” Until it was brought to my attention that I actually wasn’t one. Although raised as a Jew (I was adopted by a Jewish family), I lacked the essential component that would actually make me one – a biologically Jewish mother.
I “remedied” my status in 2012 when I stepped into the mikveh (ritual bath) waters and declared myself a Jew by conversion. More circling. And returned a year later as part of my get (Jewish divorce). More circling.
During this time I learned to meditate – a daily practice which I have maintained for 12 years – and to create a personal relationship with a God of my understanding through the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. More circling.
I had long ceased to be a professional Jew – having trading my press card for a business card – and had become a personal one.
My writing similarly shifted, from telling the stories of others as a newspaper reporter, to telling my own as a blogger, an essayist – and now as an ISM candidate.
I am sitting at the tiny desk in my bedroom in Madrid. A red gooseneck lamp glows over the computer screen and the words above (and more) fly off of my fingertips. Effortlessly. I have been trained to write to size and I fill the 700 words allotted for my personal statement with four to spare.
But the writing sample looms. An invitation to showcase my best academic writing and critical thinking. “A portion of a senior thesis is acceptable.”
I have not been a university student in almost 25 years.
I am offered three topics to write about instead. I choose the first – to discuss an author, philosopher or artist, a piece of writing or art that has changed my way of thinking. Of looking at the world. And my career path.
I immediately know, the way I immediately know when Spencer mentions ISM for the first time in Prague.
The Artist’s Way.
The book I named my divorce companion in 2012 when only two things in my life made sense – writing and walking. The book I unearthed nine months later when I was on my knees, desperate. When my non-relationship – an out-of-town, weekend-long romance involving little more than kissing and talking and talking and kissing – had begun to affect my relationships, namely with my girlfriends, one who announced she couldn’t bear to hear his name ever again.
The book that invited me to take a weekly solo sojourn – creative play time, an Artist Date – which became the underpinning of my blogs and of my life. That allowed me to answer the question “How Has Creativity Changed Your Life?” and landed me in an anthology on the topic – the writing sample that has already been written, requiring only a bit of editing and massaging.
The book that is tucked away in my friend’s attic in Chicago. Highlighted. Dog-eared with notes in the margins. So I borrow a copy from a friend here in Madrid, filling in the blank spots of my essay with quotations and works cited.
I am acutely aware that I have been on exactly one Artist Date since arriving in Madrid six months ago.
I am sitting on a bench in Jardines del Campo del Moro – a little patch of wild tucked inside the city, behind the gardens of the Royal Palace. A place where, if I venture in far enough, I can escape the sound of traffic on a Sunday morning. Where I can hear my heart beat.
My second Artist Date in Madrid – number 110 if you are counting. I suppose I am.
I look up at the cerulean sky with closed eyes and the sun meets my gaze, creating yellow and blue circles behind my lids.
Less than 12 hours ago, I completed my graduate school application and sent it to Yale. It is in God’s hands now. But how I choose to spend my time in Madrid is in mine. If nothing else, this process – specifically the writing, rewriting and editing of my sample work – has reminded me of that, returning me to a truth I seem to have forgotten. That I create joy in my life when I allow myself to play.
When I forgo the laundry and the lesson planning for a few hours and allow myself to walk quietly on my tiptoes – like Bugs Bunny with a rifle – just to see how close I can get to a peacock wandering the gardens.
When I allow myself to stop and take photographs of bamboo trunks just because I like the way they look.
When I allow myself to talk with the black swan swimming in a pond of mallards, giggling as she cocks her read beak at the sound of my voice as if to say “que?”, the response of seemingly every Madrileño to my initial shy attempts at speaking Spanish.
When I allow myself to commit to this process once more – the weekly Artist Date – out loud. Announcing it to God. To myself. And to the swan – bird of “pray.”
“ “The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore
something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly
“artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the
imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the
play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well
of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask
yourself, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow yourself to try it.”
Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way
I tell myself that every day in Madrid is an Artist Date.
I am a liar.
I have been here a little more than 40 days. And it is true that most every day is a solo expedition – at least in part — and that most every day I am exploring something that interests me — my new home.
That there are moments of whimsy and of play, when everything looks like eye candy. Sun-washed orange and yellow apartment buildings, lined with rows of black iron balconies, that look like cardboard cut-outs against the navy-painted sky. Others the color of cotton candy, hugging a traffic circle that my friend Dirk refers to as “the big circus intersection.”
A man with two teeth playing accordion on the street. Another, with a full-white grin, feeding peacocks from his hand in Retiro Park.
Everything is new.
And yet my hours are filled with classes. With looking for an apartment and looking for work. (Blessedly, both have come to me quickly and easily.)
With scheduling appointments to complete my visa paperwork and to obtain a monthly Metro card. (No, I cannot just purchase one at the station.)
With navigating a new city and a new language.
Despite the creative inspiration surrounding me, my inner well has run dry.
I have felt this before, when my ex-husband and I moved cross-country – first to Chicago, and later to Seattle – when the work of the adventure of living some place new took so much out of us that we had little, if anything, left to give the other.
Our relationship needed tending to, but we couldn’t see it.
And now this relationship, mine to myself, does too.
I respond, purchasing myself a ticket to the Victor Ullate Ballet’s performance Samsara – Artist Date 109, my first in Madrid.
The ballet announces itself to me every morning on the Metro, a siren-like blur through the windows as the train passes from Opera to Diego de Leon.
At home, I watch a video clip online and feel that heart-leaping-out-of-my-skin-I-know-this-is-God-sensation I have gotten every time I see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
This, coupled with a Tuesday ticket discount and a single seat available at the end of the second row, proves an irresistible combination, and a few hours later I am walking up Calle San Bernardo to Teatros del Canal.
I’m giddy in that “I’ve got a secret” kind of way, which is not unusual for an Artist Date…except that something my friend Robert told me the day after I arrived has been banging around in my head ever since.
“Spaniards don’t do anything alone,” he said. “A server will bring a glass of wine to a woman eating alone because he pities her.”
This has been confirmed by others.
This does not bode well for a woman who travels alone, goes to movies and lectures and operas alone, who not only enjoys being alone but craves her own company.
And yet, no one seems to notice me standing at the bar eating a piece of chocolate cake – alone – before the performance.
And no one seems to notice me sitting at the end of the second row – alone — during the performance. Least of all, me.
I am too caught up in the music. In the movement. The costumes. The stories.
I am too caught up in counting the dancers’ ribs and watching beads of sweat literally slip sideways off of them.
I am too caught up trying to translate the Buddhist quotes projected on the stage before they fade away.
I am too caught up trying to keep my heart from leaping out of my skin because I know this is God. Because this is decidedly Alivin Ailey-esque — specifically Revelations, Part 1: “I’ve Been Buked” – and my body knows the motions, my lips know the words.
I am at once in my seat and in the dance, but most certainly not in the head of any Spaniard who might want to buy me a glass of wine because he pities my being alone.
It is a Revelation. It is Samsara, “journeying” – birth, death, rebirth.
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https://www.unity.org/article/listening-julia-cameron
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Listening in with … Julia Cameron
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"Katy Koontz"
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Julia Cameron discusses using your intuition to connect to your higher power to help you on your creative and spiritual journey.
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en
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/_nuxt/icons/icon_64x64.96d132.png
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Unity.org
| null |
Julia Cameron is the legendary author of the wildly popular Artist’s Way book series, which made its debut in 1992. With it, she introduced the world to the daily practice of writing Morning Pages (three handwritten pages of stream of consciousness thoughts), in addition to three other tools to boost creativity that she’s described in the series.
Most recently, Cameron has written about a tool she calls writing for guidance, a meditative process she says is a kind of safety net that undergirds the other three tools. You basically write down questions for a higher power, and then when you hear the answers in your head, you write them down, too, as though you were taking dictation. Cameron talks to Unity Magazine editor Katy Koontz about how creativity and spirituality are identical, as well as the roles gratitude, hope, and even humor play in the spiritual journey.
KATY KOONTZ: You’ve described writing for guidance as a creative form of prayer, and it sounds to me as though there’s some mysticism involved. Would you agree?
JULIA CAMERON: When you talk about mysticism, you’re talking about a feeling of connecting to a higher consciousness. And what I find with guidance is that you’re connecting to a higher self or a sense of things that are beyond the rational, although I think people have a tendency to want to avoid feeling too “woo-woo.” So I would say writing for guidance is a potent form of prayer that engages our whole being—body, mind, and spirit. It’s also a powerful form of humility in that when we ask for guidance, we are asking humbly to be led.
KK: Can writing for guidance be done any time of day?
JC: Yes. However, many people find it’s best immediately after Morning Pages. Morning Pages is also a form of prayer because the process opens you up to receiving guidance. It gets you ready to connect with your higher self. But you can do writing for guidance whenever you have a question, not just in the morning. Some people like to do it at night, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.
KK: I was intrigued that you mentioned people might be surprised by some of the answers they receive from this process.
JC: When we ask for guidance, we open ourselves up to an inner resource that you may or may not want to acknowledge as God. So if the guidance we get isn’t coming from our human minds, then it’s likely what we get will surprise us.
KK: Do you personally see this inner resource as God?
JC: Well, I’ve never been able to get a straight answer when I ask, “Who are you?” I have a friend who says, “Oh, they’re angels.” So I’ve said to them, “Are you angels?” And they respond, “We prefer to remain anonymous.”
KK: I guess it doesn’t really matter, does it?
JC: No, I open myself to higher forces in whatever form they exist.
KK: What kind of surprising answers have you gotten using this tool?
JC: Although I got divorced 45 years ago, I found myself recently saying, “But I still love him.” And then I said to myself, Julia, don’t you think that’s a little bit codependent of you? Surely you ought to be over it by now. I finally went to guidance and asked, “What should I do about still loving X?” and the response was, “Just love him.” And I said, “But doesn’t that seem codependent?” And the answer was, “Love is eternal.” I was instructed to stop fighting that I still loved him and just accept that love was eternal.
KK: You also talk a lot about gratitude as a powerful spiritual tool, in part because it brings us in touch with our guidance. How does gratitude open the way to guidance?
JC: When we are truly grateful, we are humble. We’re saying, “Thank you. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.” The statements may be something like, “I love my house,” or “I’m grateful my hair is wavy.” It can be anything and everything, and when we open ourselves to gratitude, we find ourselves being led. You might start out intending to write down a list of 10 gratitudes, but by the time you’re done with your list, you end up with 20 or more.
KK: I think one of the benefits of gratitude is that it raises your vibration.
JC: I think it does too. When we’re grateful, we’re stepping up a level.
KK: You also wrote about hope being a powerful force. What makes hope so powerful?
JC: I think hope is sort of like the mystical hidden side of prayer. If we didn’t hope our prayers were effective, we wouldn’t bother to pray. Hope for a better day tomorrow gives us a reason to pray.
KK: It sounds like you’re describing gratitude in advance.
JC: I hadn’t thought of that, but I think that’s a fair way to put it. I do feel that hope, gratitude, and having a sense of an abundant world are all important.
KK: Do you find seeing an abundant world to be difficult these days with all the disturbing news?
JC: That’s one reason I don’t listen to the news. I don’t watch television, and I don’t even do email. Not doing all of those things gives me time for my creativity.
KK: In the book, you share story after story about the use of humor. In one place you wrote, “If I can be funny, I get my power back.” What did you mean by that?
JC: When we are feeling lonely, desolate, or discouraged, it helps if we’re able to write a little rhyme about it. I use rhyme often. For example, in 1998, I wrote a crime novel. I got 19 good reviews, and then unfortunately, the twentieth review (by Bill Kent in The New York Times) was negative. The reviewer didn’t like Carl Jung, and my detective hero loved Carl Jung. I was feeling really down after reading the review, and then I thought, No, there’s something I can do about this. So I wrote a little poem:
This little poem goes out to Bill Kent,
who must feel awful the way
that he spent
his time critiquing Carl Jung
instead of on the work I’d done.
Afterward, I found that I immediately perked up. Funny rhymes like that are very powerful, and they’re fun to write. They always lift me right up.
KK: How do you see creativity and spirituality as related?
JC: Creativity and spirituality are one and the same thing. As we work on our creativity, our spirituality gets stronger, and as we work on our spirituality, our creativity increases.
KK: Is it possible to be spiritual but not particularly creative, or highly creative without necessarily being spiritual?
JC: I think it’s hard. I would say that all of us are creative. All of us are artistic. We may not have a particular creative practice like being a painter, but in a broader sense, we all have the power of creative living.
KK: How would you define creativity? Is it a perspective? Or is it a process?
JC: I see it as an influx of a higher power into our lives. I recently started trying to do more formal meditation, and I find myself using the mantra, God is creativity. It was powerful. I have always loved this line from the poet Dylan Thomas: “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower,” so in this meditation, I found myself saying, God is creativity, God is the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.
KK: When you started writing Morning Pages, creativity was also a survival tool for you, was it not?
JC: Yes, I would say that creativity gave me a way to move forward. When I got sober in 1978 at 29 years old, I worried that I wouldn’t be creative anymore. I thought writing and alcohol went together, sort of like scotch and soda. But people told me, “No, let your higher power write through you.” And I said, “But what if it doesn’t want to?” And they said, “Just try it.” So I tried it, and I found that my creativity flourished, so it definitely became a survival tool.
Creativity and spirituality are one and the same thing. As we work on our creativity, our spirituality gets stronger, and as we work on our spirituality, our creativity increases.
KK: You’ve often talked about Nigel, the clever name you gave your inner critic. Has Nigel changed at all over the years?
JC: Nigel showed up when I first started trying to write seriously. He said things like, “Oh, Julia, you’re boring.” Now, 45 books later, Nigel still says things like, “Oh, Julia, you’re boring.” I have learned to respond, “Nigel, thank you for sharing,” and then I keep right on writing.
KK: Another concept that you’ve written about is prosperity, most notably in the book The Prosperous Heart: Creating a Life of “Enough” (Putnam, 2011). In that book, you write that prosperity is a spiritual matter. Why is that?
JC: We need to learn to think of God as abundance. A lot of us (although perhaps not those in Unity) have a notion of God that has to do with scarcity. But to open ourselves to the idea of a prosperous God, we need only look at the abundance of the natural world. God didn’t create one pink flower, God created hundreds. So there’s evidence of prosperity and abundance all over if we look for it.
KK: In fact, you’ve described nature as being a portal to the Divine. Was that something you didn’t appreciate as much until you left city life for New Mexico?
JC: I think I always knew. When I lived in New York, I would go walking every day in Central Park. The park was verdant and abundant, and not just in the spring when you have the beautiful cherry blossoms, but throughout the entire year. I grew up in the country, and there was a path practically out my front door that led to fields and forests and rivers, so I always had a sense of God being abundant in nature.
KK: One of my favorite quotes from The Artist’s Way is: “The next time you are restless, remind yourself it is the universe asking ‘Shall we dance?’” What inspired that?
JC: I just think the universe does have a way of asking us to dance, and when we open ourselves to that, we feel a sense of merriment that infiltrates everything.
KK: I love how that puts a positive spin on a state many of us would consider negative. I see much of your work as reframing things for people. Would you agree?
JC: Well, I would hope so. I think my work is about considering the possibility of the positive. We live in a culture that is predominantly negative, and as you consider the possibility that the culture is wrong, you begin to move in a positive direction. This is where a community is important. I think Unity is important, for example, and I also think 12-step programs are important.
At first, I had to train myself to be positive. I have a friend named Jeannette who was a tremendous help to me in that regard. She always has me count the positives in my day. She would say, “Did you do your Morning Pages?” And I would say, “Well, yes.” Then she’d say, “Well, that’s a positive, isn’t it? Did you walk on your treadmill today?” And I would say, “Well, yes.” And she’d say, “Well, that’s a positive. Did you have three good meals?” And by the time we were done counting, we had 10 positives. Now it comes more naturally, but it took training.
KK: What was the hardest part of that training?
JC: Starting it. Starting is always the hardest part.
KK: You began writing Morning Pages after you moved to Taos from Chicago. How did the idea come to you?
JC: It was just an inspiration. I was living at the end of a dirt road in an adobe house, and I was lonely. I found that when I sat down and wrote three pages, I was less lonely—I think it was because it gave me a sense of having a witness.
KK: I want to acknowledge your earliest writing work, which started with a job at The Washington Post after college in the 1970s. You were hired in part to open the mail, and then you talked your boss into allowing you to write for the “Style” section. How did you accomplish that?
JC: The editor in chief of my section said to me one day, “Julia, you look depressed,” and I said, “I just finished typing tomorrow’s section, and it’s terrible.” He said, “Well, if you think you could do any better, go ahead!” And then he went out to dinner. While he was out, I wrote my first piece, and when he came back and read what I had written, he said, “It would seem I owe you an apology.” That’s how I started writing for them.
KK: That was quite a feat in those days, especially for a woman.
JC: To tell you the truth, I never thought of it that way. People will also say to me, “You worked for Rolling Stone. That was an old boy’s network,” and again, I just didn’t think of it that way at the time. I think by not thinking about it, it made it easier for me.
The Artist’s Way Tools
Morning Pages are three pages of stream of consciousness writing, done by hand, first thing in the morning. You can write about anything and everything that comes to mind. This is best done as soon as possible after you awaken, and absolutely before you pick up your phone or have a conversation.
Artist’s Date is going on a fun and playful solo expedition for at least two hours once a week with the goal of finding inspiration. You could go to a museum or a gallery, for example, but it doesn’t have to be art-related—it can be any place where you can experience something new.
Walking is going for a 20-minute walk by yourself to integrate. This can often help you work out a problem because it can become both meditative and inspirational and so it opens you to inner guidance.
Writing for guidance is a meditative process of writing out questions, listening for the answers, and writing down whatever you hear from your inner wisdom. It connects you to your higher power through your intuition.
Julia Cameron is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 40 books, as well as a poet, songwriter, television filmmaker, and playwright. Her first book, The Artist’s Way (Tarcher/Perigee, 1992), sold more than 5 million copies and has been translated into 40 languages. She’s given lectures and workshops on creativity around the world and now teaches a 12-week online course. Visit juliacameronlive.com.
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https://ernestthompsonseton.com/seton-in-new-mexico-1928-1946/
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Seton in New Mexico 1928-1946
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"David L. Witt"
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2022-06-13T23:16:13+00:00
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Ernest Thompson Seton, during the last 18 years of his life, moved to New Mexico, adopted a child, and toured Europe.
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en
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Ernest Thompson Seton Legacy Project
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https://ernestthompsonseton.com/seton-in-new-mexico-1928-1946/
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Seton in conversation with wolf, 1930s
I might have called this: The Last Chapter, although running 18 years, it would be another long one if including all detail. By 1928 Seton completed his magus opus, Lives of Game Animals. Afterwards, his production of new titles slowed down considerably. These included one final compilation of animal stories, two animal biographies, an autobiography, and a monograph on the legacy of Native American peoples. (See Seton Annotated Publications)
The major development, however, was his decision abandon New York and Connecticut to make a new beginning in New Mexico. Seton had probably been thinking about his next move for some time, but by 1928 he and his secretary (and lover) Julia Moss Buttree began an organized search for a new home. They settled on looking in the area surrounding Santa Fe.
Seton gave almost no reason for why he made the change. One clue, from Trail of an Artist-Naturalist, described the metaphysical dimension. Seton’s mystical side, “The Buffalo Wind,” a series of spiritual crises (not necessarily bad), which had guided him throughout his life, occurred again, this time directing him to go West. (“the Call of the West was ever in my heart.”)
Why He Moved To New Mexico
I can share my observations for what lay behind the move.
Just as he had fled New Mexico decades earlier after the death of Lobo, the situation now reversed. There were ample reasons to leave the Northeast. A failed marriage, the disastrous relationship with the Boy Scouts, the foundering of his Woodcraft movement, and drop-off from the height of his celebrity status in New York suggested trying something different. New Mexico held certain advantages. He already knew at least a few people in Santa Fe and its having a strong art and literary scene must have appealed. The mild, sunny climate, beautiful mountain and desert scenery, and relatively inexpensive land and labor prices proved irresistible to a naturalist with a great love of open country.
He could buy a lot of land (a huge expanse compared to anything in Greenwich) and build his third and final Seton Castle (1932-1934 for the main building). The “Lobo” legacy gave Seton a historical tie to the land—Lobo’s Currumpaw was just a few hours to the Northeast. He founded Seton Village, a group of homes around a central plaza that continues to thrive today.
Left unstated, but of high importance, was Seton’s growing appreciation of indigenous culture(s). Seton had established his honoring of traditional Native American life in his extended essay, “Spartans of the West,” (1912) with a deeper examination of one aspect, Plains Indian sign language in Sign Talk (1918). Over the years, apparently influenced by his friends Charles Eastman and Pauline Johnson, among others, Seton’s appreciation of contemporary Indians deepened as he came to understand the cultures as living, not just something from the past. New Mexico was very much “Indian Country.” He seems to have developed close friendships with people from San Illdefonso Pueblo and likely among other tribes as well.
Seton set up a training program for Woodcraft adult leaders in conjunction with a children’s summer camp (1931-1940). He took U.S. citizenship in 1931, married Julia Moss in 1935, and toured Europe with her in 1936 where he made a radio broadcast from Prague calling for world peace.
Name Changing
Most importantly for their personal lives, Seton and Julia adopted a newborn child in 1938, naming her Beulah. Like just about everyone in the extended Seton family, she later changed her name. Beulah became Dee. The examples of name-changing go back generations to when his ancestors changed their last name from Cameron to Thompson. (Seton and some of his brothers took the name of their distant relatives, the famous Setons of Scotland.) Seton’s first daughter Ann, published novels as Anya. Julia’s family name had been Moses before changing it to the less Jewish-sounding Moss.
Remarkably for a man of his generation, Seton remained in relatively good health until his final year. He and Julia had continued their wanderings across America giving lectures on Native American cultures and no doubt, reciting the Lobo story. This seems to have mostly ended by the beginning of the war if not before. During the 1940s the couple continued to leave for warmer climes during the winter, Seton Castle being more imposing than practical during the cold season in New Mexico.
Two Canines To Mention
Seton published one more book with the help of his friend the philosopher Manly Hall. He had considered writing about the use of canines in wartime, but settled for a single story about a heroic dog serving in the French army during World War I.
Seton died at home in his bedroom at Seton Castle on October 23, 1946. Although he had long since faded from celebrity status, Time magazine, the New York Times, and other publications noted his passing. Many of his books have remained in print since their first publication, including Wild Animals I Have Known (1898). Not a bad record for any author.
Seton kept his views of the hereafter to himself, although he held out the possibility that the “Trail” might continue onward, finally arriving at a river, continuing to the sea. (Buffalo Wind.) If so, perhaps there he found Lobo and at last made amends.
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Creativity is a spiritual practice: A week-by-week synopsis of how The Artist's Way changed my life and helped me work through burnout
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How The Artist's Way helped me keep promises to myself, pay attention, and build a creative practice. A detailed report of my experience reading The Artist's Way and why you should read it too if you're feeling stuck.
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This isn't my first rodeo #
I started reading The Artist's Way in July 2021. This post will be a detailed report of my experience working through the twelve-week program.
This is my second time reading The Artist's Way. The first was late 2019 through early 2020 (I finished right before lockdowns in my city), as I was working through a year-long period of burnout.
The first time was enlightening for sure. But this second time has been life-changing. I mostly attribute the difference to two big life changes:
I started attending weekly therapy sessions earlier this year.
I quit the job that was making me feel burned out, and have fully adjusted to working remotely, which means no more 3 hour commute!
"Getting unstuck" or "unblocked" is one of the aims of The Artist's Way, and I can say that these two life changes gave me the momentum I needed to re-devote myself to my creative practice.
Perhaps reading the book the first time around was a catalyst for some of these big changes? If that's the case, I recommend you start now, do the twelve-week program, let it all marinate, and return to it again in a year or two. Unblocking your inner artist is a process—it likely won't happen all at once. There will be "Creative U-Turns."
In working with this book, remember that The Artist's Way is a spiral path. You will circle through some of the issues over and over, each time at a different level. There is no such thing as being done with an artistic life. Frustrations and rewards exist at all levels on the path. Our aim here is to find the trail, establish our footing, and begin the climb. The creative vistas that open will quickly excite you.
The first time reading The Artist's Way prepared me for the second time, where I felt real transformation in my beliefs and my body.
Read My favorite creative manifestos for artists: Inspiration for when you're feeling blocked or burnt out
"The basic principles of The Artist’s Way" by teacher, author, writer, poet, and playwright Julia Cameron #
Cameron introduces these ten basic principles in the first few pages of The Artist's Way. You'll see the word God throughout these principles, a word that may or may not resonate with you. Cameron encourages us to think of our creativity as a spiritual practice, and to get curious about the spiritual electricity that we manifest when we're creating. Feel free to replace "God" with whatever word resonates most for you: Source, Spirit, Creative Force, The Great Creator, Benevolent Universe, Goddess, etc.
Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.
There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life--including ourselves.
When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives.
We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.
As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle though powerful changes are to be expected.
It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.
The two main practices of The Artist's Way program are (1) Morning Pages, daily three pages of free-form writing, and (2) Artist Dates, weekly fun and inspirational solo outings.
When I first read The Artist's Way in 2019 I was strict about completing these daily and weekly tasks. This time around, I was more lenient.
How I do Morning Pages #
Toward the beginning of the book, weeks one through four, I did my Morning Pages some days, but almost never in the morning. Mostly because it doesn't work with my schedule. I start working pretty immediately after waking (my team is on East Coast time) and then finish around 3 PM. After that is when I'd write my pages.
I do think Morning Pages are something you should experiment with if you've never tried them before. I tend to alternate among different mediums. Sometimes I write in a physical notebook, or I pay $5 per month for 750words.com, or I use a Notion list.
I'm not strict about Morning Pages because I struggle to blabber on for 750 words without wanting to work on something I'm excited about, which is the goal of the pages anyway!
Sometimes in the pages I'll think up ideas to write in a blog post or newsletter, so whenever I'm blocked or depressed or frustrated I do find myself turning to a blank page and writing three pages stream-of-consciousness-style.
Lately, I've been doing more artistic journaling, and that has somewhat replaced my Morning Pages practice.
My Artist Dates have been more sporadic than I'd like, but in general these have become part of my creative practice since 2019. I love hanging out alone! It does take a bit of planning ahead for me to make these dates happen, but I've come to really enjoy treating myself in this way.
Most often my Artist Dates include a simple walk to a coffee shop where I sit and read a book for an hour or so. That's it. Super simple. No fuss. So much joy.
This summer I took myself on a date to the zoo and made a short video about it:
@samandrewsmakes
This is your sign to take your inner child on a date #therapy #innerchild #artistdate #artistway #innerchildhealing #healing
♬ original sound - Sam Andrews
Week 1: Recovering a sense of safety #
This week focused on uncovering my core negative beliefs and dissolving them through positive affirmations. I admit, I felt a little jaded reading this chapter and working through the exercises.
I know I have a horribly mean inner critic, but why do I have to write down all of the mean things she says to me!?
I've been blocked for so long. What's different about this time? How are these positive affirmations going to help me make art?
I felt resistance. Sometimes, affirmations feel hokey.
When I wrote down an affirmation, I found the voice of my inner critic, or Censor, chiming in with objections.
I wrote them anyway.
I am a brilliant and prolific artist.
I am destined to be a successful artist.
My creativity inspires people.
My creativity changes the world.
New beginnings #
In addition to starting The Artist's Way program this week, I started a new job. This was a big deal since my previous job was contributing to a lingering sense of burnout that I just couldn't shake. The new job is remote, only 35 hours a week, and not nearly as stressful.
I also had an introductory call with a career coach, someone who I hoped could help me navigate some of my artistic blocks. The consultation went well and I booked a series of coaching sessions.
Week 2: Recovering a sense of identity #
This week's chapter focused on the ways in which healing my inner artist will inevitably result in big and small changes to my personal identity. I explored some of the roadblocks I may encounter and how to navigate them.
The main culprits:
Poisonous playmates, or, the people in my life who are themselves blocked artists. My recovery is threatening to these people.
Be very careful to safeguard your newly recovering artist. Often, creativity is blocked by our falling in love with other people's plans for us. We want to set aside time for our creative work, but we feel we should do something else instead. As blocked creatives, we focus not on our responsibilities to ourselves, but on our responsibilities to others. We tend to think such behavior makes us good people. It doesn't. It makes us frustrated people.
I admit I think I've let a few poisonous playmates keep me blocked in the past. Setting boundaries is hard, but this piece of encouragement keeps me moving through my artistic recovery:
Soon enough, the techniques you learn will enable you to teach others. Soon enough, you will be a bridge that will allow others to cross over from self-doubt into self-expression. For right now, protect your artist by refusing to show your morning pages to interested bystanders or to share your artist date with friends. Draw a sacred circle around your recovery. Give yourself the gift of faith. Trust that you are on the right track. You are.
Crazymakers, or, the people in my life who expect special treatment, discount my reality, spend my time and money, create drama, destroy schedules, and, most importantly, deny that they are crazymakers. Basically, these people are narcissists, and allowing them space in my life is ultimately self-destructive.
If you are involved now with a crazymaker, it is very important that you admit this fact. Admit that you are being used—and admit that you are using your own abuser. Your crazymaker is a block you chose yourself, to deter you from your own trajectory. As much as you are being exploited by your crazymaker, you, too are using that person to block your creative flow.
Crazymakers are my kryptonite, unfortunately. It's taken a lot of therapy to help me recover from my codependence. The good news is that I'm healing and have made giant leaps of progress in setting boundaries that protect my energy. I highly recommend looking at your relationships with this lens to prepare for real artistic recovery.
Skepticism, or, my inner secret doubt that is keeping me from trusting the recovery process. It's hard to admit that, perhaps, the universe is paying attention to my recovery, and giving small cues that I'm on the right path.
Now that we are in creative recovery, there is another approach we need to try. To do this, we gently set aside our skepticism—for later use, if we need it—and when a weird idea or coincidence whizzes by, we gently nudge the door a little further open.
More than anything else, creative recovery is an exercise in open-mindedness. Again, picture your mind as that room with the door slightly ajar. Nudging the door open a bit more is what makes for open-mindedness. Begin, this week, to consciously practice opening your mind.
Addiction to fantasy, or, not paying attention to right here and now.
Very often, a creative block manifests itself as an addiction to fantasy. Rather than working or living the now, we spin our wheels and indulge in daydreams of could have, would have, should have. One of the great misconceptions about the artistic life is that it entails great swathes of aimlessness. The truth is that a creative life involves great swathes of attention. Attention is a way to connect and survive.
This was perhaps my favorite part of the week two chapter. I love the idea of paying attention as an antidote to all the worrying and future proofing.
New places, new perspectives #
This week I visited my good friend in Seattle—my first time traveling since March 2020. We danced, attended a wedding, and went whale watching.
Being in a different environment is always a little uncomfortable for me. As an introvert and homebody, I thrive on routine. But there is such thing as too much routine that lends to me feeling stuck.
As expected, the time away was refreshing. I think it jumpstarted a few changes that didn't fully come to fruition until weeks four or five. Proof that good things take time.
Week 3: Recovering a sense of power #
This week provides tips and resources for dealing with anger, shame, synchronicity, criticism, and growth. Below are some of my favorite quotes from the chapter:
Anger
Sloth, apathy, and despair are the enemy. Anger is not. Anger is our friend. Not a nice friend. Not a gentle friend. But a very, very loyal friend. It will always tell us when we have been betrayed. It will always tell us when we have betrayed ourselves. It will always tell us that it is time to act in our own best interests.
Anger is not the action itself. It is action's invitation.
Synchronicity
We like to pretend it is hard to follow our heart's dreams. The truth is, it is difficult to avoid walking through the many doors that will open. Turn aside your dream and it will come back to you again. Get willing to follow it again and a second mysterious door will swing open.
Shame
Making a piece of art may feel a lot like telling a family secret. Secret telling, by its very nature, involves shame and fear. It asks the question "What will they think of me once they know this?" This is a frightening question, particularly if we have ever been made to feel ashamed for our curiosities and explorations—social, sexual, spiritual.
Setting a boundary #
I remember this week being busy due to an event I was planning. Even though the event was fun and celebratory, I don't think it came at a good time for my artistic recovery. I found the process stressful and it left little time or energy for creative work. Since learning this about myself, I've set a boundary, where I'm not organizing events for a while. Instead, I'm opting for smaller, more intimate opportunities to connect with friends. Like baking a batch of cinnammon rolls and inviting one or two friends over to share.
Week 4: Recovering a sense of integrity #
The process of identifying a self inevitably involves loss as well as gain. We discover our boundaries, and those boundaries by definition separate us from our fellows. As we clarify our perceptions, we lose our misconceptions. As we eliminate ambiguity, we lose illusion as well. We arrive at clarity, and clarity creates changes.
The life changing magic of getting the f*** out of the house #
I met with my career coach for the first time this week, and as homework I was tasked with keeping a small promise to myself every day for two weeks. The promise I made was simple: Every day at 3:30 PM, walk to a nearby coffee shop.
Looking back now, the birth of this habit arguably changed everything for my artistic recovery. For the first time in a long time, I was keeping a promise with myself, and it felt amazing.
At home, I was completing little tasks that I'd left undone for months. Sending an email. Going to the post office. Donating clothes to secondhand shops. Posting furniture on Craigslist and pocketing a little extra cash.
The crazy part is that Cameron predicted this shift would happen this week:
When the search-and-discard impulse seizes you, two crosscurrents are at work: the old you is leaving and grieving, while the new you celebrates and grows strong. As with any rupture, there is both tension and relief. Long-seated depression breaks up like an ice floe. Long-frozen feelings that, melt, cascade, flood, and often overrun their container (you). You may find yourself feeling volatile and changeable. You are.
I also started attending pole fitness classes, which has become another creative outlet. Getting my body moving in a new and challenging environment has definitely improved my mood.
Overall, the theme of this week for me was momentum. I felt a shift in my energy. Things coming together.
Week 5: Recovering a sense of possibility #
The question "Are you self-destructive?" is asked so frequently that we seldom hear it accurately. What it means is Are you destructive of your self? And what that really asks us is Are you destructive of your true nature?
This prompt stuck with me in week five. I realized that I can be very destructive of my true nature, but not in the ways you'd expect. I don't get drunk and ruin relationships. I exercise. I eat healthy (for the most part). I show up for work with a positive and collaborative attitude.
But I do say yes to commitments out of responsibility, rather than enthusiasm.
I run errands on an empty stomach and then get an inevitable grumpy headache.
I scroll TikTok, Instagram, Twitter in a seemingly endless loop instead of getting my beauty sleep.
I don't keep promises to myself to write or make art.
Most of my self-destructive tendencies look like me not taking care of myself. But it took asking the question, "am I destructive of my true nature?" to understand that not taking care of even my smallest needs is an act of abandonment. And I decided this week to stop abandoning myself.
Practically speaking, this means I started thinking of myself as a small child who desperately needs someone to look after her basic needs.
Do I need a snack before I run errands? Use the bathroom? Bring a water bottle? Put my phone away before getting ready before bed? Leave blank space in my schedule every day for making art?
Before this week, I thought I was above all of the "self care" nonsense. Just grow up and get it done, I told myself.
By my inner child needs someone who cares. She needs adult me to be a supportive and loving presence in her life. She needs nurturing.
A few additional quotes I liked:
We strive to be good, to be nice, to be helpful, to be unselfish. We want to be generous, of service, of the world. But what we really want is to be left alone. When we can't get others to leave us alone, we eventually abandon ourselves. To others, we may look like we're there. We may act like we're there. But our true self has gone to ground.
What's left is a shell of our whole self. It stays because it is caught. Like a listless circus animal prodded into performing, it does its tricks. It goes through its routine. It earns its applause. But all of the hoopla falls on deaf ears. We are dead to it. Our life is now an out-of-body experience. We're gone.
Being myself on the internet #
This month I started posting more earnestly on Twitter. This might not seem like a big deal, but I've always struggled to "be myself" on the internet, and I felt a push to start experimenting with opening the door to my artistic recovery with online friends. Instead of trying to be clever or funny, I decided to post more of my more authentic thoughts and ideas.
A thread I wrote about the power of taking small steps:
How to create an Artist's Way image file #
One of the tasks this week was to start an image file, a place to save photos that inspire big dreams
I chose to create mine in Pinterest. I named the board "Dreams" and regularly save fashion, art, and nature images to it.
Week 6: Recovering a sense of abundance #
In order to thrive as artists—and, one could argue, as people—we need to be available to the universal flow. When we put a stopper on our capacity for joy by anorectically declining the small gifts of life, we turn aside the larger gifts as well.
The focus for this week was money, a topic that I've actually always welcomed. One of the exercises involved writing down all of my expenses for the week. Truth be told, I already do this. I review and tally up every single expense each month and record how much I'm spending in a Notion spreadsheet. I find this kind of counting therapeutic and comforting.
But my favorite part of this chapter is when Cameron talks about luxury. What does luxury mean to me? What brings me true joy? It's not as expensive as I thought.
A few years ago I started turning the handle on those little twenty-five cent machines you find at bowling alleys and outside grocery stores. For only a few quarters I experience the same anticipation and excitement I felt as a kid on the rare occasion my mom would lend me some change.
For me, twenty-five cent machines are a luxury.
Buying a cookie on my walk to the coffee shop is a luxury.
Half & half in my coffee is a luxury.
Going to the movies on a Monday evening is a luxury.
What we are talking about when we discuss luxury is very often a shift in consciousness more than flow—although as we acknowledge and invite what feels luxurious to us, we may indeed trigger an increased flow.
Creative living requires the luxury of time, which we carve out for ourselves—even if it's fifteen minutes for quick morning pages and a ten-minute minibath after work.
Creative living requires the luxury of space for ourselves, even if all we manage to carve out one special bookshelf and a windowsill that is ours.
I found myself collecting items that felt luxurious this week. A piece of citrine and pressed flowers.
And I wore a luxurious outfit to the coffee shop! Iconic, no?!
Building momentum #
This week I tabled at the Art Walk, a monthly street fair where artists sell their work. I have a small vintage suitcase full of some older prints and stickers, and I leapt out of my comfort zone by sharing these pieces with the world.
I didn't sell much, but I didn't mind. I wasn't trying to get rich, I was trying to put myself out there. To call myself an artist. To prove to myself that I can be brave.
This was also the week I worked on a painting and submitted it to a local art studio for their yearly festival poster design. I'm new to acrylic painting, and I struggle to fully execute the vision I have in my head, but I enjoyed the process as I created this piece, and that seems like a very good sign!
Week 7: Recovering a sense of connection #
This week's chapter focused on cultivating the attitudes necessary for receiving creative flow. I especially liked Cameron's description of art as "getting something down" rather than "thinking something up." As artists in-tune with the world around us, we shouldn't need to strain to reach for something that's just beyond our grasp. When we get something down, there is no strain. She continues:
Art is an act of tuning in and dropping down the well. It is as though all the stories, painting, music, performances in the world live just under the surface of our normal consciousness. Like an underground river, they flow through us as a stream of ideas that we can tap down into. As artists, we drop down the well into the stream. We hear what's down there and we act on it—more like taking dictation than anything fancy having to do with art.
This perspective takes all the pressure off from my creative practice. I don't have to worry about coming up with interesting or innovatitve ideas, I just have to pay attention.
My favorite ways to pay attention are...
Birdwatching
Art journaling
Leisurely nature walks
Leaving my phone at home
Painting
Taking photos
Tending the digital garden #
This week, I started writing blog posts and making small changes to this website. Writing has always been part of my creative practice, but I've struggled to make it a consistent habit. My daily outings to the coffee shop have carved out time to make writing a ritual, and I'm relishing it instead of rushing the process. Small consistent efforts are the goal.
I make changes to my website like a gardener tends to her garden. Slow, tinkering, and allowing space for delight. My website is where I like to connect with you, so it felt natural to spend more time here as I work through artistic recovery.
I also re-committed myself to sending my weekly newsletter, Soft Practice, which is my favorite place to share weekly updates about what I’ve learned about growing a creative practice.
Listened to this album on repeat this week:
And took some cute selfies:
Week 8: Recovering a sense of strength #
I felt really inspired this week by Cameron's lessons about age, time, small steps, and doing "the next right thing."
In the past I've gotten stuck by a limiting belief — that it's too late to get started because everyone else is already way ahead of me:
As blocked creatives, we like to pretend that a year or even several years is a long, long time. Our ego plays this little trick to keep us from getting started. Instead of allowing ourselves a creative journey, we focus on the length of the trip. "It's such a long way," we tell ourselves. It may be, but each day is just one more day with some motion in it, and that motion toward a goal is very enjoyable.
— and a sabatoging behavior — looking too far into the future instead of taking small steps toward my dream:
Indulging ourselves in a frantic fantasy of what our life would look like if we were real artists, we fail to see the many small creative changes that we could make this very moment. This kind of look-at-the-big-picture thinking ignores the fact that a creative life is grounded on many, many small steps and very, very few large steps.
Both of these blocks are rooted in fear and anxiety. Interestingly, both are solved by the same seemingly simple behavior change: taking the next small step, doing the next right thing. Cameron calls this process of taking the small next step "filling the form."
Whenever I am willing to ask "What is necessary next?" I have moved ahead. Whenever I have taken no for a final answer I have stalled and gotten stuck. I have learned that the key to career resiliency is self-empowerment and choice.
Most of the time, the next right thing is something small: washing out your paintbrushes, stopping by the art-supply store and getting your clay, checking the local paper for a list of acting classes... As a rule of thumb, it is best to just admit that there is always one action you can take for your creativity daily. This daily-action commitment fills the form.
Take one small daily action instead of indulging in the big questions. When we allow ourselves to wallow in the big questions, we fail to find the small answers. What we are talking about here is a concept of change grounded in respect—respect for where we are as well as where we wish to go. We are looking not to grand strokes of change—although they may come—but instead to the act of creatively husbanding all that is in the present: this job, this house, this relationship.
Doing the next right thing has become a favorite phrase of mine, so much so that I created a sticker with the phrase. Soon you'll be able to buy your own on my Etsy shop.
Articulating my dream #
One of the exercises for this week (and probably my favorite exercise thus far) involved writing down my big creative dreams. I loved this exercise so much I felt inspired to collate some of my additional favorite prompts for creative visioning.
Read Exercises for creative visioning: Four writing exercises to clarify your creative dream and stay inspired to reach your goals
The prompt #
List your dream. List it’s true north. Select a role model. Make an action plan. Five years. Three years. One year. One month. One week. Now. Choose an action.
My dream #
I want to be an artist. I want to encourage others to take the next right action, to practice, and to focus their time and energy on what they want to see more of. I want to elevate human consciousness through the simple act of making. My role model is Sister Corita Kent. In five years (2026), I want my own art studio and I want to show my work in a collaborative art show with other artists.
Small signals and synchronicity #
Remember that painting I mentioned in week 7? Well, it was selected as the official piece for the Off Center Arts 2021 poster design! I submitted on a whim, after noticing the call for submissions on one of my daily walks. Along with a cash prize, I also get to attend the celebratory festival in November and talk to community members about my art practice.
Week 9: Recovering a sense of compassion #
One of this week's exercises involved writing a detailed description of the dream I articulated in week eight. This is what I wrote:
My creative vision #
I am an artist. I am in my art studio working on a painting. It's a big room with all sorts of supplies for printmaking, papier-mâché, and arts and crafts. Creative chaos. The sun pours in through big windows. There's hardly a corner not dripping in warmth and light. There are other artists in the building and sometimes we drink tea together and have dinner parties. I am surrounded by prints, sculptures, and multi-media pieces that I've created. I am making good money from my art practice—a combination of selling my work online, workshops, YouTube, and commissions. People resonate with my authenticity and my process. I'm writing a book. Later, I'll go to the public library to work on it. Pole fitness has kept me strong and active. I feel beautiful. Radiant even. Short blonde hair, big earrings, and bright lipstick framing the smile lines around my eyes. There is so much opportunity. So much joy. So much love.
Even more signals and synchronicity #
This week I experienced more synchronicity and signals that I’m on the right path. I had a fun exchange with writer and freelancer Paul Millerd of Boundless on Twitter, and I received an email from an artist-technologist and creator of the Ratchelor, Caroline Hermans. These little interactions gave me a boost of creative energy. It seemed that online at least, I’m attracting the friendly and ambitious friends I’ve always dreamed about.
This was also the week of my third career coaching session, where I started asking myself, “Who do I want to be with the people in my life?”
You see, I have always had a hard time calling myself an artist or talking about my creative practice among friends and family. This inability to share my most authentic self with the people I love is deeply rooted in fear, as Cameron notes:
Fear is the true name for what ails the blocked artist. It may be fear of failure or fear of success. Most frequently, it is fear of abandonment. This fear has roots in childhood reality. Most blocked artists tried to become artists against either their parents' good wishes or their parents' good judgement. For a youngster this is quite a conflict.
To move past this fear, I started experimenting with letting my authentic self shine. I shared some of my pole practice on Instagram. I didn’t drink at a party and still made friends. I said no to activities that didn’t sound fun and yes to ones that did.
Cameron suggests "choosing an artist totem" and honoring it by not beating up on our artist child. I chose this tiny plastic octopus.
Week 10: Recovering a sense of self-protection #
This week I experienced my very first energy healing / reiki session as recommended by my therapist. I still find myself skeptical of energy work, but I enjoyed the session. I left feeling lighter, more whole, and much more balanced. I learned a few techniques to help protect my energy, one being a visualization to protect myself in white light.
This protection meditation fit right into this week's chapter, which was all about setting boundaries. Cameron lists a few "dangers of the trail" that we may encounter throughout our recovery.
Knowing yourself as an artist means acknowledging which of these you abuse when you want to block yourself. If creativity is like a burst of the universe's breath through the straw that is each of us, we pinch that straw whenever we pick up one of our blocks.
Dangers of the trail #
Food, sugar, alcohol, drugs, sex - These ones are pretty self explanatory. Substances and behaviors that, if abused, can block creative flow.
Workaholism - Another addiction that blocks creative energy.
There is a difference between zestful work toward a cherished goal and workaholism. That difference lies less in the hours than it does in the emotional quality of the hours spent. There is a treadmill quality to workaholism. We depend on our addiction and we resent it.
Drought - The times in our life when we are full of doubt and dried up emotions. Everything feels pointless. To move through a drought, and there is no other way than through, we must trust that it will end, and keep showing up to the page.
In a creative life, droughts are a necessity. The time in the desert brings us clarity and charity. When you are in a drought, know that it is to a purpose. And keep writing morning pages.
Fame - A distraction from the work itself. With some success we start to fear that we need to hold onto our power and prestige. The solution is to show ourself love through small, concrete actions and to "pick up the tools of your work and begin to do just a little creative play."
Competition - A poison that impedes our own progress. The antidote is to trust ourselves and to show up to do the work.
As artists, we cannot afford to think about who is getting ahead of us and how they don't deserve it. The desire to be better than can choke off the simple desire to be. As artists we cannot afford this thinking. It leads us away from our own voices and choices and into a defensive game that centers outside of ourselves and our sphere of influence. It asks us to define our own creativity in terms of someone else's.
Personally I struggle with workaholism, which became clear to me this year when I felt mentally and emotionally fragmented. Something was off balance, and that something was me neglecting to nurture my creative practice in any meaningful way. Luckily I found this balance through my 35 hour work week and daily coffee shop walks where I spend time nurturing creative projects.
I'm learning to balance the left and right sides of brain, and the result has been an overall feeling of wholeness.
Week 11: Recovering a sense of autonomy #
This week I made the decision to take a break from social media for an undetermined period of time.
Why logoff now? #
There's only three months left in the year, and I want to make these months count. I felt myself spending way too much time scrolling social media, and intuitively knew it was time to come back to myself. A return to center, as Marlee Grace would call it.
In these final months of the year I plan to focus on building my creative practice. I want to paint everyday (or most days), pay attention to the world around me, and make plans for the new year.
I also had my fourth and final career coaching session, a bittersweet see-you-later. The support I received from my coach was a big reason why I felt so transformed in these few months. Through this experience I've realized that I thrive when working through problems with a team of supportive people. My therapist and career coach have provided that support and I'm grateful for it.
One of my favorite quotes from this chapter:
As an artist, I write whether I think it's any good or not. I shoot movies other people may hate. I sketch bad sketches to say, "I was in this room. I was happy. It was May and I was meeting somebody I wanted to meet."
Week 12: Recovering a sense of faith #
This week, the week of the final chapter, I spent in northern New Mexico. The aspens were changing—bursts of orange, red, and pale yellow among pockets of evergreens. Transformation is everywhere. It's all part of the natural rhythm.
I too am part of that rhythm. And even though my transformation has felt unsettling (it's scary to change parts of your identity), I am reminded of my connection with the seasons and the moon and the stars.
One of the exercises this week was described as follows:
Select a God jar. A what? A jar, a box, a vase, a container. Something to put your fears, your resentments, your hopes, your dreams, your worries into.
Here's mine:
The shower god is something my partner made up, and I admit I too find the shower a place for prayer and magical thinking. So we offer up our hopes and fears to the shower god, and trust they are listenting.
Use your God jar. Start with your fear list. When worried, remind yourself it's in the jar—"God's got it." Then take the next action.
Final thoughts #
These past twelve weeks I practiced returning to myself. Picking up the fragments, gathering energy leaks. Remembering what embodied joy feels like. Making promises—to no longer abandon myself, to nurture my inner artist, to stay grounded in daily ritual. And taking small steps toward my dream.
Ultimately, these past twelve weeks were a spiritual journey toward becoming whole.
The plan is to keep going. To keep building my creative practice and sharing the process here. Watch this space for more creative magic ✨
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Artist Info
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Biography
Cameron was the third daughter of James Pattle, a civil servant stationed in Bengal. In 1834 she married Charles Hay Cameron, a philosopher, a Benthamite jurist, and, as a member of the Council of Calcutta, a leading figure of expatriate society in India. The Camerons moved to England in 1848 and lived briefly in Tunbridge Wells, where Mrs. Cameron began a lifelong friendship with Sir Henry Taylor and his wife. Through her sister Sara Prinsep, who held a weekly salon, Cameron met some of the great artistic and literary figures of the day, among them George Frederic Watts, Sir John Herschel, William Makepeace Thakeray, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Cameron took up photography late in 1863, after her daughter Julia and son-in-law gave her a camera. Initially Cameron experimented with allegorical and religious subjects, but by 1866 she had begun the expressive portraiture for which she is best known. Many notables of the Victorian age sat for her, including Browning, Tennyson, Herschel, Carlyle, Longfellow, Darwin, and others. In the early 1870s she turned to illustrations of poetic works, most notably Tennyson's Idylls of the King (1874 and 1875), which was her last large-scale photographic project. Late in 1875, because of her husband's ill health, the Camerons left for Ceylon, where Cameron executed her last few works.
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https://www.tiktok.com/%40art_therapy_irl/video/7140090344229588230%3Flang%3Den
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Make Your Day
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https://juliacameronlive.com/tag/writing/
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en
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Julia Cameron Live
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THERE SHOULD BE some artier way of saying it: I think of it as laying track. If you are America and you let yourself lay track, writing will let you move coast to coast, mapping your interior, enjoying the sights. I believe that what we want to write wants to be written. I believe that […]
I have a daily practice of three longhand pages done first thing on awakening, hence, “Morning Pages.” The pages clear my head and prioritize my day. I think of them as a form of meditation. There is no wrong way to do the pages. You simply keep your hand moving across the page, not pausing […]
We write to express ourselves, but we also write to connect. Connection is a primary human need. From cave dwellers onward, we scratched our message into stone, hoping that it would be read and understood. As we became more adroit at expression, the messages that we sent became more complex. “I am here and you […]
I’ll begin at the beginning, with a blank notebook whose pages beg, “Fill me.” It’s four o’clock in the afternoon on a bright spring day. I have taken Lily for an extra long walk, and now I am settled in my leather writing chair and I am— yes— writing. It feels good to put pen […]
Writing begins with enthusiasm. We launch into a long project with optimism. We have an idea, we trust our idea, we set about putting it to the page. All goes swimmingly for a time— until we hit The Wall. The Wall occurs, in most writing, about two-thirds of the way into our work. Put simply, […]
Drama belongs on the page. We have a mythology which tells us writers’ lives are dramatic, but this mythology does not serve us. Writers’ lives are best non-dramatic. It serves us to keep drama at bay. Today I woke up tired and crabby. I didn’t fall asleep until 2:30 AM, and this morning I was […]
Making art of any kind is an alchemical process. Making art, we turn the dross of our life into gold. Making art, we re-create ourselves. When we work on our Memoir, revisiting our own personal narrative time line, we transform the events of our life into golden adventures. As we write, the ordinary becomes extraordinary; […]
All too often, when we think of writing a project, we think of writing the whole project, and we find ourselves daunted. “I’d like to write a novel,” we think, “but it’s so much work, and what if it doesn’t sell?” Thinking this way, we talk ourselves out of our creativity. We have set the […]
If we didn’t have to worry about being published and being judged, how many of us would write a novel just for the joy of making one? Why should we think of writing a novel as something we couldn’t try– the way an amateur carpenter might build a simple bookcase or even a picnic table? […]
I say that Morning Pages are a form of meditation. And just as we cannot repeat a meditation, we do not need to review our Morning Pages. I often joke, “First cremate the pages, then worry about the body.” I have had people burn, shred, and bury their Morning Pages. Speaking for myself, I saved […]
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https://awritingroom.com/intensive/
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en
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A Writing Room
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2023-06-28T01:42:58-04:00
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A Writing Room
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https://awritingroom.com/intensive/
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Julia Cameron will teach a blend of her two writing books: The Right to Write and Write for Life.
In this highly-interactive workshop, you will learn that writing is not dependent on our mood.
Contrary to our mythology, which tells us that writers need special times, special places, and even special pens, we will learn that it is possible to write anytime, any place.
Using a wide variety of tools drawn from both books and her own writer’s experience, she will teach you simple practices to free yourself from perfectionism, the tyranny of the inner critic, and more.
Expect to dismantle your negative, culturally-induced beliefs around writing – and yourself!
Drawing on fifty-five years of writing experience, Julia will guide you into a more fulfilled writing practice.
Bring your favorite writing materials. Writers of all levels are invited to this intensive.
Did you know that your untold truths are healing medicine? The trouble is that most of us learned from an early age that being fully honest and vulnerable is not safe. As a result, we experience the pain of hiding from ourselves and the world.
In this powerful, intimate workshop with New York Times bestselling author and healer, Alex Elle, you will be invited into group and personal work designed to free you from the fear of showing up as who you really are. Gentle and trauma-informed, this work will allow you to experience the joy and liberation of expressing yourself more fully – which will infuse your writing with magnetic authenticity and love.
Bring your journal and writing instruments, curiosity, and an open heart.
Optional but recommended: a meditation pillow or cushion for healing mindfulness practice.
In this fun interactive workshop, you will be immersed in an intimate haven of writing miracles with SARK as your ultimate activator, catalyst, and magical mentor!
You will be guided and led through the innovative, highly effective processes and methods SARK used to produce 19 bestselling books, all of her current transformational, life-changing programs, and significant writing results for clients in her private mentoring practice.
You’ll learn how to easily develop a habit of completion and be able to feel newly inspired to write and keep writing consistently.
You and your writing will receive exquisite self-care and love, and you will leave this workshop with a transformed writing practice, an overflowing heart, and a unique personalized Magical Map to use to finish each of your writing projects and become the writer you came here to be.
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https://yvonnespence.com/mindfulness/the-friday-review-the-artists-way-by-julia-cameron/
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en
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The Friday Review: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
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2013-12-14T01:37:00+00:00
|
Although The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron has similarities to the books about the writing process that I’ve reviewed so far, it also has significant differences. For Cameron, as well as Anne Lamott and Natalie…
|
en
|
Yvonne Spence
|
https://yvonnespence.com/mindfulness/the-friday-review-the-artists-way-by-julia-cameron/
|
Although The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron has similarities to the books about the writing process that I’ve reviewed so far, it also has significant differences. For Cameron, as well as Anne Lamott and Natalie Goldberg writing is process of becoming conscious. None of them tell you how to create the perfect plot that will propel you to fame and fortune, because for them that’s not what writing it about. They write, and I write, because it brings satisfaction in itself, for the sheer joy of putting words on paper and wondering where they came from.
In Bird by Bird, Lamott does touch on her Christian faith but it definitely does not dominate the book. In Writing Down the Bones, Goldberg often mentions Zen Buddhism and relates developing a practice of writing to developing a meditation practice. But again, while this shapes her perspective, it does not dominate. The Artist’s Way is much more -in-your-face when it comes to God. This puts some people off. I once ran a creative writing class where we worked with many of the ideas in The Artist’s Way, and several people said that they had tried to read the book before but dropped it the moment they read the word God, even though Cameron says, “When the word God is used in these pages, you may substitute the thought good orderly direction or flow. …Do not call it God unless that is comfortable to you.”
Another difference between The Artist’s Way and the other two books is that it is about creativity in general, rather writing in particular. Cameron’s view is that everyone can be creative, and that if we aren’t it is because something is blocking our creativity. I do pretty much agree with her – both as an art teacher and a creative writing tutor I’ve had opportunities to observe the ways that fear of not being good enough can stifle our creativity. (And of course I’ve seen it in myself.) Cameron says she teaches people “to let themselves be creative.”
Cameron writes a lot about creative “recovery.” She says that recovery takes time and is not a quick fix, but that it is a “teachable, trackable spiritual process.” Given this, it’s probably not surprising that The Artist’s Way is more prescriptive than Bird by Bird or Writing Down the Bones. It prescribes a twelve week course, and the two key components of that are: “The Morning Pages” and “The Artist Date.”
The Morning Pages
The Morning Pages are thee pages of writing that Cameron recommends all artists do first thing every day. You get up half an hour earlier than you normally would to write these pages. The reason for writing at this time is that our thought waves are closer to the unconscious mind than at other times of day. (In the 1930s, Dorothea Brande also advised writers to write in this way and at this time.) Cameron says that as you write you will notice “The Censor” – the self-punishing thought patterns. She also says: “Always remember that your Censor’s negative opinions are not the truth.” She suggests that you could write them down. I agree! Writing those thoughts down robs them of their power. Cameron says that you should not reread anything that you have written for the first eight weeks of the course, and don’t let anyone else read them either. Since this writing is for everyone, no matter what creative discipline they follow, the aim is not to produce great writing, but to remove creative blocks. In week 9 you read the pages and observe the patterns that appear – who have you whined about? How have you changed?
The Artist Date
The Artist Date is time you spend in solitude, nurturing the creative part of you. It could be a walk on a beach, in the country, at a concert – whatever and wherever you go, it should be enjoyable – and you should give the creative part of you full attention. Cameron says we should do this for about two hours once a week.
I am a big fan of morning pages, but I confess I have not been inclined to take my inner child on a weekly date. Now on re-reading The Artist’s Way for this review I wonder if perhaps I should. Although I do often take time to walk in nature, or by the sea (my favourite) I don’t schedule time every week and sometimes I can let life get too busy. So maybe it’s time to change that.
Other Exercises
There are many other exercises in The Artist’s Way. Each of the twelve weeks has a different focus: for instance, in week one it is recovering a sense of safety, with exercises to uncover negative beliefs you hold about allowing yourself to be fully creative. These are the things we fear would happen if we allowed our creativity full expression, and they are what block us. Camerons suggests ways to uncover the roots of these blocks, which are almost always in childhood.
In week two, Cameron looks at how other people can fear our creativity, and suggests ways to deal with this. Week three focuses on recovering a sense of power, and in it exercises include looking at your habits and listing friends who nurture you – and then making contact with one of those.
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https://www.nmhistoricwomen.org/new-mexico-historic-women/anita-scott-coleman/
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en
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Anita Scott Coleman
|
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2023-02-10T23:55:32
|
Novelist Anita Scott Coleman was an important western voice in the Harlem Renaissance, an early-twentieth-century movement of flourishing social, artistic, ...
|
en
|
https://www.nmhistoricwomen.org/new-mexico-historic-women/anita-scott-coleman/
|
Novelist Anita Scott Coleman was an important western voice in the Harlem Renaissance, an early-twentieth-century movement of flourishing social, artistic, and political innovation among African Americans. The movement, known at the time as the “New Negro Experience,” was at its peak from 1918 to 1937 with continuing influence long after. Named for its symbolic locus in Harlem, this cultural revolution reflected a larger economic and social movement that involved Black communities throughout the United States.
Coleman, an African-American woman who spent much of her childhood and young adult years in Silver City, New Mexico, was among those working outside the metropolitan centers during the Renaissance.
Coleman was born in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, in 1890. She moved with her family to New Mexico when she was still a child, settling on a ranch near Silver City. After high school, Coleman enrolled at New Mexico Teachers College (now Western New Mexico University), received a teaching certificate, and earned her living as a teacher. Coleman published her first story in 1919 and went on to publish nine others before leaving New Mexico in 1926 to join her husband in Los Angeles. That same year, she published the essay “Arizona and New Mexico – The Land of Esperanza” in The Messenger, a political and literary magazine by and for African-American people in the United States. In the essay Coleman discusses Arizona and New Mexico and the conditions of Blacks there at the time:
“Boiled down to finality—these States [Arizona and New Mexico] are the mecca-land for the seeker after wealth—the land of every man to his own grubstake—and what-I-find-I-keep. And criss-crossing in and out through the medley of adventure stalk the few in number black folks. Often, it is only the happy-go-lucky, black gambler; again it is but the lone and weary black prospector—but ever and ever the intrepid, stalwart Negro homeseeker forms a small yet valiant army in the land of esperanza. And over it all the joyous freedom of the West. The unlimited resourcefulness, the boundless space—that either bids them stay—or baffles with its vastness—until it sends them scuttling to the North, the South, and East, whence-so-ever they have come. For here prevails for every man, be he white or black a hardier philosophy—and a bigger and better chance, that is not encountered elsewhere in these United States.” (Anita Scott Coleman, “Land of Esperanza,” 1926)
Coleman continued to write and publish short stories and poetry into the 1940s, appearing in The Competitor, Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, and other outlets popular with Harlem Renaissance writers. In her lifetime, she published more than 30 short stories and numerous poems. She died in Los Angeles in 1960.
Sources:
Champion, Laurie and Bruce A. Glasrud, Eds. Unfinished Masterpiece: The Harlem Renaissance Fiction of Anita Scott Coleman. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press, 2008.
Coleman, Anita Scott. “Arizona and New Mexico – The Land of Esperanza.” Reprinted in Unfinished Masterpiece, Champion, Laurie and Bruce A. Glasrud, Eds.
Glasrud, Bruce A. African American History in New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2013.
Glasrud, Bruce A. and Cary D. Wintz, Eds. The Harlem Renaissance in the American West: The New Negro’s Western Experience. New York, NY: Routledge, 2012.
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News Archive
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2016-01-21T12:20:51-07:00
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Anthropology
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https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/news/archive
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Bert Covert received a Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation award of $15,000 for his project in “Conservation Planning for the Endangered Indochinese Silvered langur on Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam.”
Oliver Paine won a full research award ($13,500) from the Leaky Foundation for his field work this July and next January in South Africa. This is a highly prestigious award. Kudos to Oliver and advisor Sponheimer.
Willi Lempert is our third recipient of a Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant. This will round out his Fulbright Fellowship for his project on “Broadcasting Indigeneity: The Social Life of Aboriginal Media,” in the town of Broome and the remote Aboriginal community of Yungngora in Northwestern Australia. Hats off to him and to advisor Jen Shannon.
Guy Hepp won the Squint and Juanita Moore Scholarship from the Montrose Community Foundation in Montrose, CO, augmenting his research funding for biological analysis of faunal remains at the site of La Consentida in Oaxaca.
Emily Mertz (PhD ’12) was offered (and accepted) a full time advising position in the Dean’s Office of Arts and Sciences at Kansas State University.
Michelle Sauther is acknowledged in the latest featured article of OnlinePhDProgram.org recognizing the compelling work of professors at some of the top research universities in the United States: http://onlinephdprogram.org/notable-research-professors. The article recognizes faculty from universities across the US that are designated as having high or very high research activity on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
Alice Hamilton Scholarships: The Colorado Archaeological Society made awards to nine scholars this year, including three PhD candidates from CU Boulder: Erin Baxter,Guy Hepp, and Pascale Meehan. The Society was so impressed by Erin Baxter’s proposal that they tripled the amount she asked for.
Darna Dufour is the 2014 recipient of the Franz Boas Distinguished Acheivement Award given out by the Human Biology Association. This is a most prestigious honor given to members of the Association for exemplary contributions to human biology in science, scholarship, and other professional service. More information about this award can be found at http://www.humbio.org/boas-award.
Alison Cool will be joining our faculty in 2015, after completing a Post-Doc at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA. She accepted one year of a Hixon-Riggs Early Career Fellowship in Science and Technology Studies at the college: www.hmc.edu/about-hmc
Jamie Forde has added a dissertation fellowship at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies to his list of awards. The McNeil Center is a research consortium at the University of Pennsylvania. His fellowship is for the 2014-2015 academic year.
Manioc, and the academics whose studies converged around it – including Darna Dufour and Payson Sheets – stars in a half-page feature on the science page of the April 11 Boulder Daily Camera. Also online at: http://www.dailycamera.com/News/ci_25541433/Jeff-Mitton;-CUBoulder-academics-converge-on.
Carole McGranahan is at the center of an Arts&Sciences Ezine article featuring an unusual core of Tibetan scholars at UCB. Link to Clay Evan’s story and a video of McGranahan in her own words about Tibetans’ “arrested histories” here:
http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/magazine/2014/03/cus-expertise-in-tibetan-studies-is-unusually-deep/.
Willi Lempert was selected for a 2014-2015 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to Australia. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program of the United States. He will represent the country as a cultural ambassador while he is overseas, helping to enhance mutual understanding between Americans and the people in Australia.
Magda Stawkowski has accepted a Stanton Nuclear Security Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.
Dani Merriman and Alison Hanson are this year’s recipients of the Goldstein Altman Awards. Dani was also awarded a Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) Graduate Fellowship for her project on “Cyclical Histories of Conflict: Art and Visual Narratives of Violence in Colombia.” Alison was selected for a FLAS to take Hindi this summer at SASLI in Madison.
Jonathan O’Brien gave a successful defense of his doctoral dissertation and anticipates a PhD in May.
Alicia Hernandez passed her thesis defense and will be honored with an MA in our May ceremonies.
Liza Dombrowsky, Dawa Lokyitsang, and Evan Hawkins will also receive MA’s in May, each having passed their Comprehensive/Final Exams for Cultural Anthropology. Liza will be awarded two degrees, an MA and an MBA
Maya; Hidden Worlds Revealed – Now at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
This extensive and uniquely interactive exhibit features the work of several members of our department, including PhD student Jeff Brzezinski’s research in Belize, academic coordination by Marc Levine (PhD ’07, now faculty-curator at University of Oklahoma) and a replica of the village at El Cerén excavated by Payson Sheets.
Payson Sheets’ latest publication on the Joya de Cerén site where he does his research was released by the University of El Salvador, translated from the Spanish by Roberto Gallardo (MA ’04): Joya de Cerén: Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad 1993-2013; ISBN 978-99923-27-81-4.
Guy Hepp won a Graduate Fellow Award from the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences. Hepp plans to use the money to fund a summer laboratory study in Oaxaca, for which he will analyze faunal remains as a final component of his dissertation research.
Herbert Covert, our recently re-elected Chair, is lauded in the latest Arts & Science Ezine for his exceptional conservation work in Vietnam. Covert expresses “profound satisfaction working to preserve modern, endangered primates” in a region where biodiversity is particularly at risk and the habitats of five of the world’s 25 most-endangered primates are threatened. Follow Covert’s unexpected trail to conservation work from his roots in paleontology at:
http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/magazine/2014/03/vietnamese-primates-get-helping-hand-from-cu-prof
Alison Hanson was selected as a recipient for FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) for the 2014/15 academic year (contingent upon anticipated funding for the program), and selected as an alternate for summer funding.
John Hoffecker, our associate at INSTAAR, co-authored a new paper that lends credence to the Beringia Standstill idea. Recent evidence that central Beringia supported a shrub tundra region with some trees during the last glacial maximum bolsters the theory that the first Americans may have been isolated on the Bering Land Bridge for thousands of years before spreading throughout the Americas. See Jim Scott’s complete story for CU Media at http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2014/02/27/cu-boulder-led-study-says-bering-land-bridge-area-likely-long-term-refuge#sthash.HOvbPU5W.dpuf
Drew Zackary was selected for an Adaptation Decision-Making and Environmental Communication Summer Internship in Africa. Hope all you grad students read the details in your Grad School newsletter, along with stories about the genetics of procrastination and how “PBS Newshour wants to hear from Basic Researchers”:
http://www.colorado.edu/GraduateSchool/resources/newsletters.html
Scott Ortman,“Ancient settlements and modern cities follow same rules of development “
See it on CU’s homepage and in the Boulder Daily Camera. Get the full scoop, including an audio interview, from CU Media Services at:http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2014/02/12/ancient-settlements-and-modern-cities-follow-same-rules-development-says-cu#sthash.byMjiEcG.dpuf
Katy Putsavage received the Fred Plog Memorial Fellowship from the SAA. The $1000 fellowship supports the research of a graduate student with ABD status who is writing a dissertation on the American Souhwest.
Carole McGranahan was generously featured in the Washington Post after giving a recent guest lecture at Yale entitled, “Noth Korea is more accessible to foreign journalists than Tibet is.” The complete story by Max Fischer, and a video of the presentation can be found at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/12/17/north-korea-is-more-accessible-to-foreign-journalists-than-tibet-is/
Michelle Sauther’s team in Madagascar has found the “…first evidence of primates regularly sleeping in caves.” Co-authors of the new study include Associate Professor Frank Cuozzo of the University of North Dakota, Krista Fish of Colorado College, Marni LaFleur of the University of Vetrinary Medicine in Vienna as well as PhD candidate, James Millette. A video by CU news can be viewed at: http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2013/12/04/cu-boulder-led-team-finds-first-evidence-primates-regularly-sleeping-caves#sthash.B8AUTodj.dpuf
The November issue of the journal Madagascar Conservation and Development published a paper on the subject which was printed in the Los Angeles Timeshttp://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-in-the-lemurs-call-limestone-caves-home-video-20131204,0,2485999.story#axzz2mWWfiRbs
The Science Daily also published an article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131204123746.htm
Willi Lempert (PhD Candidate) “‘Last Night all the Synagogues in Germany were Burned’: Intimacy and Ethnographic Practice in a Familial Life History” Journal of Contemporary Anthropology JCA Vol. 4 (2013) Iss. 1.
Scott Ortman has an article on page 36 in the November volume of The SAA Archaeological Record on “Human Securities and Tewa Origins.” Available online at:http://onlinedigeditions.com/publication/?i=184222″
Craig Lee (PhD ’07) is featured in the latest Chronicle of Higher Education, “Under Melting Ice, Climate Change Reveals a New Archaeology.” http://chronicle.com/article/Under-Melting-Ice-Climate/143307/” target=”_blank”
Kate Fischer won a grant from the Ruth Landes Mermorial Research Fund to complete writing of her dissertation.
Traci Bekelman garnered two awards: a Wenner Gren Fellowship for her doctoral research proposal on “Using the Protein Leverage Hypothesis to Understand Socioeconomic Variation in Diet and Body Size amoung Urban Costa Rican Women” and a 2013 Dean’s Graduate Student Research Grant to carry out her research on “Urban Poverty, Dietary Protein and Obesity among Costa Rican Women.”
Scott Ortman was recognized for his longtime commitment to the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center with an honor award on October 19, 2013. Crow Canyon is a nonprofit research and education organization located in southwestern Colorado.
Donna Goldstein’s work on Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown, was just released with a new preface by University of California Press for their California Series in Public Anthropology. Donna’s Laughter out of Place is in its second printing.
Steve Lekson and Jakob Sedig recently co-published a column for the Colorado Archaeological Society about, “Mimbres, Then and Now.” Surveyor 11(4): 10-12.
“Chaco’s mystery exaggerated?” In an interview for the September 2013 issue of the Cortez Journal, Steve Lekson argues that Chaco was “but one town in a much larger trading network stretching to Mexico.” http://www.cortezjournal.com/article/20130919/LIVING/130919853/Chaco%E2%80%99s-mystery-exaggerated?-&utm_source=New+Support+of+October+Update&utm_campaign=Oct.+Update+2013&utm_medium=email
Andie Ang received the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Grant which is awarded to individual species conservation initiatives and recognizes leaders in the field of species conservation. This will support Ang’s PhD work on the Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys in Vietnam, which are among the 25 most endangered primates of the world.
A bilingual DVD tour of Payson Sheets’ site in El Salvador, La Joya de Cerén, is now available through Media Services at Norlin Library.
Christian Hammons has published a film review of Jathilan: Trance and Possession in Java in the September 2013 edition of the American Anthropological Association’s online Public Journal: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aman.12035/full?campaign=wlytk-41479.6645949074.
Jason Scott has won a Fulbright Hays grant that will enable him to complete his doctoral research analyzing digital development projects in Brazilian shantytowns (favelas) that were recently recuperated from armed drug gangs.
Payson Sheets’ excavations at El Cerén, El Salvador, are colorfully illustrated in the cover story of the fall edition of American Archaeologist magazine. At “the Pompeii of the Americas”, as it is nicknamed, “fourteen hundred years ago a volcanic eruption simultaneously destroyed a Maya village and preserved it for posterity. The remarkable preservation is giving archaeologists new insights into Maya life.”
As a member of the advisory board at the University Press of Colorado, Payson Sheets has launched an innovation bridging print to the internet. In Re-Creating Primordial Time, a new hardback release on Maya glyphs, footnotes have been replaced by QR codes that take you directly to the source research paper.
Cathy Cameron’s article in the June issue of American Anthropologist is now available, “How People Moved among Ancient Societies: Broadening the View. American Anthropologist 115(2):218-231.
Jakob Sedig published a report on his excavations at Woodrow Ruin in the Santa Fe journal El Palacio: Sedig, Jakob. 2013. Woodrow Ruin; an Atypical Mimbres site. El Palacio118 (3): 49-55.
Graduate student Joanna Mishtal has been awarded the prestigious Thomas Edwin Devaney Dissertation Fellowship and has been named a Center for Humanities and the Arts Graduate Fellow for the 2004-2005 academic year.
Terry McCabe won a $300,000 grant as co-principal investigator for the project “Causes and Consequences of Parks for Livelihood Diversification and Biodiversity in East Africa”.
Payson Sheets and his wife will be enjoying a partial-expense-paid visit to Beijing as guests of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, for whom he is heading a committee at their international conference on remote sensing in archaeology this fall.
Linda Cordell received the Byron Cummings award in August, for “outstanding contributions in archaeology, anthropology or ethnology” in the Southwest. The award is given annually by the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society, which publishes the Southwest’s major peer reviewed journal. The award noted: “Linda S. Cordell is recognized for her role as a major contributor to research on ancestral Puebloans, for her influential writings, and for teaching and guiding new generations of Southwestern archaeologists.”
Bert Covert won a $15,000 grant to fund his research on endangered primates in Vietnam.
Bert Covert has been invited to Washington to conduct a seminar at the Smithsonian entitled “Unexpected Locomotor Diversity Among Vietnamese Leaf Monkeys”. He will also present a guest lecture at George Washington University on primate conservation in Vietnam.
Graduate student Xiaomei Chen has won third place in the Office of International Education’s photo competition. Her image of a Tibetan pilgrim garnered a $75 gift certificate and is on exhibition in Norlin.
Art Joyce has been awarded a CRCW Faculty Fellowship for 2005-06 for his project, “Reinterpreting the Ancient Civilizations of Southern Mexico”.
Terry McCabe will have his book, Cattle Bring Us to Our Enemies: Turkana Ecology, History, and Raiding in a Disequilibrium System, published by the University of Michigan Press. This work is “an in-depth look at the ecology, history, and politics of land use among the Turkana pastoral people in Northern Kenya…based on 16 years of fieldwork…McCabe examines how individuals use the land and make decisions about mobility, livestock, and the use of natural resources in an environment characterized by aridity, unpredictability, insecurity and violence…” McCabe is one of the original members of the South Turkana Ecosystem Project. His new book forms part of the series Human-Environment Interactions by the University of Michigan Press.
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Literary Tourism: Taos, New Mexico
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[
""
] | null |
[
"Tasha Brandstatter"
] |
2014-02-09T12:30:21+00:00
|
Three places bibliophiles absolutely must visit in Taos, New Mexico.
|
en
|
BOOK RIOT
|
https://bookriot.com/literary-tourism-taos-new-mexico/
|
When I first visited Taos about a decade ago, I admit I was unimpressed. It seemed like one main drag of adobe buildings, very touristy shops, and not much else.
That’s an example of one my more idiotic snap judgments. Luckily, I had a chance to rethink my initial impression. Every time I go to Taos, I fall in love with it a little bit more. Deceptively quiet and laid back, Taos has a dizzying array of museums, galleries, and historic places to visit, not to mention some pretty kick-ass restaurants. The town takes time to reveal its secrets and wealth of culture, history, and community that goes back hundreds of years. From the Taos Pueblo Indians to Spanish colonists, from mountain men to the Santa Fe Railroad, in many ways Taos encapsulates the evolution of the American West.
Although most famously known for its society of artists, many writers came to Taos as well, the most famous of whom was DH Lawrence. If you’re a bibliophile in Taos, there are three spots you definitely must visit:
Mabel Dodge Luhan House
In 1917, socialite Mabel Dodge Stern traveled west to meet up with her husband in Santa Fe. She immediately decided she hated the place and escaped north. Landing in Taos, she fell in love with Pueblo Indian Tony Luhan, and together they renovated an 18th century adobe house, which became Mabel’s permanent home. Not content to live in isolation, Mabel turned her house into a salon that attracted artists, writers, thinkers, and even royalty from all over the world. Some of Mabel’s more famous guests included Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Jung, Willa Cather, DH Lawrence, Ansel Adams, Aldous Huxley, Edna Ferber, Thornton Wilder, and Thomas Wolfe, among others.
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The house is now a B&B, and is as quirky as you’d expect a house built more than 200 years ago to be. The floors are all at different levels, there are no TVs, and the pipes creak alarmingly. That being said, what’s not to like about hanging out in the same room where Aldous Huxley wrote Ends and Means, eating in the same dining room where Thomas Wolfe arrived in the middle of the night completely sloshed, or seeing original paintings by DH Lawrence on the widows? The best room in the house is Luhan’s solarium, a bird’s nest bedroom completely surrounded by windows and accessible only through a trapdoor in the floor.
Hotel la Fonda de Taos
Inspired by Taos and his painter friends like O’Keeffe, Lawrence took up painting, signing his pieces “Lorenzo.” In 1929 he had a solo exhibition in London, which was immediately shut down by the police for being “frankly disgusting” and “gross and obscene.” Lawrence eventually had to promise the British authorities to send all of his paintings out of the country to prevent their being destroyed. Two of those paintings—and nine others not connected with the exhibition—can now be viewed in the “Forbidden Gallery” of the Hotel la Fonda de Taos, which is right on the Plaza de Taos.
A hotel since 1820, La Fonda (“the inn” in Spanish) was a meeting place for the Taos Society of Artists in the early 20th century and has since hosted guests such as Tennessee Williams, Prince Peter of Greece, Judy Garland, and Julia Roberts. One of the owners of the hotel, Saki Karavas, was a bibliophile and collector of first editions, including those of DH Lawrence. After Frieda Lawrence’s death, her second husband, Angelino Ravagli, sold the Forbidden Paintings to Karavas for an undisclosed amount. They still remain in the hotel, along with pieces by many other famous artists collected by Karavas.
The Forbidden Paintings are about what you’d expect from Lawrence: frank sexuality and nudity, combined with a sense of alienation and painted in a naive style. He was no O’Keeffe, but his paintings are an extension of his writing and well worth seeing.
DH Lawrence Ghost Ranch and Memorial
That place, the ranch, heaves with ghosts. But when one has got used to one’s own home-ghosts, be they never so many, and so potent, they are like one’s own family, but nearer than the blood. It is the ghosts one misses most, the ghosts there, of the Rocky Mountains, that never go beyond the timber and that linger, like the animals, round the water-spring. I know them, they know me: we go well together. But they reproach me for going away. They are resentful too.
-DH Lawrence, Mornings in Mexico
About 14 miles north of Taos’ last traffic light, there’s a turnoff for the DH Lawrence Ranch and Memorial. The dirt road leads up, up, up into the mountains, until it terminates at a grouping of small log cabins. This is Lawrence’s Ghost Ranch. The buildings themselves are not currently not open to the public except by invitation, although efforts are underway to reopen them.
From the ranch there’s a paved walkway that leads even farther up the mountain and eventually ends at Lawrence’s mausoleum and memorial. Supposedly Frieda poured Lawrence’s ashes directly into the concrete base of the building so that Mabel Dodge Luhan wouldn’t be able to steal them.
The ranch was actually gifted to the Lawrences by Luhan in 1924, a way to get them out of her house once they started annoying her or she them (that seemed to happen to Luhan a lot). It was the only home the Lawrences ever owned. And though Lawrence spent less than a year total at the ranch during his lifetime, it was his favorite place in the world.
The memorial itself is quiet and unexpectedly spiritual. Standing in the forests of the Sangre de Cristos, one can hear the echo of Lawrence’s ghosts and understand why Taos inspired him and so many other artists.
_________________________
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Save
|
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695
|
dbpedia
|
1
| 85
|
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/writing-has-got-to-be-weird-before-it-gets-good-says-casey-gerald
|
en
|
Writing has ‘got to be weird before it gets good,’ says Casey Gerald
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Elizabeth Flock"
] |
2018-12-10T12:43:30-04:00
|
Casey Gerald, author of the memoir "There Will Be No Miracles Here," says his editor is the first person "to ever seriously hold space for me to be fully, strangely, magically myself, in my work."
|
en
|
PBS News
|
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/writing-has-got-to-be-weird-before-it-gets-good-says-casey-gerald
|
Our December pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club, “Now Read This,” is Casey Gerald’s memoir “There Will Be No Miracles Here.” Become a member of the book club by joining our Facebook group, or by signing up to our newsletter. Learn more about the book club here and see all the previous book club selections here.
Casey Gerald’s “There Will Be No Miracles Here” is no ordinary rags-to-riches memoir. Over the course of the book, we watch Gerald achieve all the success of the American dream — a football scholarship, a place at Yale University, a leader of several successful organizations. But then Gerald calls all of it into question. The result is a memoir that’s part personal, part political, and asks important questions about power, success, and where the United States is heading.
Below, Gerald shares his writing routine (he writes by hand), his favorite childhood book (“The Boxcar Children”) and the best writing advice he’s received.
What is your daily writing routine?
I wake without an alarm and make coffee, do the morning hygiene thing, and sit to do my morning pages — three stream-of-consciousness pages, by hand, inspired by Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way.” Very useful to get uncensored. I meditate and pray after those morning pages.
After I’ve done all that, I get to the book. I wrote the whole book by hand, on yellow legal pads, so each day began with reading whatever I’d written and typed up the day before. That was a second round of revision. The extra revision, by the way, is the greatest gift of writing by hand.
I’d mark up the typed pages and then get to work on the day’s goal — rarely a word count goal, more often a set of experiences or ideas I want to get explore. Usually, the work took me somewhere I hadn’t planned to go, and I’d follow until the afternoon, when I’d go try to live a normal life before coming back to type up pages in the evening. On good days, this all happens almost as a trance, and you lose yourself in the work, and are a bit sad to have to step away from it, even for sleep. On bad days. Well. I try to forget those.
Post-book, I still do everything up to the meditation. More day-time hours are spent in Normal-Life Land. But I sense that’s not going to last long. I’m glad about that.
What is your favorite childhood book? Or one book you think everyone should read?
“The Boxcar Children” by Gertrude Chandler Warner. It taught me that, sometimes, it doesn’t matter what you have; all that matters is what you’re trying to do.
What is something you’ve seen, watched or read that you think is overlooked and deserves more attention?
Ja’Tovia Gary’s “An Ecstatic Experience.” Richard Siken’s “Crush.” The true Jesus of Nazareth—not that I’ve seen him, to be clear.
What is the best piece of writer’s advice you’ve received?
In the early days of this book, when things were shaky, my editor, Rebecca Saletan, said: “It’s got to be weird before it gets good. Keep going.” She’s the first person to ever seriously hold space for me to be fully, strangely, magically myself, in my work.
Can you describe the moment you knew you wanted to write this particular book? And when did you know it was over?
I had achieved, by my late 20s, about everything a kid is supposed to achieve in this society, but I was cracked up, and many of my friends were cracked up, and the world was cracked up, too. So, I set out to trace the cracks, with words. Before I finished, one of my friends took his life. He came to me in a dream and said: “We did a lot of things that we would not advise anybody we loved to do.” My job became to make plain “those things,” to expose the dark side of the American Dream, to counter the ways we’re taught to live — to die, in fact — and, ultimately, to find and share a way to heal. I first knew it was over when I felt a deep peace, for multiple days, about not adding anything more. And when, a few months later, my editor said: “You did it.”
|
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695
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dbpedia
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3
| 6
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https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/julia-margaret-cameron
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Julia Margaret Cameron · V&A
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[
"julia margaret cameron",
"photographic process",
"photography",
"portrait photography",
"sir henry cole",
"v&a",
"victoria and albert museum"
] | null |
[] | null |
Best known for her powerful portraits, Julia Margaret Cameron was one of the most important and innovative photographers of the 19th century.
|
en
|
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|
Victoria and Albert Museum
|
https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/julia-margaret-cameron
|
One of the most important and innovative photographers of the 19th century, Julia Margaret Cameron had close links to the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) throughout her career – her first museum exhibition in 1865 was held here and was home to her portrait studio in 1868. Today, our collection includes over 900 of Cameron's photographs, and letters from Cameron to Sir Henry Cole, the Museum's founding director.
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815 – 79) was an ambitious and devoted pioneer of photography. Best known for her powerful portraits, she also posed her sitters – friends, family and servants – as characters from biblical, historical or allegorical stories. She was visionary in her belief of the ‘divine’ power of the medium, daring in her experiments with image making and persistent in the promotion of her work. Her photographs broke the rules: they were intentionally out of focus and often included scratches, smudges and other traces of her process.
The South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) was not only the sole museum to exhibit Cameron’s work in her lifetime, but also the institution that collected her photographs most extensively in her day.
|
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695
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dbpedia
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https://www.kevincarlow.com/category/writing/
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en
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Writing – KEVIN CARLOW
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It's a weird experience, feeling like you are waking up to your own life. It's even weirder to type those words with the intention of sharing them with the internet. But that's how I feel. Not that I abruptly un-jacked from The Matrix and have instantly awoken to a new, real world, but gradually, as each day passes, as my practices deepen and evolve, I feel like I've been becoming incrementally more in tune with all that my life is. I feel like I see things more clearly. When someone is upset, I get less caught up in the emotion of the moment and I can see the story behind the pain. When all I'm doing is standing in the middle of a forest, I can more clearly see the layers and depth of beauty that surrounds me, the abundance of life around me and within me. What does all this hippie-dippie gobbledygook have to do with my setting out to create 104 weekly blog posts chronicling a 2-year break from the working world and then giving up 30 weeks into it?
For starters, it's because, in my hard-to-describe state of feeling a little more awakened or alive or some such clichéd word, I am realizing that it no longer feels like I'm On Sabbatical. For many, the term sabbatical implies that the leave is short term and that there will inevitably be a return to the work once the sabbatical is over. I see no return in my future. From the ashes of my past and the soil in my foundation, only new growth can emerge. The idea of writing a weekly blog documenting my time away from the working world suited me, until it didn't. What once felt like a worthy practice, an easy launchpad into the world of writing, an exciting endeavor I could one day look back on with interest, now just feels restricting. I don't want to write because I have to write. I want to write because I want to write.
I find it extremely challenging to write my honest to goodness Truth. I can hear many critical voices murmur as I dare to write without filter, without edit, without restraint. No one cares. Why are you doing this? People will judge you. What will your parents think? You sound like an esoteric cloud-dwelling hippie. These voices and their siblings offer formidable resistance. Adding to the resistance with my own arbitrary deadlines and rigid framework of one post about my sabbatical every week no longer feels useful. Being awake enough to myself to be able to see this is but one example of how it feels like I am no longer on a break but that I am metamorphosing into a new being with a new quality of consciousness.
Even writing that sentence, an inner critic says you sound ridiculous. But it's my Truth! I'm feeling ready to start documenting and sharing more of my Truth.
As I continue to live out my days by practicing, among other things, letting my intuition, and the intuition of my partner and children, guide me, weird things are happening. Awesome things. Powerful things. Where to begin?
SETTING INTENTION IN THE NEW YEAR
A week after New Year's on Monday, January 9, the first day of 2023 when the holiday buzz had finally worn off for most everyone, people everywhere were likely having their first real Monday of work in a few weeks. Well, right now, I don't have a job, but I did get to work that morning; even though I had a long list of things I wanted to do for the week, out of seemingly nowhere I felt a strong compulsion to write a letter to my friends. It was hitting me that it was now 2023, the actual year I would be moving from Minnesota to Costa Rica with my family, indefinitely. My available time to share with friends was about to start dwindling at a rapid pace. I felt a sudden urgency to prioritize scheduling a day of connection with each of my closest friends. Here is an excerpt from the letter that went out that day:
Through practices of contemplation, meditation, and reflective writing, my values, the things I most care about in life, are becoming more clear. When I did the Brene Brown exercise of boiling down all of the things I value in life into two words (found here), the two words that emerged for me were: Time and Family.
For me, Family is another way of saying: relationships, community, socialization, friendship, connection, and of course actual family. All of these notions of interpersonal relationship and connectedness roll up to my “parent” value of Family.
When I think of Family, I think of you. Regardless of whether or not we keep in frequent communication in future years, our friendship is definitely something I value right now. And, in a way, right now is all any of us has.
When I think of Time, I know that I don’t want to waste it. But what does it mean, to “waste” time? To me, it means protecting my Time from distractions, and investing my Time living in ways that serve my values. There is no better way for me to do this than to spend my Time with Family.
And so, I’d like to schedule some Time to be with you before I depart Minnesota.
GETTING REAL WITH FRIENDS
In the weeks that followed, I utterly enjoyed my friendships. I hang out with my friends and I enjoy it–obvious, right? What's been surprising, though, is that time and time again, this phenomenon keeps occuring that I'm not yet totally able to explain. Before, when I would see my friends, we would shoot the breeze, play games, eat some food, you know, typical friend hang stuff. But now when I see my friends, we open. Things get real.
The examples are many:
I went over to a friend's house during a weekday for lunch. She had the day off and her husband works from home, so on his lunch break the three of us were able to have a chat. Instead of the typical catching up chat, they shared a recent story where they'd had a disagreement about parenting, which opened up into a larger conversation about their relationship, how they communicate, and how they make each other feel. There were tears. It felt to me like a big elephant in the room had been addressed and moved through. A day later, she sent me a text saying our talk was therapeutic and reinforced a lot of the reasons why we love each other and are committed to raising the best family we can.
A former coworker reached out asking for advice about her career. I agreed to a lunch and she opened up about her dreams and her financial concerns. We explored what her real fears were. A few months later, she left her corporate position and now owns her own business.
At a guys poker night, a friend mentioned in an off-hand comment that things weren't going very well at home. Rather than zoom past that uncomfortable topic (like every other guy at poker did), I made sure not to leave the gathering until we actually talked about it. At one point we stepped outside and I gently inquired deeper to see how he was doing with it all. He shared more, and I could see in his body how it felt good to unload some of the tough stuff. At the end of the conversation, we embraced and he thanked me for caring and asking about his life.
A previous advertising client reached out for a Zoom call to discuss her career change ideas, and at the end of the call said our chat felt like a therapy session for her.
In the middle of recording one of my pilot podcast episodes, my guest felt comfortable enough to share a tear-filled, emotionally charged personal story.
For the first time that I can remember, I had a phone conversation with my father where we both cried.
A close friend keeps coming to me with news of his bad days, tough feelings, stress at home, frustrations about parenting. I see the pain. I see how I had been there a few years ago. It's like I've climbed over a fence but he's still on the other side, and he doesn't even know there's a fence there, and I don't know how to help him get on the other side without telling him how to do it which will only make him avoid the fence at all costs. But at least I can see the fence now, and we're talking about the important stuff.
I go to my 20-year high school reunion and, by the end of the night, three different people tell me some version of you are helping me remember what it is to dream for myself.
We had a couples hang with another couple and they offered to talk about their therapy sessions, an eating disorder, and some challenges they have around their home. I got the sense these aren't topics they discuss often with others; something about the conditions Kristyn and I created brought these more real topics forward.
And speaking of Kristyn, all this real talk has some positive flavor to it as well. I keep getting more in love with my partner. Our support of each other keeps getting more and more layers of foundation. Almost like wrapping a ball in a ribbon or crochet paper. Every time we practice contact nutrition it's like another layer of protective paper protecting our relationship. It's becoming fortified. Once I cried to her explaining how thankful I am for who she is and that, just by her being who she is, she helps me live more in my own values. That moment was one extra fortifying layer adding further strength to our partnership.
Writing all this out, maybe crying is a theme here? (˃̣̣̥‿˂̣̣̥)
My friends keep opening up to me. Around me. Am I just seeing this now where I wasn't seeing it before, but it's always been there? No. It's not just perception. Things are unfolding differently now. I'm making choices when discomfort arises. I'm choosing not to avoid, but to linger in the uncomfortableness. I'm choosing to dig into my friends' tension with them. I'm figuratively holding their hand as we dive into the scary, unfomortable depths of their feelings, their relationships, their desires, their pain.
I focus on staying grounded, on remaining unattached to my sensations and my thoughts. I reconnect to my breath again and again, and I do my best to mirror back to my friends what they share with me, to bear witness to their stories, to aid their personal inquiry. I keep falling into roles of therapist, counselor, couples mediator. Is that just what being a good friend is? Listening, being supportive, being helpful? Or is there more to the story, here? After we have these tough conversations, I keep hearing things like that felt therapeutic and thanks for letting me get that out and man, I wasn't planning on getting this real over salads.
A NEW BEGINNING
I feel like I'm onto something. I just don't know exactly what that thing is yet. I know it feels good to show up for my friends, to invite in their reality, and to attempt to navigate the hard stuff with them as their ally. I'm going to keep doing that and see where it leads.
I don't know where it'll take me, but my guess is that it won't take me back to a cubicle selling TV commercials on broadcast news that I don't even watch.
I'm grateful to my past self for documenting the first thirty weeks of my time away from the working world. It doesn't feel like a failure that I only lasted thirty weeks out of 104. It feels like that's how it had to be. That writing was right for that time, and they will forever exist (as long as I keep paying to renew my domain :D) for me to look back on.
Now, though, I have this feeling that there are bigger projects to tackle, more important research and writing to do, more exciting endeavors to pursue, more value to offer the world. What it feels like now is a new beginning. A fresh start where I get to write the rules of my own life. And instead of committing to the rule of one weekly blog post documenting the journey of my two-year sabbatical, the new rule is write often, and write your Truth.
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https://www.kevincarlow.com/2023/08/24/i-took-a-two-year-sabbatical-and-tried-to-blog-about-it-weekly-after-30-weeks-i-realized-i-was-no-longer-on-sabbatical/
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It’s a weird experience, feeling like you are waking up to your own life. It’s even weirder to type those words with the intention of sharing them with the internet. But that’s how I feel. Not that I abruptly un-jacked from The Matrix and have instantly awoken to a new, real world, but gradually, as each day passes, as my practices deepen and evolve, I feel like I’ve been becoming incrementally more in tune with all that my life is. I feel like I see things more clearly. When someone is upset, I get less caught up in the emotion of the moment and I can see the story behind the pain. When all I’m doing is standing in the middle of a forest, I can more clearly see the layers and depth of beauty that surrounds me, the abundance of life around me and within me. What does all this hippie-dippie gobbledygook have to do with my setting out to create 104 weekly blog posts chronicling a 2-year break from the working world and then giving up 30 weeks into it?
For starters, it’s because, in my hard-to-describe state of feeling a little more awakened or alive or some such clichéd word, I am realizing that it no longer feels like I’m “On Sabbatical.” For many, the term “sabbatical” implies that the leave is short term and that there will inevitably be a return to the work once the sabbatical is over. I see no return in my future. From the ashes of my past and the soil in my foundation, only new growth can emerge. The idea of writing a weekly blog documenting my time away from the working world suited me, until it didn’t. What once felt like a worthy practice, an easy launchpad into the world of writing, an exciting endeavor I could one day look back on with interest, now just feels restricting. I don’t want to write because I have to write. I want to write because I want to write.
I find it extremely challenging to write my honest to goodness Truth. I can hear many critical voices murmur as I dare to write without filter, without edit, without restraint. “No one cares.” “Why are you doing this?” “People will judge you.” “What will your parents think?” “You sound like an esoteric cloud-dwelling hippie.” These voices and their siblings offer formidable resistance. Adding to the resistance with my own arbitrary deadlines and rigid framework of “one post about my sabbatical every week” no longer feels useful. Being awake enough to myself to be able to see this is but one example of how it feels like I am no longer “on a break” but that I am metamorphosing into a new being with a new quality of consciousness.
Even writing that sentence, an inner critic says “you sound ridiculous.” But it’s my Truth! I’m feeling ready to start documenting and sharing more of my Truth.
As I continue to live out my days by practicing, among other things, letting my intuition, and the intuition of my partner and children, guide me, weird things are happening. Awesome things. Powerful things. Where to begin?
SETTING INTENTION IN THE NEW YEAR
A week after New Year’s on Monday, January 9, the first day of 2023 when the holiday buzz had finally worn off for most everyone, people everywhere were likely having their first “real Monday” of work in a few weeks. Well, right now, I don’t have a “job,” but I did get to work that morning; even though I had a long list of things I wanted to do for the week, out of seemingly nowhere I felt a strong compulsion to write a letter to my friends. It was hitting me that it was now 2023, the actual year I would be moving from Minnesota to Costa Rica with my family, indefinitely. My available time to share with friends was about to start dwindling at a rapid pace. I felt a sudden urgency to prioritize scheduling a day of connection with each of my closest friends. Here is an excerpt from the letter that went out that day:
Through practices of contemplation, meditation, and reflective writing, my values, the things I most care about in life, are becoming more clear. When I did the Brene Brown exercise of boiling down all of the things I value in life into two words (found here), the two words that emerged for me were: Time and Family.
For me, Family is another way of saying: relationships, community, socialization, friendship, connection, and of course actual family. All of these notions of interpersonal relationship and connectedness roll up to my “parent” value of Family.
When I think of Family, I think of you. Regardless of whether or not we keep in frequent communication in future years, our friendship is definitely something I value right now. And, in a way, right now is all any of us has.
When I think of Time, I know that I don’t want to waste it. But what does it mean, to “waste” time? To me, it means protecting my Time from distractions, and investing my Time living in ways that serve my values. There is no better way for me to do this than to spend my Time with Family.
And so, I’d like to schedule some Time to be with you before I depart Minnesota.
GETTING REAL WITH FRIENDS
In the weeks that followed, I utterly enjoyed my friendships. I hang out with my friends and I enjoy it–obvious, right? What’s been surprising, though, is that time and time again, this phenomenon keeps occuring that I’m not yet totally able to explain. Before, when I would see my friends, we would shoot the breeze, play games, eat some food, you know, typical friend hang stuff. But now when I see my friends, we open. Things get real.
The examples are many:
I went over to a friend’s house during a weekday for lunch. She had the day off and her husband works from home, so on his lunch break the three of us were able to have a chat. Instead of the typical “catching up” chat, they shared a recent story where they’d had a disagreement about parenting, which opened up into a larger conversation about their relationship, how they communicate, and how they make each other feel. There were tears. It felt to me like a big elephant in the room had been addressed and moved through. A day later, she sent me a text saying our talk was “therapeutic” and “reinforced a lot of the reasons why we love each other and are committed to raising the best family we can.”
A former coworker reached out asking for advice about her career. I agreed to a lunch and she opened up about her dreams and her financial concerns. We explored what her real fears were. A few months later, she left her corporate position and now owns her own business.
At a guys poker night, a friend mentioned in an off-hand comment that things weren’t going very well at home. Rather than zoom past that uncomfortable topic (like every other guy at poker did), I made sure not to leave the gathering until we actually talked about it. At one point we stepped outside and I gently inquired deeper to see how he was doing with it all. He shared more, and I could see in his body how it felt good to unload some of the tough stuff. At the end of the conversation, we embraced and he thanked me for caring and asking about his life.
A previous advertising client reached out for a Zoom call to discuss her career change ideas, and at the end of the call said our chat “felt like a therapy session” for her.
In the middle of recording one of my pilot podcast episodes, my guest felt comfortable enough to share a tear-filled, emotionally charged personal story.
For the first time that I can remember, I had a phone conversation with my father where we both cried.
A close friend keeps coming to me with news of his bad days, tough feelings, stress at home, frustrations about parenting. I see the pain. I see how I had been there a few years ago. It’s like I’ve climbed over a fence but he’s still on the other side, and he doesn’t even know there’s a fence there, and I don’t know how to help him get on the other side without telling him how to do it which will only make him avoid the fence at all costs. But at least I can see the fence now, and we’re talking about the important stuff.
I go to my 20-year high school reunion and, by the end of the night, three different people tell me some version of “you are helping me remember what it is to dream for myself.”
We had a couples hang with another couple and they offered to talk about their therapy sessions, an eating disorder, and some challenges they have around their home. I got the sense these aren’t topics they discuss often with others; something about the conditions Kristyn and I created brought these more real topics forward.
And speaking of Kristyn, all this “real talk” has some positive flavor to it as well. I keep getting more in love with my partner. Our support of each other keeps getting more and more layers of foundation. Almost like wrapping a ball in a ribbon or crochet paper. Every time we practice contact nutrition it’s like another layer of protective paper protecting our relationship. It’s becoming fortified. Once I cried to her explaining how thankful I am for who she is and that, just by her being who she is, she helps me live more in my own values. That moment was one extra fortifying layer adding further strength to our partnership.
Writing all this out, maybe crying is a theme here? (˃̣̣̥‿˂̣̣̥)
My friends keep opening up to me. Around me. Am I just seeing this now where I wasn’t seeing it before, but it’s always been there? No. It’s not just perception. Things are unfolding differently now. I’m making choices when discomfort arises. I’m choosing not to avoid, but to linger in the uncomfortableness. I’m choosing to dig into my friends’ tension with them. I’m figuratively holding their hand as we dive into the scary, unfomortable depths of their feelings, their relationships, their desires, their pain.
I focus on staying grounded, on remaining unattached to my sensations and my thoughts. I reconnect to my breath again and again, and I do my best to mirror back to my friends what they share with me, to bear witness to their stories, to aid their personal inquiry. I keep falling into roles of therapist, counselor, couples mediator. Is that just what being a good friend is? Listening, being supportive, being helpful? Or is there more to the story, here? After we have these tough conversations, I keep hearing things like “that felt therapeutic” and “thanks for letting me get that out” and “man, I wasn’t planning on getting this real over salads.”
A NEW BEGINNING
I feel like I’m onto something. I just don’t know exactly what that thing is yet. I know it feels good to show up for my friends, to invite in their reality, and to attempt to navigate the hard stuff with them as their ally. I’m going to keep doing that and see where it leads.
I don’t know where it’ll take me, but my guess is that it won’t take me back to a cubicle selling TV commercials on broadcast news that I don’t even watch.
I’m grateful to my past self for documenting the first thirty weeks of my time away from the working world. It doesn’t feel like a failure that I only lasted thirty weeks out of 104. It feels like that’s how it had to be. That writing was right for that time, and they will forever exist (as long as I keep paying to renew my domain :D) for me to look back on.
Now, though, I have this feeling that there are bigger projects to tackle, more important research and writing to do, more exciting endeavors to pursue, more value to offer the world. What it feels like now is a new beginning. A fresh start where I get to write the rules of my own life. And instead of committing to the rule of “one weekly blog post documenting the journey of my two-year sabbatical,” the new rule is “write often, and write your Truth.”
I kicked off this week by making a brand new recipe for my beloved Kristyn’s birthday.
Our favorite restaurant in the Twin Cities is Bar La Grassa. It’s a hip Italian joint in the trendy North Loop neighborhood in Downtown Minneapolis, and everything about this place is spectacular: the craft cocktails, the entire menu section dedicated to bruschetta, the mouth-watering entrees, the housemade pasta… it’s all just so damned good. Kristyn has enjoyed their Gnocchi with Cauliflower & Orange in the past, and our neighbor so graciously mentioned that she’d found this recipe from a Minnesota food blogger who created a make-at-home version.
And so, in a fashion not unlike one of our first dates, where I first had Kristyn over to my place and made her fettuccine alfredo, I rolled up my sleeves and did my best Bar La Grassa impression, gnocchi-style, complete with a couple of bourbon old fashioned’s.
The dish turned out absolutely delectable. What really stood out about this evening, though, was not the lip-smacking tastiness of my concoction, but instead it was the deliciousness of the vibe we created in our home. Italian guitar strumming through the speaker. Candles flickering on the table. Cabernet in our glasses. Our kids were so into the peacefulness of the setting that, when we were done eating, they allowed Kristyn and I the space and time to slow dance in our family room while they busied themselves with their winter capes we’d just dug out of storage. It was a Monday evening as parents in the suburbs, but it felt like a Friday night on the town. These little touches made the evening feel special, indulgent. Even though it was my life, it felt like I had entered a nicer, higher plane of existence reserved for celebrities and royalty. It was an ordinary Monday made extraordinary with the addition of just two potent ingredients: effort and novelty. That’s really all it takes to keep life spicy. We can induce the pleasure of novelty simply by applying a little effort to find or create newness with the things we already have.
Side note: if you try to make the Cauliflower Gnocchi recipe (which I heartily encourage you to do), use two pans, not one, so you can sauté the gnocchi separate from the cauliflower and shallot, and double the butter. I audibled both of these decisions while making it, and was very happy with both of those choices.
THE FORMULA OF NON-FICTION BOOKS
This week I finished Gretchen Rubin’s book Better Than Before, a book about habits. I’m very curious about the power of habits, and this book offers a multitude of insights on the topic. One of the bigger takeaways of the book is that habit formation is an individual endeavor and that one approach will not work for everyone. We each have different tendencies (based on our life experiences and genetic dispositions), and only based on our unique tendencies (such as how we respond to inner expectations versus external expectations) will a particular approach to habit creation be successful.
One of the habits I’m forming with fairly reasonable success is to take notes of books (and podcasts) as I consume them. Rather than reading an educational book or listening to an insightful conversation and then letting the knowledge slip out of my mind as I make room for the next content, I slow down and take notes I can reference later. Of course, the process of writing the notes down is often enough to cement the idea into my brain more permanently. These notes sometimes turn into mini book reports that I publish on this blog, like The Most Important Lessons from “10% Happier” or Lessons From “Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer.
As I was wrapping up my notes on Better Than Before, I noticed a pattern, a sort of formula with books, specifically non-fiction books in the self-improvement realm. The formula goes like this:
Pick a topic you’re curious about –>
Research the crap out of it, which includes: reading tons, talking to friends, and interviewing experts –>
Document everything as it unfolds –>
Observe connections or patterns that emerge –>
Map out or define these connections or patterns in some sort of diagram, flow chart, table, list, or framework, and –>
BOOM, there’s your book
(Plus, you know, writing 50,000 or 100,000 words in a compelling, expertly crafted, and easy to digest way)
While it may sound a bit obvious (as I read what I just wrote above), this noticing felt like a revelation to me. All of these self-improvement books I’m reading share a common thread – they all have their own sort of framework that the author has “created” (although some authors note they haven’t created anything per se, they have simply noticed and documented something that was already there). In Katy Bowman’s book Move Your DNA, she shares a Venn Diagram she created with a large circle titled “Movement” and within it, a smaller circle labeled “Exercise,” explaining the paradigm embedded in the book’s thesis–we are too focused on exercise routines and are ignoring the much larger picture of body movement that affects every cell in our body every moment of every day. In Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the framework he put together is so obvious it’s the title of the book!
In the case of Better Than Before, one of Rubin’s frameworks is the Four Tendencies, where she groups every person into one of four buckets, based on how they respond to inner and outer expectations: Upholder (serves inner and outer), Questioner (serves inner, rejects outer), Obliger (serves outer, rejects inner), and Rebel (rejects inner and outer). She capitalizes each of these tendencies as if they are proper nouns with the same credibility and “properness” as Christmas or Egypt, even though this idea of labeling these tendencies was just a notion she came up with during the research phase of this writing project. Yet, as a reader, I noticed myself reading these labels and this framework as truth, as fact; a smart person wrote this well-researched book and is capitalizing these terms, so this must be the way things are.
Noticing patterns and creating useful frameworks and lenses to view the world through is the helpful work authors contribute to the world. It’s what transforms an idea into a useful idea. It’s what takes reams of research and converts the findings into something one can internalize. I feel like I have now noticed a pattern in how authors notice patterns, and it feels like I’ve just accessed a cheat code on how to write a useful book.
Now the question is–do I have the courage and the discipline to play the game in which I can use my new cheat code?
MONITORING MY BEHAVIORS
When I started training for a marathon in 2020, I stole an idea I’d seen a friend posting about on Facebook; I created a simple spreadsheet to track how many miles I ran every day. I also used the Nike Run Club app to track my miles, but apps come and go (I’ve since switched to Strava), but no matter what mile tracker app I use, my spreadsheet never changes. I found tracking my miles in this way to be extremely useful and also rather enjoyable. I’m not claiming this method will work for everyone, because not everyone shares my tendencies, but I really enjoyed having a numerical and visual account of how my weekly and monthly mileages were progressing. I was motivated by beating my previous week and by seeing my monthly miles stack up over time. I don’t know if I would have been able to complete a marathon without this system of monitoring my quantitative progress.
This week, I returned to this idea, except I’m no longer training for a marathon. Instead, I’ve started tracking other behaviors, other practices I have decided are the practices that align with my values, that I believe in, that I want to hold myself accountable to practicing on a weekly basis. I created two separate worksheets: Mind and Body. For both of these, I’ve decided to use the measurement unit of minutes–the number of minutes I spend doing the practice each day.
On the Mind worksheet, I’m tracking: Meditation, Spanish, and Music. I considered adding Writing, because it is a Mind exercise I’m deeply interested in practicing, but I’m jotting down notes so often throughout the day, it would be too cumbersome to track.
On the Body worksheet, I’m tracking: Strength, Cardio, Yoga, and Being Outside. I’m not training for any particular physical endeavor. I am interested in developing a body that is well-adapted to a natural life over the long term, minimizing potential for injuries and maximizing healthy longevity. With what I’ve been learning about the body and movement from people like Tony Riddle and Katy Bowman, I believe that a variety of movement practices is the key to achieving my body goals, so I’ve set up a rotation of dedicated exercise practice six days a week with the following cadence: Strength, Yoga, Cardio, Strength, Yoga, Cardio, Rest. I included Being Outside on my Body tracker, because it is just so freaking nourishing to be outside, so regardless of whether I’m running, walking, hiking, playing with my kids, or sitting under a tree, I’m going to monitor how many of my daily minutes I’m spending immersed in nature.
Time is our most limited resource. What gets monitored gets done. My intention is that by monitoring the behaviors I most want to develop into habits, I’ll have the same excitement and motivation that I did when tracking marathon miles, and eventually I’ll be living a life in perfect harmony with my aspirations. (At which point, I’ll probably change the goals again, ha!)
Probably not so coincidentally, as soon as I finished making this tracker, I felt compelled to go for a walk outside. I hiked around the trails at Westwood Nature Center in St. Louis Park, MN, and it felt invigorating. It was a cold day. I saw two other humans. I saw many deer hunkered down, turkeys squabbling, squirrels scavenging acorns, and pileated woodpeckers hacking away to prepare for winter. I felt more alive being in the midst of all these creatures working hard at their own survival.
THANK YOU TO WRITERS
This week I also started and finished the book The Year of Less by Cait Flanders, a memoir in which Flanders shares her journey of detaching from the habit of mindless shopping and consumerism. I’ve always been skeptical when people would claim to finish a book in a day or three. I’m a slow reader. But this book was a fast one for me. Upon finishing it, I felt compelled to send Cait a quick email. I wanted to thank her for writing the book, to thank her for the value I got from it (I hadn’t really considered making “internet friends” with similar interests until she mentioned meaningful relationships she’d made that way), and, more than that, I wanted to share how I related to her on several levels, to lob a hook into the water that I feel like a kindred spirit and am open to connecting more deeply than as just a reader of her book.
I then remembered hearing Dan Harris share on his podcast that one of the ways he first got into relationship with Dr. Mark Epstein was by reading his book and then reaching out to Epstein to set up a call, which Epstein agreed to.
Eureka! This gave me the idea to write the author of every book I read, as long as they are living, and thank them for the book. I don’t necessarily aspire to meet and become friends with all of these others, but as someone who’s dabbling in this whole writing business, I know how hard it is to put words down, so the very least I can do is to thank them for their effort. It feels karmically right. Plus, I’ve been in sales my whole career. I know how to do successful cold outreach, and that’s when I was peddling every business owner’s least favorite expense–advertising. It can’t be harder to write someone a thank you note. What’s the worst that can happen?
I started this new gratitude practice with Cait Flanders, and I’m looking forward to continuing this tiny way of giving back to my writer teachers out there.
A CASE OF THE MONDAY’S
I started out this week like I have many other weeks of sabbatical–feeling aimless. Many Monday’s I will make a list of what I want to do that day and that week, and I will look at the list and feel like I have a lot to do, and I will not know where to begin. I’ve tried many productivity apps and journaling systems, but try what I may, I often get a feeling of Monday Doom: so much to do, so little time, clueless where to begin.
Luckily for me, I have a life partner who listens, holds space for me, and allows me to process thoughts through conversation. It’s incredible how useful it can be to externalize my thoughts with another person; so often the act of putting my thoughts into words that are cohesive enough for someone else to understand reveals the answers to my questions without the other person needing to say anything. In a Monday morning conversation with Kristyn, I was able to see that I know I don’t ever want to have a “job” again, a job where someone else is in control of how I spend my day. Therefore, if my plan is not to jump into some preset system but instead to forge my own path, then of course it’s going to feel aimless because I am creating the aim as I go.
This realization brought me some relief; however, it also made me consider the following–how can I carve out a custom existence for myself without completely reinventing the wheel? How can I make this easier? Who can I model myself after? There clearly are other humans who have exited the traditional workforce and embarked on a less traditional, less linear path. And I do have some role models, but none that I want to emulate entirely. This line of thinking launched me into a vortex of studying the online presences of some of my role models, to really study how they present themselves and market themselves to the world. I started bookmarking and screenshotting websites like crazy. I subscribed to email newsletters. I worked on building up a picture of what my ideal lifestyle design really is. What do I like about the work other people have done? What gap do I see in all of their collective work, what questions have been left unanswered that I want to devote myself to? What am I uniquely positioned to do in this world, that my unique combination of skills, experiences, and interests will best serve the greatest good? How does one answer questions like this??
Surprise surprise… I went for a hike to process. During this hour-long walk, I left myself a ten-minute Voice Memo. The following mental downloads came to me.
I may have these exact details wrong, but I liked how in the book Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin tells the story of her friend who wanted to write a book, and to form the habit she scheduled the time from 11am-1pm every day to be dedicated to writing. The power of Scheduling helped her form this habit. Three years later, her book was done. I love this! I love this use of time, this way of harnessing the power of the long term to one’s advantage. Over time, if I do small, incremental actions consistently, big things get done, big change can happen. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
I want to have confidence of what my vision is and where I’m headed, so that I can be laying down meaningful daily bricks toward building my own Rome. I’ve learned (from many sources including The Dalai Lama, Carmen Spagnola via Kristyn, and various guests of the Ten Percent Happier podcast) not to have too much attachment to the end result, not to be focused on completing my “Rome” to some precise specifications. But, I do believe in the power of the strategy of small practices and actions done consistently over a long period of time, and it would sure be nice to have a concrete direction for my actions. For example, if my vision was to become a professional beach volleyball player, then it would very easily become clear that my daily practices need to include a ton of physical exercise, strength training, sand workouts, and the like, as well as a focus on nutrition and on studying the game. When my vision was to complete a marathon, it became crystal clear that I needed a plan, a roadmap of weekly mileage recommendations, to get me across that finish line. I followed this 16-week plan from Runners World, scheduled all the runs in my Google Calendar, ardently followed the plan as best I could (with a few adaptations along the way for the inevitable curve balls of life that arose), and presto–I ran a marathon.
I know I don’t want a “traditional job” ever again. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what I do want. I’ve learned about myself enough over the past six months to know there are certain activities that are largely energy-giving to me (hiking on trails, making music, writing, playing with my kids, cooking a tasty meal, meditating, yoga, volleyball…), but I haven’t been trying to string them together in any productive, career-oriented way. So far, it’s been more about experimenting with different practices and behaviors and taking note of which ones feel right, resonant, important. I have been intentionally not thinking too far ahead, not worrying about practicality, profitability, or perfection, and instead drawing my focused inward, to the present. But, much like how the decision we made 4 years ago to move to Costa Rica made a lot of other decisions along the way more clear (knowing how important Spanish immersion school was, knowing we’d be changing employment, knowing whether or not a certain repair on the home would be worth it since we knew our move-out date…), I am wanting another hit of the clarity that comes from commitment to a direction.
I then recalled what I had seen on the websites of Spring Washam, Oren Sofer, Ryan Holiday, Tim Ferriss, Shawnell Miller, and others who are their own business, and noticed something in my mind’s eye; when you condense your life into a Navigation Bar, you are forced to pick a just a handful of words that you live by, a few choice labels you want your essence to be about. I had seen words like: Author, Books, Podcast, Newsletter, Blog, Speaking, Courses, App, Group/Club, Events. These words aren’t personal value words–those are a different set of words to live by. NavBar words can help act as useful containers for one’s work. I don’t want to simply exist and be content with stillness only. I want to do my part to make the world a better place, to make my life’s work meaningful, and to make sure I give back to the planet more than I’ve taken before I die. I want to work. I want to try. And at some point, if I’m going to find water by digging a well, I just have to pick a spot, start digging, and keep digging.
What spots am I going to pick to do my digging?
What kind of work do I want to devote myself to?
What do I want my words to be on the top of KevinCarlow.com?
What words do I want to hang my hat on?
And then it hit me, this idea and felt sense of being my authentic self, of living a life that I’m so confident in and unashamed of that I’m OK with it being public, that I’m OK with sharing it. A public way of living where I know I’m genuine and that I’m not being a fraud (by, for example, talking about how great being vegetarian is but then eating a bunch of meat myself, or by inwardly despising advertising but making my living from the industry anyway). If I hold that thought, of being so authentically me that I have no shame of being public with it because I am always just being me… that level of honesty, that’s what’s going to get me there.
I walked with this idea for a bit, and then I noticed a particular tree situated twenty feet above on the uphill side of the trail. One of its thicker branches was shaped with a natural hammock-like parabola to it, and this thick branch extended outward from the trunk at an easily mountable height of four feet off the ground. I marched up to it, climbed in, positioned my mittens under my tailbone, laid my head back, and immediately a sense of ease and peace washed over me as I gazed up at a sparse winter canopy and the bright blue sky beyond.
I then uttered, “I’m now lying in a tree and looking up at the sky. And I think I need to give myself permission to write. That is what I’m holding myself back from. To ask for and to give permission to take large chunks of hours to indulge in my interest of writing. To muster the courage to write the piece about leaving Corporate America, about leaving a successful career and why. It’s time to write that. It’s time to write the harder stuff.”
After a while I got down from my tree branch cot and, as I reached the wide open lowland area that sits right at the intersection of the narrow path that leads back to my neighborhood, I concluded the walk like this:
“And now I’m sitting here in a squat, gazing toward the setting sun (ridiculous that it’s this close to the horizon at 2:34pm), and I’m reminded of the balance of accepting that the way things are right now is totally fine. There’s so much peace and joy of sinking into… now. Today is great as it is. I don’t need to worry too much about building toward some big outcome, some epic destination. Kristyn mentioned earlier that everything I was talking about this morning was outcome-based. She’s right. I have a lot of conditioning and training from the business world about focusing on outcomes. So as I’m squatting here in my hiking boots, sinking into the soft, squishy earth of dying leaves and wet soil, I want also to sink into having a dream day, today. Whatever that means for today… going to bed with the feeling of completeness, of wholeness. That I turned over some stones today, and that the stones I left unturned were left so intentionally, mindfully. Today was not the day to turn over those stones. And that’s OK.”
TUESDAY
Morning meditations are starting to feel less like something I have to make myself do and more like something I just do. I went to bed before 10pm last night, and this morning I woke up at exactly 6:00 with no alarm (I’ve been setting my alarm for 6:15 and groggily waking up). I now have some extra time before the kids get up, and I’ve already done some stretches and am now writing this!
I followed up on yesterday’s contemplations by revisiting some of the websites of people I like. I made my way to Gretchen Rubin’s homepage, and BAM! Her opening line hit me like a ton of bricks. The featured sentence on her homepage reads, “We can accept ourselves and also expect more from ourselves.” I’ve examined the paradox between ambition and acceptance many times, and seeing this on her site gave me a conflicting sense of validation mixed with hopelessness. In a way, I feel validated that a successful author shares in my focus on this topic, on its importance. It makes me feel more connected to her and that perhaps I am onto something significant if a successful writer is also intrinsically intrigued by this yin and yang of contentment and striving. But it also makes me feel hopeless. Who am I to attempt to do anything valuable in a realm that’s already been explored by experts, by wiser, more knowledgeable, more skilled people? Who am I to write, to blog, to podcast, to create my own newsletter? Will I really be able to create anything so valuable that the world is truly better off because of my creation, as opposed to if I’d dedicated all that time to planting trees or whatever else? Ugh.
CONNECTION TO NATURE
On Friday I convinced my kid that was home from school to strap on the winter gear and head out to the snowy woods. Getting children out the door during Minnesota winters is a massive struggle, moreso with a highly sensitive child that doesn’t enjoy the feeling of snow pants and walking around in large, thick boots (especially when the destination is a “boring hike” and not sledding with the neighbor kids), but once we got going and started noticing nature’s interesting gifts, she quickly forgot about the comfort level of the snow gear.
As we got to the very end of the small trail, the very first reasonable checkpoint to turn around and return home (which is as far as I could convince my kid to go), we came upon a most peculiar sight. About 5.5 feet off the ground hung the rear portion of a rabbit carcass, skewered onto a sapling. We discussed how it might have gotten there, and we couldn’t come up with any definitive theory. We were flummoxed.
Upon returning home, my child wasted no time telling Kristyn what we had discovered. It was a most unusual sighting, after all. Kristyn, in return, wasted no time with her response to this news. Without hesitation, in supremely witch-like fashion, Kristyn’s response to learning of a skewered rabbit carcass within walking distance of our house was–we need to get that rabbit’s foot.
Armed with some latex gloves and a tree trimmer, Kristyn bounded away from the house with the fervor and pace of a Black Friday shopper hellbent on beating everyone else to the best deals in town. She retrieved the foot, began the curing process, and traipsed back into the snowy lowland area behind our house to place the remaining bits in an area more easily accessible to the wildlife and the worms. Our child was understandably uneasy throughout this process, it being her first encounter with dead animal bits up close, but she fed off our energy and was curiously asking questions, and once the foot was sealed in a mason jar of isopropyl alcohol, she made sure it was placed in a location she and her sister would be able to look at it.
My experience throughout this whole ordeal was one of gratitude and of most pleasant surprise. I was thankful to myself and to my kid that we went through the painstaking process of gearing up to get outside, enjoy the fresh air, and move our bodies along the snowy path that led us to the rabbit remains. And, moreso, I was so pleasantly surprised by Kristyn’s reaction to the situation. The idea had crossed my mind that “hey, rabbit’s feet are lucky, and we just found one,” but I did not consider actually retrieving it. Kristyn had never done anything like this before, but she acted as if we had just found a pot of gold and decided to leave it out in the woods. I was proud to watch her so highly value an opportunity to gain more connection to the land around us. It’s fun being married to a witch.
This week marks a half year. It has been a half of a year since I quit my job, left the workforce, entered a state of sabbatical, and started a new chapter in my life. Now that I’m six months in, it feels like more than a new chapter; it feels like a new book. Huge swaths of my days are filled with practices and activities I was not doing at all a year ago. My relationship with my partner is at an all-time high; our communication has leveled up, several levels. As I write these words, I’m listening to a 5-layered house music track that I recorded just earlier this morning. Neither writing nor music-making were in my list of weekly to do’s a year ago, save writing emails to clients or crunching out the occasional scrap of advertising copy.
When I initially started sabbatical, I told myself it was going to be roughly a two year period: one year in Minnesota, and one year in Costa Rica. That was and has been the tentative plan. I told myself, “once we move, once we complete this transition and get settled in to our neighborhood, a new school, a new community, a new way of life… that’s when I can start actually letting myself think practically, letting myself worry about the future.”
I am just now, in this moment, checking in with myself to reflect on the time so far. It’s not a question of what I’ve done, what activities I’ve done, what items I’ve checked off my bucket list. The question is – Where am I now? How do I feel now? What brand of Kevin am I now? How do I feel about the fact that I’m 25% of the way through this ‘plan’? And what path am I headed on? What is my trajectory? And what is my relationship to my current state and to my trajectory?
I feel… comfortable with it. This time has had its challenges, mostly of the existential variety, but for the most part the common thread throughout the last six months has been joy. It has been a gift to untether from my old self, from my previous conditioning, from my past decisions that I have now grown away from. It has been a joy to spend more time with my kids and to act more childlike myself. Digging in to who I really am and who I want to be has its uncomfortable moments, but on the whole it has been a treat to afford the time to fully detach and to put maximum effort into starting anew.
I like the person I am now compared to Old Kevin. I have asked myself what I value, and I’ve sat with that question until I’ve come up with some answers. I have more clarity about what I value, what I want my life to be about, what I want my time to be spent doing. It’s family, it’s outdoors, it’s the environment, and it’s being generous and giving to others, others now and others in the future. I love that I’ve been able to prioritize myself and doing what I want to do, being how I want to be. If I want to go outside, I go. If I want to listen to music, I listen. If I want to make music, I make. If I want to do nothing, I sit. If I want to let a blog post take four hours to make because I’m trying to perfect it or get it “just so,” then so be it! That’s what I wanted to do. I let myself do it. I’m not letting any external influences or thoughts or preconceived notions or conditionings get in my way.
I know that I’m a better communicator. I’m more mindful of how I am, of what I say and how I say it. I’m more in tune with others. Friends have told me, observed this about Kristyn and I, that we have an ability to be tuned in to how others are feeling.
I know that this is making me a better father, not always having some place to go or some place to be or some project to work on, when my kids just want to play with me in that special time between end of school and bed.
Life is not meant to be rushed through. I’ve really enjoyed slowing down and trying to actually live each day, not just move through each day.
And yeah, there are days that are hard, days where I feel lost, days where I’ve told Kristyn, “I’m lost. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t like this feeling. I feel like I don’t know what I’m supposed to do today. But I want to know what I’m supposed to do.” There are a lot of “could’s”: I could write, I could exercise, I could cook, I could brainstorm a teen fiction series, I could make a new beat, I could go for a walk, I could meditate. Which one should I start with? Should. Should based on… what, exactly? Should does not exist. Should is a facade. There is no should. So yeah, I have days like this, days where I feel aimless, but that’s a small price to pay for the tradeoff of the joys of slowness and simplicity. In fact, the discomfort of that aimlessness is what I want to be experiencing, because that is where growth comes from. No pain, no gain.
I’m still working on this, but as I reflect on the last six months, one of the underlying themes has been my effort to let go of yearning, of wishing, of wanting things I don’t have, experiences I haven’t had. I’ve been really trying to mindfully think into what is within my power to make today feel like a “dream day,” a day where I lived as close to being in choice that I could be. What can I do today to make it feel like a “million dollar day”? And I have to say, I’ve been having a lot of days that feel that way. It’s hard to put a price on that.
I hold my privilege front and center in my mind as often as I can remember to do so. I hope that by unlearning many of the assumptions I had been operating under, by focusing on becoming the truest version of myself, and by generously radiating compassion toward those around me, I am putting my privilege to the best possible use for the betterment of my family and humanity.
So… what now? What are my goals for the next six months? Knowing what I know now about these last six months, what does that make me think about next semester? What do I want to do differently? How do I want to be different? What do I want to continue?
I know I want to continue many of my recent practices: morning meditations, exercise routine rotating strength, cardio, and yoga, writing on this blog, building up the Naturally Better idea, and plunking away at the keyboard to make fun little tunes for myself.
One big difference for the next quartile of sabbatical? The move to Costa Rica. In the past six months, I have done very little to prepare for this transition relative to how much I’m going to need to do in the half year ahead. In this situation I think using some labels will be helpful for me to give some structure to my time.
Labels that feel right for what the first quarter of sabbatical was like are: Unplug, Reset, Rebirth, Childhood, and Unlearn.
The labels I intend to uphold for the next half year are: Practice, Adolescence, Authenticity, Minimize, and Transition.
Practice: having the discipline and devotion to practices that align with my values, and not allowing disruption of these practices by things I value less than the practice.
Adolescence: when I was a teenager, I went through phases where I practiced stuff relentlessly. There was a semester in high school where I played saxophone five days a week. I would play volleyball every chance I got. I did these things not because someone was making me; I did them because I loved doing them. I want to embody that passionate spirit again, of not worrying about the practicality of an activity or hobby and letting myself get absorbed by something for the sheer joy of it and for the satisfying feeling of improvement.
Authenticity: as I learn about new concepts (such as meditation or barefoot running), can I actually walk the walk? If I learn that beef is the most harmful food for the environment, can I actually stop eating it? If I discover that spending more time barefoot can unlock huge health benefits, do I have the courage to actually kick my shoes off around the neighborhood?
Minimize: it’s time to get rid of my crap. I have no choice but to do so; the house we’ll move to in Costa Rica is much smaller than our current house. Less stuff. More space.
Transition: while the last half year was a time of detaching and jumping off a moving train, the time ahead will start to feel like movement toward a new direction, a transition in to something new.
That’s a wrap on reflecting about my sabbatical so far. Onward to reviewing the experiences of the past week!
A WORK MEETING? NOT EXACTLY.
I kicked off this week with something I haven’t done in half a year – a professional networking Zoom meeting. I should put “professional” in quotes; I had a conversation with one person I knew from my most recent job as a TV advertising sales rep. She had worked on the Marketing team at one of my best clients, had seen my post on LinkedIn where I shared my departure from the workforce and my intention for the time ahead, and had reached out to me to set up a time to chat.
When we hopped on the Zoom, I learned she had also since left her position and was pursuing self-employment as a freelance marketer. As she explained her situation, what she was working on, what she was feeling stuck with, I noticed myself going into a sort of “counselor mode.” I listened intently. I gently probed for her to expand on her hesitations. I did my best to help her see her own answers were already there. At one point she even joked, “I can’t believe we’re talking about this; this is starting to feel like a therapy session!” Even though our conversation carried on without missing a beat, when she said that, I strangely felt a rush of pride. The idea of someone talking to me feeling like therapy for them… I liked that idea. It was a tiny hint, an iota of a clue that, perhaps, I’m on the right track, that everything I’m doing, every choice I’m making, every book I’m reading, every uncomfortable conversation I’m having with Kristyn, every word I’m typing is what I’m supposed to be doing. Validation feels incredible.
After this conversation I also learned that I want to practice framing up “what I’ve been up to” more succinctly. Most of the time, when I tell people I’m on sabbatical, they ask, “So what do you do all day?” or “What have you been up to, then?”
I wasn’t adequately prepared for this question in the context of a more professional, career-oriented conversation, of being more mindful of my conduct, of my words, of how I carry myself. I wrote these notes down after the call as I brainstormed how to give a tighter elevator pitch to people of what my sabbatical has been about thus far:
Doing less and being more.
Reading lots. Writing some.
Focusing on mindful living.
Being present with my kids.
Being present with my partner.
Being present with myself.
Cooking (almost) all my food.
Moving my body when it wants to move. Letting it rest when it needs to.
After that last bullet point, I was struck with an idea. Maybe it would be helpful for a large number of people if I could put together ways to detach from the nine to five and reinvent your life. Creating a roadmap for this. I know I could’ve used one! As soon as I had that idea, I realized there must be thousands of books and courses designed with this exact idea in mind. In fact, I know there is at least one, because I’ve read Tim Ferriss’ 4-hour Workweek and even reference that book on the Resources page of this website. A quick Google search and indeed, this is not a novel concept. Still, what would make my idea unique is that it would be mine. It would be of my thoughts, of my experience, and of my learnings. And it wouldn’t be too hard to create, because in a way, all I’d have to do is document exactly what I’m doing. I’m fling this one away in the “ideas” folder, for now.
TEN PERCENT HAPPIER
I’ve really gone headfirst into the podcast Ten Percent Happier. I can’t seem to recall how I first came across this gem of a resource, but now that it has made its way to my awareness, there’s no turning back! I started at the beginning and have been downright plowing through the episodes. I’m loving the guests Dan Harris has on this show to talk about their various experiences and expertise within the world of meditation, from well-known veteran teachers like Sharon Salzberg, to Buddhist figures like Thupten Jinpa (the Dalai Lama’s English-language interpreter), to Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo. I love how its exposing me to many people I instantly admire and want to emulate and learn from in various ways. This week I enjoyed the incredible stories and outlook of author and Buddhist meditation teacher Mingyur Rinpoche and the candor and communication prowess of author and mindful communication teacher Oren Jay Sofer.
I’m getting a lot of value from this podcast. Listening to it is giving me ideas for my own giveaway, my own creation, my own collection of conversations that will include the topic of meditation and also many natural living topics. The Naturally Better podcast is in development, folks!
CREATION PROGRESS
Part of my journey is learning, and one of the main ways I learn is by reading. If the book is good and I’m getting value from it, I enjoy the process of reading a book, taking down notes and excerpts that jump out to me, and, when I’m done with the book, compiling these notes into a blog post and add it to my growing collection of blog posts about books. This week I’ve been realizing that oddly I can read an entire book faster than I can write up a summary with my takeaways from it. Hopefully getting caught up with this sabbatical blog will help!
Right now I’m reading Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin, which is a book about habits and how to harness the power of habit to improve your life. There are a lot of useful nuggets in the book, but one thing I really love is the open of the book, where Rubin takes a moment to talk about the process of writing the book: of an immense amount of reading at the beginning stage of the project, and about capturing those “eureka moments” that happen along the way as she reads, examines her own life, and starts having conversations with others about the world of habits.
It got me to thinking about my own habits, especially around reading. For most of my adult life after college, I didn’t read much. I’d read the occasional business book or biography if it came highly recommended by someone I trust. Once I quit my job, I’ve upped my reading substantially, but it’s been a bit all over the place. I haven’t had any real “system” to it; I have just been adding books I learn about to a reading list and have been plowing through the list with no real rhyme or reason, other than to say that I read only one book at a time. (I don’t understand how people can read multiple books at once.)
As my thoughts about Naturally Better continue to coalesce, one of the challenges I face is – where do I start? There are so many things one can focus on in the world of self-improvement, and there are too many that I personally want to focus on to do them all at once, but I also don’t like the idea of limiting myself to one avenue or niche like habits or meditation or nutrition. I understand the conventional wisdom with creating a book or a podcast or a brand or a business is to be very specific, hyper-specific, so that you are speaking to a very narrowly defined niche, and in that way, your product will have much higher value to that group of people. The thing is, I’m not on this journey for other people; first and foremost, I’m in this journey for myself. I’ve always identified as a sort of “generalist.” I’ve said many times that “I’m the kind of person who’s pretty good at a lot of things, but I’m not an expert at any one thing.” I enjoy the variety that life has to offer.
In pondering this dilemma, I came up with the idea to treat my reading a little like a batting order in baseball (which is a bit ironic, because, while I having enjoyed playing and watching many sports in my life, I’ve grown to loathe baseball. So slow and boring!). In baseball, the hitting team has a batting order, with the player whose turn it is to hit “at bat,” the next player “on deck,” and the next player “in the hole.” I’m going to try taking this approach to the development of Naturally Better, where I have an “at bat” topic that is my primary focus and taking up, say 70% of my time dedicated to this project, but to avoid the feeling of limitation, I’ll have a second topic “on deck” that I’m starting to dabble with, and a third topic “in the hole” that I’ll allow my brain to casually wander into every once in a while. The rest of the areas I want to explore will just have to wait their turn.
From this point, I felt compelled to start listing and mapping out the topics I really want to dive into and learn more about. My kids have countless sheets of barely used paper in their playroom (with a touch of marker here or there, which means, in their minds, it’s no longer suitable for them to use in future days), so I picked up the closest piece and eight of their markers. I started jotting down topics about nature and aspects of humanness, grouping them by theme. In the picture below, I started with the word “Food” and what sub-topics might be grouped under it. Then came “Body” and “Mind” and also “Resources,” with their associated sub-concepts. Next was “Community/Social,” because humans are the most social beings on the planet. Once I had written down a few thoughts under “Community/Social,” though, I got stuck. I was uncertain where to go next, but I knew my map didn’t feel quite complete. I had written down “spirit,” “heart,” and “compassion” on the side of the paper… all these words were important and needed a home. And all of a sudden, a Gretchen-Rubin-style eureka moment hit me like a lightning bolt – LOVE! The next marker color I had up in the rotation happened to be pink. It’s the focal point of every song in the history of music (almost). And my kid had already written the words “I LOVE YOU” on this very piece of scratch paper. Eureka!
I have no idea where this map is headed, but I’m going to follow it and see where it leads me.
A FRIENDSGIVING OF TRIFECTAS, FOUR-FECTAS, AND ALL THE -FECTA’S!
On Saturday of this week we had four friends over to our house; two married couples who are dear friends of ours. There were two standout memories of this gathering that I want to document. Both are related to music.
Earlier in the day, my partytime preparation included compiling a playlist of songs, custom-made for this group. I really enjoy having music as a part of social settings, and I love how the music can both set the mood and also be a reflection of the mood, depending on the flow of the environment. I made sure to add at least three or four songs that each of the six people in the group would really enjoy, would feel like the song was on the playlist “for them.” Of course, if one of my favorite songs happened to be Got To Give It Up by Marvin Gaye (which it is), it may very well also be a special song for one of my friends, and so we might both feel like this song was on the playlist “for us.”
As I pulled up this playlist to play over our basement speakers, I announced that I was putting on music, that anyone was free to suggest adding a song to the rotation at any time, and that I had personally curated this specific playlist with my guests in mind.
As the evening proceeded and new songs came up, we all enjoyed the game of guessing who the song must be for, which combination of us I must’ve had in mind when selecting the song for inclusion. If three of us felt like the song was “for us,” then it was a trifecta of song awesomeness! Four? A four-fecta of head-bobbing, hip-shaking sonic bliss! It was a fun way of stringing moments of connection together throughout the evening, and it’s a practice I’m going to continue for future get togethers.
The other immensely satisfying memory I have of this evening is when the men retreated to our guest room, which is now doubling as our “home recording studio” (emphasis on the quotation marks). I had one friend in there already, and I was playing him a song, really just the early seedling of a song, that I had created, over the studio speakers at a medium volume (so as to not disturb the vibe in the other room). As the third guy strolled into our room, as my music made its way through his ears to his brain, I grinned as his body hopped into the groove: toes tapping, hips swaying, head approvingly nodding. I asked him, “What do you think of this tune?” To which he replied, as he kept his gentle body groove going, “Yeah, it’s good. I can dig it.” Sensing that he might not know, I then commented, “I made this song.”
As much as it made me feel good that I had made a collection of sounds and rhythms that made a person move, it was an even lovelier experience to behold the fleeting expression on his face as he processed what I had just said. He hadn’t known I made it. The flash of surprise followed by approval on his face… it’s hard to express how gratifying that felt. I created an artistic thing that someone liked! They didn’t like it because I made it, because they know me and want to be supportive of me; they just flat out enjoyed it. And not just anyone, a close friend! This experience acts as fuel for my creative fire. I don’t sit in my basement and tinker around with making music for other people; all I do is make what sounds good to me. But that taste of validation from someone else, that they too can share in the joy of these sounds that I birthed into existence… man that is a juicy feeling for me. As scary as it can be to share stuff that I’ve created, this night makes me more inclined to share in the future. Thanks to you, friend.
FOOD OVER FOOTBALL
The next day I took my kids to the neighbor kid’s birthday party. Afterward, we went over to their house under the guise of “watching the Vikings game.” I haven’t been paying attention to the NFL or any professional sports this year (other than a little bit of AVP, of course); no fantasy teams, no gameday watching, and definitely no following of players, trades, injuries, and current events in the league. It has just seemed so unimportant to me. It’s an entertainment source that has lost its entertainment value. I remember past years where I’d be in three fantasy football leagues, and the hour of 11am-noon on Sunday wasn’t fun, it was stressful – checking all the last minute injury notices and waiver wire pickups. Meanwhile, I had a ton of leftover snack foods that didn’t get gobbled down the night before, so I loaded up our wagon with fixings for a fairly substantial spread to share. In the course of this neighborly Sunday afternoon get together, I realized that while Old Kevin would have been in his element watching football and tracking his fantasy team’s stats, New Kevin can’t really hold a conversation about the NFL anymore, but he can talk about food, recipes, and what cheese would perfectly pair with mango habanero jelly all day long!
(And when you think about it, which is really more important to you: watching large sweaty men give themselves concussions or discussing fun and delicious ways to fuel your body?)
CLOSING THOUGHT ABOUT THIS BLOG AND MY WRITING
I’m so close to being caught up to realtime with the weekly blogging about my sabbatical. It feels exhilarating to know that time is also here. I’ve been feeling buried under the weight of getting caught up. It’s starting to feel like I can actually write these weekly sabbatical posts the way I want to, the way I want to feel like I have the freedom to, not just by cataloging the events and documenting the actions, but also by giving myself the space and the permission to expand, to open up, and to share freely my thoughts, feelings, and reflections of the week’s transpirings. Plus, I’m holding on to this notion that once I’m caught up to realtime, I’ll be unburdened by the “catching up” and will have more time and energy to commit to other writing projects. I don’t know how much of a crutch that thought is right now, but I do know it’s been enough of a motivator to keep me going the last couple of weeks, so… if it ain’t broke…!
In order to properly write about this week of my life, I need to take us back. Back to the year 2015. But before that, I need to take us back five weeks, to the start of my sabbatical.
GOALS ARE MY WEAPON TO INFLUENCE THE FUTURE
When I left Corporate America in May 2022, one manager told me, in a farewell email, “your super power of breaking down goals and achieving them is beyond impressive.” It’s funny, the power it can have when someone tells you something about yourself. As I reflect on it now, I am someone that has set goals for myself throughout life, but I didn’t particularly consider myself a “goal-oriented person.” Yet, when I look at my track record, I have had the tendency to set up and knock out goals for a good 20 years. I really wanted to go to the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Got in. When graduating, I had the goal of going into business for myself. Did it. One lofty business idea I had was creating a large-scale event, from scratch — a free university welcome event to kick off the school year, paid for by sponsors. We estimated 5,000 students would attend. 15,000 students showed up, and our profit margin on the event was about 65%. Later in life, I knew I had the personal life goal of starting a family. Made that happen. During the pandemic I set the goal of running a marathon. Completed it. Each year in my career in sales, I had corporate quotas and personal sales goals. Most years, I either met them or smashed them. I know what SMART Goals are and try to use that framework when writing down lists of goals in my journal. But until the note in that last email from my former manager, it hadn’t really clicked for me as a label, as a trait of mine.
I had never considered myself among the class of people I admire, the “true” goal-oriented legends you read books about, visionary businesspeople or world class athletes who set lofty goals and stop at nothing until those goals are achieved. I read about people who have had success in their pursuits: the ultra marathoner who ran a marathon in every country in the world, the musician who locked himself in his home studio and didn’t come out until the song was fully produced and mastered, the young businessman who turned his tiny magazine into a global media enterprise, the athlete who set their sights on Olympic gold and won it — and I think to myself, “Wow, those people are impressive. They know how to set goals and achieve them, and it’s taken them to incredible heights. I’m just a normal person. I’m not like them.” And while it’s true, I’m not destined for Olympic gold, I now believe I am like them, insofar as I have an ability to set a goal and complete it. This is one of my super powers. How can I be putting this skill to its best use? I guess we will all have to stay tuned as the magic unfolds!
And if that farewell email wasn’t enough, it became evident on our recent visit to Costa Rica that this goal-completing ability really is one of my super powers. And with that, we go back seven years, to the year 2015.
ALL GREATNESS STEMS FROM A VISION
Kristyn and I were discussing the topic of children: whether or not to have them, ideal time, ideal age gap between siblings, and so on. We agreed that one idea we both liked was, at some point down the road, to live, with kids, in a different country. It would help them gain a more global perspective on life, and it would be one heck of an adventure for us all. The details were foggy, but the overall mission was clear — at some point, live with our kids in a different country. Over the next year or two, we had our first child, and then, two years later, our second, and we continued the conversation of where and when we might want to live outside of the United States. A Spanish-speaking destination made the most sense, since Kristyn already spoke decent Spanish, so from the get-go we had our kids in Spanish immersion pre-school. Kristyn had visited Costa Rica with her family as a teenager, and she got her second visit to the country with my family on a Christmas vacation in 2015. We had a most excellent time. So, from our positive experiences in the past, we looked to Costa Rica first as a possible destination for our eventual journey abroad. As I clocked hours of online research about the country, I was not turned off by anything I read and, to the contrary, was only lured in more.
So, in 2018, we took a reconnaissance trip to Costa Rica’s Guanacaste region, where we visited multiple locations, met with realtors, and toured schools. We rented an AirBnB in a developing area that, from what we could tell on the internet, seemed like it might be a good location for us. But this was our first recon trip. There was no expectation of making any sort of big decisions. The loose idea was that, in the following months, we’d return to Costa Rica, but in a different region, to compare and contrast it with Guanacaste. Or perhaps we would do this recon trip to Guanacaste, realize it wasn’t for us, and plan our next info-gathering excursion to Mexico, Honduras, Spain, or elsewhere.
It was our last day of Guanacaste recon, and some other-worldly intuition, some knowing came over Kristyn, like the ocean washing up on the shore. Inevitable. Confident certainty. Which is particularly odd, since she has been, and still is, the less decisive person in our partnership; when we come to life’s many little crossroads, like what meals we should make for the week or should we wear the blue or the green to our friend’s wedding, I am usually the one to speak up with a quicker decision. But this time, the decisiveness was all Kristyn. She felt a deep sense of clarity. Further recon was futile. This was the place. The time was now.
Over the next four years, two of which were COVID-19 pandemic years, we worked toward the details of where exactly we would live. A plan was coming together, but due to pandemic travel restrictions, we could not return to the country, and even once restrictions were lifted, with vaccines not being approved for children under five (which just changed last week), we weren’t able to go actually see the location where we hope to live in 2023.
And then, in Week 5 of my sabbatical, we saw it. It was everything.
FORESIGHT 20/20
It hit me on the initial walkthrough of the house, not as much on the interior, but outside, on a covered deck, gazing out at a tiny distant sliver of visible Pacific Ocean, with a lush jungly hillside to my right and a rushing river flowing through the tropical forest behind. I felt an onrush of emotion.
Being a man that’s grown up in a patriarchal society, I have a deficiency in emotional intelligence. Feelings are hard. Society did not equip me with the tools, behaviors, and skills to talk about and express my feelings freely. It’s one of the areas of life I have the biggest room to grow. And so, even feeling and being aware of and being able to name “an onrush of emotion” is a starting point. But I’ve practiced some, and in that moment I was able to sit with the emotion, not panic but sit in it enough to allow space. Space for actual tears to form and roll down my cheeks, and space to be able to search the true feeling and name it. And the feeling was… relief. Relief that now the uncertain future is a little more certain. I had less fear of the unknown. This is where we will be living. This is where I will be drinking my daily mug of delicious, Costa Rica-grown coffee. This is the mountainside we’ll wake to every day. This is how the neighborhood howler monkeys sound. Up until then, the steps we had been taking to get closer to moving to Costa Rica all felt a bit like an upside-down, pandemic-infused dream, but in that moment, it all transformed from dream into reality.
So it was this feeling of relief from the ambiguity and fear of an unknown future, and also, after that, a feeling for which I didn’t have a word. So I sat with that, too. And it dawned on me – I was feeling happy, proud of my past self, proud of my past decisions, satisfied with the judgments and vision of the younger me. And it made me think of this phrase – Foresight 20/20.
You know how they say, “Hindsight is 20/20,” meaning that it’s easier to have complete knowledge and understanding about an event after it’s happened? Well, this feeling felt like our Foresight was 20/20, like the younger version of me was smack in the middle of the bullseye of knowing what future me would want. It was an extraordinarily rewarding sensation to have. I want to cultivate more 20/20 foresight.
Along the way, we’ve had moments of doubts. Many. “This is crazy.” “Are we really doing this?” “Are we robbing our children of some ‘better’ education or opportunities?” “How will we know if we still want this 4-5 years from now?” Countless questions more. Doubt. Uncertainty. Fear. Wicked cousins of emotion. I believe the ideal way to handle these feelings is not to avoid them but to go toward them. Stare them in the face. Learn from them what you will. And have the courage to push through them and press onward.
And through faith in those around us, a hint of that courage, more than our fair share of privilege, and a bit of luck, we got to see the result of the vision we’d had seven years ago, in living color. It was an affirmation that the old versions of ourselves could see our future. Something deep within us felt right about this spot, this plan, despite all the reasons why it might not work out. It’s validating and relieving that our old vision has not only come to fruition, but also feels so perfectly in alignment with the four-year-older version of me. To be happy with your past self is one of life’s best feelings, and I now aspire to impress my future self when making decisions. When at a decision crossroad, I ask myself, “Will this make my future self proud? Happy? Satisfied?” My intuition can take it from there.
THOUGHTS FROM A WEEK IN COSTA RICA
A FRESH TAKE ON EDUCATION
We took a tour of the kids’ future school. We had already toured this school once on our 2018 recon trip, but now we could take the tour with our school-aged kids so they could see it and understand it for themselves. The school is one of our biggest draws to the area. It’s a bilingual school with half of the students being local Tico’s and the other half being international students from 30 different countries. Classroom sizes are capped at 20-22. They use project-based learning. The school year operates on trimesters with three different breaks throughout the year, rather than one big long break which can cause a mental “summer slide” in the developing mind of a child.
They put on a weekly “Feria” (market) every Wednesday for local merchants and students to sell their goods. We enjoyed being there to experience the Feria; we even had a First Grader give us his sales pitch for the homemade jewelry he had crafted.
Many nearby parents teach at the school. If you are a parent and aren’t a full-time teacher at the school, you are still required to contribute a minimum of 18 hours to the school’s activities throughout the year — a requirement I’m happy to abide.
Oh, and the school has gardens. And chickens. Many chickens! The curriculum includes an annual anchor project, which varies by grade. These anchor projects tend to model sustainability and self-sufficiency, and many anchor projects revolve around the chickens. Fifth Graders learn about and manage the compost at the school as their anchor project. The compost is used in the gardens, which is the Seventh Grade anchor project. The Sixth Graders are in charge of maintaining the chicken coops and feeding the chickens, while the First Graders are in charge of egg collection. Other grades work on recycling, water, and so on.
Everything about this school promotes a more communal integration with the community and with the school’s natural surroundings. This is what school should be. Everywhere.
WHEN DID SOCIETY AGREE EXTRA CLOTHING WAS A GOOD THING?
When we were in Costa Rica, and we were at a private house, with thick trees all around, not another human in sight, with tropical temps — we were naked. A lot. The kids mostly, but us grown-ups too. We saw how happy the little ones were to be free of their soggy bottoms. We wanted that same happiness. And why not? Because it’s not the norm? What’s not natural is putting clothes on when it’s 90 degrees and you have your own pool. It’s sad all the “rules” we think we have to live by. When was the last time the sun kissed your bare bottom? Answer: too long ago.
EMBARRASSING TRAVEL HICCUPS CAN HAVE SILVER LININGS
In our family, I am the planner, especially when it comes to travel. Even though it takes a lot of hours, I enjoy it. I enjoy the tradeoff of doing the work so I can arrange for the travel that I most want. This was a complicated trip, since we not only had international travel with children, but we also had life planning to attend. Meetings to set up. Tours to take. And while 99% of my planning was executed flawlessly, I had one small hiccup. When we finally arrived to the rental car lot (roughly 12 hours and two flights after waking up at 2:30am), I realized I had left my driver’s license at home. My license, which always stays in my wallet, had been removed from my wallet. By me. The day before we left. So that I could bring it to the nearby community beach as ID for our annual summer membership. I knew exactly where it was, sitting in a board short pocket in my bedroom hamper. That information was not especially useful at the current juncture. Kristyn was going to have to be our driver.
I dreaded breaking this news to her. I don’t think it’s most people’s idea of a good time to figure out driving in a foreign country. I felt bad to be burdening her with this responsibility. But it turned out to have the best silver lining ever, because there was actually something more stressful than driving around potholes and helmet-less cyclists biking on shoulder-less roads — handling the simultaneous navigation of those roads with spotty 2G cellular data and the management of two tired, hungry, hot, and curious children. Now that was some sweaty work!
Kristyn has already called “dibs” on driving next time.
WRITING REQUIRES PERIODS OF LIVING LIFE
I thought I would be writing nonstop while we were in Costa Rica this week. Writing down notes about the location and school. Journaling until my hand cramped up from all the inspiration I was feeling. Freewriting incessantly from my creative synapses firing. Instead, I barely wrote anything. I lived. I swam. I cooked. I laughed. If you don’t spend part of your life just living it, you have nothing to write about.
A sabbatical is glorious in many ways, and it also has its challenges. With the stripping away of a more rigid daily and weekly structure, with a reduction of commitments and obligations, which grants me additional free time to allocate as I choose, comes a challenge. A challenge of variety, of options, of opportunities, of… open-endedness. There are many endeavors I wish to pursue, and all of them require minutes of the day (although some, such as living more mindfully, can be practiced throughout the day). How to prioritize? I have many goals I want to tackle all at once. I want everything to happen now. I want to be fluent in Spanish. I want to have five songs written and produced. I want five boxes to fill themselves of the stuff we don’t need and donate themselves to places and people that will use them. I want this blog to write itself. There are ten different website updates I want to make to this very site, not to mention the three other websites I want to be building, but each little change takes me ages since everything is a first, and firsts have a steep learning curve. And I know this kind of sounds impossible and “woe is me,” but even though I don’t have a day job right now, even with all those extra hours in the week, it’s still hard to make time for all of these things. Or even half of them! What things make the cut and which get left for later? This is the mental battle of my early sabbatical.
I’ve noticed, though, that I am making time for certain things. I am preparing (and happily eating) home-cooked food daily. I’ve set up an exercise space in the basement and am getting out on the sand volleyball courts regularly. I am saying “yes” to my kids almost whenever they ask to play with me. Perhaps it turns out that the actions I’m making time for are my top priorities. We are what we do.
One of the goals or tasks I keep writing down on my various lists is the project of purging. I’ve been wanting to purge, purge, purge. Strip things down. Declutter our house. Declutter my mind. But with planning for international travel coming up next week and trying to live slowly and not be too “busy,” I haven’t been making room for big purge projects. However, one thing I have been doing is playing with my kids and being present with them. Maybe that’s a fair trade-off? Maybe that’s what this week of sabbatical is supposed to be about. If I had been on a decluttering spree and grinding away at my laundry list of hobbies, I would have missed the following interaction with my kid.
With a delightfully tactful and simply-stating-an-observation tone, I had commented, loud enough for my kid to hear, on how hard it is to see any portion of the actual wood floor in our playroom. Any parent can relate. The kid stopped, eyed the playroom up and down, and turned their head to me and replied, “Daddy, I think we have too many toys.” Oh, I agree, young one. I agree. And so, without any further prodding or encouragement needed, we purged. Now, it was not the poetic, total toyroom overhaul that it could have been, but together, we picked up stuff and agreed whether it should be shelved or binned.
And so, by letting go of the perceived need to be self-improving and making progress doing my long list of goals, and simply being a present father with my child, I not only got some decluttering done, but I also had a positive, bonding moment with my child.
Letting go is getting me where I want to go.
TANGENTIAL PARENTING HACK: If your 4-7 year old kid doesn’t enjoy “picking up” the play room or bedroom, suggest “neating” instead. Our kids all out sprint the other way when we mention picking up a room, but if we neat it, carefully replacing items to their homes ever so delicately and neatly like a member of the royal family might, oh, neating is so much fun!
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SILENCE
Sunday, June 12, 2022
I messed up earlier today. I intervened when I should have done nothing. Or rather, I spoke instead of silence. Silence is tragically underrated. Silence is where magic happens. A silent lake at night divulges a loon’s call from miles away. Silent, tantric stares with your partner can unlock an unknown depth of intimacy. Silence is where you learn.
My co-parent and our kids were having a calm, strategic bedtime negotiation around the remaining screen time of the night, and since it was a “Mommy Night” (we trade bedtime nights), I was doing my job, which at that point was to stare out the window and do nothing. Be a fly on the wall. Let what happens, happen. And then, all of a sudden, I wasn’t doing my job. During a pause in the mildly tense but perfectly under control negotiation, I commented that, “this conversation is sure taking a long time,” attempting and failing to imply the logic of, “think of all the minutes of screen time we could have gotten by now had we simply agreed on something and started watching.” I just couldn’t help myself from intervening and trying to help the situation. The thing is, the intent of offering assistance doesn’t make all actions right. And the discomfort I felt in that moment is a me problem.
Upon conversation with my partner and further reflection, many of my missteps in life stem from an underlying tendency toward perfectionism. A sense of editing and revision to live every moment with maximum efficiency, maximum rightness. Why is that instinct there, to always be improving, always be optimizing, maximizing, even if it doesn’t matter? I have a few ideas, and I’m also jotting it down as a future journal prompt for further unpacking.
Ultimately, I need to trust my partner to live their own parenting journey. And I need to trust my children to have their own journey. From every stumble, at least I can always learn.
REFLECTION FROM A HAMMOCK: BEING OUTDOORS IS BLISS
Sunday, June 12, 2022 continued…
I had been on such a high to come out in the gazebo tonight and write. I got what felt like a huge breakthrough earlier tonight by taking “one teaspoon more” as I embarked on nighttime cleanup duty, which started out with picking up the front yard while it was still light out.
When it’s a Mommy Night for bedtime, it’s a Daddy Night for cleanup. I ventured out to pick up the day’s toys, chairs, and miscellanea. I left the camping hammock suspended between our two Eastern White Pines for last. It was a gorgeous Minnesota summer night, and the sun was just about to set over the neighbor’s house to the west. But I had cleanup chores to do and a long list of personal hobbies to pursue after that, so I briskly unclipped the hammock from its straps and had it half packed into its stuff-sack when I froze. I looked up and the pink and orange setting sun and thought to myself, “What the heck are you doing right now? You love sunsets and this weather is lush.” And so rather than charge ahead on my task list, I slowed down, reattached the hammock, and sank in to a reflective meditation by sunset. And laying there, ever so gently rocking back and forth, gazing up at the canopy overhead and the drifting clouds above, I had the following epiphany.
You can sum up one of my truest pleasures in life in two words: being outdoors.
These are phrases transcribed from the 4:22 Voice Memo I captured on my phone while in that hammock meditation:
“I find myself realizing that being outdoors does bring me joy. It’s as simple as those two words. Being outdoors. … Every time. Every time I’m connecting with nature, it brings this overwhelming sense of peace, where I feel like I can actually… touch my soul, feel my soul.”
“It feels… indulgent. Like I’m somehow not deserving of just sitting outside and enjoying the sunset, like I should be doing other, more productive, things. For my family. For myself. But… this is nourishing myself. Just, chillin’ horizontally, on a hammock, with my weight suspended, with a gorgeous sunset, underneath a forest canopy, is… one of the best things there is in life! And I just need to remember that in my day to day. When I’m outdoors, my bucket is getting full.”
(Tangential commentary on the benefits of hammocks): “There’s something about the way a hammock works on your body… because you’re horizontal, because your hips are relieved of any pressure, the opposite of when you’re sitting… because you have this anti-gravity posture, it feels like you’re… cheating, like you’ve found the loophole of physics to allow your body to relax. It’s like the same tranquility of floating in water, but without all the work of paddling and holding your breath, not to mention the needing-to-find-a-spot-to-swim bit.”
I can’t get over how cool it is to be experiencing the recurring theme that slowing down and doing less results in more clarity,more joy, and, paradoxically, more progress.
MUSIC IS MY MUSE
Sunday, June 12, 2022 concluded…
Eventually, the sun did set, and duty called. It was time to put away the dishes away, so I headed inside and popped in my AirPods. I’m washing, listening to this “Wondewall” remix on SoundCloud, and I’m dancing, quite well I might say, and it’s hitting me, that dancing may be a “tier two” passion of mine. If I’m being honest, I’m no Michael Jackson, but I do have rhythm. I started playing piano at 6 and played until middle/high school, where I transitioned to saxophone. I also played drums in the church youth band. I played a few small-town gigs in a jazz combo. I went on to play in Jazz Band at the University of Minnesota. I’m constantly tapping out percussive beats and improvising goofy song lyrics with my kids. And yeah, when it’s dishes time, I drop in the AirPods and get my dance on. Is there any better way to get the dishes done than to dance with them?
It’s good to acknowledge your strengths. I believe there is huge benefit to leaning into one’s strengths. And as vulnerable as I feel writing this, that I will come across as arrogant, I believe that it’s OK to be proud of my skills and that there is power in naming things, and so I will name that I have a skill of shared rhythm with my kids. Shared rhythm is one of the many concepts I’ve learned from Kristyn, and I believe that it’s an area that I often excel in, and I’m connecting just now that it may be in part because I’m a naturally rhythmic person. Shared rhythm is not necessarily percussive, of course; having a back and forth conversation or going for a walk together are also shared rhythm. But in the literal sense, I can feel things click with the young ones. For example, when my kids ask me to do “Run-Unders” with them, they are referring to me dribbling an extra large yoga ball, in our basement, as high as I can without ricocheting back off the ceiling, in a consistent, steady beat, so they can time out a sprint underneath without getting tagged by the ball. It’s wicked fun, and in the game we share the rhythm of the bouncing ball. (Of course, the huge yoga ball does eventually crash into them, but only when they choose the rhythm of silliness and stopping mid-sprint to let it crash into them, at which point I let go of the old game and pivot to align with the rhythm of silliness.)
Then it was time to do the dishes for real, not just dance to a remix of Oasis’ crowd-pleasing masterpiece from the 90’s, and I switched over to Spotify. Spotify is one of the few apps I happily pay for every month. It’s a rare subscription bill I look at and am 100% at peace with paying. I absolutely love having the world’s music at my fingertips. Of its many delightful features, Spotify’s algorithm customizes a set of six “Daily Mix” playlists tailored to your listening habits and grouped by an overall “feel,” with “Daily Mix 1” typically being more of your frequently played, go-to songs, with Daily Mix 6 being the collection of the 10 random songs of that one obscure genre you secretly like and rarely, but every so often, listen to. I hadn’t used this feature in a while, and today, Spotify curated the most serendipitously customized “Daily Mix 1” to not only my specific, eclectic taste in music, but did so in a series of 8 or 9 songs in a row that perfectly fit the mold of the mood I wanted to be in. First with a couple blood pumping, foot-stomping jams like “LIGHT” by Parcels and Jungle’s “Smile,” then into a more relaxed, but still toe-tappin bass line of Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up – Pt. 1”, and then slower still with a brand new release from Jacob Collier featuring Lizzy McAlpine and John Mayer, “Never Gonna Be Alone”… and as I’m writing this about music, it is really hitting me that music, rhythm, dance… these also are things that make my soul shine through.
Being outdoors, music, good food, family… what more does a man need?
And yet, even as I’m dancing away, synchronizing my dish scrubs and rinses with the beat of some of my favorite tunes by my favorite artists, allowing the rhythms and melodies to take over my body, in my own house… I’m noticing that it’s hard to truly, truly let go, to truly be the wacky, shirtless dish dancer that my soul wants to be. I think up more outrageous dance moves than I actually allow my body to do, even when no one is watching. It’s like there is this deeply rooted fear of judgment of others, fear of doing things someone might judge me for doing, fear of doing something other than what society expects me to do.
Above all else, I need to allow me to be myself.
FINAL THOUGHT
Writing is hard. I’ve had different pieces of this post written for a while. Procrastination gets the best of me. Steven Pressfield’s “Resistance” is real. It’s easy to find excuses to do anything but simply opening up a blank page and starting to write. Self-judgment. Perfectionism. Resistance takes many forms, and they all get in the way of doing the work. I suppose I am grateful to have made the first step, which is acknowledging their presence and typing this paragraph anyway.
OK, enough yammering, onward to Week 5 – a week in Costa Rica!
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[
"Dave Chesson",
"Facebook.com"
] |
2021-12-08T15:30:20+00:00
|
Looking to move to a city that feeds your writing muse but also makes economic sense? Check out this list of the best cities for authors.
|
en
|
Kindlepreneur
|
https://kindlepreneur.com/best-cities-for-writers/
|
If you're like many authors, you spend way too much time daydreaming about moving to a city that has just the right feel for your writing. Whether it's an electric undercurrent that seems to zap your creativity (it's alive!), or a laid back environment where you can relax and work on your craft, there are plenty of cities out there to choose from.
But it's not just the feel of a city that's important. There are other things to consider, like cost of living, a thriving writing community, and perhaps even connections to literary agents and publishers, if you're trying to get a book deal.
Luckily, we've gathered a list of the best cities for writers. So no matter what kind of writing you do, you'll find a city that fits your needs and wants on this list.
Let's get right to it!
Best Well-Known Cities for Writers
Let's start with some of the most famous cities that writers have been migrating to for years.
New York City, New York
Many aspiring writers have headed off to the Big Apple for a shot at fame, fortune, and a 5-book deal. New York City is also an excellent place for copywriters, technical writers, playwrights, and journalists. This is also the home of the “Big 5” publishing companies, which means you can throw a rock in New York and you're likely to hit someone who works in the publishing industry. They probably won't want to read your manuscript, seeing as how you just hit them with a rock, but there are other ways to get their attention, too.
The cost of living is super high in New York City, which is a bummer. But ZipRecruiter has the average freelance writer salary in that city right around $60,000, which isn't bad.
Los Angeles, California
The City of Angels is another city that many writers venture to. Screenwriters are encouraged to “go where the work is,” and Hollywood is the mecca for movies and television. And since it's such a creative-centered city, you're likely to find a thriving community of writers. Even if you're not into creative writing, Los Angeles is still a good place to go. The city is enormous and there are all kinds of opportunities there for freelance writing, journalism, and a dozen other different kinds of writing.
Like New York City, L.A. is an expensive place to live. But with a high cost of living comes a high average salary for specialized occupations. A Creative Writer’s salary averages around $60,000 in L.A. Plus, you can't beat the weather in Southern California!
San Francisco, California
Keeping in California, San Francisco is another great place for writers. Jack Kerouac is one of many famous writers that may come to mind when thinking of the bay area.
But creative writing isn't the only reason to move to San Francisco. If you're looking to get into technical writing, there's no better place. After all, it's home to Silicon Valley, so there will always be a need for good technical writers. Plus, San Fran is not very far from L.A. and San Diego, which are both great places to visit if you've never been!
Portland, Oregon
For a big city with a small-town vibe, you can do no better than Portland, Oregon. The Pacific Northwest has long been a great destination for writers, and the great writing community in Portland is evidence of this.
It's also home to Powell's, which is one of the largest indie bookstores in the world. This says something about the importance of reading and writing in this city. It also hosts the Mountain Writers Series and the Loggernaut Reading Series.
Seattle, Washington
A short drive from Portland lies Seattle, another great city for writers — especially those of the creative persuasion. It was recently designated a UNESCO “City of Literature,” which tells you something about the importance of the written word.
But since this is a booming city, there are jobs to be had for medical writers, copywriters, and journalists. Plus, there are plenty of coffee shops to write in! No matter what kind of writing you do, Seattle is a good place to do it.
Austin, Texas
With a city motto like “Keep Austin Weird,” you can expect there to be some great creative vibes if you're looking to write fiction. It's home to Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez, and these directors (among others) have helped make Austin a great place for shooting movies and shows.
While the cost of living is climbing in this Texas city, it's still one of the more affordable places to live when compared to the other major cities on this list. Glassdoor shows the average salary for a content writer in Austin is about $48,000.
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Best Low-Cost Cities for Writers
All the cities above are pretty expensive. And if you're just starting out in your writing career, they may be out of your price range. While there's something romantic about the “starving artist,” you don't have to put yourself in a precarious position. Just check out one of these low-cost cities!
Iowa City, Iowa
Along with Seattle, Iowa City is the only other UNESCO “City of Literature” in the United States. This city has a rich history centered around creative writing. In fact, the University of Iowa was the first school to offer a creative writing graduate program in the country, which became theIowa Writers’ Workshop.
Iowa City is also home to several other writing festivals and workshops, making this low-cost city a great place for budding or seasoned writers to live.
Livingston, Montana
This mountain town is the biggest little literary place you've never heard of. It has a rich history of writers that continues today, as the town still attracts writers — especially those that love the outdoors.
The writing scene in this small town revolves around Elk River Books and the community of creatives that gather there. It has been said that the Livingston area has more writers per capita than places like NYC and L.A.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Believe it or not, Pittsburgh has a rich literary community and a relatively low cost of living (12% lower, on average!). It's home to many indie bookstores and there are plenty of fellow writers to be found at the Pittsburgh Writers Project and Littsburgh.
Plus, it's close enough to New York, Boston, and other major east coast cities that you can take some road trips to these more expensive cities without spending a fortune on rent!
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis is home to one of the oldest writers' groups in the US, the Minneapolis Writers Workshop. This metropolitan area also includes Saint Paul, the historical home of F. Scott Fitzgerald. There's a budding literary scene in the twin cities, which includes publishing houses like Graywolf Press and Milkweed Editions.
The relatively low cost of living and unemployment rates make this a great place for writers of all kinds to live.
Taos, New Mexico
Many people don't realize just how literary New Mexico is. The list of famous writers who have lived (or still live) in the state, whether in Taos or elsewhere, is impressive. We're talking about D. H. Lawrence, Cormac McCarthy, George R. R. Martin, to name a few.
Taos itself has been attracting creatives of all kinds since the early 20th century. The city now boasts some of the best writers' festivals, workshops, and resources available for writers of all types. Some even insist that it has a creative energy that can't be beat.
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is one of the bigger cities in our low-cost section. But don't let the fact that it's a big city and a popular tourist destination fool you; it still has a relatively low cost of living. It's also steeped in history and culture, and haunted by aspects of the supernatural.
Most notably, Tennessee Williams lived in New Orleans for over 40 years. Anne Rice grew up in the city and has mentioned how much it influenced her writing many times. If you write genre fiction, New Orleans could just be the right vibe for you.
The Best Cities for Writers Outside the US
We would be remiss were we not to cover some of the best cities for writers outside the US. Whether you're looking for a place to move to or you're a travel writer looking to see the world, these cities are essentials for anyone who loves to write.
Edinburgh, Scotland
If ever a city deserved to be celebrated as a city for writers, it's Edinburgh, Scotland. In fact, it was the first-ever UNESCO City of Literature. And for very good reason. Many famous authors have penned a masterpiece in the Scottish city, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Muriel Spark.
Edinburgh features all manner of literary associations and resources. There's the Writers' Museum, The Scottish Storytelling Centre, and The Spoon Cafe, where J. K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter books. You can even take literary tours around the city to gain inspiration and rid yourself of writer's block.
London, England
London is one city with a rich literary history that is still going strong to this day. Many writers say that just being in the city is a source of inspiration. And while the cost of living is relatively high, it's definitely cheaper than the most expensive American cities on this list.
Walk the streets with the spirit of Shakespeare and Dickens, or take a tour of the great city's literary hotspots and famous pubs where you can get the creative juices flowing.
Paris, France
Ernest Hemingway famously called Paris a “moveable feast,” which sums up why it attracts creatives of all types. There are endless bookstores and cafes, not to mention the rich European culture and the bustling nightlife.
There are famous museums, libraries, and art galleries. In essence, there's no shortage of inspiration shining out from every corner of the City of Light. Whether you're a poet, a novelist, or you simply want to do some travel writing, Paris is an essential stop for any writer. Whether you stay for a week or for a year is up to you!
What Makes a City Good for Writers?
The world is bigger than we can comprehend. So if none of the cities on our list sounds good to you, there are plenty more to choose from. Some notable ones include St. Petersburg, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, Washington DC, and St. Louis (birthplace of T. S. Eliot).
But what makes a city good for writers? If you're on the hunt for a city to move to, check out this list of criteria to consider.
Livability
This is subjective and depends on what you want out of your town or city. Making a small list of must-have features is a good idea to determine livability. Do you like a busy, bustling city or one that's more laid back? Maybe somewhere in between? Think about what makes a city worth living in for you.
Cost of Living
This is pretty straightforward. You can compare the cost of living in your current location to that of the city you want to move to. Crunch the numbers to see if you can afford it at your current salary.
Average Salary
Average salaries change depending on where you live. Generally, the higher the cost of living, the higher the average salary. But this isn't a hard and fast rule. A bit of online research can help you determine the average salary for your career and experience level.
Goals for Your Career
Opportunities in the city are important. If the job market is locked up and there's stiff competition, you may want to choose another city with more opportunities. However, with many companies transitioning to work-at-home jobs, especially in writing, location isn’t everything in advancing your career.
Inspiration
Living in a city that inspires you is great. Getting out of the house and enjoying the place in which you live is excellent for your mental health, which helps with creativity. However, waiting around for inspiration to strike doesn't bode well for a writing career — especially if you write fiction. Take inspiration into account, but don't let it be the end-all-be-all.
A Thriving Community of Writers
If it's important for you to meet with other writers in person, this could be a huge factor in determining which city is right for you. All the cities on our list have thriving writing communities. But if you're looking at other cities, it could be worth it to research if there are in-person writing groups you can join.
Conclusion
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https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/african-american-literary-voices-of-new-mexico/
|
en
|
Finding “A House in Taos”
|
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[
"Darryl Lorenzo Wellington"
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2024-04-17T16:47:59.687000+00:00
|
Santa Fe’s first African American poet laureate reflects on the stories of Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, and other African American literary icons who drew inspiration from the Land of Enchantment. Dive into the impact of New Mexico's Black community on its social fabric and the stories of Esteban de Dorantes, Buffalo Soldiers, and modern-day poets.
|
en
|
https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/african-american-literary-voices-of-new-mexico/
|
AMONG THE BEST-LOVED POETS OF the 20th century, Langston Hughes stands tall. No shortage of poetry lovers around the globe can recite his “I, Too, Sing America,” but relatively few New Mexicans have heard the curious story of his spiritual connection to the Land of Enchantment. Otherwise, they might add his remarkable “A House in Taos” to their list of favorite poems.
Similarly, students of the African American literary canon know Jean Toomer as the author of Cane, a seminal work of the Harlem Renaissance published in 1923. Cane is a tapestry of Afrocentric stories and poems ennobling the plight of Southern Black sharecroppers. Yet how many New Mexicans know Toomer also wrote paeans to Taos and Santa Fe, and filled notebooks with musings extolling the wonders of the Southwest?
Although New Mexico’s Black population has historically been small, its literary practitioners have played an important part in what anthropologists call its “social imaginary,” or the values and institutions that people use to imagine their society. It’s the prism through which individuals belonging to a place and time see themselves. In that vein, Africans and Black Americans have contributed to New Mexico’s stories, myths, poetry, and identity since they first arrived, in the 1500s, usually as enslaved people under the early Spanish conquistadors. Their stories provide a twist to New Mexico’s tricultural (Anglo, Spanish, and Indigenous) narrative, highlighting both Black and multiethnic struggles for liberation.
It would be difficult to find a more exciting or unlikely biography than the life of Esteban de Dorantes, the Morocco-born slave who accompanied his master on a 1527 voyage to the New World. After their vessel wrecked off the coast of Florida, he and three other survivors wandered Indigenous lands. Of the castaways, only Esteban—also known as Estevanico—learned Indigenous languages and ways. After they reached a refuge in the Spanish settlement in Mexico, Esteban subsequently led a party of approximately 100 Mexican Natives to Zuni lands, establishing the first contact between the two peoples. History takes strange turns, indeed. “The first White man that our people saw was a Black man,” the late Jemez Pueblo author Joe S. Sando wrote.
Esteban’s legacy still haunts New Mexico, a telling shadow that highlights the irony of a North African becoming the first non-Native explorer to place his footsteps here. His resourceful determination set a worthy precedent for the Blacks who arrived in the late 1800s. These emancipated Blacks believed the Southwest represented an exciting new venture—a place where racism, however poisonous, might be less prevalent than in the former slave states. As tiny Black communities emerged in the territory, these early transplants were a scattered collection of Buffalo Soldiers, ranch hands, and assorted dreamers. “Here and there are Negroes, like straggly but tenacious plants growing,” Silver City poet Anita Scott Coleman wrote in 1926.
The Black imagination of New Mexico is best expressed by the creations of poets and artists. Literary artists who have made themselves a part of New Mexico lore since the early 1900s include Coleman, Hughes, Toomer, and Jay Wright, a 1986 recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship and the first African American winner of the Bollingen Prize for Poetry.
I would add a few representatives of the 21st century to the list: Hakim Bellamy, who became the inaugural Albuquerque poet laureate in 2012, and (very humbly) myself, as the sixth poet laureate of Santa Fe (2021–2023). The continuum of Black identity in New Mexico that began in fear and flight carries on, while earlier writers provide the context for unpacking just how that identity has unspooled.
ANITA SCOTT COLEMAN (1890–1960), BORN in Mexico, lived for many years in Silver City, where she was a schoolteacher. Her Southwest-set stories won significant attention in the 1920s. Unusually, for a wordsmith living outside New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, then the literary and artistic center of Black America, Coleman was able to place stories in the major Black journals: Opportunity, Crisis, and Messenger. At the height of her success in 1926, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles, where she scripted silent films. As her career trajectory slowed, Coleman refocused her attention on raising her children and published more poetry.
Perhaps because her father had been a Buffalo Soldier, Coleman’s main motif concerns the uplifting of her race. Often sentimental, her stories entail overcoming adversity and finding success and love. In “The Little Grey House,” for example, two lonely souls in a small Southwestern town are both fascinated by a house under construction. As they follow its progress, they dream of stability and contentment. By the time the two meet, it seems inevitable that they will marry. On a deeper level, Coleman’s stories provide insights into the day-to-day values of early Black residents, such as the belief in God, the preoccupation with financial security, and the idea of holding your head up against racial slights.
In her 1926 essay “Arizona and New Mexico—The Land of Esperanza,” she laments that Black people have made little impact on New Mexico politics and business. Nonetheless, she writes, “All which the Negro has failed to give to the industry or to the population of Arizona and New Mexico he has made amends for by his contributions to its history,” citing Esteban, Buffalo Soldiers, and Black participation in the Mexican–American War. The essay concludes with an optimistic ode to “the joyous freedom of the West. The unlimited resourcefulness, the boundless space—that either bids them stay—or baffles with its vastness.”
The word esperanza means “hope” in Spanish. Black life may be filled with risks, but Coleman’s New Mexico is full of hope.
IN AN AESTHETIC SENSE, TAOS WAS WORLDS apart from the milieu of Coleman. During the same period, patron of the arts Mabel Dodge Luhan was transforming her property into an artists’ retreat that attracted the likes of Ansel Adams, D.H. and Frieda Lawrence, and Georgia O’Keeffe. However, I find it impossible to imagine a major creative flourishing in America without the presence of Black people. At that time, Paris had the cultural powerhouse that was Josephine Baker, while Harlem and Greenwich Village produced a cohort of jazz musicians along with Langston Hughes. The Black influence manifested, however obliquely, in Taos, too.
In his 1940 autobiography, The Big Sea, Hughes writes that he composed his poem “A House in Taos” while living in Greenwich Village during a heyday of romantic bohemianism. Among friends and at parties, he began hearing stories of an alluring Southwestern vibe, “people talking about New Mexico and Taos, and about writers and artists heading west to the desert and the Indians.”
“I met a lot of exotic and jittery writers of the period,” he writes. “And the more exotic and jittery they were, the more they talked about Taos.” The mystique fascinated him until he put pen to paper to imagine it.
“A House in Taos” describes three mythic presences, Sun, Wind, and Moon, who each have a separate section of dialogue. It can be interpreted in many ways. Perhaps the poem is a hymn to the environmental forces that sculpted New Mexico landscapes, or to the interplay of Native, Spanish, and Anglo cultures that may have shaped Taos as a spiritual and artistic haven.
Or was the poem a spiritual eruption that baffled the author? “It was a strange poem for me to be writing in a period when I was mainly writing blues and spirituals,” he recalls. “I did not know anyone in Taos, nor had I ever been there.” Following its publication, however, he received “gossipy and amusing letters” supposing that the three speakers in “A House in Taos” were Mabel Dodge Luhan; her Taos Pueblo husband, Tony Lujan; and Jean Toomer, the Harlem Renaissance poet.
Luhan herself eventually heard about the poem. Hughes reports that when they met many years later, she promptly said, “My house is not a bit like that,” and extended an invitation to visit her in Taos. It is unclear if he ever took her up on it.
Hughes’s friend Toomer (1894–1967) was indeed a guest at the Luhan estate. He became fascinated with Taos and visited repeatedly from the mid-1920s to the 1940s. His intense emotional response to the town is evidenced in the prose poetry of his Taos diaries, which bears the influences of D.H. Lawrence, and a still-unproduced play, A Drama of the Southwest (1935), which stands as a meditation on Toomer’s evolving philosophy. By the time Toomer came to Taos, he had begun to question all racial classifications. Toomer’s speculations on race in his notebooks prove that the search for identity can lead to post-racial theories and questions: What is Anglo? What is Black? What is race?
AN EXCERPT FROM
A DRAMA OF THE SOUTHWEST
By Jean Toomer (1894–1967)
Taos is an end-product. It is the end of the slope. It is an end-product of the Indians, and end-product of the Spaniards, an end-product of the Yankees and puritans. Out of the fertility which death makes in the soil, a new people with a new form may grow. I dedicate myself to the swift death of the old, to the whole birth of the new. In whatever place I start work, I will call that place Taos.
AS THE LATE 1960S SHAPED THE ELEVATION of Black pride and liberation, the most important New Mexico poet influenced by the movement is Jay Wright, who stands at the high point of creative expression. He may well be New Mexico’s most undervalued Black writer. Born in Albuquerque in 1934, he briefly attended the University of New Mexico and appears to have maintained connections to the city until his mid-40s. Wright, who today lives in Vermont, used his early work to explore poverty and segregation. His 1976 collection, Soothsayers and Omens, published when Wright was 42, features “Encountering New Mexico” and “The Albuquerque Graveyard.” Both poems powerfully investigate the intersection between race and history in Albuquerque during the seventies.
Generations of Black poets since have embraced the work of social justice, including former Albuquerque poet laureate Hakim Bellamy. He is currently pursuing a law degree, which he calls an extension of “advocating for the unheard and underrepresented” in his poems.
“Being poet laureate raises the profile of Black writers in our state,” Bellamy reflects. “When we walk in and the public sees us, they can’t unsee it. By default, people are forced to reckon with the idea that our people are part of the history and the future of New Mexico.”
Like Bellamy, I look forward to the acceptance that New Mexico has never truly only been a tricultural state. I also hope for a wider appreciation for the variety of subjects and styles collected under the umbrella of “Black literature in New Mexico.” That label already includes more than a century of commentary and identity-defining work, including Coleman’s vision of industrious social uplift, Hughes’s mythic dreams, Toomer’s philosophical cultural investigations, and Wright’s protest poems. New generations will push these themes on.
Read more: In Taos, an exhibition wrangles the hidden stories of the Black cowboys who shaped the modern West.
A HOUSE IN TAOS
By Langston Hughes (1901–1967)
Rain
Thunder of the Rain God:
And we three
Smitten by beauty.
Thunder of the Rain God:
And we three
Weary, weary.
Thunder of the Rain God:
And you, she and I
Waiting for nothingness.
Do you understand the stillness
Of this house in Taos
Under the thunder of the Rain God?
Sun
That there should be a barren garden
About this house in Taos
Is not so strange,
But that there should be three barren hearts
In this one house in Taos,—
Who carries ugly things to show the sun?
Moon
Did you ask for the beaten brass of the moon?
We can buy lovely things with money,
You, she and I,
Yet you seek,
As though you could keep,
This unbought loveliness of moon.
Wind
Touch our bodies, wind.
Our bodies are separate, individual things.
Touch our bodies, wind,
But blow quickly
Through the red, white, yellow skins
Of our bodies
To the terrible snarl,
Not mine,
Not yours,
Not hers,
But all one snarl of souls.
Blow quickly, wind,
Before we run back into the windlessness,—
With our bodies,—
Into the windlessness
Of our house in Taos.
From Caroling Dusk (Harper & Brothers, 1927), Public Domain
THE ALBUQUERQUE GRAVEYARD
By Jay Wright (b. 1934)
It would be easier
to bury our dead
at the corner lot.
No need to wake
Before sunrise,
take three buses,
walk two blocks,
search at the rear
of the cemetery,
to come upon the familiar names
with wilted flowers and patience.
But now I am here again.
After so many years
of coming here,
passing the sealed mausoleums,
the pretentious brooks and springs,
the white, sturdy limestone crosses,
the pattern of the place is clear to me.
I am going back
to the Black limbo,
an unwritten history
of our own tensions.
The dead lie here
In a hierarchy of small defeats.
I can almost see the leaders smile,
ashamed now of standing
at the head of those
who lie tangled
at the edge of the cemetery
still ready to curse and rage
as I do.
Here, I stop by the imitative cross
Of one who stocked his parlor
With pictures of Robeson,
and would boom down the days,
dreaming of Othello’s robes.
I say he never bothered me,
and forgive his frightened singing.
Here, I stop by the simple mound
of a woman who taught me
spelling on the sly,
parsing my tongue
to make me fit for her own dreams.
I could go on all day,
unhappily recognizing small heroes,
discontent with finding them here,
reproaches to my own failings.
Uneasy, I search the names
and simple mounds I call my own,
abruptly drop my wilted flowers,
and turn for home.
From Selected Poems of Jay Wright (Princeton University Press, 1987)
10PM. STOPPED. FRISKED.
By Darryl Lorenzo Wellington (b. 1966)
One Man cries I Am I am
in ecstasy and terror I Am
as the Lord cried
to Moses. Three men
dressed in monochrome
and camouflage
faces hardened
decline to listen
ignoring a strangled plea
descended from a timeless
sensibility behind
compassionate justice and
ritual prophesy. A nearby
parking meter winks
casts an arbitrary
light on an asphalt
street corner. Witnesses
nothing. Glitters
after dark. Stands
like a watch-
tower going senile
totteringly decadent
on duty to collect
poised to pinch
the nickels and dimes
the irrevocable fines
the regular tariffs
the evidence requisite
blind to other charges of citizenship.
From Life’s Prisoners (Flowstone Press, 2017)
BLACK BABY
By Anita Scott Coleman (1890–1960)
The baby I hold in my arms is a black baby.
Today I set him in the sun and
Sunbeams danced on his head.
The baby I hold in my arms is a black baby.
I toil, and I cannot always cuddle him.
I place him on the ground at my feet.
He presses the warm earth with his hands,
He lifts the sand and laughs to see
It flow through his chubby fingers.
I watch to discern which are his hands,
Which is the sand. . . .
Lo . . . the rich loam is black like his hands.
The baby I hold in my arms is a black baby.
Today the coal-man brought me coal.
Sixteen dollars a ton is the price I pay for coal.—
Costly fuel . . . though they say:
— If it is buried deep enough and lies
hidden long enough
’Twill be no longer coal but diamonds. . . .
My black baby looks at me.
His eyes are like coals,
They shine like diamonds.
From Shadowed Dreams: Women’s Poetry Of The Harlem Renaissance (Rutgers University Press, 1989, 2006)
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Julia Cameron Live
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“Enough” Time
The hot, dry westerly winds are blowing through New Mexico. Along the highways, hundred-foot-high dust devils spin the hazy air. The heat creates an illusion: Time itself seems to be cooking in the hot summer air. Time is a primary concern in dealing with creative blocks. Most of us think, “If only I had more […]
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New Mexico School for the Arts
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2018-05-16T16:34:16+00:00
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New Mexico School for the Arts
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https://www.nmschoolforthearts.org/arts/creativewriting/
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The Creative Writing and Literature department at New Mexico School for the Arts was founded in 2019. The program provides a four-year arts mastery education in the core writing disciplines of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and dramatic writing under the guidance of master teachers. Students in the Creative Writing and Literature program are required to engage with all four of these disciplines throughout their learning progression. Within these, students produce a wide range of creative writing work and study a diverse collection of novels, short stories, poems, essays, journalism, stage, and screenwriting.
The Creative Writing and Literature department was founded upon the expectation that students not only write their own work, but that the reading and critical analysis of an eclectic curriculum of literature is essential to this aim. Various forms of critique are essential, including workshop, seminar, or Socratic discussion, reflection, presentation, and formal essays. The program fosters a reading culture that supports the artistic practice of our students. Students graduating from the program will be prepared as artists, and for undergraduate study in creative writing or a related discipline where written expression and critical analysis are fundamental.
NMSA also offers a minor in Creative Writing for students in one of the other arts majors: theatre, dance, visual arts, or music. Classes are offered as electives during the academic portion of the day, and may be offered by NMSA or as a dual-credit class with the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) or other participating college.
Quarter I: Syntax/Structure | Nonfiction & Journalism: An Introduction to Telling True Stories
8/21-10/13
Nonfiction & Journalism: An Introduction to Telling True Stories
Reading objectives: close read in-class and self-selected texts; map and analyze sentence and whole piece structure; annotate to identify and study descriptions of people and places, direct and indirect quotes, and the creation of a first person character
Writing objectives: write a personal essay that uses narrative and “thinking on the page” to make the personal universal; write a profile based on an interview that attempts to be both fair and true while illuminating the subject’s epic quest
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Excerpt from The Artist's Way
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Since it was first published twenty-five years ago, The Artist's Way has inspired millions to overcome the limiting beliefs and fears that inhibit the creative process.
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Zingara Poetry Review
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2021-08-29T09:00:00-04:00
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Posts about New Mexico Poets written by Lisa Hase-Jackson
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https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/ca3146edb0a1f5f8a4e96cb6343011fc6083cf579ea82cf0d931a7531683de97?s=32
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Zingara Poetry Review
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https://zingarapoet.net/tag/new-mexico-poets/
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When my good friend, Pam Yenser told me her poetry collection would be published earlier this year, I couldn’t wait to savor it. You see, I have missed working with Pam ever since I moved from Albuquerque to Charleston eight years ago. Missed hearing about her projects, missed reading her latest poem drafts, and equally missed telling her about my own work. Of course I had to interview her for Zingara Poetry Review, which you will find below immediately following a poem expert from her book, Close Encounters Down Home.
Our Lives Were Like Firefly Light
Our lives were like firefly light
Caught in a jar, we lit up the night.
How did our collectors punish us?
Did Mother bruise us with brushes?
Did Father grow closer by inches?
Had he grown too big for his britches?
Was he mad enough to break into
her closet and remove each left shoe?
The lawyers said she had dementia.
Who was crazier was the question!
Leave, my darlings, that long-ago life
where Father knocked with a kitchen knife
at your side door. Shake off that old shoe-
stealing monster. I never left you
alone to remember. Now you’re free
of Mary and the Frankenstein she
married. Look! I have razor blades sewn
into the hem of every poem.
from Close Encounters Down Home, Finishing Line Press, February 2021
Tell us a little about the genesis of your book, including your writing process.
I love your reference to the “genesis” of my book! It’s an apt metaphor for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Down Home. Although there was no single moment when I decided to write about my father’s fixation with the Roswell, New Mexico, flying saucer incident or how it affected me, I can tell you that it showed up among many poems with vivid and often distressing moments from childhood—some with recurring images and motifs I had not yet connected to the rest of my poetry collection. One day, I envisioned that story stretching from childhood and coming of age into a well-organized adult poem of perception. Once I focused on paring down to a thirty-page narrative, one memory begat another, telling the poet-speaker’s “true” story as honestly and openly as possible.
The poetry writing process is an intricate exercise, isn’t it? There are the poems (part memory and part memoir) and then there is the plot (part chronology and part time travel). For the memoir aspect of my poems and creative nonfiction, I dig through biographical memorabilia: family photos, letters, hospital records, email reports, calendars, event notes, cute kid memorabilia, pre-Covid travel guides, and whatever is in the eight storage boxes bearing down on my bedroom wall. For allusions to historic events like the Roswell saucer crash, I collect contemporaneous accounts in books and magazines. It’s hard to keep up. My book was published two months before The New Yorker broke several stories in its May 2021 issue, revealing the highly anticipated opening of top-secret military reports on extra-terrestrial sightings—including the Roswell saucer incident.
The poet-speaker’s story begins in Roswell, where flying saucer mania attracts her father, who straps her in and flies her down through the clouds and over the wreckage. “Cloud angels!” she remembers. “It looks like a broken kite!” The “red rocks and glitter” I wrote about years ago showed up in a photo released recently by the U.S. Army. Worried my book of poems would get lost among the hundreds of books titled “Close Encounters of the First Kind,” or the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind, for that matter, I added “Down Home” as a subtitle. There are several homes of memory in the book, and all include a fox of a father, a religion-possessed mother, a brother L.A. doctors called your little retarded brother,” two younger sisters, and their little brother.
While grouping poems that emphasize time and space travel, I formatted “Memory’s Gate” and “Snow Angel” to travel typographically forwards and backwards on the page, like a windshear, creating a cyclone of words on the page. “The End of TV,” in the shape of a tornado a few pages before, confirms the news, “It’s coming.” Most of the poems are separate memories, but the book’s final poem “Damn, il pleut is a summation in rhymed couplets. It is also an illustration of the time and place displacements the speaker in the poem experiences. I was sitting in a recliner, a legal pad in my lap, when I had the notion to recount the father-daughter relationship from beginning to end. That poem submitted the next day—on the final day to enter—won the annual Ithaca Lit poetry contest. Thank you, judges…and Ms. poetry muse.
Now, about the mechanics of the writing process, or should I say, the consequences of the writing process? The machinery of publishing…the publishing part.
Like most everyone these days, I use Submittable to access challenges, and contest deadlines. It is nothing like the old days, when I mailed off a manila envelope containing a few poems and a stamped return envelope. I used to dread return of my poems—not only because of the usual rejection slip, but also because the pages themselves might be handled by many, mis-folded, or missing—which meant those printouts couldn’t be recycled for the next submission…but then, return envelopes might also contain encouraging notes. I remember an acceptance I received from esteemed Shenandoah Editor R.T. Smith, who wrote to me in a formal letter of acceptance that he had “at last received a sestina that worked.”
How did your book come to be published?
How, indeed! I was mentored into the process of publishing. I remember one night meeting the brilliant poet Hilda Raz, former Editor at Prairie Schooner, that widely respected journal at the University of Nebraska. Hilda had moved to Albuquerque about the time I did, when she became Editor at the University of New Mexico Press. I had long ago submitted poems to her, but we didn’t know each other. Fortunately, we all met through a college friend of poet and critic Stephen Yenser. She had read that my husband, Jon Kelly Yenser, and I were giving a reading, and she invited Hilda. Kelly had recently published chapbooks through Kattywompus Press—a wonderful experience, and that reading led to Hilda’s acceptance of Kelly’s collected poems at the University of New Mexico Press…and a mighty motivation for me.
When Hilda Raz, a wonderful listener and ever an advocate for poets, realized how often I read my broadly published poems, she looked at Kelly and said to me, “Why don’t you have a book of poems? Every poet I know has one.” My excuses were inadequate: grading papers, managing home and garden, balancing a career and two kids. I had submitted my book-length manuscript only a handful of times. Hilda’s question was to the point, and soon enough she had me focused on submitting poems and collecting prizes: the first Bosque Poetry Prize for a quartet of poems on James Merrill, the Ithaca Lit Prize for the concluding seven-part poem of the chapbook “Damn, Il Pleut,” and a plaque I treasure from Leslie McGrath, judge at the W.B. Yeats Society of New York, in recognition of my epistolary verse “Dear Mary Shelley, Regarding Monsters.” At that point, Hilda gifted me a workshop and suggested I sign up for the annual Colrain Intensive Poetry Manuscript Conference. With additional encouragement from Four Way Books Founding Editor Martha Rhodes and also from Translator/Editor Ellen Watson, who had helped select some of my poems previously for the Massachusetts Review, I buckled down to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, finishing it in March of 2020 and submitting the manuscript immediately to a Finishing Line Press chapbook contest. I didn’t “win,” and yet I did: I was a finalist, and Editor Leah Maines invited me to publish at her press. By that time, twelve of twenty-two poems in my manuscript were published in serious journals. I am delighted with the book. Finishing Line Press is a first-class operation which not only makes handsome books but has a well-developed marketing plan and distribution network—necessary elements for a successful publication.
Can you discuss how you determine when to use formal elements in your poetry?
I have never shied away from traditional or experimental forms; in fact, I tend to rhyme like hell when writing poems of witness. I was a formalist from kindergarten, thanks to a book of nursery rhymes my Grandmother sent. I stapled books of my rhyming poems for my teachers throughout grade and middle school; however, I didn’t know any other way to write until my Wichita High School teacher Lee Streiff, a beat poet who wrote flying saucer fiction, sent me to the library during class to read books by the imagists and early Beats. At Wichita State University, I fell in love with Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” and bought Lewis Turco’s Book of Forms for practice. I learned formalism at WSU by example: John Keats, Elizabeth Bishop, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and James Merrill—poets whose rhyme and line breaks are meticulous and witty, and I was drawn to Sylvia Plath’s syllabic lines. I began to use syllabics in poems of mine that otherwise don’t appear to be formal; but it is the energy of rhyming couplets that drives my final chapbook poem to its logical conclusion.
What are some overarching themes or motifs in your collection and how do you explore them?
As I gathered my “memory poems” into a book, I used a flying motif in conjunction with time travel and family history. I meant to make a narrative out of memoir and motif, starting with the Roswell crash. But memory knows no chronology: sequence and consequence are distorted. Poems likewise move back and forth between the actual and the imagined—as does our understanding of interplanetary space travel! While arranging the order of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS poems, I seized the chance to emphasize time and space travel by placing poems that travel typographically forwards and backwards on the page midway in the book. In “Memory’s Gate,” the adult poet-speaker is pulling rotten fenceposts at her home in Idaho, when she remembers a neighbor and her father discussing flying saucers over a picket fence while her father casually reaches up her skirt as she walks along the top rail. In “Snow Angels,” I forward my truth, then reverse the direction of 9-9-9-3-foot syllabic lines to speak of the past. Here is a small excerpt illustrating the turn:
It is our father who harries us
along that old game of Fox and Geese,
our spokes creating an enormous
sign of peace
until we are chased until all fall down
to make hourglass waves of skinny arms
and spraddled legs becoming frigid
snow angels…
…
…then and there in a dormitory
meant for students in a Midwest mining town
where the military marriage
of a nurse
and her captain came undone and I
vanished inside—becoming nothing
more than desire in her lover’s eyes
for a girl.
I should note how beautifully the overarching metaphor of flight is depicted in the painting on the cover of the book: blue skies, the exposed woman turning her back on a column of naked children, all those figures focused on the challenge and perils of flight…or escape. The artist who painted that triptych is a lifelong friend and former colleague who is familiar with my story—one that has versions in other lives; and so, in the opening, I invite my readers to come onboard through a literary device—the apostrophe:
You’re in that saucer
spinning out over Roswell
on edge like a dime….
Sylvia Plath seems like an important figure for you. Can you talk more about that?
Ah, yes, but of course. Sylvia Plath reminded me of my own situation, right down to the moment I felt so trapped in my parents’ little brick house that I thought “If the wolf isn’t caught I will walk down to the nearby creek and drown myself. Mercifully, I could not figure out how to do that in water so shallow. Like Plath, I eventually told my father, in so many words, “we’re through.” I was a college student when I read Plath and started writing “Confessional” poems. I read Robert Lowell’s Life Studies. His students included Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. That was the heart of the movement. Though we both had “Daddy” poems, Plath’s efforts at suicide were unfortunately more focused than mine. For others who suffer closed doors and intimate inuendo, it takes time to react—it’s difficult to process what has just happened.
“Zipper Trip,” my first confessional poem, was under consideration for a prize at Massachusetts Review when I withdrew it from the competition to protect my family from publicity that would have attracted and enraged my father. That poem, taught later in Women’s Studies classes and listed in literary indexes, drew responses from male as well as female readers who found themselves in a similar situation. I was driven from that point to read the many isolated, multilingual, and multi-gendered poets who speak out against repression. I sometimes try on their exact form and write my way within the shape of their argument—now called a “hermit crab” device. An example of a hermit crab poem in my chapbook is the opening “Like Emily, They Shut me up in Prose,” a 12-line Rondeau Prime form I closely follow. I even make myself at home in Dickinson’s title, which comes from the first line of her poem (the work of her editor, because she simply numbered poems and didn’t use titles.) Like a naked crab on the beach, I crawled inside her poem, making myself safe at home. Within her protective shell, am I the poet, poet-speaker, or a vulnerable creature hiding on a hot beach? I begin this book like a hermit crab, at home wherever I am safe from predation.
What projects are you working on now?
I’m completing a full-length manuscript with the working title of “Transported Here.” I am obviously not done with time and space travel—nor with shaped and formal poems. My Roswell experience begins that collection, including a section on the family that, as a reviewer put it, “does not travel well together” as they drive across the country on iconic Route 66. Continuing my interest in the unstable dynamics of memoir and memory, my collected poems recall campus protests of the 1970’s, during the run-up to Vietnam War and its interruption to our studies and our lives. I also write about love as passion and escape…into nature, human nature, and the historic role of the cicadas’ devastating “Insect Sex” on the Kansas landscape, necessitating that we find relief (re-leaf?) by being transported through travel—across state borders and abroad. The book ends with poems about the summer 1971 in Greece with James Merrill, our dear mentor and Yenser family guide. In this final chapbook-sized section of my collection, I attempt to capture all that is Merrillian in Greece: the art and food, politics, history, armed Colonels marching into a play in the amphitheater at Epidavros, the bucolic Peloponnese, the bluest seas, and whitewashed island towns, marble walls embraced with bougainvillea, and investigations of the ruins—both personal and planetary.
Now, a question that everyone wants to know the answer to: How has writing been during this time of the pandemic, social political upheaval, and activism?
Covid more or less shut down our writing routines until we got the green light, or rather the “turquoise” light here in New Mexico. We haven’t been able to join our writing tribe at the coffee shop, on campus, or in each other’s homes. Like so many others, Kelly and I had medical concerns and were directed to isolate at home, where we found ourselves excessively cooking, housekeeping, composting, gardening, dog walking, and Skyping for hours with family and friends. We were depressed by the politics of the first Covid year—not only horrified by the Corona virus and its blood-red spikes, but also disgusted with our nation’s bloody politics—so many shootings, so many lies, so much gratuitous violence. Aside from donating, I felt helpless to help. Sometimes, the best I could do was to shower and change pajama/sweats once a week to become presentable for a conversation or poetry reading on Zoom, but I also became aware and grateful for a safe house, companionship, and online transportation. We were obliged to sit for hours in our car, waiting for groceries, but wait we did, then wipe the stuff down, and cut out the rotten parts. That is the lesson we’re learning, isn’t it: to appreciate the leavings of our lives?
Retired after working at ten colleges and universities, I have more time to write. I now manage a family business—NM Book Editors, where I teach as a developmental editor. I find it satisfying to see a client’s annual award-winning books of memoir reach the reading public, and I am educated by the subject areas I’m obliged to study. I recently discovered the Netflix series Rotten, which contains a segment featuring a New Mexico client: a lawyer trying to save American farming from international dumping of cheap products. I watch the British baking show to broaden my survival skills. I’ve learned to make biscotti and lost 20 pounds by giving it away to friends and neighbors. I’ve slept for 20 years and awakened to the silver in my hair. I have religiously washed my hands until my skin has become thin, transparent, loose, and smooth as silk. I’m writing my first Pandemic short story. The anti-hero is a politician who runs from room to room, trying to escape until Truth catches up with him, and he catches Covid.
It came to me then in a dream, as I ran from room to room in Freud’s castle, that I too must have made a mistake: I turned a corner and fell to the bottom of a dry cement cistern. I stood up, spun around, looking upwards for toeholds, where there were none, and said, “Does this mean I’m dead?” But here I am, and all my family vaccinated and free as birds! In the tiny territory of our Albuquerque backyard, grown children are transported by car or plane from Wichita and LA, my hometowns. Meeting on our patio under climbing yellow roses, bees, and butterflies, we recite the names of this yard’s honorary survivors: Dove, Hawk, Magpie, Meadowlark, and Sparrow.
Close Encounters Down Home is available for purchase at Finishing Line Press
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https://www.oprah.com/spirit/are-you-listening-to-the-great-creator/all
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Are You Listening to the Great Creator?
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Julia Cameron believes creativity is part of our spiritual DNA.
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Oprah.com
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https://www.oprah.com/spirit/are-you-listening-to-the-great-creator/all
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Since the publication in 1992 of Julia Cameron's creativity handbook The Artist's Way, it has sold more than 2 million copies and inspired people from all walks of life to explore their artistic abilities. Her follow-up book, Walking in This World, offers 12 more weeks of creative how-tos. In addition to teaching workshops and public speaking, Julia is also a poet, playwright, fiction writer, essayist, and journalist. She spoke with Beliefnet about the connections between spirituality and the creative process.
What is the relationship between creativity and faith?
Art used to be made in the name of faith. We made cathedrals, we made stained-glass windows, we made murals. When Michelangelo was flat on his back in the Sistine Chapel, he was in service to something larger and greater than himself. And so artists have always talked about the inner connection to a larger something, and sometimes we call it the muse. But what we are actually talking about is that any time that you are engaged in a creative act, you are engaged in a spiritual act. And that's probably the single most important sentence: Any time we're engaged in a creative act, we're engaged with an inherently spiritual act.
Faith is almost the bottom line of creativity; it requires a leap of faith any time we undertake a creative endeavor, whether this is going to the easel, or the page, or onto the stage—or for that matter, in a homelier way, picking out the right fabric for the kitchen curtains, which is also a creative act. You have to muster a certain amount of belief that you're not making a mistake and you're not a fool. And this means you have to have faith.
Are You Listening to the Great Creator? continues...
Is it faith in yourself, or something else, like a higher power?
Well, I think when you have faith in yourself you are simultaneously having faith in a greater power. If we are all part of an interactive connected universe, which is what I believe, then as we listen to the still, small voice—which is another way of saying the intuition, the hunch, the leading, which are all things that artists must pay close attention to—we are in effect listening to the Great Creator.
We can believe we are being self-reliant and independent, and yet there is still clearly an overarching destiny, a Great Maker. So when we say we have faith in ourselves, we cannot really separate the small self from the large self.
Are You Listening to the Great Creator? continues...
You say that making art is not an act of the mind or the intellect, but of the heart and the soul.
Yes, and I want to be clear about that. We have a culture that is very competitive and also very product-oriented. And artists live within this culture, so there is a tendency to advise artists to think about shrewd career moves and consider the odds and pursue an artistic unfolding much the way someone would climb a corporate ladder.
However, the reality is that, again, if we are living in an interactive and essentially a benevolent universe—and that in itself is a leap of faith for a lot of people—then it comes back down to the idea that every time we make a piece of art, we are in fact having a spiritual experience.
I think creativity is just part of our spiritual DNA, in one form or another. Artists talk about it a lot of different ways. But, essentially, when you're really in the moment of making something—whether you're singing or in acting or painting or writing—you have an experience of something moving through you. And people have that when they get involved with sewing an apron or making curtains or writing a letter. It's that funny sense of altered time—and that's a spiritual experience, although people don't often think of it that way. You know when someone will say, "I looked up, and three hours had gone by." That's because they were absorbed in the now. All spiritual practices talk about getting absorbed in the now.
Are You Listening to the Great Creator? continues...
Walking in This World makes the case that beyond the heart and the soul, the body is also intimately involved in the creative process. How?
When we walk, things tend to become clear to us. You know, a lot of us intuitively know this, like if we have a relationship that's not working very well, we'll go out for a long walk on it. And we'll think, "Oh, we're being so moody," but we may come back saying, "I should stay in it or I have to break up." We automatically access our bodies just from instinct. This is also why if somebody has a trauma, bodywork is often used to release grief.
What I'm hoping to do is to get people to integrate their body into their spiritual practice and into their art. And many times in creative situations, your stomach will start to go crazy, and it'll be, "Don't trust this producer," "This agent isn't right for you." Your body is the first line of defense signaling danger, and so creative people really need to learn to listen to their bodies because often their heads are slower to catch on to something suddenly wrong. We tend to want to lead with our heads. We tend to say, "That's not rational." And actually our intuition—which we access often through walking—our intuition is our early warning system.
Are You Listening to the Great Creator? continues...
As far as doing something physical—can it be anything, or is there something about walking that particularly refreshes your soul?
I think walking is a spiritual practice, an ancient spiritual practice for a good reason. There is something about walking that really integrates the body and heart and psyche. I experience sort of a physical shift when I walk. I can literally feel it in sort of the back of my brain at the top of my head. It's as though I go out on a walk worried, and somewhere, maybe 20 minutes into it, I suddenly am in the moment. And I'm not saying that skating or roller-skating or running don't work, but I think that Aborigines and Native Americans go on walkabouts and vision quests for a reason. And also walking is easy—you don't need any special stuff. Anybody can do it, you can do it anyplace, you could do it in the center of Manhattan, you can do it in Los Angeles—although people stare at you when you don't drive your car. You can do it in New Mexico, you can do it Chicago, you can do it in Des Moines.
Are You Listening to the Great Creator? continues...
You say were called to this teaching. Do you ever feel as if you've started a new religion?
I probably started an old religion more than anything. People will come up to me and say, "The Artist's Way is a Sufi book," or "The Artist's Way is a Buddhist book," or "The Artist's Way is a creative spirituality book or science of mind book." It seems to connect to a great many spiritual pursuits. And I think that's because if you get the barnacles off, most spiritual traditions teach pretty much the same thing. So I think that since art is a spiritual path, and it can be pursued within any number of religions, The Artist's Way is complementary to other religions.
Personally, I think of myself as a working artist. I worry if my plays are going to get done this year, if I'm rewriting my novel. I am very careful that although I do teach, I've spent an equal amount or a greater amount of my time actually making things. So I feel like I've largely dodged the silver bullet of gurudom.
There are also many artists who would never talk about art in spiritual terms at all. And yet they would be having the experience and learning the spiritual lessons exactly the same as a spiritual path, but they would never put it in those terms. I've been a writer for 35 years. This has taught me patience. God knows this has taught me humility. God knows it has taught me to enjoy inspiration and conscious contact when I feel it. These are all the same things that a monk would tell you. If you meet somebody who has done one thing long enough, they've always learned a lot. Someone who's been a baker for 35 years has learned the same lessons as a painter who has learned the same lessons as a monk.
Are You Listening to the Great Creator? continues...
Copyright© Beliefnet, Inc., 2008
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https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/2022-02-21/julia-camerons-seeking-wisdom-goes-deeper-than-the-artists-way
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Julia Cameron's 'Seeking Wisdom' goes deeper than 'The Artist's Way'
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2022-02-21T00:00:00
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When author Julia Cameron first got sober, she was told to pray. In her new book, Seeking Wisdom, Cameron writes about the connection of spirituality and creativity, and her own creative recovery.
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en
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/apple-touch-icon.png
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Hawai'i Public Radio
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https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/2022-02-21/julia-camerons-seeking-wisdom-goes-deeper-than-the-artists-way
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Sitting in meditation, repeating a mantra or talking out loud to a higher power - writer Julia Cameron says it all counts as prayer and it's the key to unlocking creativity. In 1992, Cameron published her bestselling book "The Artist's Way." Her new book goes deeper. It's called "Seeking Wisdom." Cameron herself set out on that path decades ago after a friend told her flat-out that she was an alcoholic and she needed help.
JULIA CAMERON: Well, what happened to me the day that I got sober was that they said, now, if you want to stay sober, you have to pray. And I was offended. And I said, you don't understand. I have 16 years of Catholic education. That's the greased slide to agnosticism.
MARTIN: In other words, prayer wasn't going to be the antidote for you, or so you thought.
CAMERON: Right. So they said, well, you must believe in something. And I thought about it. And then I said, yes, I do believe in something. I believe in a line of poetry from the poet Dylan Thomas - the force that through the green fuse drives the flower. I said, I could pray to that creative energy. It wasn't an anthropomorphic God. It was a God that captured my imagination. They said, now, when you get up in the morning, say, please keep me sober. And when you go to bed at night, say, thank you for keeping me sober. I felt like I was being cornered into praying. But I was so worried about drinking again that I decided to do what they told me to do.
MARTIN: And when did it start to feel like you were getting something out of it?
CAMERON: I wanted to remain a writer. And so they said to me, let your higher power, your creative energy, your line of poetry - let that write through you. Before that, I had always tried to be brilliant, to write the very best thing that could be written. Once I started letting the higher power write through me, I put up a little sign near my writing station. And it said, OK, God, you take care of the quality; I'll take care of the quantity. That was when prayer began to feel effective to me.
MARTIN: You also talk about prayer in the form of praise - and gratitude, in particular. How does gratitude play into your daily prayer practice?
CAMERON: When we talk about prayers of gratitude, we're talking about something very personal. It might be, I'm grateful for my curly hair. I'm grateful for my dog. You start out with a small list, and as you write, more things come to you. And prayers of gratitude move you from pessimism into optimism.
MARTIN: And do you need optimism to be creative?
CAMERON: I think it's a big help.
MARTIN: I mean, this is what your bestselling book "The Artist's Way" was all about. I remember a friend giving me my copy when I was in my mid-twenties. And it was very practical. It had very - laid out very practical steps on how to live with more intention and how that could show up in creative ways. And a lot of it was about setting very specific routines for yourself. You recommend that in this book as well - developing daily practices. And central to that is the idea of morning pages. Can you explain what that means?
CAMERON: I'd love to explain morning pages. They are sort of the bedrock tool of what I call a creative recovery. And what they are are three pages of longhand morning writing that you do first thing on awakening, and they can be about anything or everything. They often feel scattered. You find yourself saying, I forgot to call my sister back. I didn't remember to buy kitty litter.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: What does that do for you as you move through your day?
CAMERON: Well, it keeps you from being sidetracked by other people's agendas. You're writing down, this is what I like. This is what I don't like. This is what I want more of. This is what I want less of. You want to be authentic. You want to tell people precisely how it is you are feeling. And what I find with morning pages is that they puncture denial. Whereas we might have said previously, I feel fine, with morning pages, you define fine. You say this is what I mean by fine.
MARTIN: Why do you believe spirituality and creativity are so intrinsically linked?
CAMERON: I have found that if I teach people to work on their creativity, their spirituality wakes up. And if I try teaching about spirituality, their creativity wakes up. So the two seem to me to go hand in glove. And I think we have a lot of negative mythology about creativity. We tend to believe in the image of a suffering artist and that creativity is born out of pain. What I have found is that creativity is born out of happiness, which is a radical step to take.
MARTIN: Julia Cameron - her new book is called "Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path To Creative Connection." Julia, what a pleasure it's been to talk to you. Thank you.
CAMERON: You're welcome. It's been a pleasure talking with you as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF NATHAN HUI-YI'S "SEE YOU AT THE SUMMIT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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The Sound of Paper, by Julia Cameron (Review) – The Bookwyrm's Hoard
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https://bookwyrmshoard.com/uncategorized/the-sound-of-paper-by-julia-cameron-review/
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The Sound of Paper, by Julia Cameron (Review)
July 12, 2012 Lark_Bookwyrm Uncategorized 0
Category: Nonfiction Subject: Writing, creativity, and creative block
How I got the book: Public library
The Sound of Paper: Starting From Scratch is a series of related chapter or essays on creativity and creative blocks. Author Julia Cameron (The Artist’s Way) begins each essay (or chapter) by musing on some aspect the day-to-day life of the worlds in which she lives, beginning in New York and moving from there to Taos, New Mexico, where she spends part of each year. From walks in Central Park to drought and eventual rain in Taos, Cameron makes connections between daily life, nature, and the creative process. Along the way, she explores ways in which artists, whether they are writers, composers, or visual artists, can persevere through the inevitable periods of creative block and the doubts and frustrations that can stifle their work.
This is the first of Cameron’s works on art and creativity that I have read, and I found it both helpful and insightful. The essays are short, quiet, more comforting than challenging. And yet there is wisdom here. Each essay is followed by a gentle suggestion, a small exercise to nurture the spirit and revive the creative impulse.
This is not a book for anyone who is uncomfortable with the spiritual. Although Cameron does not promote any particular religion, she does suggest the need for openness, gratitude, even the relinquishing of control to a Higher Being. Prayer is one term she uses, though the concept is certainly not limited to formal prayer. A deep sense of connection to life, to the natural and everyday world, and to a greater spirit infuses Cameron’s work and is an integral part of how she herself deals with creative block.
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https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/joy-harjo
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Biography: Joy Harjo
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Poet, activist, and musician Joy Harjo became the first Native American United States Poet Laureate in history. Learn more at womenshistory.org.
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Joy Harjo Biography
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https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/joy-harjo
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Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, is a member of the Mvskoke Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv (Hickory Ground). As a poet, activist, and musician, Joy Harjo’s work has won countless awards. In 2019, Harjo became the first Native American United States Poet Laureate in history and is only the second poet to be appointed for three terms. In addition to her many books of poetry, she has written several books for young audiences and released seven award-winning music albums.
Joy Harjo was born on May 9, 1951 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The first of four children, Harjo’s birth name was Joy Foster; she later changed her name to “Harjo,” her Mvskoke grandmother’s family name. Her father was a Muscogee Creek citizen whose mother came from a line of respected warriors, and speakers who served the Muscogee Nation in the House of Warriors. Joy’s great-great grandfather was a famous leader, Monahwee, in the Red Stick War against President Andrew Jackson in the 1800s. Harjo’s mother was a waitress of mixed Cherokee, Irish, and French descent. Growing up, Harjo was surrounded by artists and musicians, but she did not know any poets. Her mother wrote songs and her grandmother and her aunt were both artists. These influential women inspired Harjo to explore her creative side. Harjo recalls that the very first poem she wrote was in eighth grade.
In addition to art and creativity, Harjo also experienced many challenges as a child. In her autobiography, Harjo discussed her father’s struggle with alcohol and violent behavior that led to her parent’s divorce. After this, Harjo’s mother married another man that also abused the family. Harjo had a hard time speaking out loud because of these experiences. She said, “I remember the teachers at school threatening to write my parents because I was not speaking in class, but I was terrified.”[1] Instead, Harjo started painting as a way to express herself. At the age of sixteen, she left home to attend the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While she was at this school, Harjo participated in what she calls the “renaissance of contemporary native art.” [2] This was when Harjo and her classmates changed how Native art was represented in the United States. During this time, she joined one of the first all-native drama and dance groups. She also wrote songs for an all-native rock band.
After graduating from high school, Harjo attended the University of New Mexico as a Pre-Med student. However, she was inspired by the art and creativity around her. She switched her major to art, and then again to creative writing after meeting and working with fellow Native American poets, including Simon J. Ortiz and Leslie Marmon Silko. Harjo began writing poetry at the age of twenty-two. She published her first book of nine poems called The Last Song in 1975. Harjo then graduated from college a year later and started the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at the University of Iowa (Iowa Writers’ Workshop). When she graduated from this program in 1978, she began taking film classes and teaching at various universities including the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, Arizona State University in Tempe, the University of Colorado in Boulder, the University of Arizona in Tucson, and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
In 1980, Harjo published her first full-length volume of poetry called What Moon Drove Me to This? This book of poetry includes all of the poems she wrote in her 1975 collection. She has since published nine books of poetry, two memoirs, plays, and several books for young audiences, as well as editing several poetry collections. One of her most famous poetry volumes, She Had Some Horses, was first published in 1982. She has won many awards for her writing including; the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, a PEN USA Literary Award, the Poets & Writers Jackson Poetry Prize, two NEA Fellowships, a Tulsa Artist Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2009, she won a NAMMY (Native American Music Award) for Best Female Artist of the Year.
Harjo is a founding board member and Chair of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and, in 2019, was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She has since been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, National Native American Hall of Fame, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Margaret_Cameron
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Julia Margaret Cameron
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2002-09-15T08:43:34+00:00
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Margaret_Cameron
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British photographer (1815–1879)
For the American author, see Julia Cameron.
Julia Margaret Cameron (née Pattle; 11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879) was a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorians and for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature.
She was born in Calcutta, and after establishing herself among the Anglo-Indian upper-class, she moved to London where she made connections with the cultural elite. She then formed her own literary salon in the seaside village of Freshwater, Isle of Wight.
Cameron took up photography at the age of 48, after her daughter gave her a camera as a present. She quickly produced a large body of portraits, and created allegorical images inspired by tableaux vivants, theatre, 15th-century Italian painters, and contemporary artists. She gathered much of her work in albums, including The Norman Album. She took around 900 photographs over a 12-year period.
Cameron's work was contentious in her own time. Critics derided her softly focused and unrefined images, and considered her illustrative photographs amateurish. However, her portraits of artists and scientists such as Henry Taylor, Charles Darwin, and Sir John Herschel have been consistently praised. Her images have been described as "extraordinarily powerful"[1] and "wholly original",[2] and she has been credited with producing the first close-ups in the medium.[1]
Biography
[edit]
Early life and education
[edit]
Julia Margaret Cameron was born Julia Margaret Pattle on 11 June 1815, at Garden Reach in Calcutta, India,[3] to Adeline Marie and James Peter Pattle.
James Pattle worked in India for the East India Company.[3][4] His family had been involved with the East India Company for many years. He traced his line to a 17th-century ancestor living in Chancery Lane, London.[5] Adeline's mother was a French aristocrat and the daughter of Chevalier Ambrose Pierre Antoine de l'Etang, who had been a page to Marie Antoinette and an officer in the Garde du Corps of King Louis XVI.[6] After James died in Calcutta, he was shipped back to London in a barrel of rum for burial in Camberwell.
Julia was the fourth of her parents' ten children. Three children[a] died in infancy. Julia and six of her sisters[1][3] survived into adulthood,[b] inheriting some Bengali blood through their maternal grandmother, Thérèse Josephe Blin de Grincourt. The seven sisters were known for their "charm, wit and beauty" and for being close, outspoken, and unconventional in behaviour and dress.[7][c] They favoured Indian silks and shawls rather than the Victorian attire of other colonial woman.[9]
The sisters were sent to France as children to be educated, Julia living there with her maternal grandmother in Versailles from 1818 to 1834, after which she returned to India.[1][3][4][10]
Julia's sisters all made advantageous matches. Older sister Adeline married Lt-General Colin Mackenzie. Sophia married Sir John Warrander Dalrymple. Louisa married Henry Vincent Bayley, a high court judge. Maria married Dr John Jackson. Sara (Sarah) married Sir Henry Thoby Prinsep, a director of the East India Company, and made their home at Little Holland House in Kensington, which became an important intellectual centre. Among their children was Julia's godchild Julia Stephen. Virginia Pattle married Charles Somers-Cocks, Viscount Eastnor (later 3rd Earl Somers). Their eldest daughter was Lady Henry Somerset, the temperance leader, while the younger, Lady Adeline Marie, became the Duchess of Bedford.
Marriage and social life
[edit]
South Africa and Calcutta
[edit]
In 1835, after suffering several illnesses, Julia visited the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa with her parents to recover.[3][4] It was common for Europeans living in India to visit South Africa to convalesce.[1] While there, she met the British astronomer and photochemist Sir John Herschel, who was observing the southern celestial hemisphere.[10]
She also met Charles Hay Cameron, twenty years her senior and a reformer of Indian law and education who later invested in coffee plantations in what is now Sri Lanka.[10] He was also there to convalesce, probably after a malarial fever, which often spread during the Indian monsoon season. The illness caused kidney trouble and diarrhœa for the rest of his life.[8]: 14
They were married in Calcutta on 1 February 1838, two years after meeting.[1][3] In December, Julia gave birth to their first child; Herschel was the godfather.[8]: 15 Between 1839 and 1852, they had six children, one of whom was adopted.[4][11] In all, the Camerons raised 11 children, five of her own, five orphaned children of relatives, and an Irish girl named Mary Ryan whom they found begging on Putney Heath and whom Cameron used as a model in her photographs.[7][12] Their son, Henry Herschel Hay Cameron, would also become a photographer.[3]
Through the early 1840s—as the organiser of social engagements for the Governor-General, Lord Hardinge—Cameron became a prominent hostess in Anglo-Indian society.[3] During this time she also corresponded with Herschel. In 1839, he told Cameron about the invention of photography.[8]: 14 [d] In 1842, he sent her two dozen calotypes and daguerreotypes, the first photographs she ever saw.[8]: 42
England
[edit]
The Camerons moved to England in 1845, where they took part in London's artistic and cultural scene.[8]: 15 [13] Julia often visited Little Holland House where her sister, Sara Prinsep, oversaw a literary and artistic salon "of Pre-Raphaelite painters, poets, and aristocrats with artistic pretensions".[11][12] Here, she met many of the subjects of her later portraits, including Henry Taylor and Alfred Tennyson.[1]
Daphne du Maurier describes the scene:
The nobilitee, the gentree, the litherathure, polithics and art of the counthree, by jasus! It's a nest of proraphaelites, where Hunt, Millais, Rossetti, Watts, Leighton etc, Tennyson, the Brownings and Thackeray etc and tutti quanti receive dinners and incense, and cups of tea handed to them by these women almost kneeling.[14]
Benjamin Jowett echoed this when describing Cameron's reverence to these artists and poets after a later visit to Freshwater. The same salon-like atmosphere was present. "She is a sort of hero-worshipper, and the hero is not Mr Tennyson – he only occupies second place – but Henry Taylor."[8]: 27
In 1847, she was writing poetry, had started a novel, and published a translation of Gottfried August Bürger's Leonora.[3][11]
In 1848, Charles Cameron retired and invested in coffee and rubber plantations in Ceylon, becoming one of the island's largest landowners.[8]: 483 The Camerons settled in Tunbridge Wells in Kent,[15] where they were neighbours of Taylor,[8]: 16 then moved to East Sheen in 1850.[3][4][8]: 7 During this time, Cameron became a member of a society for art education and appreciation. George Frederic Watts started working on a painting of Cameron (which is now in the National Portrait Gallery).[8]: 7
In 1860, after an extended visit to Tennyson at Freshwater, Cameron bought a house next door. The family moved there, naming the property "Dimbola" after one of the coffee plantations in Ceylon.[3][12] A private gate connected the residences and the two families soon started entertaining famous people with music, poetry readings, and amateur plays, creating an artistic scene similar to Little Holland House.[1] Cameron lived there until 1875.[17]
Photography career
[edit]
Early career
[edit]
Cameron showed an interest in photography in the late 1850s and there are indications that she experimented with making photographs in the early 1860s.[1][13] Around 1863, her daughter and son-in-law gave her a sliding-box camera for Christmas.[4] The gift was meant to provide a diversion while her husband was in Ceylon.[13] Her daughter said, "It may amuse you, Mother, to try to photograph during your solitude at Freshwater."[2]
Cameron converted a chicken coop into studio space.[18] Later, in an unfinished autobiography, Annals of my Glasshouse, she wrote:
I turned my coal-house into my dark room, and a glazed fowl house I had given my children became my glass house. The hens were liberated, I hope and believe not eaten. The profit of my boys upon new laid eggs was stopped, and all hands and hearts sympathised in my new labour, since the society of hens and chickens was soon changed for that of poets, prophets, painters and lovely maidens, who all in turn have immortalized the humble little farm erection.[1] [...] I began with no knowledge of the art... I did not know where to place my dark box, how to focus my sitter, and my first picture I effaced to my consternation by rubbing my hand over the filmy side of the glass.[2]
On 29 January 1864 Cameron photographed nine‐year‐old Annie Philpot, an image she described as her "first success".[1] She sent the photograph to the subject's father with the note:
My first perfect success in the complete Photograph owing greatly to the docility & sweetness of my best & fairest sitter. This Photograph was taken by me at 1 p.m. Friday Jan. 29th. Printed—Toned—fixed and framed all by me & given as it is now by 8 p.m. this same day.[1]
That same year, she compiled albums of her images for Watts and Herschel, registered her work and prepared it for exhibition and sale.[8]: 7–8 She was elected to the Photographic Society of London, displaying work at yearly exhibitions and remaining a member until her death.[19][3]
Cameron took up photography as an amateur and considered herself an artist. Although never making commissioned portraits or establishing a commercial studio, she thought of her photographic activity as a professional endeavour, copyrighting, publishing, and marketing her work.[2] The family did not see substantial profits from their coffee plantations and Cameron may have been looking to bring in some money with her photography. The portraits of celebrities and the high volume of her photographic output also suggest commercial aspirations.[8]: 25, 41–42, 496
Mid-career
[edit]
In 1865, she became a member of the Photographic Society of Scotland and arranged to have her prints sold through the London dealers P. & D. Colnaghi.[20] She presented a series of photographs, The Fruits of the Spirit, to the British Museum,[8]: 8 and held her first solo exhibition in November 1865.[3] Her prints generated robust demand and she showed her work throughout Europe,[4] securing awards in Berlin in 1865 and 1866,[3] and an honourable mention in Dublin.[8]: 8
Her photographic activity was supported by her husband. Cameron wrote: "My husband from first to last has watched every picture with delight, and it is my daily habit to run to him with every glass upon which a fresh glory is newly stamped, and to listen to his enthusiastic applause."[5]
In August 1865, the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum), purchased 80 of her photographs.[8]: 8 Three years later, it offered her two rooms to use as a portrait studio, making her the museum's first artist-in-residence.[10]
She produced images of Thomas Carlyle and John Herschel in 1867.[3] By 1868, she was generating sales through P. & D. Colnaghi and a second London agent, William Spooner. In 1869, she created The Kiss of Peace, which she considered her finest work.[8]: 8
In the early 1870s, Cameron's work matured.[4] Her elaborate illustrative tableaux involving religious, literary, and classical figures peaked in a series of images for Tennyson's Idylls of the King, published in 1874 and 1875, evidently at her expense.[13][15] During this time, she also wrote Annals of my Glass House.[8]: 9
Later life
[edit]
In October 1873, her daughter died in childbirth. Two years later,[3] because of her husband's ill-health,[15] the lower cost of living,[8]: 483 and to be near to their sons who were managing the family coffee plantations,[10] Cameron and her husband left Freshwater for Ceylon with "a cow, Cameron's photographic equipment, and two coffins, in case such items should not be available in the East".[1][18]
Henry Taylor recounts the departure:
Mr. and Mrs. Cameron have taken their departure for Ceylon, there to live and die. He had bought an estate there some thirty years ago when he was serving the Crown there and elsewhere in the East, and he had a passionate love for the island, to which he had rendered an important service in providing it with a code of procedure . . . he never ceased to yearn after the island as his place of abode, and thither in his eighty-first year he has betaken himself, with a strange joy. The design was kept secret, – I believe even from their dearest relatives.[8]: 36
V.C. Scott O'Connor later wrote about their empty home in Freshwater:
The house is silent now and tenantless. All its old feverish life and bustle are stilled as is the heart which beat here in true sympathy with every living creature that came within its reach needing such succor. Her pretty maids, her scholars, her poets, her philosophers, astronomers, and divines, all those men of genius who came and sat willingly to her while in a fever of artistic emotion she plied the instruments of her art, – they have all gone, and silence is the only tenant left at Dimbola.[8]: 37
The move marked the end of Cameron's photography career;[3] she took few photographs afterwards,[15] mostly of Tamil servants and workers.[e][8]: 9 Fewer than 30 images survive from this period. Cameron's output may have dropped in part because of the difficulty working with collodion in the heat and a lack of fresh water for washing prints.[8]: 483 The botanical painter and biologist Marianne North recounted a visit to Cameron in Ceylon:
The walls of the room were covered with magnificent photographs; others were tumbling about the tables, chairs, and floors with quantities of damp books, all untidy and picturesque; the lady herself with a lace veil on her head and flowing draperies. Her oddities were most refreshing . . . She also made some studies of natives while I was there, and took such a fancy to the back of one of them (which she said was absolutely superb) that she insisted on her son retaining him as her gardener, though she had no garden and he did not know even the meaning of the word.[8]: 483 [12]
In 1875, after a short visit to England, Cameron fell ill with a dangerous chill.[4]
In February 1876, Macmillan's Magazine published her poem, On a Portrait. The following year, her image The Parting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere appeared on the cover Harper's Weekly as a wood engraving.[8]: 9
Cameron died on 26 January 1879[10] at the Glencairn estate in Ceylon.[3] It is often reported that her last word was "Beauty"[1][13] or "Beautiful".[18]
In her 12-year career, Cameron produced about 900 photographs.[2]
Photographic work
[edit]
Influences
[edit]
Cameron was an educated and cultured woman; she was a Christian thinker familiar with medieval art, the Renaissance, and the Pre-Raphaelites.[f][5] She may also have been influenced by the contemporary interest in phrenology, the study of the skull as a sign of a person's character.[1] The Old Masters also informed her work. Her compositions and use of light have been connected to Raphael, Rembrandt, and Titian.[3]
John Herschel, who relayed to Cameron the news of the inventions of photography by Talbot and Daguerre,[8]: 42 was an important influence on technique and the practicalities of the medium, as indicated in a letter Cameron wrote to the astronomer, "You were my first teacher and to you I owe all the first experience and insights."[7]
It is likely that Cameron saw Reginald Southey photographing on the Isle of Wight during a holiday in 1857 when he visited the Camerons and photographed their children and the children of her neighbours, the Tennysons, before Cameron took up the camera in earnest.[8]: 42
Perhaps the most important photographer to influence Cameron's work was David Wilkie Wynfield. Much like Cameron, Wynfield published soft-focus portraits of friends dressed up as characters from history or literature.[12] The press compared their photographic work and noted the similarities in style and their consideration of the medium as fine art.[8]: 46 Cameron's style of close-up portraits resembling Titian may well have been learned from Wynfield, since she took a lesson from him and later wrote "I consult him in correspondence whenever I am in difficulty".[7] The Arts Council booklet to accompany the 1951 Festival of Britain photography exhibition quoted from an 11-page "holograph letter" (exhibit 471) to William Michael Rossetti in which she states: "To [Wynfield's] beautiful photography I owed all my attempts and indeed consequently all my success."[21][22]
Concept of genius and beauty
[edit]
Cameron's portraits are partly the product of her intimacy and regard for the subject, but also intend to capture "particular qualities or essences—typically, genius in men and beauty in women".[3] Mike Weaver, a scholar who wrote about Cameron's photography in work published in 1984, framed her idea of genius and beauty "within a specifically Christian framework, as indicative of the sublime and the sacred".[3] Weaver supposes that Cameron's myriad influences informed her concept of beauty: "the Bible, classical mythology, Shakespeare's plays, and Tennyson's poems were fused into a single vision of ideal beauty."[5]
Cameron herself indicated her desire to capture beauty. She wrote, "I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied"[8]: 175 [23] and "My aspirations are to ennoble Photography and to secure for it the character and uses of High Art by combining the real & Ideal & sacrificing nothing of Truth by all possible devotion to poetry and beauty."[10]
Her female subjects were typically chosen for their beauty,[24] particularly the "long-necked, long-haired, immature beauty familiar in Pre-Raphaelite paintings".[1] In Virginia Woolf's farcical play Freshwater, which described the cultural scene at Freshwater, Cameron's character comically expresses her commitment to beauty:
I have sought the beautiful in the most unlikely places. I have searched the police force at Freshwater, and not a man have I found with calves worthy of Sir Galahad. But, as I said to the Chief Constable, "Without beauty, constable, what is order? Without life, what is law?" Why should I continue to have my silver protected by a race of men whose legs are aesthetically abhorrent to me? If a burgler came and he were beautiful, I should say to him: Take my fish knives! Take my cruets, my bread baskets and my soup tureens. What you take is nothing to what you give, your calves, your beautiful calves.[5]
Portraits
[edit]
Cameron's photographs are generally placed into three categories: distinguished portraits of men, delicate portraits of women, and illustrative allegories based on religious and literary works.[25]
Men
[edit]
Cameron's portraits of men were a kind of hero-worship.[8]: 175 To Thomas Carlyle, Cameron wrote "When I have had such men before my camera my whole soul has endeavoured to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man. The photograph thus taken has been almost the embodiment of a prayer."[7]
Most of these men are well-known scientists, writers, or clergymen.[8]: 291 Cameron turned to Old Master paintings and the contemporary idea —based in phrenology— of the ideal "type" to capture the greatness that she perceived in these eminent Victorian individuals.[11] Her aspiration to record this greatness resulted in powerful images displaying a masterly command of chiaroscuro that resulted in "the finest and most revealing gallery of eminent Victorians in existence".[8]: 292
Janet Malcom notes the attention Cameron paid to facial hair as an expressive element in her portraits, writing that "Her close-ups of Tennyson, Carlyle, Darwin, Longfellow, Taylor, Watts, and Charles Cameron are as much celebrations of beards as of Victorian eminence."[5]
Charles Darwin, c. 1868
Henry Taylor, 1865
Women
[edit]
Her images of women are decidedly softer than those of men. With less dramatic lighting and a more typical distance between the sitter and the camera, these images are less dynamic and more conventional.[8]: 175
Cameron almost exclusively photographed younger women, never making a portrait even of her neighbour and good friend Emily Tennyson.[8]: 26 According to a biographer of Darwin, Cameron refused to take a picture of the biologist's wife, saying that "no woman must be photographed between the ages of eighteen and seventy".[5]
Her mature photographs of women are noted for their subtle but suggestive representation of the obscurity and malleability of female identity. Many of her images of young women obscure their individuality and represent their identity as multifaceted and changeable[8]: 68 by showing them "in pairs, or reflected in a mirror... frequently expressive of a deep ambiguity and anxiety."[3]
Janet Malcolm again notes Cameron's attention to the hair of her subjects, writing that "Like the little girls whose hair was mussed to rid it of its prim nursery look, the bigger girls were made to undo their buns and chignons so that their hair would poetically stream or flow or twist around their faces".[5]
Ellen Terry, 1864
Alice Liddell, 1872
Julia Jackson, 1867
Suspense, 1864
Children
[edit]
Children – her own children, those of relatives, and young locals – were often models for Cameron. Children were popular subjects in the Victorian era and Cameron kept with the prevailing notion of them as innocent, kind, and noble. She regularly depicted them as angels or as children from Bible stories.[8]: 373
The children in her images were not always cooperative, and her attempts to cast them as allegorical figures were often frustrated by the child's boredom, indignation, or distraction – moods which are often seen in her images.[8]: 374
I Wait
Angel of the Nativity
Love in Idleness
Young Astyanax
Allegories and illustrations
[edit]
Cameron may have found these illustrative group portraits more challenging than her other images. With more people in the image, the chances were greater that someone would move during the long exposures, so more light was needed to shorten the exposure time and arrest the motion. More sitters also meant a greater depth of field was necessary to put everyone in focus, further complicating the compositions.[8]: 433
Cameron's narrative portraits of women were influenced by tableaux vivants and amateur theatre. The women in her images are typically depicted in the idealised Victorian roles of mother and wife.[11]
Religion
[edit]
Cameron made over 50 images representing the Madonna, often played by her household servant Mary Hillier. These images present "an ideal of femininity that combines wholesomeness with qualities of sensuality and vulnerability". She represented the Virgin Mary in various scenes from the Bible, such as the Annunciation and the Salutation,[8]: 130 but also illustrated more obscure figures.[8]: 129
Sir Henry Taylor as King David, 1866
Mary Mother
The Angel at the Tomb
Literature
[edit]
Cameron took literature as inspiration, representing characters from Shakespeare, Elizabethan poems, novels, plays, and the work of her contemporaries: Tennyson, Henry Taylor, Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, and George Eliot.[8]: 434
Maud "There has Fallen a splendid Tear From the Passion Flower at the Gate", 1875
"He thought of that sharp look Mother I gave him yesterday"/"They call me cruel hearted, I care not what they say", 1875
Queen Esther before King Ahasuerus, 1865
"So now I think my time is near – I trust it is – I know"/"The blessed Music went that way my soul will have to go", 1875
Idylls of the King
[edit]
In 1874, Tennyson asked Cameron to create illustrations for a new edition of his Idylls of the King, a popular series of poems about Arthurian legends.[8]: 434 Cameron worked on this commission for three months. However, she was unhappy with the final publication, and complained that the small size of her images depleted their significance. This prompted Cameron to issue a deluxe version of the Idylls of the King which featured twelve photographs as full-size prints.[26] This series of images, influenced by Watts,[18] was her last large-scale project[15] and is considered the peak of her illustrative work.[1][13]
Parting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, 1874
King Arthur, 1874
Reception and legacy
[edit]
Contemporary reception
[edit]
In her own time, Cameron's photographs found a contentious audience, with many criticising her use of soft focus and her unretouched prints.[3]
In 1865, The Photographic Journal reviewed her images, commenting:
Mrs. Cameron exhibits her series of out-of-focus portraits of celebrities. We must give this lady credit for daring originality, but at the expense of all other photographic qualities. A true artist would employ all the resources at his disposal, in whatever branch of art he might practise. In these pictures, all that is good in photography has been neglected and the shortcomings of the art are prominently exhibited. We are sorry to have to speak thus severely on the works of a lady, but we feel compelled to do so in the interest of the art.[2]
The Photographic News echoed this sentiment:
What in the name of all the nitrate of silver that ever turned white into black have these pictures in common with good photography? Smudged, torn, dirty, undefined, and in some cases almost unreadable, there is hardly one of them that ought not to have been washed off the plate as soon as it appeared. We cannot but think that this lady's highly imaginative and artistic efforts might be supplemented by the judicious employment of a small boy with a wash leather, and a lens screwed a trifle less out of accurate definition.[8]: 54
The Illustrated London News provided an alternative perspective, writing that her images were "the nearest approach to art, or rather the most bold and successful applications of the principles of fine-art to photography".[2]
Early impact
[edit]
Cameron's niece, Julia Prinsep Stephen (née Jackson; 1846–1895), wrote a biography of Cameron that appeared in the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography, 1886.[27]
A few years later, George Bernard Shaw reviewed a posthumous exhibition of Cameron's, writing:
While the portraits of Herschel, Tennyson and Carlyle beat hollow anything I have ever seen, right on the same wall, and virtually in the same frame, there are photographs of children with no clothes on, or else the underclothes by way of propriety, with palpably paper wings, most inartistically grouped and artlessly labelled as angels, saints or fairies. No-one would imagine that the artist who produced the marvellous Carlyle would have produced such childish trivialities.[8]: 433
Virginia Woolf wrote a comic portrayal of the "Freshwater circle" in her only play Freshwater. Later, in collaboration with Roger Fry, Woolf also edited the first major collection of Cameron's photographs, Victorian Photographs of Famous Men and Fair Women, published in 1926.[3][28] In the introduction to this collection, Fry wrote that Cameron's allegorical photographs "must all be judged as failures from an aesthetic viewpoint".[8]: 433 He was more charitable toward her other work, writing that she had "a wonderful perception of character as it is expressed in form" and that her work was superior to the portraits of James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Watts.[8]: 291
Despite the publication of this collection, Cameron's work remained obscure until the 1940s.
Mid-century rediscovery
[edit]
Helmut Gernsheim, after seeing photographs that Cameron had donated hanging in the waiting room of a Hampshire railway station, published a book on her work that helped re-establish her reputation.[3][29] Gernsheim's review echoed the sentiments of Shaw and Fry, criticising her allegorical and illustrative photos while praising her portraits:
If the majority of Mrs. Cameron's subject pictures seem to us affected, ludicrous and amateurish, and appear in our opinion to be failures, how masterly, on the other hand, are her straightforward, truthful portraits, which are entirely free from false sentiment, and which compensate for the errors of taste in her studies.[5]
In 1984, Mike Weaver disputed this analysis in his book Julia Margaret Cameron 1815–1879, where he elevated Cameron's tableaux as sincere religious interpretations. Weaver also criticised the characterisations of Cameron's personality that focused on her supposed eccentricities.[5]
Gernsheim wrote Masterpieces of Victorian Photography 1840-1900 to accompany the Festival of Britain event that marked the centenary of “the first important exhibition of photography ever held [at the 1851 Great Exhibition]". In selecting photographs from his collection for the event, Gernsheim chose Cameron’s “Florence Fisher” as the frontispiece of the catalogue. Also, her 1867 portrait of Sir Henry Taylor was one of the 16 images reproduced in the central section of photographs. Only one other photographer has more than one image in the booklet: two of P. H. Delamotte's scenes of the Crystal Palace in 1859. In the entry for Cameron, Gernsheim writes: "Her brilliant portraits of [the great Victorians] rank with those off Hill and Adamson, and Nadar, as the finest produced in the nineteenth century ... Mrs Cameron's large head studies are purely photographic in style, and far in advance of her time." Twenty-six of her portraits were exhibited.[21]
21st century reception
[edit]
Colin Ford, in the Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography calls her images "extraordinarily powerful" and "arguably the first 'close-up' photographs in history".[1] He continues:
Her visualisations of poetry are different in style and achievement from those of any other photographer of the time. Her contemporaries decorated books of poetry by Burns, Gray, Milton, Scott, Shakespeare and others with picturesque landscapes, occasionally peopling these with attractively disposed figures in the scenery, but rarely illustrating actual characters or incidents from the story.[1]
For the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Malcolm Daniel writes:
Her artistic goals for photography, informed by the outward appearance and spiritual content of fifteenth-century Italian painting, were wholly original in her medium. She aimed for neither the finish and formalized poses common in the commercial portrait studios, nor for the elaborate narratives of other Victorian "high art" photographers such as H. P. Robinson and O. G. Rejlander.[2]
Janet Malcolm, in "The Genius of the Glass House" writes that "Cameron's compositions have more connection to the family album pictures of recalcitrant relatives who have been herded together for the obligatory group picture than they do to the masterpieces of Western painting" but that "The beauty that Cameron found, and in a surprising number of cases was able to arrest, among the aging and aged men of the Victorian literary and art establishment is a cornerstone of her achievement".[5]
In 2003, the J. Paul Getty Museum published a catalogue of Cameron's known surviving photographs. One caption of a portrait of Alice Liddell (whom Cameron photographed as Alethea, Pomona, Ceres, and St. Agnes in 1872) claims that "Cameron's photographic portraits are considered among the finest in the early history of photography".[30]
In 2018, Cameron's Norman Album from 1869 was deemed by the UK government's advisory committee on the export of works of art to be of "outstanding aesthetic importance and significance to the study of the history of photography and, in particular, the work of Julia Margaret Cameron — one of the most significant photographers of the 19th century".[31]
In 2019 Cameron was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.[32]
Museum and Trust
[edit]
Dimbola on the Isle of Wight houses the Dimbola Museum and Galleries owned and run by the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, a registered charity that promotes her life and work.[33]
Retrospective exhibitions
[edit]
Major retrospectives include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2013);[34] the Victoria and Albert Museum (2015) for a 200th anniversary (this travelled to Sydney, Australia); and the National Portrait Gallery (2018) placed her work in relationship to the work of her contemporaries, Lady Clementina Hawarden, Oscar Rejlander, and Lewis Carroll.[35]
Retrospective exhibitions include:
Title Dates Institution Country Julia Margaret Cameron 16 December 1960 – 31 January 1961 Limelight Gallery United States Mrs. Cameron's photographs from the life[36] 22 January –
10 March 1974
Stanford University Museum of Art United States Julia Margaret Cameron: Her Work and Career[37] 4 April –
25 May 1986
International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House United States Whisper of the Muse[38] 10 September – 16 November 1986 Getty Villa United States Whisper of the Muse at Loyola Marymount University[39] 12 September – 25 October 1986 Laband Gallery United States Portrait Photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron[39] 25 November 1987 – 14 February 1988 National Portrait Gallery United States Julia Margaret Cameron: The Creative Process[39] 15 October 1996 – 5 January 1997 Getty Villa United States 4 February –
3 May 1998
Art Gallery of Ontario Canada Julia Margaret Cameron: Nineteenth Century Photographic Genius[39] 6 February –
26 May 2003
National Portrait Gallery United Kingdom 5 June –
30 August 2003
National Media Museum United Kingdom Julia Margaret Cameron, Photographer[40] 21 October 2003 – 11 January 2004 Getty Center United States Julia Margaret Cameron[34] [41] 19 August 2013 – 5 January 2014 Metropolitan Museum of Art United States Julia Margaret Cameron[42] 15 August –
25 October 2015
Art Gallery of New South Wales Australia Julia Margaret Cameron: Influence and Intimacy[43] 24 September 2015 – 28 March 2016 Science Museum United Kingdom Julia Margaret Cameron[44] 28 November 2015 – 21 February 2016 Victoria and Albert Museum United Kingdom Julia Margaret Cameron: A Woman who Breathed Life into Photographs[45] 2 July–
19 September 2016
Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum Japan Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography[35] 1 March –
20 May 2018
National Portrait Gallery United Kingdom
Albums
[edit]
Title Dedication date Virginia Album - Mia Album 7 July 1863 Watts Album 22 February 1864 Herschel Album 26 November 1864[g] Overstone Album 5 August 1865 Lindsay Album - Thackeray Album 1864[h] Henry Taylor Album –[i] The Norman Album 7 September 1869 Aubrey Ashworth Taylor Album 29 September 1869 Anne Thackery Ritchie Album - Harding Hay Cameron Album (2) - Julia Hay Norman miniature Album - Idylls of the King miniature Album - Idylls of the King Album (4) -
List of selected publications
[edit]
References
[edit]
Further reading
[edit]
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List of British Jewish writers includes writers (novelists, poets, playwrights, journalists, authors of scholarly texts and others) from the United Kingdom and its predecessor states who are or were Jewish or of Jewish descent.
Ben Aaronovitch (born 22 February 1964)[1] author and screenwriter; author of the Rivers of London series of novels; also wrote two Doctor Who serials in the late 1980s and spin-off novels from Doctor Who and Blake's 7; brother of neo-conservative hawkish journalist David Aaronovitch; son of economist Sam Aaronovitch who was senior member of the Communist Party of Great Britain,[2] and younger brother of Coronation Street actor Owen Aaronovitch.[3]
Tobias Abse historian, author focusing on Jewish history, fascism, Marxism, socialism;[4] lecturer at Goldsmiths College of the University of London;[5] has written extensively on rise of the Fascist Right in Italy prior to World War II;[6] member of Socialist Alliance National Executive, the Alliance for Green Socialism National Committee, the Socialist History Society committee and the Revolutionary History editorial board and is regular contributor to socialist newspapers and magazines such as Radical Philosophy, The Weekly Worker, the paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Marxists Internet Archive ; son of the Labour MP and social reformer Leo Abse (1917–2008); of Polish Jewish ancestry.
Gerhard Adler (14 April 1904 – 23 December 1988) of German Jewish ancestry, was a major figure in the world of analytical psychology who had a significant effect on popular culture in England; known for his translation into English from the original German and editorial work on the Collected Works of Carl Gustav Jung.[7][8]
Grace Aguilar[9] novelist and poet
Geoffrey Alderman (born 10 February 1944) historian that specialises in 19th and 20th centuries Jewish community in England; also a political adviser and journalist; although he is a Conservative Zionist supporter of Israel with controversial views on Palestinians, Alderman has made guest appearances on Iran's PressTV channel. In 2011, he made four such appearances and donated his appearance fees of £300 to Israel.[10] Of Alderman's dozen or so books, the best-known is Modern British Jewry (second edition, 1998, OUP). He has also written for the New Dictionary of National Biography, with special responsibility for post-1800 Jewish entries, and for The Guardian and The Jewish Chronicle. He is a columnist for the Jewish Telegraph.
Naomi Alderman[11] novelist, winner of the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers; daughter of Geoffrey Alderman
Rose Allatini novelist. (Also wrote under the names A.T. Fitzroy, Lucian Wainwright and Eunice Buckley.)
Simon Amstell (born 29 November 1979), comedian, scriptwriter, screenwriter for television and radio and director : wrote and directed the films Carnage (2017) and Benjamin (2018). His work on television has included presenting Popworld and Never Mind the Buzzcocks; co-wrote episode of Channel 4 teenage drama Skins.
Mick Anglo (born Maurice Anglowitz, 19 June 1916 – 31 October 2011) of Russian Jewish ancestry,[12][13] was a British comic book writer, editor and artist, as well as an author. He is best known for creating the superhero Marvelman, later known as Miracleman, a character later revived in 1982 in a dark, post-modern reboot by writer Alan Moore, with later contributions by Neil Gaiman.
Lisa Appignanesi[14] (born 4 January 1946) writer, novelist, campaigner for free expression; was Chair of the Royal Society of Literature; former President of English PEN; Chair of Freud Museum; chaired 2017 Booker International Prize; Honorary Fellow of St Benet's Hall, Oxford and visiting professor in the Department of English at King's College London, and held a Wellcome Trust; has written for The New York Review of Books, The Guardian and The Observer, as well as making programmes and appearing on the BBC; was Director of Talks and Seminars at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London; was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to literature.[15][16] She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2015[17] and became the Chair of the Royal Society of Literature Council in 2016.[18]
Neal Ascherson (born 5 October 1932) journalist and writer; described by Radio Prague as "one of Britain's leading experts on central and eastern Europe".[19] Ascherson is the author of several books on the history of Poland and Ukraine; work has appeared in The Guardian and The New York Review of Books.
Gilad Atzmon right wing Israeli agent provocateur, anti-Semite, Holocaust denier; saxophonist for The Blockheads and Pink Floyd; campaigner; author, writer, prolific blogger and bebop jazz musician of Israeli birth and Ashkenazi origin from a family faithful to Vladimir Jabotinsky[20]
David Baddiel (born 28 May 1964) comedian, op-ed writer, broadcaster and author of over ten books, his latest being the critically acclaimed and well received Jews Don't Count, which is about anti-Semitism, double standards against, exclusion of, and racial prejudice against Jews in Britain.
Ivor Baddiel, brother of David Baddiel scriptwriter and author. He regularly writes for some of the biggest shows on British television including The BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards), The X Factor and The National Television Awards. Ivor is also the author of nineteen books for both children and adults.
Sir Michael Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) prolific author and film producer known for leadership of Ealing Studios, one of the most important British film studios; known for his leadership, and his guidance of Alfred Hitchcock;co-founded Gainsborough Pictures, later working with Gaumont British and MGM-British; chairman of the British Film Institute; grandfather of Daniel Day-Lewis.[21]
Michael Balint (Hungarian: Bálint Mihály, pronounced [ˈbaːlint ˈmihaːj]; 3 December 1896 – 31 December 1970) Hungarian Jewish psychoanalyst convert to Christianity who spent most of his adult life in England. He was a proponent of the Object Relations school and author of numerous academic texts and monographs on psychiatry; was attached to the Tavistock Clinic; in 1968 Balint became president of the British Psychoanalytical Society; his wife was noted psychoanalyst and author, Enid Balint, who directed British Psychoanalytical Society (now Institute of Psychoanalysis).[22] A volume of her papers, Before I was I: Psychoanalysis and the Imagination, was published in 1993.
Zygmunt Bauman (19 November 1925 – 9 January 2017) highly influential Polish Jewish writer, sociologist and philosopher, writing on postmodern consumerism and liquid modernity.
Peter Benenson (born Peter James Henry Solomon; 31 July 1921 – 25 February 2005) British lawyer, writer, pamphleteer, human rights activist and the founder of human rights group Amnesty International (AI); accepted the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001[23] though he later rejected and denounced Amnesty International for its criticism of Israel. Benenson was the son of British-born Harold Solomon and Russian-born Flora Benenson, grandson of Russian financier Grigori Benenson (1860–1939); served in Intelligence Corps at the Ministry of Information and worked at Bletchley Park during World War II as a cryptographer.[24]
John Berger, Jewish father, convert to Roman Catholicism, ( ; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. Berger's essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, is known as a foundation text employing deconstruction and feminist prisms of epistemology and ontology, questioning axiomatic assumptions about gender, racial prejudice and Orientalism, whilst introducing and debating prisms of Psychological projection, Reification (Marxism), False Consciousness, Commodity fetishism, Marx's theory of alienation and essentialism. He was a supporter of the Palestinian cause, and, focused on Israel and apartheid, a member of the Support Committee of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine.[25]
Joseph Berke M.D. (17 January 1939 – 11 January 2021)[26] was an American–born psychotherapist, author of over ten books and lecturer; studied at Columbia College of Columbia University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine;[27] moved to London where he worked with R. D. Laing when Philadelphia Association was being established; was resident at Kingsley Hall;[28] later became an artist and writer; collaborated on a number of projects with Laing, including the Dialectics of Liberation international conference in London; co-founder of the Arbours Association in London and founder and director of Arbours Crisis Centre (1973–2010) in London.[29] He was the author of many articles and books on psychological, social, and religious themes.
J. D. Bernal[30] ( ; 10 May 1901 – 15 September 1971) was an Irish scientist of Sephardi ancestry who pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography in molecular biology, published on the history of science, wrote popular books on science and society; was a communist activist and a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB); his book The World, the Flesh and the Devil called "the most brilliant attempt at scientific prediction ever made" by Arthur C. Clarke.[31] It is famous for having been the first to propose the so-called Bernal sphere, a type of space habitat intended for permanent residence. The second chapter explores radical changes to human bodies and intelligence and the third discusses the impact of these on society.
Martin Bernal author and leading pioneer in the creation of Pan-African studies, of Sephardi ancestry, most famous for his work Black Athena.
Drusilla Beyfus (born 1927)[32] is a British etiquette writer.[33] She was married to the journalist and critic Milton Shulman.[34]
Julie Bindel (born 20 July 1962) English radical feminist writer of Roman Catholic and Jewish ancestry.
Lajos Bíró, 22 August 1880 – 9 September 1948, was a Hungarian Jewish author, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter who wrote many films from the early 1920s through the late 1940s.
Jeremy Black (historian) (born 1955) historian, writer; author of "The Holocaust: History and Memory"; senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;[35] author of over 180 books, principally on British politics and international relations; has been described as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age";[36] He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002);[37] editor of Archives, journal of the British Records Association, from 1989 to 2005.[38] has served on the Council of the British Records Association (1989–2005); the Council of the Royal Historical Society (1993–1996 and 1997–2000); and the Council of the List and Index Society (from 1997); has sat on the editorial boards of History Today, International History Review, Journal of Military History, Media History and the Journal of the Royal United Service Institution (now the RUSI Journal); awarded Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for lifetime achievement by the Society for Military History.[39]
Anthony Blond (20 March 1928 – 27 February 2008) publisher and author involved with several publishing companies over his career; of Sephardi ancestry; cousin of Harold Laski.
Heston Blumenthal celebrity chef and author of over five books, was born in Shepherd's Bush, London, on 27 May 1966, to a Jewish father born in Southern Rhodesia and an English mother who converted to Judaism.[40][41][42] His surname comes from a great-grandfather from Latvia and means 'flowered valley' (or 'bloom-dale'), in German.[43][44]
Vernon Bogdanor ( ; born 16 July 1943[45]); author, academic, scholar, political scientist, historian, and research professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History at King's College London; emeritus professor of politics and government at the University of Oxford and an emeritus fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford; appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1998 Birthday Honours for services to constitutional history;[46] appointed a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur by president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy; was knighted in 2023 New Year Honours for services to political science.[47]
David Bohm (20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) American British scientist and prolific author described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century, who contributed unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology and the philosophy of mind, of Hungarian Jewish origin.
Alain de Botton popular author, broadcaster and YouTube channel entrepreneur, of Ashkenazi and Sephardic ancestry. He co-founded The School of Life. Botton is the son of Gilbert de Botton and descended from a distinguished Sephardic Jewish family; among his ancestors were the rabbinical scholar Abraham de Boton and Yolande Harmer journalist and Israeli intelligence officer. He is also related to Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson, Miel de Botton and Janet Wolfson de Botton, Trustee of Tate and Chairman of the Council of Tate Modern and appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006 and elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for charitable services to the arts.[48][49]
Caryl Brahms[50] writer
Julius Braunthal (1891–1972)[51] was an Austrian Jewish historian, magazine editor, and political activist; Secretary of the Socialist International from 1951 to 1956; wrote three volume History of the International, first published in German between 1961 and 1971.
David Bret biographer, broadcaster and chansonnier (French-born; Jewish father)
Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) Polish-British mathematician, philosopher, academic and author of more than eighteen scholarly books, focusing on William Blake, magic and evolution; is best known for developing a humanistic approach to science, and as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, and accompanying book The Ascent of Man, which led to his regard as "one of the world's most celebrated intellectuals".[52]
Anita Brookner (16 July 1928 – 10 March 2016)[53] of Polish Jewish ancestry, novelist and art historian; Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1968; first woman to hold this visiting professorship; awarded Booker–McConnell Prize for her novel Hotel du Lac.
Bill Browder (born 23 April 1964) of Russian Jewish ancestry;[54] author, financier and political activist; CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, investment advisor to the Hermitage Fund, which was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia;[55][56][57] published Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice, focusing on his years spent in Russia.[58][59] A film adaptation written by William Nicholson was reportedly in the works in 2015.[60] A new book by Browder was published on 12 April 2022: Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder and Surviving Vladimir Putins Wrath.[61]
Rivkah Brown; editor of Vashti Media and Novara Media; critic of the concept of the New antisemitism, critic of Israel and Zionism, writes for The Guardian, Independent, the London Review of Books, The Financial Times and New Statesman.Novara Media (often shortened to Novara)[62][63][64][65] is an independent,[66] left-wing alternative media organisation based in the United Kingdom.[63]
Peter Burke (born 1937) historian, professor and author of over twenty scholarly academic texts and monographs on European history, epistemology, ontology, prisms and perspectives on historiography and ideology;[67] born to Roman Catholic father and Jewish mother (who later converted to Roman Catholicism); was member of School of European Studies at University of Sussex, before moving to University of Cambridge, where he holds title of Professor Emeritus of Cultural History and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; celebrated as historian not only of early modern era, but one who emphasises relevance of social and cultural history to modern issues; in 1998, was awarded the Erasmus Medal of the European Academy,[68] and is an honorary doctorate from the Universities of Lund, Copenhagen and Bucharest.
Elias Canetti[69] novelist, man of letters, 1981 Nobel Prize (Bulgarian-born); most famous for his work on mass psychology of crowds and anti-fascism, Crowds and Power
David Cesarani (13 November 1956 – 25 October 2015) British historian who specialised in Jewish history, especially the Holocaust.[70] He also wrote several biographies, including Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind (1998).[70]
Tony Cliff (born Yigael Glückstein, Hebrew: יגאל גליקשטיין; 20 May 1917 – 9 April 2000); Trotskyist anti-Zionist; prolific author of over twenty books, scholarly monographs and papers, pamphleteer and radical leftist activist, born in Ottoman Palestine; moved to Britain in 1947; assumed pen name ‘Tony Cliff’; founding member and leader of Socialist Review Group, which became the International Socialists and then the Socialist Workers Party.
Chapman Cohen[71] writer on secularism
Simon Cohen author of "Jews Did Count But for the Wrong Reasons", a critical study dismissing the concept of 'the new anti-Semitism'
Jackie Collins novelist
Alan Coren (27 June 1938 – 18 October 2007)[72] was an English humourist, writer and satirist who was a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff. Coren, the author of over twenty books, was also a journalist, and for almost a decade was the editor of Punch magazine. His children, Giles and Victoria, are also writers
Edwina Currie (née Cohen; born 13 October 1946) writer of six novels, broadcaster and former politician and media personality; from 1998 to 2003, hosted late evening talk show on BBC Radio 5 Live, Late Night Currie;[73] moved to HTV, presenting Currie Night; has appeared in string of reality television programmes.
Charlotte Dacre (1771 or 1772 – 7 November 1825) English author of Gothic novels;[74][75] wrote under the pseudonym "Rosa Matilda" to confuse her critics; her work was admired by some of the literary giants of her day and her novels influenced Percy Bysshe Shelley, who thought highly of her style and creative skills.
Ellen Dahrendorf, Baroness Dahrendorf (née Ellen Joan Krug), author, historian, translator of Russian political works; former wife (1980–2004) of the late German/British academic and politician Ralf Dahrendorf; has served on the boards of Article 19, the Jewish Institute for Policy Research; has been chair of British branch of the New Israel Fund; was co-founder of the Working Group on the Internment of Dissidents in Psychiatric Hospitals;[76] is a signatory of the Independent Jewish Voices declaration, which is critical of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.[77][78][79]
Aviva Dautch (born 5 May 1978) poet, academic, curator and magazine publisher, of Eastern European ancestry;[80] writer in residence at the British Museum,[81] the Jewish Museum London and the Separated Child Foundation and is resident expert on BBC Radio 4's poetry series On Form; English co-translator for Afghan refugee poet and BBC World Service journalist Suhrab Sirat; has written articles, and curated exhibitions and events for arts organisations including the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, The British Library,[82][83][84] The Royal Academy of Arts and Tara Arts;lectures internationally on Jewish arts and culture.[85] In 2020 she was appointed executive director of Jewish Renaissance magazine.[86] Dautch also teaches Jewish Culture and Holocaust Studies at the University of Roehampton[80] and lectures at the London School of Jewish Studies and JW3.[87][88]
Lionel Davidson (Hull 1922–2009) thriller novelist, Golden Dagger winner, famous for "The night of Wenceslas", "Chelsea murders", "Kolinsky Heights". Lived briefly in Jaffa, Israel at the invitation of the government.[citation needed]
Isaac Deutscher (Polish: Izaak Deutscher; 3 April 1907 – 19 August 1967); Polish Jewish Marxist author, journalist and political activist who moved to the United Kingdom before the outbreak of World War II; best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and as a commentator on Marxist dialectic and Soviet affairs. His three-volume biography of Trotsky was highly influential among the British New Left in the 1960s and 1970s.[89]
Michael Dickson (educator) (born 11 October 1977) dual citizen British-Israeli; author of ISRESILIENCE: What Israelis Can Teach the World; journalist for The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Jewish Chronicle; serves as executive director of the StandWithUs Israel in Jerusalem;[90][91] senior Fellow at Center for International Communication (CIC) of Bar Ilan University;[92] Honorary member of Alpha Epsilon Pi; appointed to the Spectrum Forum of leading Executive Directors in Israel;[93] is winner of the Bonei Zion Prize; author of ISResilience: What Israelis Can Teach the World; was listed as14th most influential person on "Jewish Twitter" by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ;[94] helped establish StandWithUs Israel Fellowship,[95] which has graduated over 1,500 of Israel's future diplomats and leaders who have gone on to staff major corporations, political parties in the Knesset, government ministries and embassies and NGOs worldwide; has led diplomatic, academic and journalist missions to Israel and has advocated for Israel in forums, such as UN "Durban II" conference, in the Knesset, in Europe, the US and in the Far East; helped pioneer StandWithUs' social media activity; helped set up "social media situation rooms" during Operation Cast Lead, which he referred to as "the first social media war";[96][97][91] was very active in the UK Jewish community; twice appointed British-Jewish youth movement Bnei Akiva UK's executive; was appointed as director of informal education at JFS school in London, the largest Jewish school in Europe; pioneered innovative programming for 2,000 Jewish students, dealing with all aspects of Jewish life and Israel.
Jenny Diski countercultural protagonist, author and contributor to the UK Underground press, colleague of R.D. Laing, notable for starting the Freightliners free school.[98][99]
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) novelist, poet, playwright, writer, and prime minister[100]
Isaac D'Israeli,[101] writer
Michael Pinto-Duschinsky (born June 1943) Hungarian-born author,journalist, scholar, political consultant and writer.
Anton Ehrenzweig (27 November 1908 – 5 December 1966) Austrian Jewish British author and theorist on modern art, psychoanalysis and Avant-garde music who wroteThe Psychoanalysis of Artistic Vision and Hearing (1953)[102] and The Hidden Order of Art (1967).
Norbert Elias (German: [eˈliːas]; 22 June 1897 – 1 August 1990) German Jewish sociologist who later became a British citizen; author of The Civilizing Process and especially famous for his theory of civilizing/decivilizing processes.[103]
Richard Ellmann[104] literary scholar and biographer
Aaron Esterson (23 September 1923 – 15 April 1999) prolific author and psychiatrist who was one of the founders of the Philadelphia Association along with R. D. Laing, with whom he wrote Sanity, Madness, and the Family. He wrote four other scholarly texts on psychiatry and existentialism as well as countless academic papers and monographs.
Hans Eysenck[105] ( EYE-zenk; 4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997); author of over fifty books and numerous academic papers; of German Jewish maternal lineage; psychologist best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, although he worked on other issues in psychology.[106][107] At the time of his death, Eysenck was the most frequently cited living psychologist in the peer-reviewed scientific journal literature.[108]
Henry Ezriel (c1910-1985) was a Kleinian analyst and author who pioneered group analysis at the Tavistock Clinic; best known as the originator of one of the Malan triangles; worked alongside W. R. Bion as consultant psychiatrist to the Tavistock.[109] There he developed his method of psychoanalytic group work [109] centred on group tensions and on transferences between members, and between members and the group.[110]
Moris Farhi writer (Turkish-born)[111]
Benjamin Farjeon[112]
Eleanor Farjeon (13 February 1881 – 5 June 1965) English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Several of her works had illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Her most famous work was Morning Has Broken, a Christian hymn first published in 1931.
Mick Farren (3 September 1943 – 27 July 2013)Proto-punk musician, anarchist, political activist, anti-fascist agent provocateur and author; foundation figure in the growth of the British Underground press; co-wrote songs with Lemmy Kilmister for Hawkwind and Motörhead[114] was an English rock musician, singer, journalist, and author associated with counterculture and the UK underground.[115] Farren was prolific writer for the International Times and New Musical Express, as well as writing 23 novels and eleven works of non-fiction and was columnist for Los Angeles CityBeat.
Andrew Feinstein author of The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, an investigation into the global arms industry; The Washington Post described the book as "A comprehensive treatment of the arms trade, possibly the most complete account ever written."[116] A staunch critic of the nature and regulation of the global arms trade, Feinstein is a board member of Declassified UK, an investigative journalism website set up in 2019 by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis to cover the UK's role on the international stage.[117]
David Feldman (historian) author and professor at Birkbeck College, University of London; director of the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism; Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism was launched in 2010,[118] as a centre for research, teaching, and public policy formation relating to antisemitism and racial intolerance.[119][120] research relates to the history of minorities and their place in British society from 1600 to the current time.[121]
Eva Figes ( ; 15 April 1932 – 28 August 2012), anti-Israel, anti-Zionist author and feminist;[122] wrote novels, literary criticism, studies of feminism, and memoirs relating to Berlin childhood and experiences as Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany.
Orlando Figes ( ; b. 1959)[123] historian, author , known for works on Russian history; has also contributed on European history with his book The Europeans (2019); has served on editorial board of journal Russian History;[124][125] writes for international press, broadcasts on television and radio, reviews for The New York Review of Books, and is fellow of Royal Society of Literature;[126] was historical consultant on film Anna Karenina starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law with screenplay by Tom Stoppard;[127] historical consultant on BBC War & Peace television series.
Gilbert Frankau[128] writer
Pamela Frankau (3 January 1908 – 8 June 1967) popular novelist from a prominent artistic and literary family who wrote over thirty novels; grandmother was novelist Julia Frankau; father was Gilbert Frankau; partner was Italian-Jewish poet Humbert Wolfe.
Sally Herbert Frankel (1903–1996) author of over five influential texts on economics and colonial settlement in South Africa; Professor of Colonial Economic Affairs and Economics of Underdeveloped Countries at Oxford University in period following Second World War;[129] originally from South Africa, of German-Jewish descent, he moved to England after the Second World War.[129] He joined the Mont Pelerin Society in 1950.[129] Frankel was committed to principle of Jewish peoplehood and was keen Zionist.[129]
Ronald Frankenberg ( 1929–2015); anthropologist and sociologist, known for his study of conflict and decision-making and development of medical anthropology; was member of Manchester School of British Social Anthropology; was married to Dr. Pauline Frankenberg (née Hunt),[130] author of Gender and Class Consciousness (1980). One of his daughters was sociologist Ruth Frankenberg.[131]
Ruth Frankenberg (1957–2007); social scientist and feminist, known for her pioneering work in field of whiteness studies;[132][133]author of White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness;[134] prolific contributor to many journals on the study of whiteness, including her essay The Mirage of an Unmarked Whiteness.[135] In White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness, Frankenberg argues race shapes both the lives of the oppressor (white people, according to Frankenberg) as well as the oppressed.[134] Frankenberg examined ways in which Ashkenazi Jewish women experience a sense of cultural belonging, but do not consider their Jewish faith to be classified a formal "race".[134] According to Frankenberg, this indicates that the interviewee considers race to have a certain biological basis.[134] Frankenberg's work in White Women, Race Matters centralizes around this discussion of what constitutes difference between people and how interviewees define themselves as belonging to a specific culture or race.[134]
Gillian Freeman (1929–2019) novelist and screenwriter;[136] best known for her screenplays for The Leather Boys, I Want What I Want (film) and Only Lovers Left Alive (novel)
Hadley Freeman (born 15 May 1978) American British journalist based in London; writes for the Jewish Chronicle, The Guardian and Vogue; of Austro-Hungarian and Polish Jewish ancestry.
Anna Freud CBE (3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) ; psychoanalyst of Austrian–Jewish descent;[137] born in Vienna; youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays and followed path of father and contributed to field of psychoanalysis; alongside Hermine Hug-Hellmuth and Melanie Klein, is considered founder of psychoanalytic child psychology.[138]
Stephen Fry[139] actor and writer
Frank Furedi (born 1947)[140] is a Hungarian Jewish British Canadian academic known for work on sociology of fear, education, therapy culture, paranoid parenting and sociology of knowledge; in 1970s, was member of International Socialists (IS); later formed the Revolutionary Communist Group, and then broke from that to form Revolutionary Communist Tendency, refounded as the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1978;[141] RCP was distinguished by its contrarianism; among its positions were support for IRA and Saddam Hussein[141] Furedi now associated with the RCP's successor, the web site Spiked Online.[citation needed]
Neil Gaiman[142] fantasy writer
Mark Gatiss ( ;[143][144] born 17 October 1966), actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist; work includes writing for and acting in the television series Doctor Who, Sherlock, Game of Thrones and Dracula; member of The League of Gentlemen; television work includes writing for Randall & Hopkirk and script editing Little Britain; has written over twenty popular books and novels.
Uri Geller ( OOR-ee GHEL-ər);[145] Hebrew: אורי גלר; born 20 December 1946 in British Mandate of Palestine Mandatory Palestine (now Israel), of Hungarian Jewish ancestry, is an Israeli-British illusionist, magician, television personality, self-proclaimed psychic and author of over ten books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Ernest Gellner social anthropologist, scholar of nationalism and identity, of Austrian Jewish and Czech Jewish origin.
Norman Geras ( ;[146] 25 August 1943 – 18 October 2013);[147] political theorist of Rhodesian Jewish origin; Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Manchester; author of over ten scholarly and historical texts, mostly focused on radical politics; contributed to analysis of Karl Marx in Marx and Human Nature; in 2006, he was one of the principal authors of the Euston Manifesto.[148]
Martin Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015);[149][150] historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; author of 88 books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish history including the Holocaust; was a member of the Chilcot Inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq War; noted for his endorsement of Bat Ye'or and Eurabia theory, providing comment for her book,[151] stating that the theory "is 100 percent accurate".[152] One of Gilbert's last books, In Ishmael's House: A History of the Jews in Muslim Lands cited Ye'or with approval several times.[153]
Morris Ginsberg FBA (14 May 1889 – 31 August 1970) British sociologist and prolific author who played a key role in the development of the discipline of sociology. He served as editor of The Sociological Review in the 1930s and later became the founding chairman of the British Sociological Association in 1951 and its first President (1955–1957). He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1942 to 1943, and helped draft the UNESCO 1950 statement titled The Race Question.
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman (born 8 March 1961) prolific author, political theorist, academic, social commentator, and Labour life peer in the House of Lords; senior lecturer in Political Theory at London Metropolitan University and Director of its Faith and Citizenship Programme; best known as a founder of Blue Labour, a term he coined in 2009;called on the Labour Party to establish dialogue with the far-right English Defence League (EDL) in order to challenge their views;[154] called for some immigration to be temporarily halted and for the right of free movement of labour, a key provision of the Treaty of Rome, to be abrogated,[155][156] dividing opinion among Labour commentators.;[157][158] accepted the visiting professorship he was offered by Haifa University, telling The Jewish Chronicle: "If people I know say they want to boycott Israel, I say they should start by boycotting me".[159] At the 2016 Limmud conference, he suggested the Labour Party's antisemitism harked back to Jewish Marxists, who wanted to "liberate Jews" from their Judaism.[160]
Ralph Glasser wrote Growing up in the Gorbals
Donny Gluckstein (b. 1954); historian at Edinburgh College;[161] son of Tony Cliff[162] and Chanie Rosenberg, is author of numerous books and articles; his book A People's History of the Second World War shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award.[163][self-published source]
Ian Goldin professor at University of Oxford, author of over twenty books and 60 scholarly academic monographs, founding director of the Oxford Martin School[164][165] at the University of Oxford;[166][167] currently the director of the Oxford Martin Research Programmes on Technological and Economic Change, Future of Work and Future of Development;[165] also Professor of Globalisation and Development and holds a professorial fellowship at Balliol College at the University of Oxford;[168][169] was principal economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)[170] in London, and program director at the OECD[171] in Paris, where he directed the Development Centre's Programs on Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development; was chief executive and managing director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA);[172][173] served as adviser to President Nelson Mandela;[174]
Louis Golding[175] novelist
Vivien Goldman British author and academic of German Jewish ancestry, focusing on the historiography, Praxis (process), dialectic and epistemology of punk rock, dub, and reggae.
Lewis Goldsmith journalist and political writer[176]
Carl Gombrich author of numerous scholarly monographs, academic papers and articles on mysticism, epistemology, ontology, dialectics and music; former opera singer and co-founder of the London Interdisciplinary School; grandson of Ernst Gombrich; son of Sacred Sanskrit and Pali Literature scholar, Richard Gombrich.
Ernst Gombrich art historian of Viennese Jewish origin.
Richard Gombrich writer of Viennese Jewish ancestry, British Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, and Buddhist studies; historian of Tripiṭaka, Sthavira nikāya, Mahāsāṃghika schools, Abhidharma, Vinaya, Theravada,and ancient collections of Buddhist texts
David Graeber British-American author, academic, scholar and anti capitalist anarchist activist, writer of Ashkenazi origin.
Linda Grant[177] novelist
Dominic Green historian and journalist
Wendy Greengross (29 April 1925 – 10 October 2012); author of books on pastoral care and counselling, journalist, general practitioner and broadcaster. The Independent called her "a pioneering counsellor and one of the leading figures in fighting for equal rights for the disabled and the elderly";[178] went into broadcasting, joining BBC Radio 4 counselling programme If You Think You've Got Problems;[179] also had her own television show on BBC1, Let's Talk it Over;[179] father was mayor of Holborn , and brother Sir Alan Greengross (born 1929) was Conservative member of Greater London Council.[180]
Tony Greenstein anti fascist, anti-Zionist writer and pro-Palestinian author, activist of Polish Jewish rabbinical lineage and ancestry; author of The Fight Against Fascism in Brighton & the South Coast and Zionism: Antisemitism's twin in Jewish garb and Zionism During the Holocaust – Weaponising Memory in the Service of State and Nation.
John Hajnal[needs IPA] FBA (born Hajnal-Kónyi, [ˈhɒjnɒl ˈkoːɲi]; 26 November 1924 – 30 November 2008), was Hungarian-British academic in fields of mathematics and economics (statistics); author of numerous monographs and academic papers and a book on the inefficacy of the British education system “The student trap: A critique of university and sixth-form curricula” ; best known for identifying, in landmark 1965 paper,[181] the historical pattern of marriage of northwest Europe in which people married late and many adults remained single. The geographical boundary of this unusual marriage pattern is now known as the Hajnal line; also worked on demography for United Nations, and for the Office of Population Research, Princeton University; was member of the International Statistical Institute and was elected FBA.
Charlotte Haldane[182] feminist writer
Keith Kahn-Harris author, sociologist and music critic; honorary research fellow and senior lecturer at Birkbeck College[183] and an associate fellow of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research[184] and a lecturer at Leo Baeck College; has published academic and non-academic articles on Judaism, music scenes, heavy metal music, transgression, Israel, communities, dialogue, religion, ethnicity, political discourse, and denial; also writes for Medium, The Guardian, The Independent, Times of Israel, Haaretz, The Herald (Scotland), New Statesman, Times Higher Education (THE), The i Paper, openDemocracy; from 2001 to 2002 was "Jerusalem Fellow" at the Mandel School for Advanced Educational Leadership in Jerusalem.
Efraim Halevy (Hebrew: אפרים הלוי; born in London, 2 December 1934); Israeli intelligence expert and diplomat; was director of Mossad and 3rd head of Israeli National Security Council; author of Man in the Shadows,[185] covering Middle Eastern history since the late 1980s; nephew of Sir Isaiah Berlin ; has written for The Washington Post, Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Haaretz, Foreign Affairs, Ynet News, The Forward
Simon Hattenstone (born 29 December 1962 in Salford, England) journalist and writer; features writer and interviewer for The Guardian. He has also written or ghost-written a number of biographical books.
Paula Heimann; ( 2 February 1899 – 22 October 1982), author, academic, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who established phenomenon of countertransference as important tool of psychoanalytic treatment, publishing influential studies, texts, academic papers and monographs;[186]member of British Psychoanalytical Society; author of monograph A contribution to the problem of sublimation and paper On counter-transference, presented at the Psychoanalytical Congress in 1949 in Zurich, led to rift with Kleinian group of analysts ; later turned to the Independents group[187] and was Margarete Mitscherlich's analyst ; Alexander Mitscherlich also underwent training analysis with her.
Margot Heinemann (18 November 1913 – 10 June 1992)[188] was a British Marxist writer, drama scholar, and leading member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).
David Held[189][190] (27 August 1951 – 2 March 2019)[191] was a British political scientist who specialised in political theory and international relations; author of over twenty five scholarly academic texts and monographs.
Basil Henriques[192]
Muriel Gray[193] author, The Tube presenter
Zoë Heller[194] author (Jewish father), daughter of screenwriter Lukas Heller; her paternal grandfather was the political philosopher Hermann Heller.[195] Her brother is screenwriter Bruno Heller. Her sister, Lucy Heller Chief Executive of education charity Ark
Noreena Hertz (born 24 September 1967) author, hosted "MegaHertz: London Calling", on Sirius XM's Insight channel and ITV News Economics Editor; wife of Danny Cohen (television executive), who previously held posts as Director of BBC Television and Controller of BBC One; from 1996 to 1997 she worked on the Middle East peace process with Palestinians, Egyptians, Israelis and Jordanians; honorary professor at University College London; Guardian op-ed writer.[196] great-granddaughter of Joseph Hertz (Chief Rabbi of the British Empire)
Chaim Herzog(Hebrew: חיים הרצוג; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997)[197] Northern-Irish-born Israeli politician, general, lawyer and author of over five books on the Arab-Israeli conflict, who served as the sixth President of Israel; born in Belfast, raised in Dublin, the son of Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935 and served in Haganah Jewish paramilitary group during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt; returned to Palestine after the war and, following the end of the British Mandate and Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, fought in the Battles of Latrun during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War; retired from Israel Defence Forces in 1962 with rank of major-general.His son Isaac Herzog is the incumbent President of Israel, the first father–son pair to serve as the nation's president, and led the Israeli Labor Party and the parliamentary Opposition in the Knesset between 2013 and 2017.[197]
Rosalyn Higgins, Baroness Higgins (born 2 June 1937);[198] author of several influential works on international law, including Problems and Process: International Law and How We Use It (1994); former president of International Court of Justice (ICJ); was first female judge elected to the ICJ, and was elected to three-year term as president in 2006; became Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1986, and is bencher of the Inner Temple; served on the UN Human Rights Committee for 14 years; her role as member of the leading body for supervising implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights earned her respect for her diligence and competence; resigned from the Human Rights Committee when she was elected to the International Court of Justice on 12 July 1995, re-elected on 6 February 2000, and ended her second term on 6 February 2009. Her professional appointments include Specialist in International Law, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1963–1974; Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics, 1974–1978;Professor of International Law, University of Kent at Canterbury, 1978–1981; Professor of International Law, University of London (London School of Economics), 1981–1995; Vice President, British Institute of International and Comparative Law; Member of the UN Human Rights Committee.
David Hirsh (born 29 September 1967) pro-Zionist, pro-Israeli author and scholar; senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and co-founder of Engage, a campaign against the academic boycott of Israel; helped develop the Euston Manifesto.[199]
Eric Hobsbawm Marxist historian of Viennese Jewish origin.
Anthony Horowitz works include the Alex Rider series
Eva Ibbotson known for her award-winning children's books and for her romance novels
Jeremy Isaacs (born 28 September 1932) author of four books; creator of The World at War, British documentary television series chronicling the events of the Second World War recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards; won the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1986, the International Emmy Directorate Award in 1987 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1985, General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1987 to 1996; was the founding chief executive of Channel 4 between 1981 and 1987.
Jonathan Israel (b. 1946); historian specialising in Dutch history, the Age of Enlightenment, Spinoza's Philosophy and European Jews; Professor at Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, [200] previously Professor at University College London; has focused his attention on multi-volume history of the Age of Enlightenment, contrasting two camps; "radical Enlightenment" was founded on rationalist materialism articulated by Spinoza and in opposition was "moderate Enlightenment" which he sees as weakened by its belief in God.
Joseph Jacobs[201] folklorist
Howard Jacobson (born 1942) author;[202] has described himself as "a Jewish Jane Austen" (in response to being described as "the English Philip Roth"),[203] and also states, "I'm not by any means conventionally Jewish. I don't go to shul. What I feel is that I have a Jewish mind, I have a Jewish intelligence. I feel linked to previous Jewish minds of the past. I don't know what kind of trouble this gets somebody into, a disputatious mind. What a Jew is has been made by the experience of 5,000 years, that's what shapes the Jewish sense of humour, that's what shaped Jewish pugnacity or tenaciousness." He maintains that "comedy is a very important part of what I do."[204] Jacobson expressed concern over antisemitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, with particular reference to a growth in Anti-Zionism and its "antisemitic characteristics" which were "a taint of international and historic shame" and that trust between the party and most British Jews was "fractured beyond repair".[205]
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala[206] novelist and screenwriter
Gabriel Josipovici novelist and short story writer[207]
Ben Judah(born 1988) British journalist and the author of This Is London and Fragile Empire;son of author Tim Judah;[208] of Baghdadi Jewish descent; was a policy fellow in London at the European Council on Foreign Relations; has also been a visiting fellow at the European Stability Initiative in Istanbul; was a research fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.[209] In 2020, he joined the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. as a Nonresident Senior Fellow.[210] Judah has written for various progressive and conservative think-tanks including The Center For American Progress (CAP) and Policy Exchange.[211][212]
Tim Judah (born 31 March 1962)British writer of Iraqi Jewish ancestry, reporter and political analyst for The Economist. Judah has written several books on the geopolitics of the Balkans, mainly focusing on Serbia and Kosovo.[a]
Tony Judt ( JUT; 2 January 1948 – 6 August 2010)[213] was a British-American historian, essayist and university professor of Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish ancestry, who specialised in European history;in aftermath of the Six-Day War, Judt worked as a driver and translator for the Israel Defense Forces.[214] After the war, Judt's belief in the Zionist enterprise began to unravel and he then called for the conversion of "Israel from a Jewish state to a binational one" that would include all of what is now Israel, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank. This proposed new state would have equal rights for all Jews and Arabs living in Israel and the Palestinian territories.[215]
Anthony Julius (born 16 July 1956) author of Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England[216] focusing on tendency in English history that is discriminatory against Jews, arguing that current anti-Zionism in England developed out of antisemitism in the United Kingdom and utilises the same antisemitic tropes in its arguments;[217] was chairman of the board of The Jewish Chronicle; founder of The Euston Manifesto and was founding member of Engage (organisation) which aims to counter the boycott Israel campaign;[218] known for being Diana, Princess of Wales divorce lawyer and for representing Deborah Lipstadt in trial against David Irving.[220]
Mary Kaldor [221] (born 16 March 1946);[222] British academic of Hungarian Jewish ancestry; Professor of Global Governance at the London School of Economics and Director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit;[223] teaches at Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI); key figure in development of cosmopolitan democracy; writes on globalisation, international relations and humanitarian intervention, global civil society and global governance and New Wars;daughter of economist, scholar and author Nicholas Kaldor
Nicholas Kaldor (12 May 1908 – 30 September 1986) born Káldor Miklós, was a Cambridge economist and author of over thirty scholarly academic texts and monographs; developed the "compensation" criteria called Kaldor–Hicks efficiency for welfare comparisons (1939), derived the cobweb model, and argued for certain regularities observable in economic growth, which are called Kaldor's growth laws.
Oliver Kamm (born 1963); journalist and writer who is a leader writer and columnist for The Times; The Jewish Chronicle, Prospect magazine, and The Guardian; signatory to the Euston Manifesto; writes on the theory of the New antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the argument that there is anti Semitism in the British Labour Party.
John Kampfner, author, broadcaster and commentator; executive director at Chatham House; has written and presented for Reuters, The Daily Telegraph; chief political correspondent at the Financial Times; political commentator for BBC's Today radio programme; political correspondent on Newsnight; was chair of the Clore Duffield Foundation, Council of King's College London; Chief Executive of the freedom of expression organisation Index on Censorship and established Creative Industries Federation; shortlisted for the Orwell Book prize.
Efraim Karsh (born 6 September 1953)[224] British-Israeli historian [225] at King's College London; director of political studies Bar-Ilan University[226] the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies).;[226] former director of Middle East Forum;[227] critic of the New Historians, a group of Israeli scholars who have questioned traditional Israeli narrative of the Arab–Israeli conflict; held posts at Harvard, Columbia universities, Sorbonne, London School of Economics, Helsinki University, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies in Washington D.C., and Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University; in 1989 joined King's College London ; media commentator, has appeared on main radio and television networks in the United Kingdom and the United States; has contributed articles to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times (London) and The Daily Telegraph;[228] his book Palestine Betrayed articulated belief that 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight was "exclusively of their own making", writing that Palestinians fled homes as result of pressure from local Arab leaders "and/or the Arab Liberation Army that had entered Palestine prior to the end of the Mandate (Mandatory Palestine), whether out of military considerations or in order to prevent them from becoming citizens of the prospective Jewish state." He stated that there is an "overwhelming and incontrovertible body of evidence" to support his position including "intelligence briefs, captured Arab documents, press reports, personal testimonies and memoirs..."[229] Karsh states that "the deliberate depopulation of Arab villages and their transformation into military strongholds" began in December 1947.[229] Karsh rejects the Palestinian demands for a right of the return, citing a need for Israel to maintain its Jewish character.
Gerald Kaufman (21 June 1930 – 26 February 2017) politician, journalist, broadcaster and author who served as a minister throughout the Labour government of 1974 to 1979; elected as member of parliament (MP) at the 1970 general election, he became Father of the House and served until 2017; served as chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee; was knighted in 2004; was assistant general secretary of Fabian Society; was leader writer on Daily Mirror and journalist on New Statesman; also worked as television writer, contributing to BBC Television's satirical programme That Was The Week That Was ;[230][231] was member of Poale Zion (later the Jewish Labour Movement) [232][233][234] but became disillusioned with Israel because of its treatment of the Palestinian territories.[232]
Michael Kauffmann FBA (5 February 1931 – 30 June 2023), art historian and author of numerous scholarly monographs and academic publications; Director of the Courtauld Institute, London[235] and Fellow of the British Academy;[236] held posts at the Warburg Institute, Manchester City Art Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum;[237] was son of noted art historian, art dealer and scholar Arthur Kauffmann, both of German Jewish ancestry;[237] died on 30 June 2023, at the age of 92.[238]
Adam Kay (writer) (born 12 June 1980) comedy writer, author, comedian and former doctor. His television writing credits include Crims, Mrs. Brown's Boys and Mitchell and Webb. He is best known as author of the number-one bestselling book This Is Going to Hurt.
Hans Keller (11 March 1919 – 6 November 1985) was a Viennese Jewish British musician and prolific writer, who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism; best known for his appearance on TV show The Look of the Week in which he interviewed Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. Keller was generally puzzled by, or even contemptuous of, the group and its music, opening with the comment "why has it all got to be so terribly loud?"
Judith Kerr,[239] children's writer
Gerald Kersh,[240] novelist
Sophia King (later Fortnum; b. 1781/2, d. in or after 1805) Gothic novelist and poet
Jacky Klein (born 28 January 1977) art historian, broadcaster, author;[241] co-presented Britain's Lost Masterpieces for BBC4;[242] co-authored book with sister, Suzy Klein, What is Contemporary Art? A Children's Guide, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, published by Thames & Hudson; has also authored works on Wyndham Lewis and Grayson Perry; in 2015, was Executive Editor at Tate Publishing[243]
Melanie Klein ( 30 March 1882 – 22 September 1960), Austrian Jewish British author and psychoanalyst known for work in child analysis; was primary figure in development of object relations theory, suggesting that pre-verbal existential anxiety in infancy catalysed formation of unconscious, resulting in unconscious splitting of the world into good and bad idealizations; how child resolves that split depends on constitution of child and the character of nurturing the child experiences, and quality of resolution can inform presence, absence, and/or type of distresses a person experiences later in life.[244]
Suzy Klein (born 1 April 1975) author and radio and television presenter; Head of Arts and Classical Music TV for the BBC; winner of William Hardcastle Award for Journalism; was assistant producer at BBC Radio 4 on programmes including Start the Week; then moved to BBC Television, working as director and producer on arts and music films. In 2008, she presented the Proms season on BBC Two; has also presented The Culture Show, BBC Young Musician of the Year and The Review Show;[245] For Sky Arts, hosted programmes on Sky Arts 2; also presented Aida from Royal Albert Hall (March 2012) for The Rosenblatt Recitals; was named Music Broadcaster of the Year, winning the Silver Prize at the Sony Awards; has presented global opera broadcasts for Royal Opera, London, and hosted broadcasts of the Royal Shakespeare Company; in 2021, appointed Head of Arts and Classical Music TV.[246]
Matthew Kneale,[247] writer (Jewish mother)
Matthew Kramer (born 9 June 1959)[248] author and editor of over twenty scholarly texts; philosopher and signatory of the Euston Manifesto; currently Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge[249] and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.[250] He writes mainly in the areas of metaethics, normative ethics, legal philosophy, and political philosophy; Director of the Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy; elected a Fellow of the British Academy, the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[251]
Nick Lowles, founder of Hope Not Hate and former editor of the anti-fascist Searchlight (magazine), backed by various politicians and celebrities several trade unions. Knowles is the author of a number of books on football violence, right wing groups and anti-Semitism in Britain.He was an freelance investigative journalist, working in television, including on BBC Panorama, World in Action, Channel Four Dispatches and MacIntyre Undercover.
Arthur Koestler,[252] novelist and critic
Bernard Kops,[253] poet
Peter Kosminsky (born 21 April 1956) is a British writer, director, screenwriter and producer; has directed Hollywood movies such as White Oleander and television films like Warriors, The Government Inspector, The Promise, Wolf Hall and The State.
Harold Laski, (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950), prolific author of well over twenty five books, monographs and academic papers; was political theorist and economist of Lithuanian Jewish and Polish Jewish ancestry; served as chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 ; was professor at London School of Economics ; after 1930, began to emphasize need for workers' revolution;[254] was one of Britain's most influential intellectual spokesmen for Marxism in interwar years.[citation needed] ; was supporter of Zionism and supported the creation of a Jewish state.[255]
Marghanita Laski (24 October 1915 – 6 February 1988); journalist, BBC radio panellist and novelist; also wrote literary biography, plays and short stories, and contributed about 250,000 additions to the Oxford English Dictionary; was science fiction critic for The Observer; was member of the Annan Committee on broadcasting between 1974 and 1977; joined Arts Council and was elected Vice Chair and served as the Chair of the Literature Panel.[256] Her play, The Offshore Island, is about nuclear warfare.
Adam LeBor (1961); author, journalist; foreign correspondent from 1991; now based in London; also lived in Ramat HaShofet kibbutz, Israel, Berlin and Paris; reported from the former Yugoslavia;[257][258] covered collapse of Communism and Yugoslav wars for The Independent ;currently contributes to The Times, the Financial Times, where he reviews thrillers, The Critic, Monocle; works as editorial trainer and writing coach at Financial Times, Citywire and Monocle; former contributor to Harry's Place; has written eight non-fiction books, including Hitler's Secret Bankers, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, a biography of Slobodan Milosevic, and City of Oranges, an account of Jewish and Arab families in Jaffa, shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Prize.[citation needed]
Sir Sidney Lee (1859–1926),[259] biographer and literary scholar
Joseph Leftwich,[260] writer, one of the Whitechapel Boys
Antony Lerman (born 11 March 1946); author advocating One-state solution in Israel and Palestine; critic of the concept of the New antisemitism; explores meaning of Zionism and Anti-Zionism; from 2006 to early 2009, was Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
David Levi,[261] writer on Jewish subjects
Amy Levy (1861–1889), poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist
Deborah Levy (born 6 August 1959); novelist, playwright and poet of South African and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry; her plays were staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company; novels included Beautiful Mutants, Swallowing Geography and Billy & Girl; recent fiction has included the Booker-shortlisted novels Swimming Home[262] and Hot Milk, as well as the Booker-longlisted The Man Who Saw Everything and short-story collection Black Vodka;The Guardian ranked The Cost of Living number 84 in list of "The 100 best books of the 21st century".[263]
Gertrude Rachel Levy (5 November 1883 – 10 October 1966), author and cultural historian writing about comparative mythology, matriarchy, epic poetry and archaeology;[264] worked with Department of Antiquities in Mandatory Palestine.
Paul Levy, food writer, biographer; long rabbinical pedigree[265]
Bernard Lewis[266] (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018); specialised in Oriental studies;[267] public intellectual and political commentator; wrote over ten books on history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West; was called "the West's leading interpreter of the Middle East".[268] Others have accused Lewis of having revived the image of cultural inferiority of Islam and of emphasising the dangers of jihad.[269] His advice was frequently sought by neoconservative policymakers, including the Bush administration.[270] However, his active support of the Iraq War and neoconservative ideals have since come under scrutiny.[271][272][273][274][275][276]
David Littman (activist) (4 July 1933 – 20 May 2012) author of over five books and scores of monographs and academic papers and activist[277][278] best known for organising the departure of Jewish children from Morocco; then worked as lobbyist at the United Nations in Geneva and was also historian.[279][280] He was married to Bat Ye'or.
Emanuel Litvinoff,[281] novelist. (5 May 1915 – 24 September 2011)[282] was a British writer and well-known figure in Anglo-Jewish literature, known for novels, short stories, poetry, plays and human rights campaigning. Litvinoff became aware of plight of persecuted Soviet Jews, and started worldwide campaign against this persecution.[283] Due to Litvinoff's efforts, prominent Jewish groups in United States became aware of issue, and well-being of Soviet Jews became cause for a worldwide campaign, eventually leading to mass migration of Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel and the United States.[284] For this he has been described by Meir Rosenne, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, as "one of the greatest unsung heroes of the twentieth century... who won in the fight against an evil empire" and that "thousands and thousands of Russian Jews owe him their freedom".[285]
Naftali Loewenthal, member of the Chabad Hasidic community;[286][287] main area of study is Hasidism and Jewish Mysticism; professor in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London; director of the Chabad Research Unit, a division of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in United Kingdom;[288] author of Communicating the Infinite: The Emergence of the Habad School (1990) ;[289] also authored Hasidism Beyond Modernity: Essays in Habad Thought and History (2019) as well as many scholarly articles and publications on the Chabad mysticism;[290] also extensively written on history of Chabad Hasidic women.[291]
Moshé Machover (Hebrew: משה מחובר; born 1936) is a mathematician, philosopher, pro Palestinian socialist anti fascist, anti Zionist activist and author, noted for his writings critical of Israel and against Zionism.
David Magarshack (23 December 1899 – 26 October 1977); author, translator and biographer of Russian authors, best remembered for his translations of Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Nikolai Gogol; of Russian Jewish ancestry.
Leo Marks,[292] cryptographer and screenwriter
Madeleine Masson Rayner (née Levy; 23 April 1912 – 23 August 2007), author of plays, film scripts, novels, memoirs and biographies; best known for her biography of the highly respected and decorated war heroine, Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive, Krystyna Skarbek.[293]
Roy Masters (commentator) (born 2 April 1928, died 22 April 2021); English-born American author of over twenty self-help pop psychology books, radio personality, businessman and hypnotist.
Anna Maxted, writer, journalist
Mark Mazower ( ; born 20 February 1958) historian, scholar, academic and author of over fifteen books, largely on fascism, Greece, the Balkans and 20th-century Europe; of Russian Jewish descent;[294] has also written for the Financial Times and for The Independent;[295][296] has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO) and is member of the Editorial Board for Past & Present.[297] Mazower's book, No Enchanted Palace narrates origins of the United Nations and its ties to colonialism and its predecessor organisation, the League of Nations; in Governing the World, the history of international organisations is evaluated, beginning with the Concert of Europe at the start of the nineteenth century.
Albert Meltzer (7 January 1920 – 7 May 1996), anarchist activist and writer; contributor to anarchist Freedom (British newspaper), which had been founded by Russian aristocrat revolutionary Peter Kropotkin; was co-founder of anarchist newspaper Black Flag; amongst his books were Anarchism, Arguments For and Against,[298] The Floodgates of Anarchy (co-written with Stuart Christie) and his autobiography, I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels, published by AK Press.[citation needed]
Donald Meltzer (1922–2004), Kleinian psychoanalyst; known for making clinical headway with childhood conditions such as autism;[299] focused on role of emotionality and aesthetics in promoting mental health ; considered key figure in theory of thinking created by Wilfred Bion;[300] was member of Kleinian Imago Group which included Richard Wollheim, Wilfred Bion, Roger Money-Kyrle, Marion Milner and Ernst Gombrich.[301]
Charlotte Mendelson ( b. November 1972); novelist, editor; placed 60th on the Independent on Sunday Pink List 2007;[302]professor of creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London; correspondent at the New Yorker ; became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018;[303] awards and nominations include John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Somerset Maugham Award, Sunday Times 'Young Writer of the Year (shortlisted), London Arts New London Writers’ Award, K. Blundell Trust Award, Le Prince Maurice Roman d’Amour Prize (shortlisted), Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (shortlisted), Man Booker Prize 2013 (longlisted) Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2014 (longlisted), Women's Prize for Fiction 2022 (longlisted for The Exhibitionist)[304]
Heather Mendick, Labour activist previously appointed as Jeremy Corbyn's Jewish liaison officer; former Hackney South constituency Labour party secretary, academic, previously Reader in Education at Brunel University and author of scholarly texts and monographs on educational theory, semantics, science, contemporary culture, ontology, ideology and epistemology, published by Routledge and McGraw Hill Education
Gerard Menuhin, son of Yehudi Menuhin; grandson of leading anti-Zionist activist and scholar, Moshe Menuhin, and from the ancestral lineage of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Hassidism as well as Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev.[305]
George Mikes, Hungarian-born comic writer[306]
Ralph Miliband (born Adolphe Miliband; 7 January 1924 – 21 May 1994) sociologist and Marxist author of Polish Jewish ancestry; father of Ed Miliband and David Miliband, described as "one of the best known academic Marxists of his generation", on a par with E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm and Perry Anderson.[307]
Yvonne Mitchell (born Yvonne Frances Joseph; 7 July 1915) actress, playwright, biographer, novelist and author; acting roles include Julia in the 1954 BBC adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four; also an established author, writing several books for children and adults as well as winning awards for playwriting. Her plays include The Same Sky. She wrote an acclaimed biography of the French writer Colette, and her own autobiography was published in 1957.
Santa Montefiore,[308] author (convert)
Simon Sebag Montefiore, author and Haaretz journalist;[309]Jerusalem: The Biography was a number one non-fiction Sunday Times bestseller and a global bestseller and won The Jewish Book of the Year Award from the Jewish Book Council;[310][311] descended from the banker Sir Joseph Sebag-Montefiore, the nephew and heir of the wealthy philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore,[312] considered by some "the most important Jew of the 19th century".[313] Simon's mother was Phyllis April Jaffé (1927–2019) from the Lithuanian branch of the Jaffe family. The Montefiore family are descended from a line of wealthy Sephardi Jews who were diplomats and bankers all over Europe and who originated from Morocco and Italy.
Eric Moonman (29 April 1929 – 22 December 2017)[314][315] was Labour politician, chair of Poale Zion (Great Britain), president of Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland;[316][317] author of book The Violent Society;[318] did consultancy work for ITN as expert in counter-terrorism';[319] appointed as member of the advisory board of the Centre for Counter Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.[320]
Benny Morris (Hebrew: בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948)[321] Israeli historian of British Jewish ancestry;member of the group of Israeli historians known as the "New Historians", a term Morris coined to describe himself and historians Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappé and Simha Flapan;[322] Morris's work on the Arab–Israeli conflict and especially the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has won praise and criticism from both sides of the political divide.[323] Morris regards himself as a Zionist.[324]
Claus Moser, Baron Moser, (24 November 1922 – 4 September 2015) was a British statistician , scholar and author who made major contributions in both academia and the Civil Service.[325][326] He held a very wide variety of posts, included Member, Governing Body, Royal Academy of Music, 1967–1979, Director, Central Statistical Office, 1968–1978, BBC Music Advisory Committee, 1971–1983, Visiting Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford, 1972–1980 , Chairman, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1974–1987, Director, N M Rothschild & Sons, 1978–1990 (Vice-chairman, 1978–1984), President, Royal Statistical Society, 1978–1980, Chairman, Economist Intelligence Unit, 1979–1983, Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, 1984–1993,[327] Chancellor, Keele University, 1986–2002,Trustee, London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1988–2000, President, British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1989–1990, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford, 1991–1993, Chairman, British Museum Development Trust, 1993–2003, later Chairman Emeritus, Chancellor, Open University of Israel, 1994–2004
Lewis Namier ( ;[328] 27 June 1888 – 19 August 1960), British historian of Polish-Jewish ancestry; descendent of Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon Zalman,(Hebrew: ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן ) known as the Vilna Gaon; author of over twenty scholarly texts and authoritative monographs on sociopolitical typology and geopolitical analysis; held positions with Propaganda Department (1915–17), the Department of Information (1917–18) and with Political Intelligence Department of Foreign Office (1918–20); following defeat of Germany in World War One, Namier joined British delegation at Versailles Peace Conference of 1919; later Namier, who was a long-time Zionist, worked as political secretary for the Jewish Agency in Palestine (1929–31) and was close friend and associate of Chaim Weizmann; active in Zionist groups, lobbying British government to allow creation of Jewish Fighting Force in Mandate of Palestine and from 1933 was engaged in efforts on behalf of Jewish refugees from Germany. Namier used prosopography or collective biography of every Member of Parliament (MP) and peer who sat in the British Parliament in the latter 18th century to reveal that local interests, not national ones, often determined how parliamentarians voted. As former patient of Sigmund Freud, Namier was a believer in psychohistory.
Saul Newman, anarchist scholar and activist,(born 22 March 1972) is a British political theorist who writes on post-anarchism. He is professor of political theory at Goldsmiths College, University of London.[329]
Susie Orbach (born 6 November 1946), psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, writer and social critic; daughter of Maurice Orbach, author of Fat is a Feminist Issue, married to author Jeanette Winterson. She is honoured in BBC'S 100 Women in 2013 and 2014.[330][331] She was the therapist to Diana, Princess of Wales during the 1990s.[332]
Yotam Ottolenghi (born 14 December 1968),Israeli-British celebrity chef; journalist for The Guardian and Haaretz; author of several cookery books, including Ottolenghi: The Cookbook (2008), Plenty (2010), Jerusalem (2012). Moved to Europe after his service in Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel); in 2014, London Evening Standard remarked that Ottolenghi had "radically rewritten the way Londoners cook and eat"; in 2017 was guest judge on Masterchef Australia.
Ilan Pappé, pro-Palestinian dissident Israeli-British scholar, writer and author of Ashkenazi origin, focusing on the history of Palestinian Nakba, intifada, insurgency, land ownership and rights and radical Anti-Zionism.
Joseph Pardo (c. 1624 – 1677), hazzan and writer
David Patrikarakos ; journalist and war correspondent, author of War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century;[333][334] wrote Nuclear Iran: Birth of An Atomic State [335][336][337] which was named as a New York Times Editor's Choice and nominated for Total Politics Book Awards.[338][339] War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century, drew from Patrikarakos' time embedded with forces in Russian-Ukraine conflict and reporting on 2014 Hamas-Israel conflict, Operation Protective Edge and ISIS, to explore increasing role played by social media in modern conflict; also first book to explore work of Eliot Higgins and Bellingcat, who would gain prominence following the 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal; Ben Judah in The Times wrote that "War in 140 Characters should be mandatory reading at Sandhurst".[334][340][341][342][343] In the book, Patrikarakos uses the concept of what he terms Homo Digitalis, the individual that (thanks to the digital revolution, especially social media) is networked, globally connected, and able to wield disproportionate power.[340] The book was optioned by producer Angus Wall for development as a TV series.[344]
Maurice Peston, Baron Peston (19 March 1931 – 23 April 2016[345]) economist and Labour life peer; author of numerous scholarly academic texts and monographs on economics; research interests included macroeconomic policy and the economics of education; father of Robert Peston.[346]
Adam Phillips (psychologist)(born 19 September 1954[347]) is a British psychoanalytic psychotherapist, essayist and author of well over twenty books, scholarly articles and academic papers; since 2003 he has been the general editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud and is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.
Alexander Piatigorsky,[348] writer, philosopher, culture theorist; winner of the 2002 Russian Bely Prize for literature
Irma Brenman Pick (13 April 1934 – 3 August 2023) South African Latvian Jewish British psychologist and psychoanalyst known for her work on countertransference.[349][350] She served as the president of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 1997 to 2000.
Daniel Pick ( born 1960 ); historian, psychoanalyst, university teacher, writer, broadcaster; was recipient of a senior Investigator grant from the Wellcome Trust and led research group at Birkbeck exploring history of the human sciences and 'psy' professions during the Cold War ; project entitled 'Hidden Persuaders': Brainwashing, Culture, Clinical Knowledge and the Cold War Human Sciences, c. 1950–1990';[351] was fellow and training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society and author of numerous articles and several books on modern cultural history, psychoanalysis, and history of the human sciences. These include Faces of Degeneration (CUP, 1989), The Pursuit of the Nazi Mind (OUP, 2012). and Brainwashed: A New History of Thought Control (Profile/Wellcome Collection, 2022) He has written, and taught at London University for many years, on aspects of the history of psychoanalysis and psychiatry, modernism, the relationship of Freudian thought to historiography, Victorian evolutionary theory, eugenics and social Darwinism, ideas of war and peace, fin-de-siècle literature, and the history of cultural attitudes to crime and madness. He is an associate editor of History Workshop Journal. Pick has presented for the BBC, including 'The Unconscious Life of Bombs', BBC Radio 4 (December 2017);[352] 'Dictators on the Couch', BBC Radio 4 (June 2017);[353] and 'Freud for our Times', BBC Radio 4 (December 2016).[354]
Harold Pinter,[355] writer, playwright; Pinter signed the mission statement of Jews for Justice for Palestinians in 2005 and its full-page advertisement, "What Is Israel Doing? A Call by Jews in Britain", published in The Times on 6 July 2006, and he was a patron of the Palestine Festival of Literature. In April 2008, Pinter signed the statement "We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary". The statement noted: "We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land.", "We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East"
Friedrich Pollock( ; German: [ˈpɔlɔk]; 22 May 1894 – 16 December 1970) was a German academic, author, social scientist, philosopher and colleague of Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. He was one of the founders of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, and a member of the Frankfurt School of neo-Marxist theory; lived and wrote in London during the Nazi expulsion period, later exiled to Paris and New York.
Michael Polanyi[356] ( ; Hungarian: Polányi Mihály; 11 March 1891 – 22 February 1976) was a Hungarian-British[357] polymath and author, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy.
Peter Pomerantsev (Russian: Питер Померанцев;[358] born Pyotr Igorevich Pomerantsev, Пётр Игоревич Померанцев;[359] born 1977) ; Soviet-born journalist, author and TV producer; Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at London School of Economics ;[360] associate editor at Coda Media;[361] has written two books about Russian disinformation and propaganda—Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible and This Is Not Propaganda and a third, How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler , on Sefton Delmer, British propagandist during World War II.
Robert Popper (born 23 November 1967); comedy producer, script writer, actor, and satirical author; writing credits include South Park, The Comic Strip, the Channel 4 show, The Big Breakfast, Bo' Selecta!, Black Books, Spaced and Bremner, Bird and Fortune
Michael Postan FBA (24 September 1899 – 12 December 1981),[362] historian;[363] born to Jewish family in Bendery, in Bessarabia Governorate of Russian Empire, studied at the St Vladimir University in Kyiv, leaving Russia in 1919 after October Revolution and settling in UK; held positions at University College London and London School of Economics, before being appointed Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge.
Peter G. J. Pulzer (1929–2023), historian who was Gladstone Professor of Government at the University of Oxford; his book "The Emergence of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria 1867–1914" is still regarded as benchmark standard on the topic;[364][365][366] received the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria.[367]
Frederic Raphael,[368] screenwriter, novelist and critic
David Renton (born 1972), author and barrister, was member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP); has published books on fascism, anti-fascism and politics of left, notably Labour's Antisemitism Crisis: What the Left Got Wrong and How to Learn from it (Routledge, 2021) on presumed anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party; has also written for The Jewish Chronicle; Renton is grandson of shoe designer Kurt Geiger of Viennese Jewish ancestry, and related to Conservative MP Tim Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry; David Renton was educated at private boarding school Eton College where he became member of Labour Party; later studied history at St John's College, University of Oxford; in 2021, Renton represented Stan Keable of Labour Against the Witchhunt, at Employment Appeal Tribunal, which held that Keable was unfairly dismissed for events occurring at the "Enough is Enough" protests against Jeremy Corbyn. The EAT upheld an order that Keable should be reinstated.[369]
Dave Rich, Head of Policy at the Community Security Trust[370][371] writes on what is perceived to be British left-wing antisemitism.[372][373] He is an associate research fellow at the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism.[372][374] Rich has written a book, published in 2016, The Left's Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti‑Semitism which began as his doctoral dissertation.[375][376]
John Rodker (18 December 1894 – 6 October 1955) was an English writer, modernist poet, and publisher of modernist writers and one of the "Whitechapel Boys", a group including Isaac Rosenberg, Mark Gertler, David Bomberg, Samuel Weinstein and Joseph Lefkowitz
Herbert Rosenfeld ( 1910–1986); German Jewish British psychoanalyst; made seminal contributions to Kleinian thinking on psychotic and other very ill patients;[377] has had wide impact on analysts both in Britain and internationally,[378] exploring projective identification[379] and theory of destructive narcissism.
Adele Rose (8 December 1933 – 28 December 2020)[380] was an English television writer. She was the longest-serving scriptwriter for the soap opera Coronation Street, writing 457 scripts over a period of 37 years from 1961, and was the first woman to write for the show. She also originated the series Byker Grove (1989–2006), aimed at teenagers.
Gillian Rose; (20 September 1947 – 9 December 1995) philosopher and writer; held chair of social and political thought at the University of Warwick; taught at University of Sussex; worked in fields of philosophy and sociology,[381] neo-Kantianism, post-modernism, political theology, speculative thought."[382]
Hilary Rose (sociologist) (born 1935) is a British sociologist and author of over ten books and more than 150 scholarly articles and papers; critic of Israel, Zionism and the continued settlement, colonisation and occupation of Palestinian land,calling for Academic boycott of Israel.
Jacqueline Rose, FBA, FRSL (born 1949 in London) academic; Professor of Humanities at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities;[383] scholar, and author of over ten books and monographs on psychoanalysis, epistemology, ontology and feminism; critical of Zionism, describing it as "[having] been traumatic for the Jews as well as the Palestinians".[384]
Nikolas Rose is a British sociologist and social theorist. He is Distinguished Honorary Professor at the Research School of Social Sciences,[385] in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University and Honorary Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at University College London.[386]
Steven Rose (born 4 July 1938) neuroscientist, prolific author, social commentator; instrumental in calling for Academic boycott of Israel as long as Israel continues its occupation of the Palestinian Territories, on grounds of Israeli academics' close relationship with Israel Defense Forces; founding members of British Committee for the Universities of Palestine;regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's ethics debating series The Moral Maze.
Michael Rosen (born 7 May 1946),[387] novelist, poet and broadcaster
Chanie Rosenberg (1922 –2021)[388][389] South African-Lithuanian Jewish-born artist, author, journalist, radical pamphleteer, teacher and socialist; sister of Michael Kidron and partner of Tony Cliff, founder member of Socialist Workers Party in Britain.[390]; relative of poet Isaac Rosenberg; studied Hebrew at Cape Town University;[388] in 1944, moved to Palestine to live on kibbutz where she became an anti-Zionist and a revolutionary socialist and met Yigael Gluckstein (better known as Tony Cliff); moved to Britain where she was member of the Revolutionary Communist Party from 1944 to 1949; afterwards joining the group which eventually became the Socialist Workers Party;[388] active in many anti-racist and anti-fascist mobilisations; active in the National Union of Teachers.[391]; also artist whose sculpture has been exhibited in Royal Academy of Arts.[392]
Andrew Roth (23 April 1919 – 12 August 2010); biographer and journalist known for his compilation of Parliamentary Profiles, a directory of biographies of British Members of Parliament ; compiled profiles of the personnel of the British Parliament and assessed their character traits, history, opinions and psychological drives; The Daily Telegraph called Roth a "Westminster institution".[393] He continued updating this publication to 2010, and it with its research documents and notes, including about half a million press cuttings, is now archived at the Bishopsgate Institute.[394][395]
William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945), painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, writer on art; wrote several critical books and pamphlets, including Goya; the first English monograph on the artist), A Plea for a Wider Use of Artists & Craftsmen and Whither Painting; published three volumes of memoirs: Men and Memories, Vol I and II and Since Fifty.[396] Men and Memories Volume I includes anecdotes about Oscar Wilde and many other friends of Rothenstein's, including Max Beerbohm, James Whistler, Paul Verlaine, Edgar Degas, and John Singer Sargent.[397]
Hannah Rothschild (born 22 May 1962), daughter of Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, author, businesswoman, philanthropist and documentary filmmaker, has written screenplays and journalism, a biography and two novels; serves on charitable and financial boards and is first female to chair the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery in London;liaison trustee for the Tate Gallery;trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery;chair of Yad Hanadiv in Israel;[398] directed films for Saturday Review, Arena and Omnibus; has written forThe Times, The New York Times, The Observer, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Vanity Fair, Vogue, The Spectator and Harper's Bazaar, Financial Times, Elle, Washington Post and others.
Bernice Rubens,[399] novelist
Miri Rubin (born 1956), historian and Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary University of London and author of over ten scholarly academic texts and monographs on religion and the Middle Ages; educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Cambridge;[400] Rubin writes about social and religious history of Europe between 1100 and 1500, concentrating on interactions between public rituals, power, and community life.
Oliver Sacks (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015), neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer of over twenty books, screenplays and scholarly articles,[401] amongst them, 1973 book Awakenings,[402] which was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated feature film in 1990, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Nina Salaman, poet and translator
Raphael Samuel (26 December 1934 – 9 December 1996), Marxist; prolific author and historian of Hungarian Jewish ancestry, described by Stuart Hall as "one of the most outstanding, original intellectuals of his generation"; member of Communist Party Historians Group, alongside Christopher Hill, E.P. Thompson; founded the Partisan Coffee House in 1956 in Soho, London, as a meeting place for British New Left.[403]
Anne-Marie Sandler (December 15, 1925 – July 25, 2018), psychologist and psychoanalyst noted for her clinical observation of the relationship dynamic between blind infants and their mothers in a project spearheaded by Anna Freud.[350] whilst majoring in psychology at the University of Geneva, was selected by Jean Piaget as research assistant in his project with UNESCO in Switzerland, which focused on the development of children's perception of homeland and foreignness;[404] highly regarded for her scholarly work "Beyond Eight Months Anxiety," published in 1977, where she reconceptualised the stranger anxiety experienced by infants as a condition that is also present in her adult clients;[405][406] president of the European Psychoanalytical Federation (EPF) and president of BPS in 1990; appeared on television discussion programme After Dark, alongside among others Clive Ponting, Colin Wallace, T. E. Utley and Peter Hain; held prominent positions in the Anna Freud Centre; also active in the International Psychoanalytical Association.[350][406]
Joseph J. Sandler (10 January 1927 – 6 October 1998), South African Jewish British psychoanalyst within the Anna Freud Grouping – now the Contemporary Freudians – of the British Psychoanalytical Society; perhaps best known for what has been called his 'silent revolution' in re-aligning the concepts of the object relations school within the framework of ego psychology;[350] editor of the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis and President of the International Psychoanalytical Association; was the first Sigmund Freud Professor of Psychoanalysis at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Philippe Sands, KC (born 17 October 1960), writer, journalist and lawyer 11 King's Bench Walk;[407] Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals ; counsel and advocate before many international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights and International Criminal Court;serves on panel of International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (CAS).;[408] is author of seventeen books on international law as well as writing a number of geo-political texts; served as President of English PEN; appointed Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; co-founder of the Centre for International Environmental Law;[409] and the Project on International Courts and Tribunals (1997);[410] served as a Commissioner on the UK Government Commission on a Bill of Human Rights.
George Sassoon (30 October 1936 – 8 March 2006), British scientist, electronic engineer, linguist, translator and science fiction author of Iraqi Jewish Mizrahi Jewish origin; author of The Manna-Machine (1978) and The Kabbalah Decoded (1978).
Siegfried Sassoon, writer and WW1 poet, of Iraqi Jewish Mizrahi Jewish origin.
Charles Saatchi ( ; Arabic: تشارلز ساعتجي; born 9 June 1943); author of numerous books, periodicals, journals and monographs on art and culture, Mizrahi Jewish Iraqi-Jewish British businessman and co-founder, with brother Maurice, of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the world's largest advertising agency; later formed a new agency called M&C Saatchi; also known for his art collection and for owning Saatchi Gallery, and for sponsorship of the Young British Artists (YBAs), including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.Successful campaigns included Silk Cut's advertisements and those for Conservative Party's 1979 general election victory – led by Margaret Thatcher through the slogan "Labour Isn't Working".[411][412] Other clients included British Airways.[413][414] In the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK, was grouped with brother Maurice, with estimated fortune of £120 million.[415]
Alexei Sayle (born 7 August 1952), anti-Zionist, anti-fascist actor, author, stand-up comedian, television presenter; voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic of all time on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007;[416] In an updated 2010 poll he came 72nd.[417] has written two short story collections, five novels, including a graphic novel and a radio series spin-off book, as well as columns for various publications; has written for Time Out and the Sunday Mirror;[418] was one of eight contributory authors to the BBC Three competition End of Story.
Simon Schama ( born 13 February 1945), author of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, specialising in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history.[419] He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University, New York.[420]
Isaac Schapera FBA FRAI (23 June 1905 Garies, Cape Colony – 26 June 2003 London, England); of South African Jewish-Russian Jewish ancestry; author of numerous highly regarded anthropology books and over 200 monographs and scholarly academic papers on Africa;social anthropologist at London School of Economics specialising in South Africa; notable for his ethnographic and typological studies of the indigenous peoples of Botswana and South Africa;[421]one of the founders of group that would develop British social anthropology, and students included important figures of anthropology, such as Ernest Gellner, Eileen Krige, Hilda Kuper, Max Gluckman, John Comaroff, Johan Frederik Holleman and Jean Comaroff.
Melitta Schmideberg-Klein ( née Klein; 17 January 1904 – 10 February 1983), author of numerous books, academic papers and monographs; physician, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst; daughter of leading psychoanalyst Melanie Klein; associate member of British Psychoanalytical Society and underwent analysis with Edward Glover,[422]
Judah Segal, FBA (21 June 1912 – 23 October 2003, prolific author, scholar and academic; Professor of Semitic Languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies.His father was Professor Moshe Zvi Segal , Israeli rabbi, linguist and Talmudic scholar;[423] his brother was Labour Party politician Samuel Segal; father of University of London scholar, Professor Naomi Segal.
Anthony Seldon (born 2 August 1953);[424] educator, contemporary historian, journalist, broadcaster, academic, author, wrote biographies of British Prime Ministers, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson; was master (headmaster) of Wellington College, one of Britain's co-educational independent boarding schools, and is current Head Master of Epsom College;[425] is author or editor of more than 45 books on contemporary history, politics and education; was co-founder and first director of Centre for Contemporary British History; co-founder of Action for Happiness,[426] is a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company,[427] and is on board of a number of charities and educational bodies; is honorary historical adviser to 10 Downing Street and member of the First World War Centenary Culture Committee; was knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to education and modern political history.[428][429]
Will Self,[430] novelist (Jewish mother); son of Peter Self, and grandson of Sir Albert Henry Self
Hanna Segal( 1918–2011), psychoanalyst of Polish Jewish descent; follower of Melanie Klein; president of British Psychoanalytical Society, vice-president of International Psychoanalytical Association; was appointed to the Freud Memorial Chair at University College, London (UCL); considered the doyen of "classical" Kleinian thinking and technique"[431] and "one of the most distinguished psychological theorists of our time "[432]
Lynne Segal (born 29 March 1944)[433] socialist feminist anti-Zionist, anti-Fascist, pro-Palestinian academic and activist; author of over ten books and numerous scholarly monographs on ideology and geopolitics; Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, where she now works in The School of Psychosocial Studies.[434] Has written for The Guardian London Review of Books, Red Pepper (magazine), Novara Media, Radical Philosophy, and has worked with Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Independent Jewish Voices and Faculty for Israeli–Palestinian Peace (FFIPP) engaged in efforts to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and create a just peace between Israel and Palestine.[433]
Charles Gabriel Seligman FRS[435] FRAI (né Seligmann; 24 December 1873 – 19 September 1940) was author, scholar, academic, physician and ethnologist; main ethnographic work described culture of Vedda people of Sri Lanka and Shilluk people of Sudan; was professor at London School of Economics; influential as the teacher of Bronisław Malinowski, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, and Meyer Fortes;[436]was proponent of the Hamitic hypothesis, according to which some civilisations of Africa were thought to have been founded by Caucasoid Hamitic peoples.[437][438][439] His work in the 1920s and 1930s is now seen as "white supremacist".[437]
Nicholas Serota (born 27 April 1946), author, art historian and curator; served as Director of the Tate from 1988 to 2017; currently Chair of Arts Council England;[440][441] was previously Director of The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, and Director of the Whitechapel Gallery,[442] before becoming Director of the Tate; was also Chairman of the Turner Prize jury.[443]
Malcolm Shaw (academic) KC (born 1947), British legal academic, author, editor and lawyer;[444][445] studied at University of Liverpool (LLB), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (LLM) and Keele University (PhD); was the Sir Robert Jennings Professor of International Law at the University of Leicester and taught international law, human rights and equity and trusts; appointed as Senior Fellow at Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at University of Cambridge; Trustee of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He is a practising barrister and jurist and teaches course on human rights at Hebrew University of Jerusalem;[445] author of best selling book on International Law (first published in 1977; 6th edition released in 2008[446]); also edited Title to Territory, a collection of articles on title and sovereignty in international law.[citation needed] His textbook is one of the key tomes used in introductory courses on international law.[445] Shaw has appeared before the European Court of Human Rights, European Court of Justice, the UK Supreme Court, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Before the ICJ, he has represented countries such as the UAE, Serbia, and Cameroon. He has represented Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Ireland, and Malaysia in front of the other courts. In January 2024, he was on the four-person team representing Israel in the case brought by South Africa in the ICJ regarding accusations of genocidal acts by Israel in Gaza in the course of the Israel-Hamas war.[444][445][447]
Colin Shindler, first professor of Israel Studies in the UK; founding chairman of the European Association of Israeli Studies (EAIS
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https://www.cherwell.org/2020/05/04/review-the-artists-way/
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Review: The Artist's Way
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This is both a book review and a book recommendation. Julia Cameron’s book – The Artist’s Way – is the perfect book to pick up, read, and do during isolation. It’s not a new book by any means. It was first published in 1992 but it remains important and useful today. The essence of the […]
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Cherwell
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https://www.cherwell.org/2020/05/04/review-the-artists-way/
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This is both a book review and a book recommendation. Julia Cameron’s book – The Artist’s Way – is the perfect book to pick up, read, and do during isolation. It’s not a new book by any means. It was first published in 1992 but it remains important and useful today. The essence of the book is about rediscovering or discovering your creative self. I’m hoping this review will persuade you to read the book itself but, at the very least, try some of her key practises for a week even if you are tempted to deride it as ‘spiritual nonsense’.
A recent feature in the Sunday Times on Julia Cameron described her as ‘The Original self-help Guru’. Julia Cameron, commenting on the current lockdown, said “Westerners have a hard time doing nothing. Writing is empowering.” Julia Cameron already lives in her own sort of ‘splendid isolation’ in the New Mexico Mountains with her dog. She has no email. No social media. But she does have a phone for use in emergencies, or magazine interviews with the Sunday Times. In case you’re doubting the commitment of Julia Cameron, she writes everything by hand – including her books – and writes cards rather than emails to her friends. She has published forty books and has lots of penpals.
The essence of the artist’s way is two key practises; ‘morning pages’ and ‘the artist’s date’. Morning pages should be done every day without fail. They should be 3 sides of A4 paper, handwritten (if possible), and come totally from your stream of consciousness. You do not re-read them until Week 9 of the course. It is as simple as that. The second tool – the artist’s date – involves doing something by yourself just for the sake of it. Cameron suggests shooting a whole roll of film and not showing it to anyone. Ironically, film was in fashion when she wrote the book and now #35mm is everywhere again.
The rest of the book is exceptional at helping you to identify what helps you be creative and what holds you back. It is also extremely revealing but it might put some people off because it involves more self-reflection than most British people are comfortable with. I’m in the 10th week of ‘The Artist Way’s’ 12-week program. I haven’t read my morning pages back yet but I was meant to in week 9, you don’t have to stick totally to the rules but I look forward to reading them after exams are done. I’ve written for 60 days and counting and it doesn’t matter that most of it is nonsense. Morning pages have helped me start a radio show, develop a short story and even write this article.
It shouldn’t take successful people to get us to try something, but it normally does. Morning Pages have been used by so many people to help them out of a creative rut, some were admittedly creative before but many others are scientists or lawyers or are just people who want to get back into painting or writing after a long hiatus. The famous people include Alicia Keys, Helmut Newton and the ‘inventor’ of the four day week – Tim Ferriss and, last but not least, Elizabeth Gilbert – the author of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. Don’t wait till after exams, don’t wait till you’ve got your perfect new paper pad or journal. Start tomorrow morning as soon as you wake up.
I’d like to finish with three quotes from Julia Camera, which summarise the book and specifically morning pages.
“There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages”
“You’re trying to catch yourself before your ego’s defences are in place.”
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https://anartfulsequenceofwords.com/2022/02/17/the-artists-way-a-review-of-the-first-three-weeks/
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The Artist’s Way: A Review of the First Three Weeks
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2022-02-17T00:00:00
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Cameron doesn’t teach creativity per se, so much as she encourages her readers to allow themselves to be creative.
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Rita E. Gould: An Artful Sequence of Words
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https://anartfulsequenceofwords.com/2022/02/17/the-artists-way-a-review-of-the-first-three-weeks/
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Towards the end of 2021, a writer friend shared that she planned to work with The Artist’s Way. I’d never heard of Julia Cameron or this book before, so I was curious about it. Since we were discussing how we both wanted to write more going forward, I decided it might be worthwhile to see if this book would help me achieve that end. When in a pandemic and dealing with another surge and some unpleasant life stuff, jumping feet first into a new endeavor sounds fun—especially if it helps your writing life. So, without further ado (that is, reading up on it), I ordered it and planned to get underway in January.
Nothing like leaping before you look, right?
What is The Artist’s Way?
It’s a self-help book based on classes that Julia Cameron teaches on creativity. Meant to be used by any artist (from the hobbyist to the professional), it does not focus on a specific art form, although writing does feature in it (more on that shortly). Cameron doesn’t teach creativity per se, so much as she encourages her readers to allow themselves to be creative. For this reason, the book works on what undermines people from embracing their creativity and provides various techniques to encourage/explore creativity.
People who study certain subjects (psychology, philosophy/religion), attend therapy, or belong to 12-step programs (the course is 12 weeks, which I doubt is coincidental) may recognize some techniques from these disciplines. The benefit here is that these various ideas are specifically aimed at living a more artistic lifestyle. Spirituality is heavily emphasized, as is the belief that all of us are meant to be creative (a central tenet). Overall, this book focuses on helping its readers to live a more artistic life.
Morning Pages
The Artist’s Way provides two tools (meant to work together) to use throughout the 12-week course and, ideally, going forward: morning pages and the artist’s date. Morning pages, as the name suggests, should be completed every morning upon awakening.[*] Whether the reader happens to be a pianist or a sculptor, they must sit down and write three sides of paper (that is, 1.5 pages) of text by hand every morning. Generally, no one should look at them—not even their composer initially.
The purpose of these pages is a more difficult to explain. Their job, much like a first draft, is to exist. They don’t have to be about anything specific or planned, just what comes to mind. By getting them done early, it allows you to express yourself less critically, regardless of your mood. They may reveal problematic patterns in your life, provide inspiration, or be an outlet for your complaints, but primarily they help you clear your mind.[†] Cameron describes them alternately as meditation or prayer.
If morning pages are a freewheeling process designed to get your thoughts on the page, the artist’s date is about doing. Much like morning pages, the second tool should not be missed but be performed weekly (around two hours, although a specific time is not required). The artist’s date requires you to go on something like a solo playdate. The idea is to experiment with things that interest you, which don’t have to be especially artistic.
While what you do on the date varies (this depends on the reader’s tastes but there are exercises that provide inspiration), the goal is to help you refill your artistic well (that is, replenishing your source for creativity) by observing and experiencing. Some examples of artist’s date can include taking a walk, cooking a new dish, visiting a museum, etc. Cameron notes that artist’s dates can provide solutions to concerns that come up during morning pages.
Both tools have the potential to help readers working on their artistic recovery (that is, embracing their creativity). Arguably, we all have artistic blocks that prevent us from creating, whether it’s holding us back in our artistic expression or preventing us from being creative at all. Using these tools can help expose those blocks (morning pages) and work through them by allowing yourself to do fun things (artist’s dates).
Potential Challenges
In the introduction, Cameron announces that she uses the term God throughout (accurately), but the reader can interpret “God” however they choose. She is clear that she does not want or expect people to believe in God if they don’t or aren’t sure about that concept (she suggests the workaround of viewing God as short for “good orderly flow”). I would’ve preferred that she more liberally used generic terms (eg, the universe or even higher power) to be inclusive and more neutral, but the burden is really on the reader to work around the terminology if it makes them uncomfortable. Although she insists her version of God is benevolent, I doubt her assurance erases the reader’s constructs of God, religion, and spirituality that term evokes, for better or worse. Week 3, which involves a more in-depth discussion of God, may prove challenging for some.
Some Minor Difficulties
The Artist’s Way is meant to be used creatively, with readers having a lot of freedom to use Cameron’s suggestions as works best for them. As such, it was not designed to operate as a traditional textbook, but there are areas where I wished there was more guidance present. I ran into a few minor difficulties trying to find information and instructions.
Cameron states in an early chapter called “The Basic Tools” that there’s “no wrong way to do morning pages” and suggests writing on loose pages and storing them in an envelope or using a spiral notebook .[‡] With the idea that any approach would work, I initially decided to use a comparably sized composition notebook as that works better for me. However, the first two tasks in week 1—when you presumably get underway with these pages—specifically refer to loose paper stored in an envelope. Fearing I misunderstood, I went hunting for the instructions on morning pages, which took some time to find as I forgot that they were in the aforementioned chapter (the index eventually led me back). But better instructions here would have saved me the bother. If the paper choice isn’t set in stone, the associated tasks should reflect that freedom (eg, it could state the notebook cover or envelope could get a star for task 2 of week 1).
Admittedly, this is a mild quibble, but there are other instances where more detail would be helpful. When you encounter tasks for the first time, there are no instructions provided about how to do them, because this was again discussed previously in the chapter called “Spiritual Electricity: The Basic Principles”. Here, referring to that chapter (as is done elsewhere: tasks 1 and 5 refer in week 2 refers you back to week 1’s affirmations) or just restating the instructions would be useful. With that in mind, the reader might need to be more diligent about taking notes or highlighting specific instructions.
I should also note there are some potential areas of confusion when it comes to some ideas and topics. Morning pages, as discussed above, are hard to describe, because potential use cases and benefits may vary depending on the person and their specific blocks or challenges—which is fair. However, Cameron does occasionally hint at topics that will be discussed in more depth later. Flagging such instances as future topics would be ideal, as I found myself wondering what she meant or whether this was an important practice.[§] Again, it might be best to be patient with the process or just look up items in the index if you want the description immediately.
My Own Journey with Artist’s Way Up to Week 3
Having made the plunge and purchased the book without investigating what it offered, I likely expected something more focused on writing than artistic recovery. I also missed the “spiritual path” part, which normally I would hesitate to buy. As a rule, I avoid discussing various religious or spiritual belief/disbelief systems for various reasons that include weariness with such discussions.
Since I made the commitment to try something new,[**] I decided to continue onward despite my trepidation. As soon as I began reading the prefatory chapters, this book turned up in numerous places online—and another writer friend also started working with it. It seemed like a sign I should give it a chance. As with many self-help books, it’s useful to have a read, learn from what works, and ignore what doesn’t. So far, the morning pages seem helpful when it comes to meeting my goal to write regularly, although I’m not sure I’ve had enough artist’s dates to comment on their effect.
Going forward, I will continue to skip reading ahead as it’s a bit more adventurous this way—plus it allows me fewer opportunities to avoid anything else that’s challenging but negotiable. And, having just completed week 4, this choice already proved to be a good one, as this particular lesson was sufficiently challenging (though negotiable) to merit its own post, which I’ll link to when I finish writing it.
NOTES:
[*] Acquiring caffeine first is permitted and is, in my opinion, mandatory. Under the tasks for week 1, she also suggests getting up half hour earlier to do your morning pages, which I cheerfully ignored as I’m a night owl.
[†] For writers, there is the additional benefit of establishing a daily writing practice, which potentially could extend into establishing a more regular creative writing practice. This is one reason I’m interested in continuing onward with this course.
[‡] Her website offers clearer, perhaps more prescriptive suggestions about morning pages that you can find here and here. For the artist’s date, some more information can be found here.
[§] The most intriguing instance of this (thus far) involves a task in week 4, which asks you to create an altar. Here, it states the altar reminds us creativity is a spiritual versus ego issue. Using an altar and its purpose were not mentioned let alone discussed in any detail previously, which made this task seem out of place. However, the index suggests this conversation will occur in about 100 more pages, so I assume their relevance will become clearer then.
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http://www.lauradavishays.com/blog/category/rice-university
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Category: Rice University
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I didn’t have cats growing up, just chickens and guppies. The guppies ate their babies, and the chickens eventually met sad ends. My first pet chicken, Peachy, died when his nighttime cage came...
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Laura Davis Hays
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http://www.lauradavishays.com/1/category/rice-university
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I didn’t have cats growing up, just chickens and guppies. The guppies ate their babies, and the chickens eventually met sad ends. My first pet chicken, Peachy, died when his nighttime cage came down on his neck—he was trying to get out for a little more petting which he got every evening at the dinner table. The others, a pair named by my dad Egg (Eager Eagle) and Fuff (fearless Falcon) had to be given away. They caused disturbances in our suburban California neighborhood, crowing and flying over the fence into the neighbors’ yards, and the rooster sometimes attacked guests who came into the back yard wearing bright clothing. Or maybe it was because my dad died and we had to move far away. Egg and Fuff were sent to a nice farm nearby, or at least that’s what I was told. Anyway, that was the last of my pets until I met my future husband, Jim, in college.
Jim and his roommate Larry lived in an upstairs room in Baker college at Rice University. Right before I got involved with Jim, a pregnant cat (named Mama Kitty) moved into their dorm room. Her pregnancy was likely the result of an encounter with Mr. Baker, the un-neutered male cat who wandered around the dorm and the grounds. Mr. Baker had a jowly face, the result of many skirmishes defended his territory as the feline master of the most historic and beautiful of the residential colleges on campus.
We enjoyed Mama Kitty and those kittens while we fell in love, and a year or two afterwards, we moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico and got the first of our own series of cats, a black male we named Kitty. Kitty enjoyed the same free masculine status as Mr. Baker. He had nightly catfights on Johnson Lane where we slept with the screenless windows open in the summer. Often the catfights came inside. I was not too far past the birth of our son, so I when the cats set up a howl in our living room I was jolted awake from much needed sleep. Eventually, Gabe, our newly mobile baby, started crawling after Kitty, catching his tail, lying on top of him, pinning him to the ground, squealing with delight. Kitty didn’t make a fuss about it. I suppose he had accepted his diminished status from Kitty Baby, to just plain bothersome cat.
After we moved to West Manhattan Ave., we adopted Pepper and Mittens. We didn't yet believe in spaying and neutering, so Mittens was impregnated by her brother. Poor Mittens was so hungry during her pregnancy that she once jumped up on the table and licked the frosting off the Easter Cake. Their kittens were born in our bedroom closet. Missy, the runt of the litter, stayed with us too. She enjoyed nursing, long after her kittenhood, mainly on Mittens, her mother, but sometimes on Pepper.
When we moved to a new house on Gonzales Rd, Pepper got caught in a car engine and had his leg burned and mangled. He had to go to the vet for some expensive and extensive kitty surgery and a long recovery before he came home again. Mittens ran away that same night, obviously scared off by the trauma in a new and terrifying neighborhood. She showed up two month’s later on West Manhattan Ave., skinny and purring. She had crossed several miles of city, hunting, and finding water where she could, navigating by some magical kitty radar.
Down on our luck, we sold that house and moved again to a small rent house on a busy street. After Mittens was hit by a car, she came home to die in the crawlspace under the house. We called to her for days. Finally, Pepper led us to her body. By then, we owned the lot where we eventually built our house and now live, so we buried Mittens in the orchard.
Now, that orchard houses other kitty graves. The cats died from varying causes, anything from old age to coyotes. Coyotes regularly prowl the neighborhood, coming down from higher ground by way of arroyos. I’ve seen them outside the bedroom, in the yard, on the driveway, and in arroyos. We also have deer who come down to eat our roses and drink from the neighbor’s bird bath. Last winter I saw two bobcats out the window.
When adopting a cat, we believe in the interview process. We go down to the local animal shelter and take them to the special room to see how they behave. I have been known to respond to cats choosing me, as well. Our smaller cat, Rufus, definitely made a pitch to me every time I walked past his cage.
We got two black cats this time for safety sake. If out at night they are less visible to predators. Our friend, Barbara, Aamodt, a very special nonagenarian, says if she can keep a cat two years, she can keep him twenty. I hope that will be true with our beloved two.
Dexter is big, strong, lithe, and likeable. His companion, though not litter mate, step-brother, Rufus, is easily spooked, runs from most people, except me, whom he adores. He hunts quite well, but is definitely the submissive, and Dexter, the dominant cat. If Rufus is on my lap and Dexter comes anywhere near, Rufus will jump down and slide under the couch. Then Dexter jumps up for his petting.
We have erected a very nice cat fence around a portion of the back yard with small openings in several places, so the cats can run in and out. I call them in at night to feed them a treat--wet cat food from a can--and lock the kitty door. Then I feel safe to go to sleep, even if I hear a pack of coyotes howling.
However, Jim has confessed that Dexter asks to go out every night, and Jim usually lets him. Dexter is his favorite, after all.
You got to love a man who loves a cat.
Gabe and kitten Dexter
Dexter, posing
Misha and Dancer
Sadie and Gramma interviewing chickens at the Aamodt farm
Rufus, aka "cute stuff"
Some Treasured Cat facts:
There are about 10 million more domesticated cats in the US than dogs.
A cat’s normal body temperature is around 102 degrees. Hence the pleasant cuddle factor.
Men and women are equally likely to own a cat.
Cats sleep 70 percent of the time, or around 16 hours a day.
Cats can jump up to five times their own height in a single bound. Some sources say seven times.
Domesticated cats have been around since 3600BC. One source said 9000 BC.
A cat’s purr is a form of self healing (as well as a sign of nervousness or contentment.) The frequency of a cat’s purr is the same as that at which muscles and bones repair themselves.
The world’s richest cat inherited $13 million from his owner.
Female cats are typically right-pawed while male cats are typically left-pawed. (Gabe’s friend Evan once did a school science fair project around right and left-paw-ed-ness in cats. )
Cats are smarter than dogs, but dogs have a higher social IQ.
“Cat people” are 11% more likely to be introverts
Cats bring home their prey, not to share, but to teach their person, how to hunt.
Cats dream.
Cats dropped from a variety of heights can right themselves and land on their feet unharmed. This phenomenon has been studied by NASA as well as thousands of scientists and household experimenters. Thankfully, most of the experiments were conducted over a soft landing place, like a bed.
August 8 is World Cat Day.
Is it real?
It seems people fall into several camps on this one. One: Writer’s Block is an excuse for being lazy, so just get busy. Two: Everyone gets to a tough, stuck point once in awhile, so give yourself a little slack, take a break, think about it, then … just get busy. Three: Something real and hidden is going on, like you need a career change or a divorce. Figure it out, change your life, then get busy. Four: You can’t write, because you don’t have anything to say, because you’re not a real writer, or maybe you just plain suck. Advice: Hire a real writer to do the dirty work. Or better yet, just stop writing.
The causes are listed as “fear”, “perfectionism”, “bad-timing”, “distractions”, “depression”, “no talent.” I think the problem is often too much self-criticism and self-editing while trying to write a first draft, famously called “a shitty first draft” by Anne Lamott.
I fall into the camp of “just get busy.” I know some people, some very good writers, who struggle at times, and some for complicated reasons. My struggle gets closer to the “you just plain suck,” when it’s time to submit to publishers, read aloud, send a draft to a critic or editor. However, in the meantime, I write as much as I can, as fast as I can, as often as I can. Here’s what helps me.
Free Writing
I’ve done a ton of “Free writing” of one sort or another, and find it, well, freeing. The idea is to just keep scribbling for a set period of time or length, say Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages. Three Pages first thing in the morning, no stopping, no editing. Or Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Practice. Usually done in a café in pairs, scribbling in notebooks for 20 minutes without stopping. Then there’s Tom Bird’s Divine Writer Within. I went to a seminar called “Write Your Bestseller in a Weekend.” This was the ultimate Free Writing exercise. We were crammed together in a room with the special music playing (coyotes howling, subliminal messages beneath the subtle piano) and wrote as fast as we could. We counted our words every twenty minutes, whether in a notebook, or on computer, so before long, we were driven by the desire to write more and more words in an hour. After a two minute counting break, the bell would ding, and we’d be back at it. I regularly wrote 2000 + words an hour, hour after hour, compared to a goal of 1000 words a day, to which I’ve sometimes adhered. Granted, of the 2000 words many were not always in sentences, or did not follow what came before the bell. The tenses and voice changed and shifted, the story jumped around, but what I got was a beginning, a middle, and an end, in short, a 30K word draft of a novel.
I believe in free-writing, the editor is mostly left in the dust, and the muse has a chance to shine through.
The first time I did free writing was in college, though I didn’t have a name for it then. At exam time, we were given a ruled notebook and a question or two, say comparing a work of Chaucer with one of Shakespeare. We had to hand-write an essay and turn it in to be graded an hour and a half later. I drank coffee back then, and sometimes took no-doz, so I was a little sped-up as I scribbled in my notebook. (Glad to be freed from the tortures of a pre-computerized typewriter, and my inability to type with any accuracy.) Somewhere in the middle, I would come to the nugget for which I’d been searching. There was still time to expand on my idea, tie it up into a final paragraph, and to seek that illusive A, which oddly, though I considered myself a bit of a dullard in those English classes, I earned more often than not.
This, I believe, is the essence of free-writing, even regular, on-the-computer writing that breaks through. If you go forward fast enough, without much editing or judging, without a plan or expectation, maybe driven by some kind of deadline or desperation, you eventually come to that nugget. The nugget can be a new plot twist, or a missing character, or a little bit of truth about the human condition, or even some insight into Chaucer. Some people call writing like that, “being in the zone.” I believe the zone is there, and can be accessed on a regular, though slightly unpredictable, basis.
One more thing about deadlines. I think often of all my unfinished novels or ideas for novels or novellas, or story collections, and I worry about the ultimate deadline: death. So, just like in English class, I am motivated to get the words and ideas down before that final bell rings.
Editing Later
Perhaps this post is more about the effectiveness of writing through the block in a free way, rather than the old-fashioned hunt and peck method, with lots of white-out and notes in the margins, or the computer equivalent. There’s plenty of time for editing later. If you have a chance to get something down, do it.
I do love editing and rewriting when the page is no longer blank, and I admit to editing while I go, as well, but there usually comes a point when I need to push out those pesky words and revise them later.
How good is it?
Just like hearing your own signing voice from inside your head, it is sometimes considered impossible to judge your own work. Can you let go of self-judgment? Can you go back and fix mistakes, improve your point-making without saying “I suck, I’d better quit?” My belief is that if you have a calling to do something, give it a go. A calling to creativity is a precious gift.
Here’s a quote from one my favorite articles on the subject of writer’s block:
“In general, it's a good practice to initially treat all blocks as emotional noise, something you can work your way through. You can work under the assumption that Writer's Block is an imaginary beast, a beast you can banish by writing. At the same time, the rare work stoppages that you can't defeat with enthusiasm and discipline are almost certainly signals that something's amiss in your life, your work habits or your goals. In that case, you'd be wise to work under the assumption that Writer's Block is a real live monster that you ignore at your peril.”
By Bruce Holland Rogers, The Writer’s Store.
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New Mexico Authors
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Encyclopedia of authors associated with New Mexico, with links to library materials and author's websites New Mexico Authors - C
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https://abqlibrary.org/nmauthors/new-mexico-authors-C
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Cabeza de Baca, Fabiola
See Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert
Cabrera, Nicolas
Author of the bilingual poetry book Ecos Neomexicanos: Poesía de la Tierra del Encanto which won a 2019 New Mexico Book Award.
Cadieux, Charles L.
Longtime New Mexico resident. Author of The New Mexico Guide.
Caffey, David L.
Longtime New Mexico resident, especially Clovis where he served as vice president for instruction at Clovis Community College. Has served as director of UNM's Harwood Library and Museum in Taos, director Instructional Support Services at San Juan College in Farmington, and vice president for instruction at Clovis Community College. Author / editor of several works including Chasing the Santa Fe Ring : power and privilege in territorial New Mexico and Head for the High Country.
Cain, M.J.
Albuquerque. Author of articles, reports, and books spanning archaeology to public history, including Near Horizons : a weekender's guide to easy trips from Albuquerque.
Cajete, Gregory
Author and educator from Santa Clara Pueblo. Earned degrees from New Mexico Highlands University and the University of New Mexico, where he serves as director for the Native American Studies program. Often writes on ethnobotany and "culturally based science". Noted works: Native Science : natural laws of interdependence; editor of A People's Ecology : explorations in sustainable living.
Caldwell, Patrice
Portales. Longtime educator with Eastern New Mexico University including serving as Chancellor. Co-author of Thirty-Five Years of the Jack Williamson Lectureship, for which event she served as Chair.
Callan, Peter
Taos. Author of Prepare to Die!!! and Other Stuff Nobody Told You: a practical guide for dealing with the inevitable.
Calvert, Ellen Hasenecz
Santa Fe. Author of Pilgrim: Tales of a Traveling Cat and the children's book Nine Goldfish in David's Pond.
Calvin, Ross
(1889-?) Albuquerque. Doctorate in English philology at Harvard. Retired Episcopal minister, served as rector in churches in Silver City and Clovis. Author of River of the Sun : stories of the storied Gila and Sky Determines: an interpretation of the Southwest, some editions of which have illustrations by artist Peter Hurd.
Cameron, Julia
Artist, playwright, journalist, filmmaker, composer. Has lived around the United States, now of New Mexico. Teaches on art, inspiration, creativity, and spirituality around the world. Best known for The Artist's Way : a spiritual path to higher creativity which set records as a self-published work. Co-author of It's Never Too Late To Begin Again : discovering creativity and meaning at midlife and beyond. Author/co-author of many more books on art and creativity.
Camp, John
Santa Fe. Also writes as John Sanford. Under John Camp, author of the non-fiction books The Eye and the Heart and Plastic Surgery. Co-author (writing as John Sandford with spouse Michele Cook) of the Singular Menace series for Young Adults.
Camp, Lauren
Poet, teacher of creative writing. Recipient of the Dorset Prize. Author of several books of poetry including Took House and One Hundred Hungers and Turquoise Door which involves Mabel Dodge Luhan as a muse to explore the art, geography and history of northern New Mexico.
Campbell, Harlen
Santa Fe. Degrees from NMSU. Author of several novels including Monkey on a Chain, the first book in the series about Placitas outlaw/reluctant investigator Rainbow Porter.
Campbell, Jack M.
(1916-1999) John Moren Campbell. 21st Governor of New Mexico, serving two terms 1963-1967. Noted for urging increased spending on education and technological development, and increased focus on tourism. Pushed for and supported the building of the Taos Gorge Bridge over the Rio Grande. Author of Jack M. Campbell : the autobiography of New Mexico's first modern governor "as told to" his press secretary Maurice Trimmer and with Charles C. Poling.
Campbell, John Martin
(1927- ) Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, and Research Professor and Research Curator of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, at UNM. Photographer. Author of several works including The Great Houses of Chaco and The Prairie Schoolhouse.
Candela, Gregory Louis
Albuquerque. Poet with works in numerous and anthologies and publications. Author of the poetry collection Shallow-rooted Heart.
Candelaria, Jeffrey
Albuquerque native. Drummer, radio & television show host. Author of several works including the historical fiction Toro: The Naked Bull.
Candelaria, Nash
Santa Fe author of several historical family sagas set in northern NM: Not By the Sword won the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award & was a finalist for the Western Writers of America's Best Western Historical Novel. Memories of the Alhambra , Not by the Sword, & Inheritance of Strangers comprise his New Mexican trilogy. He has also written a novel set in Albuquerque, Leonor Park, & several short story collections, including The Day the Cisco Kid Shot John Wayne and Uncivil Rights and Other Stories.
Cardona, Barbara
Also writes as: Barbara Hughes, Barbara McCauley, Barbara McCauley Cardona. Truchas. Painter, poet. Author of several works including Small Mercies, about her sister's suicide.
Cargill, Jack
Degrees in history from UNM. Contributor to Labor in New Mexico : unions, strikes, and social history since 1881.
Carl, Glenys
Santa Fe. Grew up in Wales, moved to NM in 1991. Caregiver involved in end-of-life, palliative and long-term care for adults and children. Founder of Coming Home Connection, which coordinates volunteer delivery of in-home care in northern NM. Author of the book Hold My Hand, detailing her experiences caring for her adult son after his traumatic brain injury.
Carleton, Jetta
(1913-1999) Moved to Santa Fe in 1970, with her husband founded The Lightning Tree press. Author of the novels Clair de Lune and The Moonflower Vine.
Carmack, Amanda
Pen name of Santa Fe author Amanda McCabe who also writes as Amanda Allen and Laurel McKee. Under this name, author of the Elizabethan Mystery series.
Carnahan, Melody Sumner
Santa Fe. Poet, music composer, lyricist; writer for intermedia projects. Works in many journal. Author of numerous books including 13 Stories and In the Presence of My Enemies.
Carpenter, Cindy
Southern New Mexico. Author of Hatch Valley and Elephant Butte Dam for the Images of America Series. Also in that series, co-author (with Sherry Fletcher) of Truth or Consequences.
Carpenter, Ken
Native New Mexican, resident of Albuquerque. Longtime educator, retired from UNM. Author of his memoir, Borderlands Boy: Love, War and Peace in the Atomic Age.
Carpenter, Kim & Krickitt
Las Vegas couple who faced the challenge of remaining together after husband Krickitt suffered serious brain trauma and loss of memory after an auto accident. Subjects of the 2012 film The Vow. Authors of The Vow: the true events that inspired the movie.
Carpio, Myla Vicenti
Citizen of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, and is also Laguna and Isleta Pueblo. Professor at Arizona State University. Author of Indigenous Albuquerque.
Carr, A.A.
Aaron Albert Carr. Navajo / Laguna Pueblo. Film producer and director; author of Eye Killers, a Native American take on the traditional European vampire.
Carr, Debora L.
Albuquerque. Graphic artist. Author of You Don't Need a Passport to Move to New Mexico : a transplanted Easterner's humorous view of life in New Mexico.
Carrillo, Charlie
Charles M. Carrillo. Doctorate in anthropology from UNM. Noted, award-winning santero whose works are featured in many museums including the Smithsonian. Teaches and lectures on New Mexico devotional art. Author of several works including Saints of the Pueblos and Hispanic New Mexican pottery : evidence of craft specialization 1790-1890. Recipient of the 2006 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Carroll, Thomas Louis
Santa Fe. Runs a public relations company. Writer of screenplays, producer and director of videos for PBS. Author of the novel Young and Dumb: Year of Years.
Carson, David
Santa Fe. Choctaw. Co-author, with Jamie Sams, of the popular Medicine Cards book and deck. Author of Crossing Into Medicine Country: A Journey in Native American Healing.
Carson, Kit
(1809-1896) Christopher Houston Carson. Frontiersman, trapper, army officer, "Indian Fighter". Guide on Fremont's second and third Expeditions. As a military officer, involved in the Battle of Valverde. Though a storied character of the Frontier West, he is controversial for his interactions with Native Americans; while seeming to favor some tribes, serving as Agent to the Ute and Jicarilla Apaches and marrying a Cheyenne woman, he was involved in ruthless pacification campaigns against other tribes, notably the destruction of Navajo resources and driving them from their lands. Author of Kit Carson's Autobiography.
Carswell, Cally
Santa Fe. Independent writer, editor and radio reporter. Served as staff editor on High Country News. Writer of articles on climate science, ecology, land management, and environmental policy and politics for numerous publications including Scientific American and Science Magazine and Sierra magazine. Host of several podcasts including Hot and Dry.
Carter, Mary E.
Author of several books including the novel I, Sarah Steinway and the memoir A Non-Swimmer Considers Her Mikvah, both of which won New Mexico Book Awards.
Carter, Shannan L.
Longtime employee of the UNM Medical Center. Worked as a special assistant to the dean of the UNM School of Medicine. Co-author of The Daily Practice of Compassion : a history of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, its people, and its mission, 1964-2014.
Cartron, Jean-Luc E.
Born in France, earned his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of New Mexico, is now a research assistant professor at the University, and director of the Drylands Institute New Mexico office. Author/editor on several books on New Mexico flora and fauna, including A Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque and Raptors of New Mexico which won a 2011 New Mexico Book Award.
Cary, Steven J.
Chief naturalist for New Mexico State Parks. Author of Butterfly Landscapes of New Mexico and Accidental Argonaut, about naturalist historian Winslow Howard and his time in Territorial New Mexico.
Casale, Gloria
Albuquerque. Medical doctor with training in bioterrorism, consultant to Sandia Labs. Author of several mystery thrillers including Bioterror: the essential threat.
Casaus, Yvonne Williams
Mental Health Counselor and Play Therapist. Writes in the genres: spirituality, self-improvement, inspirational, and memoirs. Author of A Drop of Water: a spiritual journey.
Casey, Clyde
Roswell. Sculptor, western singer and former publisher of Western Art Beat. Author of a novel and several New Mexico cookbooks, including New Mexico Cooking : southwestern flavors of the past and present and Red or Green : New Mexico cuisine, which received a 2008 New Mexico Book Award.
Casillas, Michael
B.A. in history from Arizona State University, M.A. in history from UNM. Contributor to Labor in New Mexico : unions, strikes, and social history since 1881.
Cassell, Carol
Albuquerque. National leader in the field of sexuality, often appearing in media. Has served on the board of directors of numerous organizations. Author of numerous works including Why Knocked Up? and Put Passion First: Why Sexual Chemistry is the Key to Finding and Keeping a Lasting Love.
Casselle, Tania
Taos. Writes articles and short stories for periodicals; host of a literary radio chat show in northern New Mexico. Author of Insiders' Guide to Albuquerque.
Cast, Jessa
Albuquerque. Degree in psychology from New Mexico State University, M.B.A. from UNM Anderson. Writer/editor associated with several publications including Su Casa magazine and Santa Fe magazine.
Castillo, Ana
Anthony. Award winning poet, novelist, essayist, editor, playwright and translator. She has also contributed to numerous national magazines and periodicals. Author of several poetry collections and novels including Peel My Love Like an Onion and The Guardians, a suspense novel set along the Mexican-American border.
Castle, Linda Lea
Also writes as Innis Grace. Author of romance novels in inspirational, medieval, and American West genres. Author of the mystery Taos Chill.
Caswell, Kurt
Author of In the Sun's House: My Year Teaching on the Navajo Reservation based upon his experiences teaching in the Borrego Pass community of northwest New Mexico.
Cather, Willa
(1873-1947) Author noted for works about frontier life on the Great Plains. Noted for the novel Death Comes for the Archbishop, based upon the life of Archbishop Lamy. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I.
Caudill, Lena
Author of New Mexico Sun or Alaska Snow about her family's move from New Mexico to Alaska in the 1950s.
Cave, Dorothy
Roswell. Degrees in history and serves on the Board of Directors of the Historical Society of Southeast New Mexico. Consultant on historical documentaries. Author of several novels set in New Mexico including Four Trails to Valor and Mountains of the Blue Stone. Author of the WWII history Beyond Courage : one regiment against Japan, 1941-1945 and the biography God's Warrior: Father Albert Braun, OFM, 1889-1983 - Last of the Frontier Priests.
Celeskey, Matt
Natural history illustrator with works in numerous exhibits and publications. Exhibit designer at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Illustrator on Children of Time : evolution and the human story and The age of dinosaurs in New Mexico.
Cervantes, Jennifer
AKA: J.C. Cervantes. Professor at New Mexico State University; teaches writing and literature. Author of the children's book Tortilla Sun, which won a 2011 New Mexico Book Award. Author of The Storm Runner series, based upon Mayan mythology and set in New Mexico.
Chamberlain, Kathleen P.
Degree from UNM. Teacher of American Indian history at Eastern Michigan University. Author of several works on New Mexico history, including Victorio : Apache warrior and chief and In the Shadow of Billy the Kid : Susan McSween and the Lincoln County War.
Chambless, Philip
Grants. Full time turquoise prospector, lapidary and jewelry designer. Co-author of The Great American Turquoise Rush:1890–1910.
Chant, Elsie Ruth
Co-author, with Julia Keleher, of The Padre of Isleta: The Story of Father Anton Docher and Los Paisanos.
Chapman, Janet
Albuquerque. Technical writer; volunteers as a grant writer for nonprofit organizations. Co-author (with in-law Karen Barrie) of Kenneth Milton Chapman : a life dedicated to Indian arts and artists about her granduncle. Author of the novel Madcap Masquerade, set in 1920s Santa Fe.
Chapman, Kenneth M.
(1875-1968) Kenneth Milton Chapman. Santa Fe. Archaeologist who, after moving to Santa Fe in 1909, set to becoming an "art archaeologist" specializing in Native American art forms. Author of several core works including Decorative Arts of the Indians of the Southwest and Pueblo Indian Designs and The Pottery Of Santo Domingo Pueblo. Biography: Kenneth Chapman's Santa Fe: Artists and Archaeologists, 1907-1931: The Memoirs of Kenneth Chapman.
Chappell, R. Allen
Grew up in the Four Corners region, alongside the Navajo Nation. Author of the Navajo Nation mystery series following sleuths Charlie Yazzi and Thomas Begay.
Charland, Bill
AKA: William Charland. Silver City. Professor emeritus at Western New Mexico University. Writer of articles / columns for several publications including the Rocky Mountain News and The Christian Science Monitor. Author of several non-fiction books on careers, and novels including Tenuous State and The Heartland File.
Charles, Mrs. Tom
Alamogordo. Wife of White Sands National Monument First Custodian Tom Charles. Author of Tales of the Tularosa.
Charli
Pen name of Albuquerque author Charleen Richey. Author of a collection of autobiographical poetry, Born From Fire.
Charnas, Suzy McKee
(1939-2023) Albuquerque author, instructor at UNM. Winner of 1994 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature & both the Hugo & Nebula Awards; author of science fiction, adult fantasy and young adult fantasy novels, including The Vampire Tapestry (set partially in Albuquerque & at the Santa Fe Opera). She is included in A Very Large Array: New Mexico Science Fiction and Fantasy and has written a memoir, My Father's Ghost: the Return of My Old Man & Other Second Chances. Also writes as Rebecca Brand.
Charnov, Eric L.
Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) of Biology at the University of New Mexico. Evolutionary ecologist. MacArthur Fellow and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Author of Life History Invariants and The Theory of Sex Allocation.
Chavez, Calvin
Degree in civil engineering from New Mexico State University; master's degree in water resources administration from UNM. Longterm staffer with the Office of the State Engineer including serving as District Manager in Las Cruces. Author of numerous technical papers and articles, contributor to One Hundred Years of Water Wars in New Mexico, 1912-2012.
Chavez, Carmela Bernadette
Albuquerque. Graduate of UNM, law degree from Harvard. Worked as a lawyer in Albuquerque, including serving as a public defender, social security disability representative, and children's advocate. Author of her memoir, New Mexico Woman.
Chavez, Denise
Las Cruces native, former Albuquerque novelist, journalist, actress, playwright, poet, 1995 winner of Governor's Award for Excellence & winner of a 1995 Before Columbus/American Book Award for her novel Face of an Angel. She has also written The Last of the Menu Girls & the acclaimed novel, Loving Pedro Infante. Compiler of Shattering the Myth: Plays by Hispanic Women.
Chavez, Fray Angelico
(Very occasionally as "Angelica".) (1910-1996) 12th-generation New Mexiian born at Wagon Mound, became the first native New Mexican Franciscan missionary. Painter, translator, historical novelist, historian, poet. Author of Cantares: Canticles & Poems of Youth, 1925-1932 and La Conquistadora: the Autobiography of an Ancient Statue and The Missions of New Mexico 1776 and Chavez, A Distinctive American Clan of New Mexico and My Penitente Land: reflections on Spanish New Mexico and Origins of New Mexico Families. Author of several poetry and short story collections.
Chavez, Lisa D.
Professor of Creative Writing at UNM. Poetry and essays in publications and anthologies including Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing. Author of the poetry collections Destruction Bay and In An Angry Season.
Chavez, Ronald P.
(1936-2014) Poet, novelist, actor. Born in the valley of Puerto de Luna, N.M., on the banks of the Pecos River from a family dating back to the Oñate Expedition of 1598; then resident of Taos. Author of Time of Triumph : stories and selected poems : English/Español and Winds of Wildfire.
Chavez, Thomas E.
Historian. Director and Curator of the Palace of the Governors for over 20 years. Former director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Many works on regional history, including New Mexico: Past and Future and An Illustrated History of New Mexico. Many awards, including from the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities.
Chavez, Tibo J. (Sr.)
(1912-1991) Served as New Mexico State Senator and Lieutenant Governor. Member of the UNM Board of Regents; President of the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents. Author of New Mexican Folklore of the Rio Abajo; co-author of El Rio Abajo.
Chef Johnny Vee
See John Vollertsen
Chenault, La'Quinia
Retired army veteran. Criminal justice degree from the University of Washington. Female cannabis entrepreneur. Author of Grow-Ops : Manuscript to Wealth.
Chevalier, Jaima
Native of Santa Fe. Director and producer on documentary films. Author of articles on New Mexico. Co-author of Nativo; author of La Conquistadora, Unveiling the History of a Six Hundred Year Old Religious Icon and the biography FRINGE: Maria Benitez’s Flamenco Enchantment.
Chicago, Judy
Moved to Belen in 1991. Internationally known feminist and multi-media artist including embroidery, stained glass, airbrush, and wood carving, and watercolors. Organizer of the collective-feminist project The Dinner Party. Author of numerous books including The Dinner Party and Through the Flower : my struggle as a woman artist and Beyond the Flower :the autobiography of a feminist artist.
Childs, Mark C.
Professor of Architecture at UNM; Director of the Urban and Regional Design Certificate Program Architect and planner specializing in urban design, and public artist. Author of several books including Squares : a public place design guide for urbanists and Urban Composition: Designing Community Through Urban Design which won the 2013 ERDA Great Places Award.
Chilton, Noël
Albuquerque native. Translator / illustrator of several children's books including Tia's Tamales and The Pancake Stories.
Choc, Wes
Grew up in Albuquerque. Author of Just Dust: An Improbable Marine's Vietnam Story.
Chodosh, Janie
Santa Fe. Has served as education director for the state Audubon Society and as a teacher. Author of the Young Adult novel Death Spiral: a Faith Flores science mystery set in Philadelphia.
Chrisco, Lacey
Student at UNM in Studio Arts and Linguistics. Served as Assistant Curator of Art at Albuquerque Museum. Co-author, with Josie Lopez and Andrew Connors, of Common Ground: Albuquerque Museum Art Collection.
Christie, Pamela
Santa Fe. Author of historical mysteries set in colonial New Mexico, including The King's Lizard and Dead Lizard's Dance.
Chuculate, Eddie
Northern New Mexico. Creek/Cherokee. Author of a collection of linked short stories, Cheyenne Madonna.
Church, Fermor S.
Los Alamos & Santa Fe. Husband to Peggy Pond Church. Co-author with his wife of When Los Alamos Was A Ranch School : historical profile; supplied maps for Let's Explore Indian Villages, Past and Present: tour guide for Santa Fe area.
Church, Peggy Pond
(1903-1986) Margaret Pond Church. Watrous-born poet and author. Best known for The House at Otowi Bridge : the story of Edith Warner and Los Alamos. Influential native New Mexico poet; published 8 volumes of poetry, including The Ripened Fields : fifteen sonnets of a marriage. Author of several works for young people including The Burro of Angelitos and the bilingual book Shoes for the Santo Nino which was adapted into a children's opera. Received the Governor's Award for Excellence and Achievement in the Arts and Literature in 1984. Named a Santa Fe Living Treasure in 1986. A member of the Hemlock Society, she took her own life when her quality of life declined due to loss of hearing and sight.
State Historian webpage on Peggy Pond Church
Ciancio, Lorraine Lener
Taos. Writer of articles for local periodicals. Poems and essays published in numerous anthologies and literary reviews. Longtime editor of Chokecherries, the annual anthology of the SOMOS literary society in Taos. Curated Right to Write programs sponsored by PEN America. Author of the essay collection From Salt to Sage.
Cillis, Daniel R.
Lives in New York and New Mexico; has taught at UNM. Author of the novel Statehood of Affairs about New Mexico statehood. Author of World War I New Mexico.
Ciotola, Nicholas P.
Graduate of UNM. A curator at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, and teaches Italian American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Author of Italians in Albuquerque for the Images of America series.
Civello, Teresa
Writes in Flash Fiction Memoir, Auto-Fiction Memoir. Works featured in several anthologies.
Claffey, Tom
Santa Fe. Attended New Mexico Military Institute, graduated West Point, became an Air Force pilot. Author of numerous works, many of them involving long-distance truck drivers, including Searching for C.W. McCall and Bloomfield to Baghdad.
Clampitt, Max A.
Hobbs. Long-time service with the Hobbs Post Office, and 20 years as a city commissioner and mayor. Writer for the Hobbs News Sun. Author of Hobbs and Lea County for the Images of America series.
Clark, Ann Nolan
(1896-1995) Born in Las Vegas New Mexico. Graduate of New Mexico Normal School (later Highlands University) and taught English there. For many years taught reading at Tesuque Pueblo, writing schoolbooks for the purpose; student stories and her experiences during that time are collected into In My Mother's House which was named a Caldecott Honor book in 1942. Author of 15 books for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Wrote several books about her travels in Latin America, including the Newbery Medal winner Secret of the Andes, and numerous books about Native Americans in the Southwest. Author of These Were the Valiant: A Collection of New Mexico Profiles.
Clark, Ira G.
(1909-?) Mesilla Park. Professor Emeritus of History at NMSU. Served as state assistant supervisor of the Emergency Farm Labor Program during World War II. Author of several works about New Mexico, including Water in New Mexico : a history of its management and use and Then Came the Railroads; the century from steam to diesel in the Southwest.
Clark, Kristen
Tijeras, with property recently certified in the National Wildlife Federation’s Garden for Wildlife program. Author of Favorite Birds of New Mexico: Treasures of the Land of Enchantment and Becoming a Woman of Worth: Creating a More Confident You.
Clark, R. Douglas
Chimayo. Small business entrepreneur, musician. Author of the novels American Odyssey and Dangerous Crossing.
Clark, Stephen D.
Silver City. Author of the book New Mexico Confidential: 30 Years of Snooping in Obscure Places, about treasure tales in the Silver City/Pinos Altos area.
Clary, David A.
Teacher of history at Eastern New Mexico University at Roswell. Former chief historian of the U.S. Forest Service. Author of numerous books and other publications on military and scientific history including Eagles and Empire : the United States, Mexico, and the struggle for a continent and Rocket man : the life and legends of Robert H. Goddard, American pioneer of space flight.
Classon, Carrie
Los Alamos. Author of a weekly column carried by numerous newspapers and featured on National Public Radio. Author of Blue Yarn: A Memoir About Loss, Letting Go, and What Happens Next.
Claussen, Catalina
Silver City; graduate of Western New Mexico University. Teacher; co-founder of the Aldo Leopold Charter School. Poet. Author of Young Adult novels set in the Mimbres area including Diamonds at Dusk and Diamonds at Dawn , and the dystopian science fiction novel Knocking on Heaven's Door.
Clawson, Richard P.
Santa Fe. Christmas designer; has created decorations and ornaments for the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and the White House Christmas tree. Co-author, with Jann Arrington Wolcott, of Christmas Celebration: Santa Fe Traditions, Foods & Crafts.
Clayton, Joan
AKA: Joan Foster Clayton. (1928-2020). Born in Capitan, grew up in Melrose, then lifelong resident of Portales. Degree in education from Eastern New Mexico University, taught school in Texico and Portales. Religion columnist for the Portales News Tribune for many years. Author of nearly 500 articles in numerous periodicals and anthologies; published numerous times in Chicken Soup for the Soul. Author of several books of inspirational writings including Life is Delicious! and Peas in a Pod and Cheer Through the Year: A Collection of Inspirational Articles and Stories of Encouragement for the Heart.
Clayton, Juliana
AKA: Juliana Hoolihan Clayton, J. Hoolihan Clayton. Taos. Author of Commendable Discretion: a Detective Novel of the Old West.
Cleaveland, Agnes Morley
(1874-1958) Best known for her book No Life For a Lady, wherein she speaks of her childhood growing up in northern New Mexico. Born and raised in Cimarron, she encountered many of the famous and infamous people who traveled through there. Her childhood friend was Fred Lambert, son of St. James Hotel operator Henry Lambert and later a member of the New Mexico Mounted Police. She details more about Fred Lambert and Cimarron in her book Satan's Paradise. Biography: Open Range : the life of Agnes Morley Cleaveland by Darlis A. Miller.
Cleaveland, Alice Ann
(1918-2001) Graduated from UNM. Taught New Mexico history in grade school for many years; aided in the writing of the Albuquerque Public Schools curriculum guide on world cultures. Co-author, with Frank D. Reeve, of New Mexico: Land of Many Cultures.
Cleaveland, Norman
(1901-1997) Author, athlete, engineer. Grandson of rancher Ada McPherson Morley, son of author Agnes Morley Cleaveland; grew up partly on the family ranch near Datil. Competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics as a rugby player. After retiring from a career in mining, wrote several books about his family's role in New Mexico's history including (with George Fitzpatrick) The Morleys - Young Upstarts on the Western Frontier and edited a volume which included his grandmother's earlier publication about healer Francis Schlatter into the book The Healer: the story of Francis Schlatter. Cleaveland also insisted the Santa Fe Ring had killed his grandfather.
Clifton, Ted
Lived for many years in New Mexico, mostly Las Cruces, now of Denver. Recipient of several awards including the CIPA EVVY Award. Author of numerous mysteries set in New Mexico and Colorado including the Pacheco & Chino series, the Muckraker series, and the Vincent Malone series.
Cline, Lynn
Santa Fe. Former newspaper food editor, article writer on food for many publications including The New York Times and Sunset and New Mexico magazine. Author of Literary pilgrims : the Santa Fe and Taos writers' colonies, 1917-1950 and Romantic days and nights in Santa Fe : romantic diversions in and around the city and The Maverick Cookbook: Iconic Recipes & Tales from New Mexico.
Coan, Charles F.
AKA: C.F. Coan. (1886-1928) Charles Florus Coan. Historian. Author of the 3-volume A History of New Mexico (1925) which was released in several different editions, and several other works on New Mexico history.
Coats, Yvonne
Albuquerque author of fantasy short stories. Contributor to Pandora's Closet.
Cobb, Allison
Born in Los Alamos. Works for the Environmental Defense Fund. Works in numerous periodicals including Best American Poetry and Denver Quarterly. Author of After We All Died and Plastic: an autobiography which examines consumer culture, climate change, and nuclear technology.
Cobos, Rubén
(1911-2010) Albuquerque. Folklorist, educator. Taught at Stanford University, New Mexico Highlands University, and UNM where he was Professor Emeritus. Honorary doctorates from Colorado College and New Mexico Highlands University. Inductee of the New Mexico Folklore Hall of Fame; his folklore collection posthumously donated to UNM. Editor/translator; author of many articles; best known for A Dictionary of New Mexico & Southern Colorado Spanish and Refranes: Southwestern Spanish proverbs.
Coburn, Clayton Dorn
High Rolls New Mexico. Author, with illustrator Sharon Dorn Gill, of Had To Take A Break: bicycling misadventures and Had To Take Another Break: more bicycling misadventures.
Coca, Benjamin
(1934-2010) Montezuma, born in Las Vegas New Mexico. Graduated Las Vegas High School; Masters from New Mexico Highlands University. Ph.D. from UNM. Teacher in Milagro and for Mora Independent Schools; served as principal in Socorro. Author of numerous books regarding the Hispanic cultural experience in New Mexico including Del Pasado al Presente and Antecedents and Linguistic Variations in the Lexicon of Spanish Speaking New Mexicans.
Cochran, Gregory
Albuquerque. Physicist, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah. Co-author of The 10,000 Year Explosion : how civilization accelerated human evolution.
Coe, George W.
(1856-1941) Involved with the Lincoln County War as a member of the Regulators, riding with Billy the Kid. Author of Frontier Fighter : The Autobiography of George W. Coe, who Fought and Rode with Billy the Kid.
Coe, Wilbur
(1893-1968) Glencoe. Grew up on the Coe Ranch which his, the family being some of the first settlers to arrive in New Mexico along the Santa Fe Trail. Famly members involved in the Lincoln County War. Author of Ranch On the Ruidoso: The Story of a Pioneer Family in New Mexico, 1871-1968.
Coffeen, Kelley
Las Cruces, professor at New Mexico State University. Freelance food writer. Author of several cookbooks including 200 Easy Mexican Recipes and Great College Cookbook of the Southwest.
Coggan, Catherine
Santa Fe. Writer of articles for numerous publications and websites. Poet. Author of New Mexico Family Adventure Guide.
Coggeshall, Nancy
Reserve New Mexico. Writer of articles and book reviews for various publications, including serving as a contributing writer to Harrowsmith. Author of Gila Country Legend: The Life and Times of Quentin Hulse.
Cohen, Amy Bess
Retired law teacher. Author of two novels based upon the history of her Jewish family in New Mexico, Santa Fe Love Song and Pacific Street
Coke, Van Deren
(1921-2004) Frank Van Deren Coke, F. Van Deren Coke. Albuquerque. Photographer and scholar. Founding Director of the University of New Mexico Art Museum; later served as the director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's photography department. Studied with Ansel Adams. Author of Taos and Santa Fe : the artist's environment, 1882-1942 and Photography in New Mexico. Edited works on several New Mexico artists. His book collection is housed in the Van Deren and Joan Coke Library at the University of New Mexico Art Museum. Buried in Santa Fe National Cemetery.
Cole, A. Thomas
Retired lawyer. Author of Restoring the Pitchfork Ranch : How Healing a Southwest Oasis Holds Promise for Our Endangered Land about his family's ongoing efforts at bringing back a homestead ranch south of Silver City.
Cole, Harriet
Grew up in Los Alamos, now of Cedar Crest. Journalist, storyteller. Author of a collection of Norse folk and fairy tales for children, Fifteen Pounds of Muscle and Bounce.
Coleman, Anita Scott
(1890-1960) Noted early African-American, Afro-Hispanic writer of the Harlem Literary Renaissance period. Born in Mexico, daughter of a Buffalo Soldier and a woman born into slavery. Raised on a ranch near Silver City New Mexico. Graduate of the New Mexico Teachers College, worked as a teacher before becoming a writer. Winner of awards including the Robert Browning Poetry Contest. Author of short stories, silent film scenarios, and a children's book, The Singing Bells; author of the novel Unfinished Masterpiece. Stories and essays published in national publications including Half-Century Magazine and The Crisis and The Pittsburgh Courier. Author of numerous poetry collections including Small Wisdom and Reason for Singing. Two collections of her writing were published in 2008. Subject of a New Mexico State Historic Marker at the Silver City Visitor Center.
Coleman, Elaine Pinkerton
Santa Fe. Author of Santa Fe on Foot and The Santa Fe Trail By Bicycle.
Coleman, Finnie D.
Associate Professor of English at the University of New Mexico. Author of Sutton E. Griggs and the Struggle against White Supremacy.
Coleman, Jane Candia
Rodeo New Mexico. Storyteller, historian, poet. Winner of numerous awards including five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, three-time winner of the Western Heritage Award, two-time winner of the Spur Award, and winner of the Willa Award (named for Willa Cather). Author of the poetry collection No Roof But Sky. Author of the biographical travel book Shadows in My Hands: a Southwestern odyssey. Author of numerous novels including The O'Keefe Empire and Doc Holliday's Woman.
Colenda, Brinn
Lives part time in Angel Fire. Retired Air Force officer. Author of several books in the Callahan Family Sage and the thriller Chita Quest which won a New Mexico Book Award for 2014.
Collier, John Jr.
(1913-1992) Anthropologist, noted for advances in visual anthropology especially in regards to photography. Grew up in Taos and California; resided in Taos part-time. Photographs archived at the Maxwell Museum at UNM. Author of several books including Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method and Patterns and Ceremonials of the Indians of the Southwest. Book: Photographing Navajos : John Collier, Jr., on the reservation, 1948-1953.
Colligan, John B.
(1925-2005) John Borradaile Colligan. Lived for some years in Las Cruces. Genealogist and historian; author of several books on Southwest history including The Juan Paez Hurtado Expedition.
Collignon, Rick
Longtime resident of northern New Mexico, now in Santa Fe. Author of several novels set in "Guadalupe, New Mexico", including Perdido and The journal of Antonio Montoya and A santo in the image of Cristóbal Garcia.
Collins, Andrew
Former longtime resident of New Mexico. Journalist; author of many articles on gay travel. Contributor to a variety of publications including New Mexico Journey and New Mexico Magazine. Co-author of Fodor's New Mexico.
Collins, G.G.
Santa Fe. Narrative journalist. Author of Paranormal Mysteries, Cozy Mysteries, Teen & YA Fiction. Author of the mystery series about Santa Fe editor Taylor Browning, and the Rachel Blackstone "Reluctant Medium" series.
Comer, Greg
Placitas. Author of the historical novel Winner Take None.
Conley, Sunny
Las Cruces. Columnist for the Las Cruces Bulletin. Does food commentary for NPR; host and co-producer of the PBS pilot program "Hot on the Trail". Appears on regional and national cable programs. Author of Cafe Hopping in the Southwest: 100 Charming Places to Eat Plus Tips for Tourists and New Mexico Farms & Ranches: Folks & Fixin's. Author of recipe books including A Bite of History: Recipes & Tales from the Mesilla Valley.
Conlon, Carole
Albuquerque. Author of Easy Steps to Awaken & Develop Your Intuition and several books about the LifeWeaving Dowsing System.
Conn, Stephen
Las Cruces. Actor, artist, writer, and publisher. Studied theater at New Mexico State University; graduate of St. John's College. Writer and director of the documentary “Minot (Or ‘My Uncle, The Author’)”. Creator of several comic strips. Author of the graphic novel Writer Fighter.
Connell, Evan S.
AKA: Evan S. Connell Jr. (1924-2013) Santa Fe. Novelist, poet, short story author. Numerous awards; nominated for the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement. Numerous works, including the novels Mr. Bridge and Mrs. Bridge, which were the basis for the movie Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Noted for the biography Son of the Morning Star : Custer and the Little Bighorn.
Conniff, Michael
Ph.D. in Latin American studies from Stanford. Teacher at UNM from 1975-1990. During that time, author / co-author of Black Labor on a White Canal: Panama, 1904-1981 and Modern Brazil: Elites and Masses in Comparative Perspective. Co-author of A New History of Modern Latin America.
Connors, Andrew L.
Served as Assistant Curator at the National Museum of American Art; Curator at the Albuquerque Museum. Contributor to Treasures on New Mexico trails : discover New Deal art and architecture and Public art and architecture in New Mexico 1933-1943 : a guide to the New Deal legacy.
Connors, Phillip
AKA: Phil Connors. Lives "in the Mexican-American borderlands (Silver City)." Writer for national periodicals including Harper's. Best known for Fire Season: Field Notes From a Wilderness Lookout, which won a National Outdoor Book Award, and the sequel A Song for the River about his experiences as a summer fire lookout in the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico. Author of a book about his brother's suicide, All the Wrong Places : a life lost and found.
Conron, John P.
Santa Fe architect and interior design shop owner. Author of Socorro: A Historic Survey.
Contreras, Carlos
Born and raised in Albuquerque. Activist, poet. Kellogg Foundation Fellow and two-time National Poetry Slam Champion. Co-creator of JustWrite, a non-profit organization geared toward creative expression and access to the arts for populations who lack access. Author of a collection of his poems, Time Served.
Contreras, Kathlena L.
Albuquerque. Author of numerous novels, mostly for Young Adults, mostly fantasy, including Blackthorne and Familiar Magic. Also writes as K. Lynn Bay.
Contreras, Russell
Rio Rancho. Journalist who's worked for The Associated Press, the Boston Globe, and the Albuquerque Journal.
Convery, Janice
Albuquerque. Author of the novelization of the film "Boys on the Side"; author of a novel about boat travel, Dogs in the Sun.
Cook, James H.
(1857-?) AKA: "Captain Jim". Big game hunter, scout, guide. Involved in some of the first cattle drives. Assisted paleontologist O.C. March in searching for fossils. Helped establish a ranch near Alma; organized the first stockgrowers' association in New Mexico and directed the first general cattle roundup in the region. Author of Fifty Years on the Old Frontier : Cowboy, Hunter, Guide, Scout, and Ranchman.
Cook, Mary Jean Straw
Lifelong resident of Santa Fe. Organ and harpsichord soloist for the Orchestra of Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Fostered the restoration of the Loretto Chapel's Debain Harmonium. Founder of Friends of the Palace of the Governors. Author/editor of several works about Santa Fe history, including Loretto : the sisters and their Santa Fe chapel and Doña Tules : Santa Fe's courtesan and gambler.
Cook, Mary Lou
Santa Fe. Co-author, with Diane Fisher and Victoria Frigo, of You Can Help Someone Who's Grieving: a how-to healing handbook.
Cook, Michele
Santa Fe. Co-author, with spouse John Camp writing as John Sandford, of the bestselling Singular Menace series for Young Adults.
Cooke, Maureen
M.A. in English from UNM. Has taught writing in community colleges around New Mexico. Co-produced/wrote, with husband Jonathan Harnisch, the award-winning short film On the Bus.
Cooper, Martha Schumann
Southwest New Mexico program manager for the Nature Conservancy. Contributor to First & Wildest : The Gila Wilderness at 100.
Cooper, Mary Lou
Santa Fe. Print and radio journalist, including work at KSFR Public Radio in Santa Fe. Recipient of several journalism awards including from the Society of Professional Journalists and from the National Federation of Press Women. Holds fiction and screenwriting certificates from the University of Washington.
Cooper, Valda
(1915-2008) Journalist. Worked for the Santa Fe New Mexican, then served for 40 years as managing editor for The Farmington Times. First woman managing editor of any daily newspaper in New Mexico. Served as president of the New Mexico Press Association, the first female president of the New Mexico Associated Press Managing Editors Association, and the president of the New Mexico Press Women. Numerous awards, including the NM Press Association Hall of Fame.
Cooper, Walter
Santa Fe. Formerly in advertising. Author/illustrator. Author of Shards: Restoring the Shattered Spirit and Briefs: A Virile Display of Verse Witty and Gay and Unbuttoned: Gay Life in the Santa Fe Arts Scene.
Copeland, Tom
Grew up in southeastern New Mexico. Two degrees from Purdue University in Organizational Management. Author of My War & Welcome to It about his experiences in Vietnam and the resultant PTSD.
Corbin, Alice
See Alice Corbin Henderson
Cordero, Marie A.
Native of Cochiti Pueblo. On the staff at Keres Children's Learning Center. Has been involved in baseball her entire life, with a baseball family history spanning five generations. Co-author of New Mexico's Pueblo Baseball League.
Córdova, G. Benito
Espanola. Professor emeritus in anthropology at University of New Mexico Gallup. Author of the novel Big Dreams and Dark Secrets in Chimayό.
Córdova, Kathryn M.
El Prado. Retired public-school teacher; part-time instructor at the Taos and Los Alamos branches of UNM where she helped establish an associate program in communications and journalism. Free-lance writer for newspapers and magazines. Numerous awards including the Governor's Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women. Author of several books including ¡Concha! : Concha Ortiz y Pino, matriarch of a 300-year-old New Mexico legacy.
Córdova, Lorenzo de
Córdova, New Mexico. Author of a book about the penitentes, Echoes of the Flute.
Corey, James S.A.
Pen name of writing team Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Known for The Expanse series, which is the basis for the television series of the same name. New York Times bestselling author.
Author's website
Cormier, Steve
Degree in history from Wichita State University. Ph.D in American Studies from UNM and taught at UNM, including developing and teaching the first course in ranch history and culture there. Taught history at Albuquerque Technical-Vocational Institute and New Mexico Community College. Touring folk musician. Contributor to Essays in twentieth-century New Mexico history and The multicultural Southwest : a reader.
Cormier, Zachary R.
Albuquerque. Lawyer. Degree in business administration from UNM. Author of the paranormal thriller novel They Are Only Men about two generations of sheriffs in rural New Mexico.
Correia, David
Associate professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico. Activist, frequent commentator on police reform in Albuquerque. Author of Properties of Violence: Law and Land Grant Struggle in Northern New Mexico and Police: a Field Guide.
Cougar, Leyton Jay
Director of the nonprofit wolf rescue ranch Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary near Ramah New Mexico. Co-author, with Elizabeth Parr, of A Wolf and His Man : the true story of a wolf with a mission and the man he chose to be his voice.
Coulter, Lane
Former professor of jewelry and metalwork at the Institute of American Indian Art and the University of Oklahoma. Co-owner of an antique store in Santa Fe. Co-author of New Mexican Tinwork, 1840-1940; editor of Navajo Saddle Blankets : textiles to ride in the American West; contributor to Converging Streams : art of the Hispanic and Native American Southwest.
Counsell, Steven Edwin
Santa Fe. Artist, poet. Author of Illuminations: The Geography of the Imagination.
Court, Darren
Director and curator of the White Sands Missile Range Museum. Author of White Sands Missile Range for the Images of America series.
Covelli-Hunt, Robyn
Santa Fe. Degrees in creative writing. Author / co-author of several poetry collections including The Shape of Caught Water.
Cowan, George A.
(1920-2012) Physical chemist with doctorate from Carnegie Institute of Technology; helped build the first atomic bomb, detect the first Soviet nuclear explosion, and test the first hydrogen bomb. Worked for 39 years at Los Alamos Labs. Served on the White House council of science advisers. Recipient of the Enrico Fermi Award, the E.O. Lawrence Award, the Robert H. Goddard Award, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory Medal. Helped found the Santa Fe Institute. Author of his memoirs, Manhattan Project to the Santa Fe Institute.
Cowan, Kyle T.
Born and raised in Albuquerque. Actor with roles in numerous productions including Better Caul Saul and Manhattan. Writer, Director, Producer, Editor, and Star of the indie feature film Camouflage. Author of the Young Adult novel Sunshine is Forever which deals with teen depression.
Cox, Charly
Author of the mystery series about Albuquerque detective Alyssa Wyatt.
Cox, Euola W.
(1929-2000) Master of Arts and Doctorate in Education from UNM. Served for 25 years in the Albuquerque Public Schools as teacher, counselor, and principal. Served as Professor of Education and Liberal Arts at Eastern New Mexico University, retiring as Professor Emeritus. Provided counseling and educational seminars; writer of articles on education. Co-author, with Barbara Richardson, of Noteworthy Black Women of New Mexico : Past and Present.
Cozad, James Tacy
Northern New Mexico. House carpenter, engineer, professor of mathematics. Author of Stormfront, a thriller set in New Mexico.
Cozzens, Gary
New Mexico native. Degrees from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. Has served as president of the Lincoln County Historical Society. Author of several works on New Mexico history, including Tres Ritos: a history of Three Rivers New Mexico and Nogal Mesa: a history of kivas and ranchers in Lincoln County.
Cozzone, Chris
Freelance writer, photographer, and historian. Has run NewMexicoBoxing.com since 2000. Work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and on websites. Lives in Las Vegas Nevada and Albuquerque. Co-author, with Jim Boggio, of Boxing in New Mexico, 1868-1940.
Craig, Emma
Pen name of Roswell author Alice Duncan. Romance novels including Cooking Up Trouble and Gabriel's Fate.
Craig, Eric Michael
Albuquerque area author of science fiction and political thrillers including the WIngs of Earth series.
Crane, Frances
(1890-1981) Taos & Santa Fe. Noted mystery author and reviewer; writer of articles for periodicals including The New Yorker. Moved to Taos in the 1940s, using the setting as the inspiration for the first book in her mystery series featuring Pat and Jean Abbott, The Turquoise Shop, in the fictional town of "Santa Maria New Mexico". The series continued over several dozen titles, with some others set in New Mexico but also New Orleans and San Francisco; the series was the basis for a radio program, Abbott Mysteries, that ran 1945-1947, and another entitled Adventures of the Abbotts, 1954-55. The first book in the series features a character based upon Mabel Dodge Luhan.
Crane, Leo
(1881- ?) Served as Indian Agent at Keams Canyon for the Hopi and Navajo Tribes, then as agent for the Pueblo Tribes of New Mexico. Later transferred to the Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota. Served as guide and ranger at the Boulder Canyon Dam. Author of Indians of the Enchanted Desert and Desert Drums: The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, 1540-1928.
Crawford, "Captain Jack"
(1847-1917) John Wallace Crawford. Arrived in New Mexico in the 1880s, serving as a scout for the military. Served as post trader at Ft. Craig and as a special agent for the Indian Bureau. Took up ranching at San Marcial. Wrote several books, including The Poet Scout (1879), from which he took a stage name while appearing with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. Biography: Captain Jack Crawford : buckskin poet, scout, and showman by Darlis A. Miller.
Crawford, Jan
Former owner of a Santa Fe fishing store; founder and past president of Sangre de Cristo Fly Fishers. Contributor to Fly Fishing in Northern New Mexico.
Crawford, John
(1940-2019) Albuquerque. Editor, scholar, writer, publisher, activist, and teacher. Professor emeritus at UNM. General editor of the Bedford Anthology of World Literature and a contributing editor to Oxford’s American Working-Class Literature. Publisher at West End Press.
Crawford, Rosemary
(1933-2021) Dixon. Journalist, actress. Spouse of Stanley Crawford. Playwright, primarily for children, with works performed across northern New Mexico including The Mad King of Chalupa.
Crawford, Stanley
Dixon farmer. Author of several novels including Petroleum Man and Village; a book of essays, The River in Winter; and a popular book about his farming life, A Garlic Testament : seasons on a small New Mexico farm with the 2019 followup THE GARLIC PAPERS: a small garlic farm in the age of global vampires.
Crawford, Tom
(1939-2018) Poet and teacher who spent much of his life in the Pacific Northwest before moving to Santa Fe. Author of several poetry collections including The Names of Birds and If It Weren't for Trees.
Crews, Judson
(1917-2010) Taos poet, editor, and bookstore owner. Also operated a small publishing company. Wrote under various pseudonyms. Friend to Henry Miller.
Crichton, Kyle S.
(1896-1960) Albuquerque. Moved to New Mexico due to ill health; during his time there worked as a journalist and was active in politics, including serving as manager of the Albuquerque Civic Council. Moved to New York, working with Scribner's and Collier's Weekly. Author of numerous works including a biography of the Marx Brothers. Author of several works about New Mexico including Law and Order, Ltd. - The Rousing Life of Elfego Baca of New Mexico and the novel Proud People.
Crocchiola, Stanley Francis Louis
AKA: F. Stanley, Frank Stanley, Father Stanley, Louis Crocchiola. (1908-1996) Ordained priest who moved to the Southwest with tuberculosis in the 1940s. Became interested in local history and wrote over 190 pamphlet histories of small New Mexico and Texas towns. Noted for a distinctive technique of gathering together newspaper articles, local legends, and reminiscences - as much hearsay as history. The distinctive yellow booklets are to be found in many regional history collections. Author of Desperados of New Mexico, detailing seventeen New Mexico outlaws.
Crocker, Jack
Silver City. Poet, songwriter. PhD in English. Professor of literature and creative writing at several universities. Has served as Vice President of Academic Affairs at Western New Mexico University. Author of the poetry collection The Last Resort. Co-Poet Laureate (with Beate Sigriddaughter) of Silver City 2017-2019.
Crosby, Thelma
(1900-1985) Roswell, lived on a ranch with her husband "Wild Horse Bob" Crosby, a professional rodeo cowboy. Author, with Eve Ball, of Bob Crosby: world champion cowboy.
Crosno, Maude Davis
(1904-2003) Albuquerque. Masters from UNM, teacher in the Albuquerque Public School System. Artist, historian, award-winning poet. Co-author, with Charlie Scott Masters, of Discovering New Mexico.
Cross, Mark H.
Santa Fe. Degree in American History. Has worked for Santa Fe public schools, written book reviews for The New Mexican, and worked as a proofreader and editor for the New Mexico Legislature. Compiler of Encyclopedia of Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico.
Crowder, Les
Beekeeper, co-author (with his wife Heather Harrell) of Top-bar beekeeping : organic practices for honeybee health. Many New Mexico beekeepers use hives based upon his designs.
Crown, Patricia L.
Leslie Spier Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UNM. Editor of several works on archaeology including The House of the Cylinder Jars: Room 28 in Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon.
Crumpler, Larry S.
Albuquerque. Research curator of Volcanology and Space Science at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Member of NASA's Mars Perseverance rover mission team. Author of Missions to Mars: A New Era of Rover and Spacecraft Discovery on the Red Planet.
Crumpton, Kit
Degrees in computer science from NMSU. Software, systems, and project engineer. Author of Please Send Ketchup: WWII Letters from a B-29. Author of the historical novels The Fading of Kimberly and The Fading of Lloyd.
Cullen, Frank
Edgewood. Degree in Politics and Urban Affairs. Co-founder, with Donald McNeilly, of the American Vaudeville Museum; with McNeilly co-published the Vaudeville Times. The duo co-wrote Vaudeville, Old & New: an Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America and the Porridge Sisters mysteries set in historic theaters around Boston. Lectures on film and organizes film screenings.
Cullin, Mitch
Born in Santa Fe. Novelist; film producer and cinematographer. Author of several books including the novels The Post-war Dream and A Slight Trick of the Mind, the basis for the film Mr. Holmes.
Cunningham, Elizabeth J.
Taos. Host of the "Remarkable Women of Taos" blog, resulting in the book of the same name. Co-author of In Contemporary Rhythm : the art of Ernest L. Blumenschein.
Curry, George
(1861-1947) Served in a variety of public offices in Lincoln County before being elected to the territorial council in 1894. Served in the Rough Riders. Governor of New Mexico 1907-1910. U.S. Congressman from 1912-1913. Was the New Mexico State Historian at the time of his death. Curry County named in his honor. Author of his autobiography, George Curry, 1861-1947: An Autobiography (1958).
Curtin, L.S.M.
(1879-1972) Leonora Scott Muse Curtin. Santa Fe. Naturalist, ethnobotanist. Founding member of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society. With her mother purchased, restored, and presented as a living history museum El Rancho de las Golondrinas. Author of numerous works on Southwest culture and botany, including Healing Herbs of the Upper Rio Grande.
Curtis, Susan D.
Founder of the Santa Fe School of Cooking; member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and of Les Dame d'Escoffier. Author / co-author of several recipe books including The Santa Fe School of Cooking Cookbook : spirited Southwestern recipes; co-author with Nicole Curtis Ammerman of Santa Fe School of Cooking: Celebrating the Foods of New Mexico and Santa Fe School of Cooking: Southwest Flavors.
Curtis-Ward, Deloris Kay
AKA: Deloris Kay Ward. Born on a homestead ranch in New Mexico. Author of Pioneer Settlers of New Mexico Territory: The Journeys of a Tough and Resilient People and Life in a Mountain Town 'Mayhill, New Mexico': Memoirs of a Mountain Girl.
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https://howtobe247.com/julia-cameron-the-artists-way-author-on-ai-and-creative-blocks/
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Julia Cameron: The Artist’s Way author on AI and creative blocks
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2023-11-01T10:49:21+00:00
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Julia Cameron discusses 'The Artist's Way,' creativity, and navigating the age of artificial intelligence with How To Be Books.
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How To Be Books
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https://howtobe247.com/julia-cameron-the-artists-way-author-on-ai-and-creative-blocks/
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1.1K
On National Authors Day and in the spirit of National Novel Writing Month, How To Be Books engaged in an insightful conversation with Julia Cameron, the acclaimed author of “The Artist’s Way.” A book that has guided many towards finding their true creative path.
Unpacking “The Artist’s Way”: creativity beyond writing
Julia Cameron, a poet, playwright, fiction writer, essayist, and award-winning journalist, reflects on the essence of the book, saying, “I wrote a book about the art of being creative. So it could be writing, it could be painting, it could be acting, any of the arts.” The inception of the book, she shared, was born out of frustration over how artists were being treated. She wanted to pen a manifesto urging better treatment and respect for artists.
Considering the ongoing challenges artists face, like the WGA strike, which has subsequently come to a tentative agreement, as well as concerns over how creatives are treated, Cameron feels things have improved. “I think we’re being treated a little bit better, and I think that the reason we’re being treated a little bit better is because people have more understanding of what creativity is. And that came about, through the book,” she notes.
One of the key methods Cameron champions is the practice of ‘Morning Pages’. She describes it as, “three pages of long, hand morning writing that you do first thing on awakening.” Cameron herself has diligently practiced it for over 30 years and feels that morning pages act as a potent form of prayer and meditation.
Navigating creative blocks and the age of digital distraction
But in this era of digital disruption, how does one maintain a consistent creative practice amid myriad distractions? For Cameron, it boils down to desire. “When you desire a creative practice, you make it a priority,” she observes.
Read: Unauthorised AI training: 183,000 books incite legal clashes
In today’s landscape, the rise of artificial intelligence presents a unique challenge for writers and artists. When queried about AI’s role in the creative world, and its potential to rehash writers’ work, Cameron stresses the value of originality. “We are the origin of our work. We have the word original, and it contains the word origin,” she points out.
She also urges artists and writers to always be hopeful about their work and not be consumed by paranoia. Cameron’s long-standing belief in creativity as a spiritual practice remains unwavering, and she sees a deep connection between creativity and mental well-being. She comments, “When people are functioning creatively, they start to be happy. Depression lifts, despair lifts. People find themselves feeling a sense of hope, a sense of optimism, a sense of enthusiasm. And all of these things are earmarks of mental health.”
Hence her work has managed to withstand the test of time, remaining relevant and thought-provoking for over three decades. Souvenir Press recently seized “Living the Artist’s Way: An Intuitive Path to Creativity,” a new book by the author. As we head into National Authors Day and National Writing Month, Cameron’s words serve as a gentle reminder of the timeless essence of creativity and the importance of preserving it.
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New Mexico Authors
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Encyclopedia of authors associated with New Mexico, with links to library materials and author's websites New Mexico Authors - A
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Abbey, Edward
Edward Paul Abbey, AKA: Ed Abbey, Cactus Ed. (1927-1989) Earned Masters and Ph. D. in Philosophy at UNM. Worked as a forest ranger and fire lookout, resulting in his popular book Desert Solitaire which eulogized the Southwest. His book The Monkey Wrench Gang was adopted as a manifesto by some wilderness protection activists. Wrote 2 books set in New Mexico: The Brave Cowboy, made into the 1956 movie Lonely Are The Brave shot around Albuquerque, and Fire on the Mountain, inspired by rancher John Prather's resistance to having his land become part of the White Sands Missile Range.
Abbott, Lee K.
Former Deming professor & winner of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), O. Henry & Pushcart Prizes for his short stories set in Deming, Strangers In Paradise and Dreams of Distant Lives. Author of All Things, All at Once: New and Selected Stories.
Aberle, Sophie Bledsoe
AKA: Sophie D. Aberle. 1899-1996. Albuquerque. Anthropologist, physician, psychologist. Degrees from Stanford and Yale. Worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs; several organizations involving Indian health, rights, and education; and with the New Mexico Nutrition Committee. Served with the National Research Council; one of the first women appointed to the National Science Board. Taught for many years at UNM, including as a professor of psychiatry. Strong proponent of nutrition and Indian rights. Author of several works including The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico: Their Land, Economy and Civil Organization.
Abert, James William
(1820-1897) Explorer, ornithologist and artist who accompanied Gen. Kearny to NM, served in the Union Army, later taught at West Point. Author of Report of the Secretary of War, Communicating, In Answer to a Resolution of the Senate, a Report and Map of the Examination of New Mexico. During his exploration identified a bird, now named Abert's Towhee in his honor.
Abeyta, Tony
Santa Fe, Berkeley. Mixed-media artist of Navajo heritage. Graduate of New York University, honorary doctorate from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Recipient of the 2012 New Mexico Governor's Excellence in the Arts Award. Works featured in numerous institutions including the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian and the New Mexico Fine Arts Museum. Author of several retrospectives on his work, contributor to La Fonda Then & Now.
Ackerman, Diane
Author, poet, naturalist. Many awards, including being a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her memoir One Hundred Names For Love (also a finalist for the National Book Circle Critics Award). Author of numerous works of poetry, natural history, and history including The Zookeeper's Wife. Her memoirs, Twilight of the Tenderfoot recounts her early days on Tequesquite Ranch in New Mexico.
Adair, John
(1913-1997) First doctoral candidate in Anthropology at University of New Mexico, 1948. Noted for his work in visual anthropology and applied anthropology. Lived at Zuni Pueblo for a time, viewed as a pioneer in Zuni and Navajo cultural studies. Noted works include First Look at Strangers and The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths.
Adams, Clarence S.
(1920-2005) Clarence Siringo Adams. Roswell author of many New Mexico histories and reminiscences, often as co-author/editor with his wife Joan N. Adams. Works include The Historical Roundup: a collection of stories of old-timers of long ago in New Mexico and In the Shadow of the Malpais, and Tales and Trails Along the Rio. His middle name is due to the famous "Cowboy Detective" Charlie Siringo being present in the Adams house the night Clarence was born.
Adams, Eleanor B.
Retired UNM Research Professor-at-Large, historian of Colonial Spanish America, former editor of the New Mexico Historical Review, winner of the Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities award presented by the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities. Translator/editor/co-author of several books, including The missions of New Mexico, 1776 : a description, with other contemporary documents and Books in New Mexico, 1598-1680.
Adams, Joan N.
Roswell author of many New Mexico histories and reminiscences, often as co-author with husband Clarence S. Adams. Works include Riders of the Pecos and the Seven River Outlaws and In the Shadow of the Malpais and The Old timers' review : old-timers stories of long ago : a collection of stories from the past eight years of Old-Timers' Review.
Agoyo, Herman
(1934-2017) Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan) Pueblo. Masters in Guidance and Counseling from UNM. Served in several offices in the tribal council including Lieutenant Governor and Governor. Named a Santa Fe Living Treasure, received a lifetime achievement award from the New Mexico Community Foundation, and was named one of the 50 most influential Americans by Newsweek. Poet; author/editor of articles and works including Po'pay : leader of the first American revolution.
Allen, Michelle Miller
(1950-2014) Jemez Springs. Creative artist, author and editor. Masters degree in Theater from UNM. Poetry, short fiction and articles in various literary and arts magazines in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Playwright with works produced at venues throughout New Mexico. Author of several novels including Journey from the Keep of Bones.
Amador, Adela
(1922-2012) Grew up in Placitas, then moved to Albuquerque. Degrees from UNM. Food columnist for New Mexico magazine. Co-founder (with husband Harry O. Willson) of Amador Press. Author of several books on New Mexico cooking and folklore, including Southwest flavor : Adela Amador's tales from the kitchen and Undercurrents : New Mexico stories then and now.
Anaya, Rudolfo
(1937-2020) Raised in Santa Rosa, then of Albuquerque where he graduated from Albuquerque High School. Master's Degrees in English and Guidance & Counseling from UNM; on the faculty there 1970s-1990s. Taught high school English in the 1960s. Noted advocate and supporter of Chicano / Latinx literacy. Recipient of numerous awards including a 1980 American Book Award, a 1980 NM Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, a 2001 National Medal of Arts, and a 2015 National Humanities Medal. Known nationwide for Bless Me, Ultima (1972), a novel set in New Mexico in the 1940s; the book, selected for The Big Read, is the first of a trilogy that includes Heart of Aztlan and Tortuga and has been the basis for a play, a film, and an opera. Other works include Alburquerque and the Sonny Baca mystery series and the children's book The Farolitos of Christmas. The Rudolfo Anaya North Valley Library is named in his honor.
Andrews, Martha Shipman
Las Cruces. University Archivist and associate professor at New Mexico State University. Editor of the Southern New Mexico Historical Review. Editor of Out of the shadows : the women of southern New Mexico and The whole damned world : World War II correspondence of New Mexico Aggies Dean Daniel B. Jett which received two New Mexico Book Awards for 2009.
Anschuetz, Kurt F.
Albuquerque, degree from UNM. Archaeologist / anthropologist. Associated with the Rio Grande Foundation for Communities and Cultural Landscapes. Co-author (with Thomas Merlan) of More Than a Scenic Mountain Landscape: Valles Caldera National Preserve Land Use History; contributor to several works including From mountaintop to valley bottom : understanding past land use in the northern Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico.
Aragón, Carla
Emmy Award-winning journalist; longtime newscaster with KOB-TV. Honorary Doctorate of Letters from her alma mater, New Mexico State University. Named one of the Most Influential Hispanics in the U.S. by Hispanic Business Magazine in 1990. Involved with many organizations including the New Mexico Women's Forum and the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation. Freelance Producer, Writer and Talent for various television and radio projects. Author of a monthly column for the Santa Fe Hometown News. Author of the bilingual children's book Dance of the Eggshells = Baile de Cascarones.
Archuletta, Phil T.
Born in El Rito, resident of Albuquerque. Owner of a sign manufacturing business for over 30 years; involved with the manufacturing of the New Mexico Historical Markers. Co-author (with Sharyl S. Holden) of Traveling New Mexico : a guide to the historical and state park markers; co-author (with Rosanne Roberts Archuletta) of Women Marked for History : New Mexico's women leaders..
Arellano, Anselmo
Has served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at L.V.T.I. Community College in Las Vegas New Mexico. Fields of teaching and research are history, language, and the folklore of Nuevomexicanos and Chicanos in the Southwest. Author / co-author /editor on several works including Las Vegas Grandes on the Gallinas 1835-1985. Contributor to The Contested Homeland: A Chicano History of New Mexico.
Armstrong, Ruth W.
(1917-1993) Corrales. Worked with the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce in the Information Office of the Convention Department, and later as Director of the Tourist Department. Travel writer / historian. Author / editor of several works about NM including Enchanted Trails and New Mexico : From Arrowhead to Atom and Fodor's New Mexico.
Arny, W.F.M.
(1813-1881) William Frederick Milton Arny. Served in various offices in New Mexico Territory including Territorial Secretary and Acting Governor. Served several times as Indian Agent, for the Utes and Jicarilla Apache. A noted promoter of northern New Mexico, associated with Thomas Catron's efforts to bring colonists to the area from the East. Author of New Mexico: Its Agricultural, Pastoral and Mineral Resources and Indian agent in New Mexico : the journal of special agent W. F. M. Arny, 1870.
Asplund, Julia Duncan Brown
(1875-1958) Longtime librarian in NM, serving with UNM and the Santa Fe Public Library. Served in many public capacities, including as chairman of the Library Committee of New Mexico, on the advisory board of the Historical Society of NM, and as associate editor of the New Mexico Journal of Education.
Asubel, Ramona
Grew up in Santa Fe. Faculty member in the Low-Residency MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Works in numerous publications including The New Yorker and The New York Times. Author of the story collections A Guide to Being Born and Awayland and the novel Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty and a Jewish historical fiction, No One Is Here Except All Of Us.
Atencio, Tomas
(1933-2014) Born in Dixon. Doctorate in sociology from UNM; longtime professor of sociology there and developed the Sociology of New Mexico course. Co-founded the La Academia de la Nueva Raza school. Author / co-author / co-editor of several works, including The Old Town liquor dispute : social change and conflict in New Mexico and Albuquerque : portrait of a Western city : many cultures & opportunities.
Ausherman, Stephen
Albuquerque columnist for the Weekly Alibi; author of Typical Pigs, which won the Lumina 2002 American Writers Contest & was a finalist for the 2001 Peter Taylor Prize. The novel is set in an Albuquerque group home for adults with severe disabilities & has been compared to Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Also author of several outdoors books, including 60 hikes within 60 miles: Albuquerque.
Austin, Mary
(1868-1934) Mary Hunter Austin. Prolific novelist, poet, critic, and playwright, as well as an early feminist and defender of Native American and Spanish-American rights; interacted with many New Mexican artists and authors. Visited Santa Fe at the urging of Mabel Dodge Luhan in 1918; returned to settle in 1924. Founded the Santa Fe Players, which became the Santa Fe Playhouse, in 1919. Very interested in Native American cultures and Hispanic art. Wrote one novel set in New Mexico, Starry Adventure (1931). Best known for her book The Land of Little Rain, an edition of which features photographs by Ansel Adams; collaborated with Adams on Taos Pueblo (1930). Author of a book for children, Basket Woman. Autobiography: Earth Horizon.
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Creativity is the phenomenon of finding imaginative ideas and turning them into reality. It’s the process of bringing something new and original into existence. The results can be intangible products, like theories and songs, or tangible products such as inventions and the new crime-thriller novel I’m struggling to create. Creativity appears to come easier to some folks than others, and we tend to see high achievers as gifted, natural creators rather than nurtured normals.
But is that so? Are there a chosen few, born with greater creative ability? Or can creativity be learned—a skill that can be taught, practiced, and mastered?
Back in the Greek and Roman days, creativity was seen as facilitated by a muse who connected individual human minds to the gods. Daemons were the Greek equivalent of guardian angels. They accompanied a soul from birth to death, some being highly creative which manifested themselves in outstanding and intuitive people like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Romans saw these paranormal intermediaries as Geniuses—disembodied messengers from a heavenly intelligence, delivering divine wishes to mortals.
The Renaissance era disagreed. Creative individuals were enlightened, they posed. Creativity came from within the self and gifted ones—DaVinci, Beethoven, and Shakespeare—were born intellectually superior with unique abilities to create. They were the geniuses; being able to connect directly with a plane of higher intelligence rather than having an imaginary genius translate for them.
Today’s neuroscience has another view on this. It sees creativity as a complex psychological process that occurs via the brain’s ventral striatum and amygdala and can be enhanced through neuroplasticity or rewiring the brain through practiced behavior. In other words, a planned and continual workout program for your brain can definitely improve your creativity.
Improving creativity starts with a foundation of subject knowledge, learning a discipline, and mastering a proper way of thinking. You build on your creative ability by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using imagination, and synthesizing information. Learning to be creative is like learning a sport. You need a desire to improve, develop the right muscles, and be in a supportive environment.
You need to view creativity as a practice and understand five key behaviors:
Associating—drawing connections between questions, problems, or ideas from unrelated fields.
Questioning—posing queries that challenge common wisdom.
Observing—scrutinizing the behavior of others in, around, and outside your sphere.
Networking—meeting people with both common and different perspectives.
Experimenting—constructing interactive experiences and provoking unorthodox responses to see what insights emerge.
Read this as — listen, watch, ask, mingle, and stir. Sir Richard Branson has a mantra that’s bred into the corporate DNA of his Virgin staff — A-B-C-D — Always Be Connecting Dots. Branson swears that creativity is a practice and if you practice these five behaviors every day, you will improve your skills in creativity and innovation.
Now, if these five behaviors put you in the right direction for improving creativity, then there must be behaviors to avoid. I found eight:
1. Lack of courage—being fearful of taking chances, scared of venturing down new roads, and timid about taking the road less traveled. Fear is the biggest enemy of creativity. You need to be courageous and take chances.
2. Premature judgment—second-guessing and early judgment of outcome severely restrict your ability to generate ideas and freely innovate. Let your initial path expand and follow it to its inevitable destination.
3. Avoidance of failure—you can’t be bold and creative if you fear failure. Creativity requires risk and making mistakes. They’re part of the process.
4. Comparing with others—this robs your unique innovation and imagination. Set your own standards. Be different. Something new is always different.
5. Discomfort with uncertainty—creativity requires letting go and the process doesn’t always behave rationally. Accept that there’s something akin to paranormal in real creativity.
6. Taking criticism personally—feedback is healthy, even if it’s blunt and harsh like 1&2-Star Amazon reviews. Ignore ridicule. Have thick skin, a tough hide, and don’t let criticism get to you.
7. Lack of confidence—a certain level of uncertainty comes with any new venture. Some self-doubt is normal but if it becomes overwhelming and long-lasting, it will shut down your creative abilities. The best way to create is to first connect with your self-confidence.
8. Analysis paralysis—overthinking renders you unable to make a decision because of information overload. “Go with your gut” is the answer to analysis paralysis.
Aside from positive and negative behaviors, there is one overall and outstanding quality that drives successfully creative people.
Passion…
Passion is the secret to creativity. It’s the underlying feature that’s laced the successes of all prominent creators in history.
Passion is a term we’ve heard over and over again. Chase your passion, not your pension. But few understand what passion implies. The word comes from the Latin root “pati“ that means “to suffer“. Passion is what perseveres in getting to your goal despite fear, discomfort, unhappiness, and pain. It’s the determination—the motivation—to push through suffering for the sake of the end result. And this passionate feeling of motivation has its source in your brain.
A study released in the Journal of Neuroscience identified the ventral striatum, in connection with the amygdala, as the brain’s emotional center that controls the motivation feeling—the higher degree of motivation you feel, the higher the activation will be in this part of your brain. So that intense feeling of motivation you feel when you are in a creative state—that feeling of euphoria when engaging in something you feel truly worthwhile and meaningful to you—is real and is something physiological occurring in your brain. It’s one of the least researched areas of psychology yet has the biggest impact on your creativity.
I sense you’re wondering if there’s a trick—a method to stimulate your ventral striatum and amygdala—in improving your creativity. Well, yes there is. It’s long been known and practiced by the greats:
Relaxation, along with definite purpose.
Relax. Put your thoughts and desires out to the ether. Relax and wait. Creative ideas will come.
I’m a life-long student of the Napoleon Hill Philosophy of Personal Achievement which is the psychology behind one of the world’s bestselling self-help books, Think and Grow Rich. Hill clearly outlines the path to unlimited creativity which he postulates comes from the source of Infinite Intelligence that we all can tap. To get creative ideas from Infinite Intelligence, first you must know what you want, then you must relax and let Infinite Intelligence deliver ideas or answers to you.
Relaxation can be done in many ways. Meditation. Workout. Vacation. Change of environment. Retail therapy. Long showers. Reading. Music. Deep breathing. Long walks in nature. Maybe a stiff drink or two. The methods are varied but whatever you choose, it needs to put you in a headspace receptive to creative ideas.
Napoleon Hill didn’t have the anatomical knowledge of how the ventral striatum and amygdala worked, but he sure understood that definite purpose, motivation, and relaxation opened the doors of creativity. Hill described this part of the brain as being like a radio transmitter and receiver which exchanged creative thought with Infinite Intelligence.
So, if I can give one single piece of advice on how to improve your creativity it’s to read, understand, and practice the seventeen principles of success Napoleon Hill outlined in Think and Grow Rich.
A postscript to this article—while I was researching this piece, I came across a TED Talk with well-known author, Elizabeth Gilbert. Her presentation on creativity for writers is a fascinating look at the process. Click Here to watch it.
Kill Zoners: Enough of me preaching T&GR. How do you find and improve your creativity?
by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell
A pole vaulter doesn’t come out of the locker room, pick up a pole, and get to vaulting. Like all athletes, they warm up. They do some stretching, some sprinting, test the poles, do a few practice vaults.
That’s how writers should view morning pages. They warm you up so you can reach new heights when you write. The subject has come up in comments several times here at TKZ, so I thought I’d offer some of the different ways I’ve personally done morning pages.
Bradbury’s Landmine
The great Ray Bradbury, in his book Zen in the Art of Writing, said of his morning pages: “Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together.”
He explained that by writing down what was in his brain the first thing upon waking, was capturing whatever dreams had percolated, or whatever his subconscious decided to tell him. He didn’t try to make sense of it as he wrote. The idea was to pour it all out, see what was there, and only then look for a story possibility.
Robert Louis Stevenson often got plot ideas in his dreams. In the wee small hours one morning, his wife was awakened by cries of horror from her husband. Thinking he was having a nightmare, she wakened him. He angrily said, “Why did you awaken me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale!” He got up and began writing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Natalie Goldberg’s Non-Stop Writing
In her book Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg advocates “writing practice” before getting to your WIP. You simply pick a starter (like “I remember…” or “describe the light coming through your window,” or “write about an early memory”) and just go without stopping, without editing, without judgment. Follow wherever your writing leads you. The idea is to learn to free yourself up as you write anything.
Additionally, Goldberg advises doing this exercise for distinct moments in your fiction—especially description. You come to a point where you’re going to describe a character, or place, or clothing…whatever. You pause and open a new document and write for five minutes on that one thing, letting your mind feed you images and metaphors. (Now there’s AI to do that work for you. Personally, I don’t like that. Using our own neural networks exercises our brains…which we need if for nothing else than to fight the machines!)
Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages
In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron describes morning pages as “three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness.” Even though my handwriting is awful, I think there is something to using pen or pencil on paper that exercises parts of your brain not normally brought out to play.
My variation on this is to do page-long sentences. No worries about grammar or punctuation, just letting one word lead to another and following any rabbit trail that comes up. It’s all about loosening up the creative muscles before the pole vault of your WIP.
Writing the Natural Way
In Writing the Natural Way, Gabriele Lusser Rico champions “clustering” as a way to unleash the right brain. Clustering is also known as mind mapping. You use a pen or pencil on blank paper, and start with a word or phrase in the middle of the page. Put a circle around it. Then start putting down words that connect to the main word, and connections from the new words, until you have a whole page of circled words or phrases with lines between them.
Let the map sit for awhile, then bring some form to it. I put numbers by certain words in priority order. I find this especially helpful when I’m mapping out a nonfiction article or book. It results in a usable outline. But I’ve also used this for big scenes in my novels.
Micro and Flash Fiction
Use a writing prompt to write a short-short story. Flash fiction is under 1k words; micro fiction is under 250 (though some purists make it under 100). I’ve written before about Storymatic. There’s also Writer Igniter that shuffles various elements for you.
Think about the prompt for a minute or two. You may stay with it, or you can tweak it. There’s no wrong way to approach this. I try to envision an opening scene and an ending to work toward. Then I write it. I share the best of these on my Patreon page. But even the ones I don’t use are of benefit, as the value of this exercise is in the effort.
Sue Grafton’s Novel Journal
The author of the famous alphabet series featuring PI Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton, began each writing day by jotting in what she called her novel journal. She’d first put something down about how she felt that day, and then record any ideas that occurred to her “in the dead of night, when Shadow and Right Brain are most active.” Finally, she’d reflect on where she was in the book, ask What if? She’d write down many possible directions, and assess them later. (No surprise she was a pantser…but this also works for plotters, who can fill out details in scenes, deepen emotions, find happy surprises, including metaphors.)
So, ready to jump into your writing day? Warm up with morning pages, then set your bar high.
What are your thoughts on morning pages?
A note for you audio book fans. Romeo’s Rules, the first book in my Mike Romeo thriller series, has just come out in audio.
New Outlets for Creativity
Terry Odell
Decades ago, I was a photography hobbyist. Long enough ago so I was shooting black-and-white film and processing in my home darkroom.
Fast forward a slew of decades, and I’m getting back into it. Still at a hobbyist level, but as I said on my own blog last week, having more than one creative outlet can help deal with any frustrations in your primary field. People come to TKZ to talk about writing, so we all have that in common, but many of us have other channels we can turn to as well.
Given my books often include some aspect of photography, be it the kind of camera my covert ops agent is using for surveillance, or a character looking to become a professional photographer, I’ve enjoyed expanding on simple research and moving more into the hands-on. The more I know, the more my characters know. If the research satisfies an underlying need, so much the better. Right now, I’d say my skills lie somewhere between Kiera in In the Crosshairs and Belinda in Cruising Undercover.
I might know something about photography but it’s new all over again. Cameras bear only a vague resemblance to the ones I learned on, just as word processors or writing software bear only a vague resemblance to the Underwood and Remington uprights I learned to type on.
My son’s business includes photo trips where he takes clients to a variety of locations, both domestic and international, and leads them in picture-taking. I’ve been on several with him (as a paying client, no “mom” favors), including Alaska, the Caribbean, the Galapagos, and Croatia, and most recently, Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico. Getting away from home, seeing new sights can add depth to characters and settings.
I’m the newbie in the workshop group on this trip. My little camera might have felt inferior next to all the big fancy ones with multiple lenses. (Okay, I own other lenses, but the advice I got was that a 14-150 zoom would cover virtually every shooting situation, so that’s the only one I carried.)
Listening to the others on this tour is like hearing a new language. Everyone else is fluent, yet they’re all here to expand their “vocabularies”. For one—not a newbie by far—it was simply pointing out a better way to hold his camera. Nobody had ever told him that before. Another learned about long exposures for clouds. And one member is interested in mystery writing, so we were able to compare places we lacked significant knowledge, but had significant interest.
For me, it’s almost all new. They’re talking about swipes, zoom blurs, multiple exposures, blue hour shots—and I’m hoping my settings are close to correct, period. Histograms? I’m supposed to look at them? What are they supposed to look like? All I see is something interfering with the image.
But that’s the point of the workshop. To have people show you (often more than once) better or different ways to do things. We were shooting in areas that almost always required moving in close for detail shots. The overwhelming amount of “stuff” made it impossible to capture everything in a single shot, so zooming in on details was the way to get better pictures. As it compares to writing–we’re always learning new skills, improving the craft.
How many times have we read passages from books and said, “Damn, I wish I could do that?” With my photography, I don’t compare my work to that of the experts, but I can look at what I create and try to make it better. Just as everyone’s voice in writing means 7 people can be given the same story prompt and no two will be alike, 7 photographers can shoot the same subject, and every image will be different.
On Monday, Kay talked about words and pictures. As the final activity in our workshop, each of us was to share three images for discussion. Photographers notice things non-photographers don’t. They point out little details that add or detract to the picture–things most of us wouldn’t notice. Kind of the way writers notice things like POV issues, descriptions, overused words, etc. One group member talked (and talked) about the emotions he was trying to convey in each of his shots. Did I get the same feelings? Not really.
Several in the group chose pictures of a very old cemetery taken at the Taos Pueblo. Each had a different approach. Different angles, and different renderings–one in black and white. Instructors made comments about things like leading lines, rule of thirds, toning down or playing up shadows.
One group member was from the east coast and had never experienced anything like what she was seeing in New Mexico, and she focused on details that spoke to her. She liked the shapes and colors of things.
No matter where you are, looking at everything around you as a writer provides story and character fodder as well as a photographic image. Driving down the highway and seeing articles of clothing strewn about triggers story ideas. Is there a body somewhere?
If you’ve stayed with me this long, here are some of the pictures I took. Consider them first drafts, as I’m still learning how to spot those details that will make them better images. Normally, I wouldn’t talk about ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures, the same way you don’t share first drafts with the general public, but this is The Kill Zone, after all.
If you’re a writer—crime thriller or otherwise—sometimes you need a break… then a kick in the butt to get back in the chair and your fingers on the keys. I’m going through this after taking a two-week writing hiatus. Rita (my wife of 37 years) and I took a vacation, and Rita forbid (forbade?) me to write during our time away.
So, I’m back home and started to type a new manuscript that’s book 6 in my based-on-true-crime series. Although I know the story inside out, I confess I had a hard time getting in the chair and placing my fingers on the keyboard. Knowing I also had a Kill Zone post due this week, I decided to do a two-birds-with-one stone thing and get something stirring.
I spent an evening surfing the net and searching for motivation and creativity support. It worked. In the past three days, I’ve written 8991 words in my Between The Bikers manuscript. My renewed energy and creative juice is partly thanks to taking a writing break and finding inspiring quotes from inspiring crime thriller writers. I’d like to share some of them with you.
——
The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end. ~Lee Child
Place the body near the beginning of your book—preferably on the first page, perhaps the first sentence. ~Louise Penny
I’m interested in starting stories at the moment of some crisis to see how the character deals with it. ~Paul Auster
Figure out what exactly is at stake, and how to establish it quickly. That’s your conflict. ~Katia Lief
I’m always pretending that I’m sitting across from somebody. I’m telling a story, and I don’t want them to get up until I’m finished. ~James Patterson
Life is about working out who the bad guy is. ~Sophie Hannah
An initial crisis may produce a question, one that takes the form of a challenge to the reader: Can they solve the puzzle before the answer is revealed? In its simplest form the crisis is a murder and the question is whodunit? ~Unknown
I can’t start writing until I have a closing line. ~Joseph Heller
Often know how the book will end and have imagined a number of major scenes throughout, but not always how I will get there. When I’m about two-thirds done I re-outline the whole book so I know that I’m delivering on all I promised. ~Jeff Abbott
Crime stories are rarely about crime. They’re a study of its aftermath. ~Unknown
The only writers who survive the ages are those who understand the need for action in a novel. ~Dean Koontz
People don’t read books to get to the middle. They read to get to the end. ~Mickey Spillane
I do extensive outlines before I write a single word. ~Jeffrey Deaver
Plot develops from the initial setup of the characters, their conflicts and the location. This development is fueled by the characters’ decisions. These choices should be tough and compromising with high risks of failure. ~Unknown
I like to come up with a massive scale concept and throw in very ordinary characters because I think if you have a massive scale concept with massive scale characters they tend to cancel each other out. People have more fun if they can imagine how either themselves or the type of people they know would react in a bizarre situation. It’s a bit boring if you know how some highly trained soldier is going to react to a situation. It’s not very interesting compared to how someone who is an electrician or a schoolteacher might react to a situation. ~Christopher Brookmyre
The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book. ~Mickey Spillane
Readers have to feel you know what you’re talking about. ~Margaret Murphy
Keep asking ‘Who wants something?’ ‘Why do they need it?’ and ‘What’ll happen if they don’t get it? ~Unknown
A man’s grammar, like Caesar’s wife, should not only be pure, but above suspicion of impurity. ~Edgar Allan Poe
Chapters are shorter than they used to be, and I have to be creative about ways to keep the pace moving: varying my sentence length, making sure each chapter ends on a note of suspense, keeping excess narration to a minimum. ~Joseph Finder
My ideas? Headlines. The human heart. My deepest fears. The inner voice that says: if it scares you, it’ll scare readers too. ~Meg Gardiner
Surprise is when a leader is unexpectedly shot whilst giving a speech. Suspense is when the leader is delivering a speech while an assassin waits in the audience. ~Unknown
I’d have to say that most of my ideas originate with everyday anxieties. What if I forgot to lock the door? What if a horrific crime happened next door? What if my daughter didn’t show up at work? What if I woke up one day and the house was empty? ~Linwood Barclay
Ideas are not the hard part of writing. I have ideas all the time. The challenge is understanding which ideas are the most interesting and powerful and dramatic, and then finding the best way to bring them to life. It’s all in the execution, because the idea is where the work begins, not where it ends. ~Jeff Abbott
If you don’t understand that story is character and not just idea, you will not be able to breathe life into even the most intriguing flash of inspiration. ~Elizabeth George
The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities. ~Raymond Chandler
You’re looking for your character who’s got the absolute most at stake, and that’s the person who you want your story to be about. ~Daniel Palmer
Keep a plate spinning until the final paragraph. Then let it fall. ~Unknown
Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it… ~Michael Crichton
You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page. ~Jodi Picoult
When you’re editing write the following words onto a Post-it note in big red letters and stick it on your monitor: ‘Who Cares?’. If something has no bearing on the story, leave it out. ~Stuart MacBride
If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word. ~Margaret Atwood
The best advice is the simplest. Write what you love. And do it everyday. There’s only one way to learn how to write, and that’s to write. ~Steve Berry
Don’t go into great detail describing places and things… You don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill. ~Elmore Leonard
Read aloud. And not just your own work. Read good writing aloud.
Listen to the sound the words make. ~Unknown
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. ~G K Chesterton
Write about what you never want to know. ~Michael Connelly
I always refer to style as sound. The sound of the writing. ~Elmore Leonard
Before you can be a writer you have to experience some things, see some of the world, go through things – love, heartbreak, and so on -, because you need to have something to say. ~John Grisham
Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you’re on your own. Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine. ~Margaret Atwood
The words characters use and the gestures they make should be enough for the reader to know who is talking and how they’re feeling. ~Unknown
I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard
Writing is the flip side of sex – it’s good only when it’s over. ~Hunter S Thompson
My task, which I am trying to achieve, is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel – it is, before all, to make you see. ~Joseph Conrad
Write every day even if it is just a paragraph. ~Michael Connelly
All the information you need can be given in dialogue. ~Elmore Leonard
Have something you want to say. ~Ian Rankin
Any author, like their protagonist, must endure sacrifice, or be willing to do so, ~Unknown
There are only two pieces of advice any would-be writer needs. The first is Give up. Those who heed that don’t need to hear the second, which is Don’t give up. ~Mick Herron
My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly. ~John D MacDonald
I never read a review of my own work. Either it was going to depress me or puff me up in ways that are useless. ~Paul Auster
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite. ~G K Chesterton
I abhor crime novels in which the main character can behave however he or she pleases, or do things that normal people do not do, without those actions having social consequences. ~Steig Larsson
The best crime novels are all based on people keeping secrets. All lying – you may think a lie is harmless, but you put them all together and there’s a calamity. ~Alafair Burke
With the crime novels, it’s delightful to have protagonists I can revisit in book after book. It’s like having a fictitious family. ~John Banville
I think the “crime novel” has replaced the sociological novel of the 1930s. I think the progenitor of that tradition is James M. Cain, who in my view is the most neglected writer in American literature. ~James Lee Burke
The most difficult part of any crime novel is the plotting. It all begins simply enough, but soon you’re dealing with a multitude of linked characters, strands, themes and red herrings – and you need to try to control these unruly elements and weave them into a pattern. ~Ian Rankin
Crime fiction makes money. It may be harder for writers to get published, but crime is doing better than most of what we like to call CanLit. It’s elementary, plot-driven, character-rich story-telling at its best. ~Linwood Barclay
Crime fiction confirms our belief, despite some evidence to the contrary, that we live in a rational, comprehensible, and moral universe. ~P.D. James
Most crime fiction, no matter how ‘hard-boiled’ or bloodily forensic, is essentially sentimental, for most crime writers are disappointed romantics. ~John Banveiile
And there are rules for crime fiction. Or if not rules, at least expectations and you have to give the audience what it wants. ~Tod Goldberg
Crime fiction is the fiction of social history. Societies get the crimes they deserve. ~Denise Mina
One of the surprising things I hadn’t expected when I decided to write crime fiction is how much you are expected to be out in front of the public. Some writers aren’t comfortable with that. I don’t have a problem with that. ~Kathy Reichs
The mainstream has lost its way. Crime fiction is an objective, realistic genre because it’s about the real world, real bodies really being killed by somebody. And this involves the investigator in trying to understand the society that the person lived in. ~Michael Dibin
Anyone who says, ‘Books don’t change anything,’ or – more commonly – that crime fiction is the wrong genre for promoting social change – should take a closer look. ~Andrew Vachss
The danger that may really threaten (crime fiction) is that soon there will be more writers than readers. ~Jacques Barzun
I’ll bet you $10 right now that there are an awful lot of literary writers who started a long time ago and now they find themselves in this place where secretly they feel trapped. And you know what they really read for fun? They read crime fiction. ~Robert Crais
There is sometimes a feeling in crime fiction that good writing gets in the way of story. I have never felt that way. All you have is language. Why write beneath yourself? It’s an act of respect for the reader as much as yourself. ~John Connolly
It wasn’t a decision to become a writer. I wanted to become a writer of crime fiction. I was very specific. ~Michael Connelly
Crime fiction, especially noir and hardboiled, is the literature of the proletariat. ~Adrian McKinty
There are a number of writers who believe it is their duty to throw as many curve balls at the reader as possible. To twist and twist again. These are the Chubby Checkers of crime fiction and, while I admire the craft, I think that it can actually work against genuine suspense. ~Mark Billingham
I had done 12 little romance books, and I decided I wanted to move into crime fiction. ~Janet Evanovich
I respond very well to rules. If there are certain parameters it’s much easier to do something really good. Especially when readers know what those are. They know what to expect and then you have to wrong-foot them. That is the trick of crime fiction. And readers come to crime and graphic novels wanting to be entertained, or disgusted. ~Denise Mina
Most crime fiction plots are not ambitious enough for me. I want something really labyrinthine with clues and puzzles that will reward careful attention. ~Sophie Hannah
I’ve always been drawn to the extremes of human behavior, and crime fiction is a great way to explore the lives and stories of fascinating people. ~Nick Petrie
The best crime stories are not about how cops work on cases. It’s about how cases work on cops. ~Joseph Wambaugh
If you don’t have the time to read, you simply don’t have the tools to write. ~Stephen King
What about you, Kill Zoners? What great writing quotes do you have? What would you like to share?
——
Garry Rodgers is a retired homicide detective and forensic coroner, now a struggling crime writer and indie publisher. Garry has twenty pieces up on Amazon, Kobo, and Nook including his Based-On-True-Crime Series featuring investigations he was involved in while attached to the RCMP’s Serious Crimes Section.
Garry Rodgers also has a popular website and regular blog at www.DyingWords.net. When not writing, Garry spends time putting around the saltwater near his home on Vancouver Island in British Columbia at Canada’s southwest coast.
By SUE COLETTA
I read an article recently that gave writers permission to stop writing during these trying times, and it really resonated with me. Not because I long to stop creating—perish the thought—but being granted the permission not to write lifted some of the pressure from the “new normal,” which isn’t easy, as Clare mentioned last Monday.
Perhaps you can relate.
Do you feel guilty about not hitting the keyboard as often as you normally do? If you do, consider this your permission to stop writing. Just don’t stray away for too long. As we like to remind you from time to time, it’s important to keep our creative juices flowing. 🙂
As a self-professed research junkie, I wondered if creatives might feel the pinch more than non-creatives. Turns out, back in 2015, researchers conducted a study on stress and creativity.
The main reason for the connection between anxiety and creativity is imagination. The dichotomy lies in the fact that the same brain that conjures up inventive paintings, poetry, and music can also get trapped in repetitive thoughts and dreadful worries.
According to an expert at Evergray Digital Media, these individuals use their imagination to visualize something before it happens, whether it’s a piece of art or an issue (whether real or made up) that frightens them to cause feelings of great concern and panic. People with both traits also tend to overthink and over-analyze everything, which can make them more anxious and even neurotic at times. Interestingly, dwelling on one’s fears might be the very root of creativity and problem solving.
It’s difficult to recreate creativity in a lab setting. So, my theory runs a bit deeper into what might be causing creatives to lose focus. I say, many creative types are empaths, at least on a certain level. We need to be, don’t you think? How else could we slip inside a character’s skin?
Being an empath is different from being empathetic. Being empathetic is when your heart goes out to someone else. Being an empath means you can actually feel another person’s happiness or sadness in your own body.
In empaths, the brain’s mirror neuron system — a specialized group of cells that are responsible for compassion — is thought to be hyperactive. As a result, empaths can absorb other people’s energies (both positive and negative) into their own bodies.
Empaths are the medicine the world needs and they can have a profound impact on humanity with their compassion and understanding… The key skill is to learn how to take charge of your sensitivities and learn specific strategies to prevent empathy overload. — Dr. Judith Orloff
Let’s conduct an experiment.
Are you really intuitive when it comes to friends and family?
Can you sense conflict before it hits?
Do you pick up on the emotions of others, even those you’ve just met? How about those you’ve never met in person (aka online friendships)?
Can you sense when someone isn’t telling you the whole truth?
Do you feel drained after being around certain people?
If you answered yes to these questions, you could be an empath.
Empaths are highly sensitive individuals, who have a keen ability to sense what people around them are thinking and feeling. Psychologists may use the term empath to describe a person that experiences a great deal of empathy, often to the point of taking on the pain of others at their own expense. However, the term empath can also be used as a spiritual term, describing an individual with special, psychic abilities to sense the emotions and energies of others. — PsychAlive.com
When I say creatives are empaths, I’m referring to the psychological definition. Other signs may include an overpowering sense of intuition. It drives my family crazy when I know something’s bothering one of them, even if we’re only communicating via text. I’m not psychic, as some would like to believe. I’m simply in tune with my intuition.
Without attaching labels, I think we can all agree that creatives need a healthy dose of empathy to view the world through a writer’s lens. If you missed Jordan’s post last week, read it. I’ll add one tip to her list: give yourself permission not to write. If you’re feeling distracted or overwhelmed, take the time you need to process your new normal.
During these turbulent times, an overabundance of empathy can suck the life right out of you. Thus, it’s important to develop self-protection mechanisms, like deep breathing exercises and communing with nature. Ridding one’s psyche of negativity promotes balance and good mental health.
There’s a lot of beauty in this world. If we take a moment to find it—the chipmunk who grins at a shelled peanut, the goofy antics of a squirrel, dog, or cat, the magnificent agility of crows and ravens, or the gentle whisper of silence—we can lessen the heavy burden of our new reality.
The world needs creatives more than ever before. So, let’s rise to the challenge.
As writers, what can we do to help folks stuck at home? One idea is to ask your subscribers if they’d like to read a free novel to help pass the time. I did, and the response was overwhelming. I’m still receiving emails from readers in my community. It feels wonderful to give back!
This seems to be a growing trend among creatives.
Many of our favorite recording artists are performing free home concerts under the hashtag #TogetherAtHome (link includes 80 concerts). On StorylineOnline celebrities read books to children (16 books and climbing).
Have you come across something beautiful that’s touched your heart? Share it with us in the comments. C’mon, creatives! Let’s lavish the world with our gift. What are other ways writers can help the community adjust to the new normal?
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Julia Cameron on ‘The Artist’s Way’ and the Artist’s Life
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Julia Cameron speaks with Lisa Weinert about living a creative life, how coming from a big family inspired her vision, and why she decided to write 'The Artist's Way.'
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StoryFlow is a series featuring original conversations with Kripalu presenter Lisa Weinert and visionary doctors, writers, yogis, and spiritual leaders about the role of storytelling in their healing and caregiving processes.
When she published her groundbreaking spiritual guide to the creative process, The Artist’s Way, 27 years ago, Julia Cameron unleashed a revolution of creative recovery around the world, one that that has only become more important in our distracted and chaotic time. The Artist’s Way is a publishing phenomenon that has inspired many millions of creative projects. I had the great honor of speaking to Julia by phone from her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about her life as an artist and how coming from a big family inspired her vision.
Lisa What kind of feedback have you heard most often since The Artist’s Way came out in 1992?
Julia What I always hear is “The Artist’s Way changed my life.” I say to them, you changed your life. You used the tool!
How does it feel to hear that? It must be a lot to take in.
I never get sick of hearing positive things. It’s always thrilling. Recently, I read a review that said, “Julia Cameron’s tools are simple and repetitive.” I’m not sure that they intended it as a compliment, but I heard it as a compliment.
What’s the role of storytelling in your healing process?
Well, I believe that storytelling is very important and pivotal to the way we lead our lives. If we have a story that tells us that we’re a loser, we will find ourselves placed as victims; if we have a story that tells us that we’re a winner, we will always be looking for the silver lining. As we tell ourselves our stories, we have the opportunity to change our story. If we have a negative story, we have the possibility of turning it into a positive story and being more expansive in our lives.
How did stories play a role in your life during your childhood?
I grew up in a house of seven children, all of us readers. We had two libraries in our house. One was a downstairs den where we kept the classic books, like A Tale of Two Cities—books that were considered important. Upstairs, we had a bookcase that was filled with books of a lesser stripe—you might say potboilers. We read from both. We went to the library in our little village once a week and we were allowed to take out 14 books and, among us kids, we would pass our books on to the younger ones.
That’s beautiful. In The Artist’s Way, you recommend that artists work together, create clusters and sacred circles to support each other’s work. Do you think your idea behind sacred circles stems from your childhood?
I think I learned that learning was something that came not just from school but from parents and siblings. And I think that began to make me feel like it was worthwhile to listen to my peers.
Did you write as a child?
Yes. My mother was a writer, she wrote many letters to her far-flung family. And she wrote poetry. We all grew up learning how to write at my mother’s elbow. She had a master’s degree in English and that was sort of rare for a woman at that time.
You talk a lot about creativity being a birthright. Where did that come from?
We grew up with an understanding that creativity was important and that creativity was natural. Our mother gave us projects to do after school, according to the themes of the season. We made Halloween goblins, Christmas snowflakes, doilies and fanciful valentines, we colored Easter eggs. All of this took place at the dining room table. We would do a piece of artwork and our mother would tack it up on the bulletin board or, if we were making snowflake cutouts, she would tape them to the windows. She never singled out one child as the creative child; we were all creative.
Since the beginning, you have emphasized that you wanted to give away The Artist’s Way and empower people to teach it to each other. There is no leadership, hierarchical structure, or strict copyright. Did you have to fight for this? Did publishers or other people encourage you to be more territorial about your work?
Yes—my husband said to me, I think you should franchise The Artist’s Way, like EST. And I said, no, I think it should be free, like AA. He never quite forgave me for walking away from millions of dollars. I think in retrospect it was very wise of me to say that people could form their own clusters and that people did not have to come and study with me.
Have you ever come across a cluster or heard from a reader and thought to yourself, Oh, you’re doing this the wrong way? Or felt that the work was going in a direction that you weren’t intending?
No. I feel that, with the book as a guideline, that people do teach it very well. It’s a matter of trust. I grew up with siblings that I trusted, and I trusted people that they would follow the spirit of the book—and they have.
Can you bring yourself back to the moment when you knew you would make this book?
It began as class notes. My husband—ex-husband—said it should be a book; it could help a lot of people. I said, I am the book, and he said no, really, write the book, and so I did.
How did that change the message? Was there an alchemy that happened when you took pen to paper?
I had been teaching The Artist’s Way for 10 years before I wrote the book, so what I had to write was very familiar to me. Then I turned the book in to Jeremy Tarcher, who was my original publisher, and in answering his questions, I doubled the length of the book.
In your experience, how is it healing and why is it healing?
Morning Pages make us authentic. They are a safe place for people to vent and to dream. If people use morning pages over a considerable period of time, their lives are altered for the positive. They give people a path to follow--a spiritual one, and a valid form of meditation. And I think that relieves anxiety and stress.
Looking back at the incredible trajectory of this gift you shared with the world, what has surprised you most?
You know, The Artist’s Way works for people of all different stripes. I’ll have lawyers tell me they’re better in the courtroom, ballerinas will say that their balance has improved from doing Morning Pages. Or someone will say, “I used your tools and now I’m a novelist.” So, what they have in common is that the people who use the tools are elated and surprised by the results. And I, in turn, listening to the stories, am elated and surprised.
How have you managed to nurture both The Artist’s Way and your own artistic life?
I had a choice at the beginning of whether I was going to make The Artist’s Way my life or if I was going to stay an artist. I have kept writing plays, novels, poetry, songs, and I haven’t focused on nurturing The Artist’s Way. It has nurtured itself.
What is a typical day for you?
I live in the mountains above Santa Fe, so I wake up, I go padding out to the kitchen where I have cold coffee that I’ve made the night before. I pour myself an iced coffee and I retire to my writing chair and I do my morning pages. After I do my morning pages, a colleague I’ve worked with for 19 years, Emma, guides me through the business of the day. I walk my dog, Lilly, and then I settle in to write or read. And then I typically take myself out to dinner so I’m around people. After dinner, I come back home and I sit down to write again. I do questions and answers. I write to my friends who are deceased. I write to my parents. I ask for guidance. I listen and I write down what I hear.
Find out about upcoming programs with Julia Cameron and Lisa Weinert at Kripalu.
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AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES 1120.101Science Meets Spirit: Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Natural Resource Management
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AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES 1120.101
Science Meets Spirit: Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Natural Resource Management
Native peoples across the Western hemisphere use knowledge systems that differ fundamentally from those of Western science. Using traditional oral as well as written texts and contemporary writings by Native and non-Native scholars, we will examine the tensions and complementarities of these two knowledge systems. Using Iroquois knowledge systems in the northeast as a focal point, we will examine how they conceptualized their ecosystem and used it for agriculture, comparing it to resource management based on Western science. We will also explore how contemporary indigenous communities negotiate with non-Indian scientists, policy- makers, and legislators across boundaries that reflect very different ways of knowing. Through reading and writing activities, students will critically examine these issues and define their own views on what constitutes knowledge.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. Jane Mt.Pleasant 28500
AMERICAN STUDIES 1140.101
Common Ground: Education Beyond the Ivory Tower
Earn course credit while learning about and working within the Ithaca community. This course on educational practices in the US combines academics with outreach and offers a unique opportunity for students who desire to be active in tutoring or mentoring in our community to enhance that practice through critical engagement with texts relevant to their experience. Participate in discussions about readings focused on ideologies and practices that have created the current state of education in the US (e.g., Jefferson, Baldwin, Barber, Trask, Leguin, Kozol, Reich). Write essays that explore class, gender, and ethnic diversity and how those components become implicated in how our schools carry out the mission of providing free and public education locally and nationally.
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. x-listed w/ Writ 1400 and Engl 1140 28701
The Public Service Center is available to arrange a mentoring partnership with interested students not already active in such a program. Contact Amy Somchanhmavong ayk3@cornell.edu
ANTHROPOLOGY 1123.101
Media Matters
This course introduces students to the anthropology of media—expanding upon conceptions of the media as detached images—to understand the social relations and cultural processes that accompany production, the representation itself, and audience reception. We will examine concepts of nationalism, transnationalism, and race by drawing from research mainly in the areas of social theory and anthropology, including Benedict Anderson and Arjun Appadurai. We will also explore the ways in which advertising, journalism, television, cinema, and new media are embedded within complex social relationships and historical trajectories. Readings and films take us from India to the Americas, leading us back to the profoundly interconnected world through media. The writing assignments will require students to clarify, build on, and redefine class discussions and readings.
MW 08:40–09:55 a.m. Reighan Gillam 28428 Hiro Miyazaki
ANTHROPOLOGY 1124.101
The Pop Psyche
In the last scene of HBO’s Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw relates that “the most challenging, exciting, and significant relationship of all, is the one you have with yourself.” Indeed. Within the self, Freud discovered the Id (site of basic drives), the Ego (site of rational activity), and the Super-Ego (site of moral imperatives). Interestingly, the main characters of not only Sex and the City but also South Park embody precisely these three structural positions. In this course, we will consider these protagonists not as interacting individuals, but as constituent components of an individual. In short, we will put the pop psyche on Freud’s couch and see what we can learn about ourselves in the process. The writing assignments will require students to clarify, build on, and redefine class discussions and readings.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. Timothy Haupt 28429 Hiro Miyazaki
ANTHROPOLOGY 1126.101
Science, Religion, and the Body: Anthropological Appproaches
This course seeks to explore the spaces generated by scientific and religious ideas and practices as they shape and are shaped by the human body. While anthropologists believe that the body is “good to think with,” we will push our bodies (and minds) one step further to traverse the intersections, overlaps, and frictions emerging with twenty-first–century science. We will consider the ways in which questions of science and religion have come to be mediated through the body by the state and larger global contexts. We will also investigate how persuasion is built into religious and scientific texts and learn to write persuasively ourselves. Through the shared processes of reading and writing, we will consider recent scientific scandals and develop an analysis from multiple perspectives.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. Marcie Middlebrooks 28430 Hiro Miyazaki
ANTHROPOLOGY 1127.101
Transnational Interruptions
Transnationalism: for a global society, it’s a significant term indicating the flows of people, ideas, and goods between and across regions. The question for us, then, is: How does transnationalism disrupt reified cultural categories and complicate analytical boundaries? In addition to reading assigned texts from ethnic and area studies such as Ronald Takaki’s Strangers from a Distant Shore, Paul Gilroy’s Black Atlantic, and Benedict Anderson’s Spectre of Comparisons, students will examine newspapers and articles to identify and share with the class contemporary examples of transnationalism. Discussion will focus on how to destabilize and question disciplinary analytical categories in order to understand the assumptions and contexts behind their construction. In essay assignments, students will apply and expand on theoretical concepts of the course as they relate to current events and to issues of specific interest. Students may also choose to participate in service learning opportunities such as volunteer work with transnational migrant workers, sharing their experiences in discussion and writing.
MWF 12:20–01:10 p.m. Ivan Small 28431 Hiro Miyazaki
ANTHROPOLOGY 1128.101
Cigarette Cultures
This course considers how a range of communities are constituted in relation to the cigarette industry. We will examine how actors such as smokers, anti-tobacco advocates, health officials, contract tobacco farmers, and industry executives define themselves and are defined by others. What structural politics underpin the knowledge and practices of these groups? How do assumptions about age, gender, class, race, and ethnicity figure into the constitution of different actors and corporate strategies? In addressing these questions, we will consider debates over the moral, aesthetic, economic, spatial, and bodily dimensions of cigarette production and consumption. In addition to scholarly books and articles, we will analyze and write about a range of popular texts from corporate websites to public health materials, movies, photographs, advertisements, and museums.
MWF 09:05–09:55 a.m. Marina Welker 28432
ANTHROPOLOGY 1130.101
Anthropology and the Research University: Ethnography, Critique, and Reform
Research universities are global sites of knowledge creation, preservation, and transmission. Promoting social mobility, conserving the past, and creating some of the future, universities have become complex service organizations that harbor a bewildering array of levels, units, missions, and constituencies. Handling this increasing complexity while creating active learning environments, serving society, and balancing budgets challenges everyone involved. Universities are rarely studied as organizations and cultural systems by the “inhabitants” who know the institution best. In this seminar, we will collaborate in learning how to study complex organizations like Cornell by developing critical ethnographic and analytical skills needed to describe, understand, and write about the university and to participate more effectively in shaping its future.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Davydd Greenwood 28439
ANTHROPOLOGY 1132.101
Imaginary Landscapes: People and the Sense of Place
Both anthropological and archaeological studies have demonstrated that humans have a powerful “sense of place” that can influence the ways that we perceive the world and create our cultures. In this course, students will be invited to explore their own “sense of place” in relation to the University, the city of Ithaca, and their wider cultural background. The course will include concepts of exoticism, spatial mnemonics, and the use of the landscape in the construction of culture through readings from Richard Louv’s The Last Child in the Woods and Keith Basso’s Wisdom Sits in Places. In addition, students will study value-laden maps and work on creating such maps of their own immediate surroundings. Writing assignments will include responses to readings, personal narratives, and journals.
MWF 01:25–02:15 p.m. Maureen Costura 28661 Hiro Miyazaki
ANTHROPOLOGY 1172.101
The Anthropology of Food and Cuisine
You are what you eat! This course examines the way food is produced, prepared, exchanged, presented, and given meaning in cultures around the world. It will examine the symbolism of specific foodstuffs; who prepares food and how it is done; who feeds whom and how these relations are expressed and valued; ideas about commensality; how food is used in public contexts for presentation or exchange; and how food is a marker of gender, class, status, ethnicity, and identity. In addition to looking specifically at food, we will analyze cultural ideas about gender, the body, and identity in terms of how these cultural patterns are produced and expressed through concrete activities such as eating, fasting, and special diets.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Jane Fajans 28440
ARCHAEOLOGY 1132.101
Imaginary Landscapes: People and the Sense of Place
Both anthropological and archaeological studies have demonstrated that humans have a powerful “sense of place” that can influence the ways that we perceive the world and create our cultures. In this course, students will be invited to explore their own “sense of place” in relation to the University, the city of Ithaca, and their wider cultural background. The course will include concepts of exoticism, spatial mnemonics, and the use of the landscape in the construction of culture through readings from Richard Louv’s The Last Child in the Woods and Keith Basso’s Wisdom Sits in Places. In addition, students will study value-laden maps and work on creating such maps of their own immediate surroundings. Writing assignments will include responses to readings, personal narratives, and journals.
MWF 01:25–02:15 p.m. x-listed w. Anthr 1132 28662
ART HISTORY 1129.101
Blasting the Machine: Questioning Technology Through Art
Over the last decades, media artists and activists have adopted consumer technologies to intervene and participate in mainstream media culture. Their works are exhibited and used in virtual and public spaces such as the internet, supermarkets, health clinics, and museums. Artists create these works from the premise that technologies are not neutral: they carry assumptions about communal culture and the individual body. But we become accustomed to such technologies and their assumptions: they become a “natural” part of our social fabric. In our class, we will survey the strategies that artists and technologists use to highlight the cultural implications of “new” technologies, from the work of SubRosa to Wafaa Bilal and others. For discussion, reading, and writing, students will explore issues raised by these works, identifying critical topics for exploration from both an arts context and beyond.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Claudia Pederson 28433 Maria Fernandez
ART HISTORY 1133.101
A Sea of Islands: Identity and Art in the Pacific
An exciting adventure into Pacific visual culture awaits you in this journey through “A Sea of Islands.” In this course, we explore the art of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia to understand how identity is represented in art from pre-contact through globalization. The geographical scope of the course covers Samoa to Guam to Papua New Guinea. We examine a wide variety of art forms including film, performance, body adornment, and Pacific Hip Hop. Key themes include: gender and the body; diaspora and indigeneity; tradition and innovation, etc. To see art on campus, we will visit the Costume and Textile Collection, the McGraw Hall Museum, and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Assignments will develop critical skills in reading, thinking, and writing about art and identity.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Bernida Webb-Bindeer 28434 Maria Fernandez
ART HISTORY 1134.101
Performing Objects/Collecting Cultures
The twin phenomena of performing and collecting are as old as time, and both require an intense entanglement with words and things. This course will consider the significance of objects and their related texts within the field of art history and, indeed, more widely as they are “performed” and “collected” (sometimes both initiatives occurring simultaneously) in Asian Art and Culture. A series of writing assignments will build on the powerful allure of objects. Students will be encouraged to explore the politics of their ever-shifting biographies, their strategies of selection, designation, fabrication, and, when auspiciously ephemeral, their creative destruction and renewal. Various performative and collective containments will be mapped as they transcend boundaries, cultural and otherwise. Masked dances and their costume elements, clay pots, bronzes, serpentine daggers, miniature paintings and gardens, musical instruments and embroidered story cloths, shadow puppets, spices, exotic flora and fauna, film, fossils, and folktales will be fair game. Classes will be held in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum when appropriate.
MW 02:55–04:10 p.m. Kaja McGowan 28441
ART HISTORY 1135.101
Representing North Africa in Art: Cairo, Algiers, Tangier
North Africa looms in American popular cultural imaginaries and representations as a space of exoticism, separate from the rules that govern “us.” How can we read these representations, and to what can we compare them? Looking to the alternative representations of three cities as case studies, we will consider particularly the representations of women in Cairo, the war for independence in Algiers, and the border in Tangier. We will consider divergent viewpoints, including films such as Casablanca, theory by Edward Said and Frantz Fanon, literature by Nawal el Saadawi and Laila Lalami, and visual representations by artists such as Yto Barrada. Students will develop ideas on how to critically interpret representation, focusing on building arguments in writing assignments.
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. Holiday Powers 28442 Maria Fernandez
ASIAN STUDIES 1107.101
Religion and the State in Asia and the West
Jefferson once used the phrase “wall of separation” between church and state, imagining an ideal of secular government. Has this ideal been realized? Do other nations share this ideal? This course looks at problems generated by the entanglement of religion and the state in Asian countries while taking a comparative look at similar problems in the West. Students will be introduced to important theoretical works on secularism, as well as case studies from Asia. The course addresses writing on two levels: the use of writing as a weapon in arguing for or against religion’s involvement with the state, and the use of academic writing to elucidate an understanding of these arguments. Assignments will include role-playing exercises, including a mock debate, in addition to academic essays.
MWF 09:05–09:55 a.m. Jonathan Young 28443 Anne Blackburn
AFRICANA STUDIES AND RESEARCH CENTER 1811.101
Women Writing in Southern Africa
In this course, students will explore the works of Southern African women. We will read and respond in discussion and writing to testimonies, films, stories, songs, and many other texts that represent the voices of women in Southern Africa. In our studies, we will discover what the voices of Southern African women are and how their discourse expresses experiences in the countries of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Mozambique.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Sarah Mkhonza 28444
AFRICANA STUDIES AND RESEARCH CENTER 1813.101
Pan-African Freedom Fighters In Their Own Words
This seminar will examine autobiographical writings and advocacy statements and speeches by selected freedom fighters from Black America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Through written and oral communication, students will explore the ideas, values, activities, and impact of individuals such as W. E. B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement (including Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis), Nelson Mandela, African Women in the South African Anti-Apartheid Struggle (including Winnie Mandela, Ruth Mompati, Mavivi Manzini, Albertina Sisulu), and Bob Marley. Video and film presentations will augment reading, discussion, and writing assignments.
MW 02:55–04:10 p.m. Locksley Edmondson 28445
AFRICANA STUDIES AND RESEARCH CENTER 1822.101
The African American Short Story
As a form and genre, the short story’s specific origins within African American literature are traceable back to the antebellum era of the nineteenth century. The foundational contributions to the development of this genre were made by both black male and female authors during the fecund Black literary renaissance of the 1850s, including The Heroic Slave (1853) by Frederick Douglass and The Two Offers (1859) by Frances E. W. Harper. This course will consider the signal works by these early authors, along with selections by a range of others. Its priority and central emphasis will be the refinement of writing skills through the production of a series of short essays on the short stories over the course of the semester and a longer one at the end.
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. Riche Richardson 28567
AFRICANA STUDIES AND RESEARCH CENTER 1823.101
Journey to Justice: African Americans and the Modern Civil Rights Movement, 1940–1980
This course will examine the African American push for civil rights. Students will gain insight into the movement as it evolved from moments of non-violent mass organizing and protests into the realm of Black Power and electoral politics. Through course readings and writing assignments, students will critically engage the following issues: tactics such as nonviolence and self-defense; the tensions between charismatic and group- centered leadership styles; the benefits and liabilities of coalition politics; and the impact of gender, sexuality and class on racial goals.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Jessica Harris 28463
CLASSICS 1531
Greek Myth
The course will focus on the stories about the gods and heroes of the Greeks as they appear in the works of ancient Greek literature. We will read a selection from Greek authors, inquiring into the relationship between myths and cultural, religious, and political realia of the society in which they were shaped and perpetuated. Alongside the primary texts, we will read a number of recent scholarly works on the subject. We will start by discussing myths in general terms (theories, basic concepts) and will proceed toward the analysis of individual stories and cycles. This fascinating material will serve as a vehicle for improving students’ written communication skills. Assignments will include preparatory writing and six essays focusing on our readings and discussions in class.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1108.101
Language and Politics: The Question of the Animal
Beginning by debating the question of a firm divide between humans and animals, we will consider the animal in the many diverse and problematic roles it plays as “other” to the human—as object of spectatorship, symbol or totem, scapegoat, experimental creature, object of consumption or possession, and even companion. We may begin to think about the potential of a different kind of otherness—one that challenges our societal and personal beliefs, and one which allows us to rethink the notion of “rights,” of the “subject,” and with it, perhaps even the idea of the human itself. Fictional and critical readings from Aesop, Descartes, Swift, H. G. Wells, Kafka, Woolf, J. M. Coetzee, Barbara Gowdy, and Temple Grandin, vary widely in their audience and style. Through discussion and writing assignments, students will work with (and sometimes against) varied approaches and arguments of these authors.
MWF 02:30–03:20 p.m. Allison Weiner 28532 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1109.101
Writing across Cultures: Poetry’s Image
Where do we get our images of poetry, and of poets? Along with the images we find in poems themselves, how do poetry and poets figure in fiction and film, in philosophy and popular culture? How do such figures inform the images in poems, poetry’s image? In what senses is poetry a “liberal art”? What is its relation to “self,” to language, history, and politics, to other disciplines and discourses? This course will explore such issues in a wide range of short texts in both verse and prose, in fiction, film, and other media. The course’s focus on “poetry image” will encourage students to make the connection between such self-reflexive practices in the texts they’re reading and viewing and the texts they themselves produce in their own writing. Authors that we will study include Plato, Wordsworth, Poe, Dickinson, Baudelaire, Whitman, Rimbaud, Stein, Breton, Stevens, Neruda, Borges, Wittgenstein, Celan, Rich, Brathwaite, Waldrop, Collins, Swenson, and Bolaño.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Jonathan Monroe 28534
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1109.102
Writing across Cultures: Bacchannal and Bush-tea—The Culture of Caribbean Literature
What if reggae were made literature? Carnival seen as an art exhibit? Voudou read as philosophy? The traditional divide between “high” and “low” culture becomes an especially murky matter in the Caribbean, where the highest of literary texts cannot extricate themselves from the lowly cultural expression of the folk. Caribbean writers, from Walcott to Naipaul to Conde, draw obsessively upon local music, oral culture, spirituality, and masking for both the subject and the shape of their work. The questions this raises about the form, function, and limits of textual production will inform this writing workshop, both in short responses and longer papers. Readings in cultural and literary theory will accompany careful literary analysis.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. Kavita Singh 28535 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1109.103
Writing across Cultures: Pictures of Garbage—Images of Waste in Latin American Art and Literature
Garbage is the late material evidence of human interaction with nature. All humans have a meaningful relation to garbage: either they produce the commodities that will be discarded; they buy, use, and discard such commodities; or they scavenge garbage as a living. Although trash is global, the flux of the transnational economy makes it more conspicuous in the third world. There are all sorts of different configurations of the image of waste that we are familiar with: garbage on a curb has a very different significance than a picture of garbage hanging on a museum wall. In this writing seminar, we will explore the image of garbage in Latin America as it is constructed in the work of photographers, filmmakers, and writers such as Vik Muniz, Marcos Prado, Clarice Lispector, Caio Fernando Abreu, among others. Written responses, reports, and essays will train you to use the written word to analyze visual information.
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Marcela Romero Rivera 28536 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1109.104
Writing across Cultures: Bacchannal and Bush-tea—The Culture of Caribbean Literature
What if reggae were made literature? Carnival seen as an art exhibit? Voudou read as philosophy? The traditional divide between “high” and “low” culture becomes an especially murky matter in the Caribbean, where the highest of literary texts cannot extricate themselves from the lowly cultural expression of the folk. Caribbean writers, from Walcott to Naipaul to Conde, draw obsessively upon local music, oral culture, spirituality, and masking for both the subject and the shape of their work. The questions this raises about the form, function, and limits of textual production will inform this writing workshop, both in short responses and longer papers. Readings in cultural and literary theory will accompany careful literary analysis.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Kavita Singh 28537 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1126.101
Comparative Arts: Blues of the Ports—Popular Music on the Fringes
New Orleans, Havana, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Seville, Piraeus—port cities have been pivotal sites of cultural exchange, often spawning controversial social identities, rituals, and musical forms. Through a combination of audio and visual media, as well as literary and academic texts, students will examine the musical and cultural life of port cities while learning the fundamentals of critical thought and prose. Surveying musics as disparate as blues and tango and authors as diverse as Claude McKay and Federico Garcia Lorca, students will glean how, on the fringes of civilization, port cities have created an atmosphere favorable for the flowering of some of the world’s most captivating musical traditions.
MWF 09:05–09:55 a.m. Ryan Dreher 28538 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1133.101
Studies in Literary Theory: Literature and Radicality
Can we understand literature as being inherently politically radical? How have literature and literary writing been marshaled not only to question political norms but to dismantle them at their foundations? What kind of agency and political impact can we attribute to literature? This course will examine a variety of different kinds of radicality in literary form and political content. For instance, we will look at literature that challenges the social standards of its time through various kinds of perversity (Baudelaire) and sexuality (Gide’s The Immoralist), and we will look at explicit political statements (Marx’s The Communist Manifesto). To explore the inherent politically radical nature of literature, class discussions and writing assignments will focus on close reading and developing strong arguments.
MWF 10:10–11:00 a.m. Tatiana Sverjensky 28669 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1133.102
Studies in Literary Theory: The Power of Rhetoric and the Rhetorics of Power
While it may seem an outdated concept, belonging to ancient times, rhetoric, as the form or manner in which we speak, is intimately bound up with everything we read, see, hear, or say—from newspapers and blogs, to TV shows and the arts. What is rhetoric? How does it work? Is there one rhetoric or many? And what is political about it? The course will follow the history of writing about rhetoric towards the modern understanding that the form of language has a determining effect on its content, and that both influence the way we think and act. Reading may include excerpts from Aristotle, Plato, Augustine, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Nietzsche, and others. We will focus on close reading and methods of critical writing.
MWF 11:15–12:05 p.m. Liron Mor 28670 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1133.103
Studies in Literary Theory: Metaphysics, Morality, and Selfhood in the Novel
How can we know the true nature of the world? What standards, if any, guide our action? How, finally, can we know ourselves? This course will examine philosophical and literary responses to these questions; we will trace the intersections and divergences between these different forms of thinking about truth, knowledge, freedom, and personal identity. We will also aim to understand and develop argumentative rigor and stylistic sophistication in writing. Readings may include selections from writers such as Rene Descartes, David Hume, James Joyce, Immanuel Kant, Plato, Thomas Pynchon, and Virginia Woolf.
MW 02:55–04:10 p.m. Aaron Hodges 28671 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1133.104
Studies in Literary Theory: Touching Literature
We often say that we have been “touched” by literature. At times, we even demand that we be “touched” by literature. We, however, often take for granted this notion of touch. We do not question how literature touches us specifically, if not empirically. We do not know if literature touches us the same way as we touch another living being. This course addresses these gaps in our understanding of touch in relation to literature. Through readings of texts literary (Schlink’s The Reader, Lispector’s Passion according to G. H.) and theoretical (Cixous, Nancy), and through writing assignments (concept papers, creative writing exercises, and so on), we will seek to construct a critical grasp of touch in literature, and question how it can transform the way we touch (others) in the real world.
MWF 08:00–08:50 a.m. Irving Goh 28672 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1133.105
Studies in Literary Theory: Cyborg Selves
Are we becoming cyborgs? Does it matter? What does the increasingly blurry line between “human” and “technology” mean for our experience of identity and memory (both individual and shared), of freedom, consumption, agency, love, desire—in short, for all the things that tell us who we are in the world we inhabit? Students in this class will examine historical and contemporary examples of cyborgs in literature, film, popular culture, media, and visual art. We’ll read and discuss scholarly writings on cyborgs as well, and work throughout the semester to produce a portfolio of finely crafted, polished essays that address two major questions: How has the not-quite-human figure of the cyborg marked a changing sense of the human condition? And what can it tell us about what it means to be human now, in an age of advanced technology?
MW 08:40–09:55 a.m. Madeleine Casad 28673 Petrus Liu
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 1133.106
Studies in Literary Theory: How To Become A Woman—Literature and a Girl’s Coming of Age
What does it mean in literature to become a woman? How does one leave girlhood behind? And why should we care what literature has to say about it anyway? Through readings of such works as Carson McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding and Marguerite Duras’s The Lover, we will analyze literature’s figurations of a feminine coming of age. At the same time, we will engage with such thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir, and Judith Butler to see how becoming a woman is conceived in theoretical texts. Writing assignments will engage students in a dialog between theoretical and literary texts in order to discover how literature complicates theory and how it formulates the problem differently.
MW 07:30–08:45 p.m. Carissa Sims 28674 Petrus Liu
CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING 1109.101
Image(s) of the City
This class will use a variety of media, including historic insurance maps, aerial photographs, zoning and land use maps, bird’s eye views, images from current and historical newspapers, and other sources to explore the different points of view or biases that shape these depictions of “reality” in the city. It will also explore how these images have influenced generations of policy decisions, and the lives of those who call the city home. Readings will range from historical works by Jacob Riis and nineteenth-century civic-boosters to modern pieces by Kenneth Jackson, John Reps, Richard Schein, and others. Students will be asked to prepare written responses to both the images of the city presented in class, and to the analysis or descriptions provided in the readings.
MW 02:55–04:10 p.m. Douglas Appler 28449 John Forester
CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING 1109.102
Social Movements and Collective Action in the Age of Globalization
Globalization processes have had profound economic, social, and cultural consequences on the peoples of both developed and developing countries. The last decade has been marked by what the media has referred to as a rising tide of “anti-globalization protests.” Who are these protestors and what are they protesting against? In this course, we will examine social movement responses to globalization processes. In particular, we will explore how movements channel grievances into collective action by focusing on neighborhood, women’s, indigenous, and environmental groups. We will also investigate how social movements have scaled up mobilization to the global level, and assess whether movements have taken advantage of the opportunities created by globalization. Students will reflect on these issues in short response papers and critical essays.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. Abdulrazack Karriem 28448
DEVELOPMENT SOCIOLOGY 1200.101
Having a Lot on Our Plates: An Introduction to the Sociology of Food
As our food system becomes increasingly globalized, many Americans are becoming concerned about the disconnect we have between our food and where it comes from. In this course, we discuss, read, and write about sociological perspectives on how our food is produced, how it gets to us, and what the implications of these processes are for producers, consumers, and the environment. In a sequence of writing assignments, students will choose a food item to trace through the global processes that carry it from “farm to fork.” Additional writing assignments will draw on our exposure to local perspectives through guest speakers and field trips to places such as the Ithaca Farmers’ Market and Cornell’s student-run organic farm, Dilmun Hill.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Andrea Woodward 28458 Chuck Geisler
DEVELOPMENT SOCIOLOGY 1202.101
International Conservation: People and the Protection of Biodiversity
Do people need biodiversity? If so, how do we preserve it? And who pays when we protect natural areas? This course uses a sociological lens to examine the construction of the biodiversity concept, how the human-nature relationship has changed throughout history, and the underlying political perspectives that support various positions on conservation. We will also address contemporary debates on conservation strategiesusing case studies to evaluate the efficacy of these competing approaches. Readings will be drawn from social and biological science journals, NGO publications, official documents, and popular environmental literature. Students will improve writing skills through writing in various genres including: rhetorical analysis, exposition, persuasion, and an argumentative research paper.
MW 02:55–04:10 p.m. Kayte Meola 28459 Chuck Geisler
DEVELOPMENT SOCIOLOGY 1203.101
Medicine, Technology, and Control Over Women’s Bodies
Sexuality, contraception, pregnancy, birth: all of these aspects of women’s health are increasingly subject to scientific and medical knowledge. The shift in expertise about bodies and birth from mothers (and other women) to doctors (and other experts) is accompanied by a shift in power over women’s bodies and their babies. Who benefits and who is burdened by this shift? In this class, we will discuss, read and write about how the extension of medical knowledge to women’s bodies and health both empowers and disempowers women and families. We will engage in a variety of academic and popular resources, and assignments will allow students to practice many different writing styles. Students will also have the opportunity to undertake their own original research.
MWF 01:25–02:15 p.m. Marygold Walsh-Dilley 28460 Chuck Geisler
EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES 1420.101
Sustainable Earth, Energy, and Environmental Systems
Developing a sustainable society while confronting global change is one of the leading challenges facing our planet during the 21st century. Solving the problem of energy is fundamentally interwoven with the risks
to climate and challenges for food, water, and sustainable ecosystems on land and sea. This course will explore those connections and the inherent environmental tradeoffs. The Sustainable Earth, Energy, and Environmental Systems speaker series will address these topics and their societal connection. Knowledge and critical thinking skills will be developed through reading scientific and popular literature, discussions, writing, and peer review. Writing assignments will provide the students with the foundation for developing the written communication skills of substance, structure, and style intended for both scientific and public audiences.
MWF 08:00–08:50 a.m. Louise McGarry 28119 Charles Greene
Students are required to attend the Sustainable Earth, Energy, and Environmental Systems speaker series on Mondays 7:30-8:45 p.m. Please choose another writing seminar if your schedule conflicts with the speaker series sessions.
EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES 1420.102
Sustainable Earth, Energy, and Environmental Systems
Our planet currently faces no greater challenge than developing a sustainable society while confronting global climate change. This course explores the connections between energy and sustainability—including challenges for food, water, energy, and threats to sustainable ecosystems—as well as the importance of conveying these challenges beyond the bounds of the scientific community. Knowledge and critical thinking skills will be developed through reading scientific and popular literature, discussions, writing, and peer review. Assignments will provide a foundation for effective written communication skills for a wide spectrum of audiences.
MWF 01:25–02:15 p.m. Amanda Baker 28120 Charles Greene
Students are required to attend the Sustainable Earth, Energy, and Environmental Systems speaker series on Mondays 7:30-8:45 p.m. Please choose another writing seminar if your schedule conflicts with the speaker series sessions.
EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES 1420.103
Sustainable Earth, Energy, and Environmental Systems
There is an urgent need to develop sustainable solutions to combat climate change and the widespread degradation of ecosystems. In this course, students will study the science that governs environmental challenges related to energy, and explore the impact of various energy technologies on the environment. Students will develop knowledge and critical-thinking skills through reading scientific and popular literature, watching videos, discussions, writing, and peer review. Assignments will help students develop skills needed to write with substance, structure, and style appropriate for a variety of audiences.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Deborah Sills 28121 Charles Greene
Students are required to attend the Sustainable Earth, Energy, and Environmental Systems speaker series on Mondays 7:30-8:45 p.m. Please choose another writing seminar if your schedule conflicts with the speaker series sessions.
ECONOMICS 1106.101
Climate Change, Economics, and Ethics
The debate over what action should be taken in response to the threat of climate change is plagued with extreme opinions. In order to arrive at a balanced perspective, this course will introduce core economic concepts and apply them to the monumental issue of climate change. We will examine the economic explanation for how the problem arose and the types of solutions that economics offers. Of course, economics is not the whole story. Because of the social ramifications of climate change and international disparities in greenhouse gas emissions, the debate is deeply intertwined with issues of ethics and equity and we will incorporate moral responsibility into our framework. Writing assignments will range from personal responses to critiques to formal, thesis- driven, persuasive essays.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. Corey Lang 28462 Chris Barrett
ENGLISH 1105.101
Writing and Sexual Politics: Lesbians, Transmen, and Bears, Oh My! Masculinities in the Margins
Common sense—or at least Spike TV—would suggest that masculinity is “naturally” the purview of heterosexual men. But is masculinity really more “proper” to some bodies than it is to others? How do butch subjects relate to one another, and to their own masculinity? Indeed, is it even possible to recognize the category “masculinity” across different time periods and cultures? In this course, we will read, discuss, and write about “masculinity” as it is performed and inscribed in the literal and figurative “margins” of social intelligibility—by subjects whose articulations of masculinity are marked as troubling, irrelevant, or seemingly counterintuitive. Course texts may include Woolf’s Orlando, Armory’s Song of the Loon, Bechdel’s Fun Home, and theoretical selections from Halberstam, Rubin, Hennen, Sedgwick, and Wright.
MWF 09:05–09:55 a.m. Kaelin Alexander 28577 Mary McCullough
ENGLISH 1105.102
Writing and Sexual Politics: All the Single Ladies
From sad spinsters to glamorous bachelorettes, single women in literature and film long for a different life with “Mr. Right” by their side. Or do they? This course is concerned with the often reviled but always riveting figure of the single woman and with her fictional adventures and metamorphoses. The fascination with unmarried women has given us captivating tales of horror, puzzling stories of renunciation, and inspiring coming-of-age narratives. We will consider contemporary images of single women and their 19th- and 20th-century forerunners (from Emily Dickinson to Lily Bart) and look closely at conceptions of gender equality, romantic love, and personal freedom as well as the clichés and conventions that shape them. Writing assignments will include short responses and multi-draft essays.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Kamila Janiszewska 28578 Mary McCullough
ENGLISH 1105.103
Writing and Sexual Politics: Sexual Relations of Early American Literature
Sex and sexuality weren’t a defining feature of American culture until the 1960s, right? Wrong. In fact, as this course explores, that wouldn’t be true even if we said before the 1860s. In this course, we’ll read, discuss, and write about seduction, queerness, same-sex desire, transgender performance, androgyny, child sexuality, pregnancy, interracial relationships, singleness, polyamory, voyeurism, pornography, prostitution, consent, rape, pleasure, punishment, and more. We’ll encounter these topics in texts from mostly colonial and pre-Civil War America by familiar writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and by writers whose work was well-known in its day: Hannah Foster, Julia Ward Howe, Harriet Jacobs, Horatio Alger, and others. Written work will be both formal and informal, practiced on paper and online.
MW 08:40–09:55 a.m. Jonathon Senchyne 28579 Mary McCullough
ENGLISH 1105.104
Writing and Sexual Politics: Queer Pleasures/Queer Pains
Why do we tend to favor texts about queer suffering over those that emphasize delight? And why, for example, do we celebrate films about the death or oppression of these individuals, like Academy Award winners Philadelphia and Milk, even as we ignore those that imagine new forms of love and desire, such as the critically neglected Shortbus? In considering such questions, this course will pair works that take up problems of distress or misery with those that seem to embrace enjoyment and release, including works by Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, and Alison Bechdel, and movies by filmmakers such as Derek Jarman and John Cameron Mitchell. We will write essays about both these larger issues and more local questions of pleasure and pain in individual texts.
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Jacob Brogan 28583 Mary McCullough
ENGLISH 1105.105
Writing and Sexual Politics: Prostitutes, Punishments, and Pleasures in Early American Literature
Sex and violence: most people secretly, or not so secretly, love and fear both. This course investigates sex and violence in early American literature, from the Puritans to the 1918 text Autobiography of an Androgyne. We will define “sex” and “violence” loosely, and our readings will challenge and enrich your own definitions. We will investigate topics such as gender, desire, friendship, and the nation. We will read authors like Whitman and Hawthorne, as well as lesser known texts. You will also read materials in Cornell’s Gender and Sexuality archive. Our writing assignments will address both contemporary and early American experiences, and you will write a series of shorter papers ending in a final research project.
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. Brant Torres 28584 Mary McCullough
ENGLISH 1105.106
Writing and Sexual Politics: Libertine London—Sex, Scandal, and the City
From the creation of the closet to the invention of the coffee house, urbanization has shaped our cultural presumptions about sex and sexuality. The modern city formed itself around a carving up of spaces, one that highlighted the divisions between public and private places. Using London as its main paradigm, this course will examine the effects that such city spaces, houses, and layouts had on modern concepts of sexuality. Subtopics include: the country versus the city, the figures of the libertine, the prostitute, and the homosexual, cities and the marriage market, secrecy and satire, politics and pornography. A series of critical writing assignments will explore a variety of literary genres along with museum visits and film screenings. Authors may include Rochester, Swift, and Pope.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Sarah Eron 28585 Mary McCullough
ENGLISH 1111.101
Writing across Cultures: Literature of Witness—Writing about Extreme Experience
When one survives a cataclysmic event--such as a hurricane or an era of political oppression--there is something inside us that bids us to write. We feel the need to offer our testimony of atrocity, hardship, and disaster. In this course we will examine the relationship of literature to traumatic experience, testing the boundaries of memoir, warning, and elegy. We will read works by poets and writers, such as Paul Celan, Loung Ung, Katie Ford, and Junot Diaz, who have lived through genocide, natural disaster, and political tragedy, and come to terms with the imperative for writers to act as witness. Using such texts as catalyst, we will explore ways in which we too may bear witness by writing critical and personal essays.
MW 02:55–04:10 p.m. Christopher Lirette 28592 Margo Crawford
ENGLISH 1111.102
Writing across Cultures: The Special (Un)Dead—Saints and Vampires
In this course, through examination of texts that center separately on vampires and saints, we will discuss and investigate saints and vampires as both cultural constructions and constructors of cultures. The emphasis will always be on reading one through the other, through such texts as The Golden Legend, Twilight, and True Blood. Various writing exercises will continue this focus on otherworldly creatures who maintain their existence in part through a special relationship to blood. The choice of vampires and saints will also give us a chance to trouble the distinction between medieval and modern, as we navigate the boundaries between the supernatural and natural. In discussion and writing, we’ll ask how vampires and saints say something similar about the cultures they represent and create.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. William Rogers 28593 Margo Crawford
ENGLISH 1111.103
Writing across Cultures: “A Life Exposed”—Public and Private America
Today, the public assails the private from all sides. Forms of communication, confession, surveillance, social networking, blogs, tabloids, Twitter, encourage a relentless “publication” of our private lives, blurring boundaries between public and private, radically altering our self-understandings. Yet the tension between the public and private is not a new topic in American life. This course will go back to the beginnings of American cultural history to investigate how that tension has shaped conceptions of religious belief, domestic life and public culture, intimacy, the body, political resistance, cultivating and revealing a “self.” Possible readings include selections from the poetry of Bradstreet, Dickinson, or Whitman, Emerson’s Self-Reliance, fiction from Poe’s Man of the Crowd to Delillo’s Mao II, films, reality TV, new media, and excerpts from the work of public intellectuals.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Michael Jonik 28599
ENGLISH 1111.104
Writing across Cultures: ”The Things I Have Seen”—Literature and Human Rights
Is it possible to share the suffering of others? In this course, we will look at literature as an ethical project, one that raises enduring questions about humanity, the relation of the self to the other, and the possibility of human understanding across cultural, racial, and national boundaries. We will consider how reading and interpretation help us develop empathy and understanding of situations that may be separated from us in time and experience such as slavery, the Holocaust, homophobia, and the phenomenon of child soldiers. Readings may include Satrapi’s Persepolis, Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The diversity of our texts will allow for a cross-cultural inquiry. Assignments will include free-writes and six critical essays.
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Elizabeth Tshele 28600 Margo Crawford
ENGLISH 1111.105
Writing across Cultures: Vulnerable Masculinities—Stories of Instability and Change
In discussing masculinity in contemporary literature, the word “vulnerability” often arises. In this course, we will examine how and why this concept has captured our attention and will ask, above all, what does vulnerability do, and can masculinities be (socially, ethnically, and culturally) different? We will explore these questions through James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, and Cherrie Moraga’s Shadow of a Man, among other texts, interpreting these works in light of feminist, queer and cultural critiques of male authority and power. In the end we will ask: does vulnerability transform power relations between genders and sexualities or does it simply “re-inscribe” male power? Through our writing, we will emphasize peer-review, self-revision, writing in stages, and voice and argument development.
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Orlando Lara 28601 Margo Crawford
ENGLISH 1111.106
Writing across Cultures: Natives and Strangers
Belonging and not belonging. Inclusion and exclusion. Familiarity and estrangement. How does the US order its social relations? How does a society construct and enforce social, political, psychological, and economic boundaries? How do these boundaries operate in daily life? How does our society determine who is a “native” and who is a “stranger”? What are some of the ways through which people are included and excluded (for example, by way of race, gender, class, sexual or religious orientation, or able-bodiedness)? How are people’s lives affected by such determinations? We’ll be reading a number of twentieth-century American authors who grapple with these issues in their writing (including, possibly, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, and Gwendolyn Brooks).
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Shelley Wong 28602
ENGLISH 1111.107
Writing across Cultures: The Culture of the Raj
Judging from the recent spate of popular novels and movies dealing with the British rule in India, the “Raj” was a time of pageantry and color, adventure and romance. But to what extent is this image historically accurate? How did people live their lives, and how did the colonial rule affect not only Indian society and culture but also contemporary Britain? The Raj did invent many of the modern forms of spectacle and public ceremonial display, but is there anything else that survives to the present day? What do we know about “race” and nationalism, for instance, or literature and imperial ideology, and the various “cultural” ways we understand ourselves—then as much as now? Readings will draw on both literary and historical texts, and include some current films and popular fiction.
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. Satya Mohanty 28603
ENGLISH 1111.108
Writing across Cultures: Englishmen Abroad
In this course, we will read works of fiction featuring Englishmen (and sometimes Irishmen) engaged in overseas travel. Travel and geographical discovery have haunted the European imagination at least since the Renaissance, and travel narratives have had a significant impact on British history and literature. We shall explore classics like Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe as well as 20th-century novels like A Passage to India and The English Patient. Occasionally, we will also look at essays, short stories, and poems. Through the writing assignments, we will try to answer some of the numerous questions these texts trigger: How does one cope with the fact of being a stranger in a foreign land? How do phenomena like colonialism and war affect travel? Why do people travel at all?
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Nandini Ramesh Sankar 28604 Margo Crawford
ENGLISH 1111.109
Writing across Cultures: Bodies, Households, and Nations—Six Plays
How do play scripts use “the body” to compel audiences and readers to confront unspeakable desires, and where do we perform these secret longings? Using techniques and strategies associated with both “literary” and “theatrical” perspectives, we will confront these questions in a variety of dramatic works, ranging from Shakespeare’s Othello and Beckett’s Happy Days to Zora Neale Hurston’s early one-act, Color Struck, and Djuna Barnes’s surrealist play, The Dove. Becoming more adventurous and robust readers is one of the goals of this course, as well as learning how our responses to representations of “dangerous desire” can provide us with models for igniting our own prose.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. Catherine Burroughs 28605
ENGLISH 1127
Shakespeare from Stage to Screen
For four hundred years, Shakespeare has been responsible for more smash hits than any other other dramatist or screenwriter. He is the most quoted poet in the English language, and his dramatic works are the most frequently enacted and filmed. What accounts for this enduring popularity? What about the plays has made them at once so permanent and so adaptable? This class will give students the opportunity to work very closely with just a few of Shakespeare’s plays: a total of four or five over the course of the semester. We will look to the playtexts themselves as inspiration for the extensive writing we will do over the course of the semester. But we will also consult film clips and performances to focus on these plays as works produced by and for a public theater.
ENGLISH 1134
Memoir and Memory
In this course, we will examine how authors construct their public, written selves. Since the self is, at best, a difficult and multi-faceted concept, we will consider a variety of texts in our endeavor to understand an author’s choices of literary techniques in his or her narration of the remembered, created self. We will read book-length memoirs such as Jamaica Kincaid’s My Brother, Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life and Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, and we will explore other texts such as reflective essays, poems, or visual renderings (e.g. Spiegelman’s Maus). Together we will investigate writers’ methods of self-exploration and presentation, and through reading and the frequent writing of essays we will explore how and why people write about themselves, always asking, “How does writing shape lived experience?”
ENGLISH 1140.101
Common Ground: Education Beyond the Ivory Tower
Earn course credit while learning about and working within the Ithaca community. This course on educational practices in the US combines academics with outreach and offers a unique opportunity for students who desire to be active in tutoring or mentoring in our community to enhance that practice through critical engagement with texts relevant to their experience. Participate in discussions about readings focused on ideologies and practices that have created the current state of education in the US (e.g., Jefferson, Baldwin, Barber, Trask, Leguin, Kozol, Reich). Write essays that explore class, gender, and ethnic diversity and how those components become implicated in how our schools carry out the mission of providing free and public education locally and nationally.
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. x-listed w/ Writ 1400 and AMST 1140 28569
The Public Service Center is available to arrange a mentoring partnership with interested students not already active in such a program. Contact Amy Somchanhmavong ayk3@cornell.edu
ENGLISH 1147
The Mystery in the Story
What makes a story, and what makes it a mystery story? In this course, we’ll study and write about the nature of narratives, taking the classic mystery tale written by such writers as Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Raymond Chandler as typical of intricately plotted stories of suspense and disclosure that have been written and filmed in many genres: Greek tragedy, horror tales by Poe and Shirley Jackson, psychological thrillers by Ruth Rendell and Patricia Highsmith, neo-noir films such as Memento and Fight Club, and postmodern mystery parodies such as those of Paul Auster and Jorge Luis Borges. We’ll look at the way they hold together, the desire and fear that drive them, and the secrets they tell—or try to keep hidden.
ENGLISH 1158.101
American Voices: Imagining Cities—The Big Apple, The City of Angels, and Other Dystopias
In much fiction, cities take on a life of their own, becoming the leading character—especially the (in)famous cities of Los Angeles and New York. This class will analyze the uses of urban geography to construct and question identity. How do race, socio-economic status, gender, and citizenship factor into imagined cities? How does geography limit or challenge these interactions? And why have many representations devolved from idyllic dreams to bleak dystopias? Readings might include Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locust, Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange, and geographers David Harvey and Doreen Massey. Essays will give students the opportunity to develop their own arguments and to try their hand at the stylistic and rhetorical conventions modeled by the readings.
MW 08:40–09:55 a.m. Noor Hashem 28624 Jeremy Braddock
ENGLISH 1158.102
American Voices: The Politics of Style
How can a literary text be political? Might it become political not just in its subject matter, but also in the way it’s written? How can texts which don’t always speak explicitly of the events of their time be political in some other, maybe even more radical, way? By reading, writing about, and in some cases, imitating texts with complicated relationships to their context, we will consider how literary style might already be a political act. Texts may include Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and selections from Shadow and Act, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and Hawthorne’s short stories. Writing assignments will include reading journals, style imitation exercises, and formal analytic essays.
MWF 11:15–12:05 p.m. Ingrid Diran 28625 Jeremy Braddock
ENGLISH 1158.103
American Voices: Nineteen Eighty Five
This course will focus on thinking and writing about the literature of 1985. We’ll read three novels published that year (Don DeLillo’s White Noise, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, and Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World) and place these in the context of the contemporary social and cultural milieu, especially film, television, and the emergence of home-video-game technology. We’ll focus on close literary analysis of the novels, but there will also be substantial secondary theoretical readings on postmodernism and globalization. While spotlighting such a specific historical moment should ideally give us some sense of its zeitgeist, in general we’ll read these very diverse texts on their own terms.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Nicholas Roth 28626 Jeremy Braddock
ENGLISH 1158.104
American Voices: American Dreams, American Nightmares—The Quest for Identity
This course explores the American novel of the journey, from the 1950’s to the present. We will trace the particularly American quest for identity—be it comic, romantic, tragic, or nightmarish—and we will attempt to answer the following question: What is it to be American? How can we define “Americanness,” and how has it been defined for us, historically? We’ll look at ways American authors as divergent as Saul Bellow, Willa Cather, Junot Díaz, Zora Neale Hurston, Cormac McCarthy, and J. D. Salinger have attempted to subvert and redefine notions of the American. Written assignments will include six formal essays, regular in-class writing exercises, and the opportunity to produce a short creative piece.
MW 02:55–04:10 p.m. Jennifer Adams 28627 Jeremy Braddock
ENGLISH 1158.105
American Voices: Worlds of Fiction—Thinking, Reading, Creating
We will examine modern fiction with an emphasis on the short story and novella. Students will write critical essays on work by authors from around the world who flourished between 1870 to present day. We will also try our hand at creating our own fiction in our last class session.
MW 02:55–04:10 p.m. Helena Viramontes 28628
ENGLISH 1158.106
American Voices: Home Strange Home—Writing about Place
Contemporary writer Rebecca Solnit claims that “to know a place, like a friend or lover, is for it to become familiar…. [T]o know it better is for it to become strange again.” What does it mean to know a place? What’s the relationship between place, identity, and community? What might strangers notice that natives don’t (and vice versa)? We’ll explore how writers navigate both the American landscape and their relationships to it, transforming place from mere “setting” into something more. Possible texts include novels by Cormac McCarthy and Jonathan Safran Foer; short stories by Proulx, Faulkner, O’Connor, and Hemingway; essays by
Solnit, Thoreau, and Baldwin. Writing assignments include journaling, literary analysis, and an essay project on writing our way into familiarity (and strangeness?) with Ithaca.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Sarah Ensor 28629 Jeremy Braddock
ENGLISH 1158.107/108
American Voices: Time Travels in American Literature
American “time travel” might conjure images of Marty McFly and Back to the Future, but the persistently popular concept of time travel has a long and varied history within American literature and culture. From Rip Van Winkle to contemporary novels that play with time to recover forgotten histories, characters throughout American literature travel through time, as time travels within American literature. In this course we will read “classic” time travel stories like Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, but we will also read texts that complicate time in less familiar ways. Writing assignments will include short responses and multi-draft essays on texts by Irving, Bellamy, Twain, Silko and others as we ask what anxieties time travel narratives express at different historical moments.
ENGLISH 1158.109
American Voices: Diverse Voices of American Identity
Who is “American?” How is American identity conceptualized and acted out in diverse cultural communities within the land defined as the United States of America? In what ways do contemporary novels about these communities reflect these communities and define them for an audience beyond community borders? In this seminar, we’ll read a series of contemporary novels by authors like Toni Morrison, Junot Diaz, Leslie Silko, Kiana Davenport, and Cormac McCarthy that exemplify the multifaceted role of story in communicating cultural identity. Through journal writing, autobiographical essays, and critical analytical essays, students will explore diverse conceptions of American identity as they are communicated in contemporary novels and consider how those conceptions can both solidify and productively unsettle notions of “being American.”
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. Virginia Kennedy 28632 Jeremy Braddock
ENGLISH 1158.111/112
American Voices: The Obama Moment
This course will engage some of the most compelling and provocative political analysis, cultural criticism, and art of “the Obama moment.” We will analyze the President’s self-representation by reading his first memoir and select speeches. However, we will focus on journalistic and artistic representations of Obama and his significance. Specifically, we will ask how his ascendancy has highlighted issues that have long been central to US society: race relations, race loyalty, the limits of white liberalism, the relationship between white and black feminisms, the notion of the US as a “post-racial” nation. Through frequent writing exercises and essays, we will hone our own skills as cultural critics. Supporters of McCain, Clinton, et al. are more than welcome.
ENGLISH 1167
Great New Books
Great literature in English goes back several centuries, but some of it is being written right now. What are the great new books of the twenty-first century, and how do we know? What role do reviews, prizes, book clubs and movie adaptations play in establishing the appeal and prestige of new literature? These are some of the questions we’ll explore as we read, discuss, and write critical essays about several of the most acclaimed books published in the last ten years. Our readings will include works in a range of genres, from novels and memoirs to poetry and children’s literature.
ENGLISH 1168.101
Cultural Studies: The Figure of the Badass in Literature and Film
The Road Warrior. Rambo. Ellen Ripley. Coriolanus. All walk alone. All stand up for what’s right. All are Badasses. But what exactly makes a “Badass,” and what does it mean to be one? This course will examine our conception of the Badass through many mediums: we will engage with literary texts, critical essays, and films. Through these works, we will seek to better understand what exactly the Badass is, and how he or she intersects with issues of gender, race, technology, sexuality, and cinematic representation. Writing and revising will form an integral part of this course, allowing you to develop and work through your own analyses. Texts may include Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Old English poetry, Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, The 6th Day, Mad Max, and Aliens.
MW 08:40–09:55 a.m. John Robbins 28641 Jane Juffer
ENGLISH 1168.102
Cultural Studies: Happily Ever Aftermath
In the beginning was the end: at least for these versions of the world. Hollywood endings are notorious for their wish-fulfilling escapism, a lucrative venture in itself. How, then, to understand stories beginning from a love of aftermath? What we might write off as scare tactic, melodramatic gimmick, or gross exaggeration might, on examination, involve passionate renunciation of the status quo. Whether analyzing films as varied as Resnais’s Hiroshima mon amour and Cameron’s Terminator, reading fiction like H. G. Wells’s The World Set Free, artistic manifestos, or rap lyrics—our writing for this class will investigate how apocalypse launches imagination. Through words and images, we consider how “worlds at an end” have galvanized audiences to horror or to hope: that is, how not to hold on.
MWF 09:05–09:55 a.m. Avery Slater 28642 Jane Juffer
ENGLISH 1168.103
Cultural Studies: Martial Arts Discipline and Punish
Bruce Lee and other martial arts actors portray characters who are extremely disciplined, but how do their films discipline us as an audience and create in us a social, cultural and political subject that is just as finely-tuned? This seminar uses the action cinema of Hong Kong as an occasion to think and write about philosophical and ethical questions, with an emphasis on French theorist Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. Films will include 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Fist of Legend, among others; we will also consider the Street Fighter game series and a selection of literary texts, such as Beowulf and Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, in order to extend our conversation across media and cultures. Student writing will involve close reading, critical debate and theoretical critique.
MWF 11:15–12:05 p.m. Matthew Bucemi 28643 Jane Juffer
ENGLISH 1168.104
Cultural Studies: Writing on Art, Art from Writing
This course addresses many and varied relations of word and image: How do written texts respond to visual art? How does art respond to texts? How can we as writers render in words that which is without language but calls for interpretation? How do artists render in painting or sculpture the substance of a text? How is an episode from Ovid or the Bible represented in multiple works of art, and how may visual renderings of a familiar tale both retell it and interpret it? How does a static work of art render time and memory? Writers considered may include Ruskin, Pater, Hazlitt, Shelley, Keats, Hogarth, Diderot, Baudelaire, Auden, John Ashbery. Works of art from such as: Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, Turner, Rauschenberg, Twombly, the Laocoön group, and the the Elgin Marbles.
MWF 01:25–02:15 p.m. Tatiana Senkevitch 28644
ENGLISH 1168.105
Cultural Studies: Architexts—Castles, Prisons, Offices
From Gothic castles to modern office cubicles, architectural settings can have as much significance as literature’s characters and plots. This course attempts to map the symbolic and poetic spaces of buildings as they shape, and are shaped by, the values and forms within texts. We will investigate ways of reading architecture—and how architecture, in turn, helps determine or deconstruct social bodies. How are castles haunted by the specters of history? How do prisons “incarcerate” certain reading practices? How do offices assume (or subvert) a view of humans as machines? We will write about such questions while reading authors that may include Borges, Melville, e. e. cummings, or Tom Wolfe, and looking at architecture such as Bentham’s Panopticon, Tschumi’s Follies, and episodes of The Office.
MW 07:30–08:45 p.m. William Cordeiro 28645 Jane Juffer
ENGLISH 1168.106
Cultural Studies: Gone to the Dogs—The Canine in Literature and Culture
This interdisciplinary FWS will introduce students to behavioral, ethological, philosophical, historical, and literary perspectives on dogs. It will also emphasize how thinking about the dog-human relationship has changed profoundly over the past several decades. Mark Derr’s A Dog’s History of America, Virginia Woolf’s Flush, Donna Haraway’s The Companion Species Manifesto, Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, and Raymond and Lorna Coppinger’s Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution are some of the possible course readings. Writing assignments will include short essays, a revised longer essay and in-class critical thinking exercises. The mode of the class will be discussion. Students will have the opportunity to take several voluntary, off-campus field trips during the semester.
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. Laura Donaldson 28646 Dag Woubshet
ENGLISH 1168.107
Cultural Studies: Everybody Lies—Lying and Literature in House and Holmes
What is the difference between a truth and a lie? Between truth and fiction? In this seminar, we will rethink the function and value of lies, of fiction, through the TV series House, M.D. We will view the show as a secondary fiction, adapting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original novels and short stories about Sherlock Holmes. We will consider the role of lies in the construction of concepts such as “God,” “niceness,” “blackness,” “bisexuality,” “success” (economic or otherwise), and identity. And we will critique the show’s philosophical, socio-political, scientific, and aesthetic construction of itself in similar terms. After all, as Gregory House says, “everybody lies.” Discussions and writing assignments will focus on House and Doyle, in addition to texts by Nietzsche, Freud, and Arendt.
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. Sang Yin Wu 28647 Jane Juffer
ENGLISH 1168.108
Cultural Studies: Acoustic Modernity—Literature, Music, and the Meaning of Sound
What would anarchy or total social control sound like? Literary works like T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land or Anthony Burgess’s Clockwork Orange have long envisioned what human society will become (or already is). They often look to music, in particular, to help create this vision. In this course we will examine works in which society’s fate is rethought through music, looking closely at literature’s musical themes and forms. At the same time we will listen carefully to a range of our own music, from Dylan to Public Enemy, punk to indie, exploring its visions of our present society by paying close attention to its literary and musical form. Students will write short responses, track reviews, critical analyses, and a final research paper.
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Benjamin Glaser 28648 Jane Juffer
ENGLISH 1170
Short Stories
What do Minority Report, Brokeback Mountain, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button have in common? Each began life as a short story. Uncanny yet homely, short stories bestride both the commonplace anecdotes we relate daily and the high literary tradition that values visionary moments. Short fiction can pack poetry’s punch and still ride the novel’s propulsive drive of plot. Stories make us human; they urge us to write. Although we will primarily write analytical essays about the craft (and the reading) of narrative, we will nevertheless find our creative and research abilities challenged. Texts may include works by authors such as Poe, Melville, de Maupassant, Gilman, Chopin, Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, O’Connor, O’Brien, Carver, Lawrence, Atwood, Munro, Chekhov, Joyce, Kafka, Kipling, Danticat, Lahiri.
ENGLISH 1191.101
British Literature: The Private Life—The Ordering of Inner Thoughts in Devotional Literature
Socrates’ prayer from the Phaedrus—“May the outward and inward man be at one”—is striking to the contemporary reader. Modern society so clearly rewards external performance and image management over the cultivation of a rich and mature inward person. The constant exposure of the hypocrisy and scandal of well- known figures reminds us, however, of the dangers of a public life that far outpaces a neglected private life. In this course, we will examine the life of devotion that produces the quiet ordering of the inner person and study the literature of the English devotional tradition. Authors may include John Donne, George Herbert, Francis de Sales, and John Bunyan. Through in-class writing and formal essays, we will develop skills in close reading and critical thinking.
MWF 10:10–11:00 a.m. Jane Kim 28653 Wendy Jones
ENGLISH 1191.102
British Literature:Monks, Monsters, and Madwomen—Gothic Romantic Literature
Why do stories of murder, incest, diabolism, and seduction continue to fascinate? What drew nineteenth- century audiences to tales of wickedness and woe? In this course, we’ll study and write about popular romantic-era tales of horror, from nursery stories and sensational plays to classic send-ups of the genre such as Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and John Keats’s The Eve of St Agnes. We’ll analyze their ornamental and elevated style and their often artificial conventions, such as desolate settings, tortured spirits, and fainting heroines. Taking these texts as indicative of the spirit of the age, we’ll identify the anxieties they express and assuage, with particular interest in the sense of power gone mad that is often at the heart of gothic literature.
MWF 10:10–11:00 a.m. Mariam Wassif 28654 Wendy Jones
ENGLISH 1191.103
British Literature: Animals, Monsters, and Aliens
What is a human being? In response to this surprisingly difficult question, British authors have compared humans with many other creatures, including imaginary ones. Each unit of this course pairs a classic work with a science-fiction novel about a particularly disturbing non-human figure: the talking animal, the human-animal hybrid, and the rational non-human. We will not only analyze rhetorical strategies for constructing and challenging definitions of the human but also consider how science fiction can offer new perspectives on classic literature. In addition to analytical essays, students will write a creative piece in which
they adopt a non-human perspective. Featured books include Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, H. G. Wells’s Island of Dr. Moreau, and C. S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet.
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Bryan Alkemeyer 28655 Wendy Jones
ENGLISH 1191.104/106
British Literature: Medieval Popular Culture, Then and Now
“What do Vikings and credit cards have in common, anyway?” If you’ve watched TV recently you may have asked yourself that question – this course will help you find the answer. In “Medieval Popular Culture, Then & Now” we will examine how we define “popular culture” and why medievalism so often features in its most famous texts. We will read medieval examples of popular entertainment, and ask if they perform similar cultural work to our media of today. Texts will include Beowulf (the poem and 2007 film), saints’ lives, Arthuriana, a passion play, Star Wars, a Batman graphic novel, and advertisements. Students will produce six pieces of writing during the semester, including close readings and the opportunity to create (and then analyze) their own medieval romance.
ENGLISH 1191.105
British Literature: Jane Austen
We will read and write about all of the major novels of Jane Austen as well as some of her lesser known works. Our exploration of Austen’s fiction will go beyond her Masterpiece Theatre façade to discover a novelist deeply engaged with philosophy, history, and politics.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Wendy Jones 28657
ENGLISH 1270.101
Writing about Literature: The Reading of Fiction
We will examine modern fiction from 1870 with an emphasis on the short story and novella. Our writers will include: Conrad, Dostoevsky, Joyce, Kafka, Woolf, Lawrence, Mann, Chekhov, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Welty. We will not only study form and narrative strategies but we will also put these works in the context of intellectual and historical developments, including parallel developments in modern art. Student writing assignments will be mostly critical essays, but there will be one creative assignment. Our goals will be to develop close, attentive, imaginative reading and writing-and to enjoy our reading and writing!!
MW 08:40–09:55 a.m. Daniel Schwarz 28663
Students who have already taken a First-Year Writing Seminar, or who scored 4 or 5 on the Princeton AP exam, or 700 or better on the English Composition or CEEB tests, may enroll, space permitting, in this upper-level First-Year Writing Seminar: Engl 1270.
ENGLISH 1270.102
Writing about Literature: Modern Fiction
This course examines modern fiction, with an emphasis on short stories—and a few longer ones— published in the past one hundred years. Authors may include Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway, Vladimir Nabokov, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Cade Bambara, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Grace Paley, and Beth Nugent. The last unit of the semester will explore different critical approaches to Joseph Conrad’s novella The Secret Sharer. The seminar combines detailed, imaginative analysis of fiction with intensive writing and revisions of critical essays.
MW 08:40–09:55 a.m. Fredric Bogel 28664
Students who have already taken a First-Year Writing Seminar, or who scored 4 or 5 on the Princeton AP exam, or 700 or better on the English Composition or CEEB tests, may enroll, space permitting, in this upper-level First-Year Writing Seminar: Engl 1270.
ENGLISH 1270.103
Writing about Literature: The Great Pleasures of Short Fiction
In this course, we will closely read a variety of nineteenth- and twentieth-century short fiction, from Poe’s unforgettable tales of horror to Nabokov’s dazzling metafictional puzzles, from Melville’s mysterious antebellum Manhattan to Woolf’s and Joyce’s high modernist gems. Over the semester we will observe the wide variety of styles and shapes that short fiction can assume, and we will focus our critical lenses on what literary effects are achieved by our authors’ formal and narrative techniques.
MWF 10:10–11:00 a.m. Kevin Attell 28665
Students who have already taken a First-Year Writing Seminar, or who scored 4 or 5 on the Princeton AP exam, or 700 or better on the English Composition or CEEB tests, may enroll, space permitting, in the following upper-level First-Year Writing Seminar: Engl 1270.
ENGLISH 1270.104
Writing about Literature: Tragedy
In this course, we will study and write critically about plays, older and newer, in a variety of dramatic idioms and cultural traditions. We will practice close, interpretive reading of texts and pay attention to their possibilities for live and filmed performance. Readings will include works by such playwrights as Sophocles and Shakespeare, Arthur Miller and Caryl Churchill, Ntosake Shange and Tony Kushner, and some drama criticism and performance theory. Attendance at screenings and at live productions by the Theatre Department may be required.
MWF 11:15–12:05 p.m. Philip Lorenz 28666
Students who have already taken a First-Year Writing Seminar, or who scored 4 or 5 on the Princeton AP exam, or 700 or better on the English Composition or CEEB tests, may enroll, space permitting, in this upper-level First-Year Writing Seminar: Engl 1270.
ENGLISH 1270.105
Writing about Literature: Telling Stories—The Power of Narrative
This course explores how stories move readers. It aims to help you respond to the short fiction we will read with an ever-growing intensity of perceptiveness and pleasure. Along the way, it will also introduce you to a relatively new branch of narrative study. Medical schools have begun to offer courses in what has become known as “narrative medicine” (and its relative “narrative ethics”). I’m no physician, and the primary focus of the course will rest on the stories we read. By the end of the semester, though, you should have gained a notion of why medical training increasingly includes an exploration of the power of narrative and why some would claim that narratives can heal.
MWF 02:30–03:20 p.m. Harry Shaw 28667
Students who have already taken a First-Year Writing Seminar, or who scored 4 or 5 on the Princeton AP exam, or 700 or better on the English Composition or CEEB tests, may enroll, space permitting, in this upper-level First-Year Writing Seminar: Engl 1270.
FRENCH 1102.101
Queer Rhetorics
What is rhetoric, and what could make it queer? Is it possible for rhetoric not to be queer? This course explores the logos, the pathos, and the ethos of “queer” writing, with the objective of analyzing the relationships between form and content writing. Texts might include: stories from Does Your Mama Know?: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories, Sharon Bridgforth’s The Bull-Jean Stories, performance stories set in the 1920s South; and/or Valencia, whose author has been described as “a punk rock Judy Blume.” We will also read essays in queer theory, broach problems of racism, classism, and ableism in LGBT movements, and watch a few films. Writing assignments will be as varied in style as the reading assignments.
MWF 11:15–12:05 p.m. Shanna Carlson 28464 Kathleen Long
FRENCH 1106.101
(Il) Legitimate Loves: Marriage in Seventeenth-Century French and Spanish Theatre
Through a reading of various plays by Racine, Corneille, and Molière as well as Lope de Vega, Calderon, and de Castro, students will examine the ideas of love and marriage and the possible subversions and perversions of these themes. We will use these texts as a source and motivation for our reading, writing, and critical analysis, while not losing sight of these plays as performances. Film screenings, performances, modern adaptations of these works, and historical material related to the plays in production will be included. Student work will involve extensive writing, both formal and informal, as well as a short theatrical performance or staged reading.
MWF 09:05–09:55 a.m. Luisa Rosas 28465 Kathleen Long
FRENCH 1108.101
Monstrous Forms: Wild Men and Wicked Women
Monstrosity is a means of marking off and isolating the “unacceptable” other, that which threatens us, often for reasons that we cannot explain. Throughout time, women, people of other races and nations, various species of animals, have all been designated as monstrous. This course will explore the gendering of monstrosity: why is it that monstrous men are described as “wild,” as if their monstrosity is natural, while monstrous women are most frequently described as “wicked,” as if their monstrosity is a moral failing? We will focus on texts about “wild men” and witches: Yvain by Chrétien de Troyes, Beowulf, Grendel by John Gardner, Ambroise Paré’s On Monsters and Marvels, and selected episodes of The X-Files.
MWF 10:10–11:00 a.m. Kathleen Long 28466
GERMAN STUDIES 1105.101
Language of Alchemy: The Romantic Tale
Alchemy: can lead be changed into gold? Is there an elixir that can cure disease and prolong life? As the French revolution and its aftermath split Europe, another—and no less drastic—revolution took place in the realm of science: the discovery of oxygen gave rise to modern chemistry. The ground for this break was, however, long prepared by alchemy, the esoteric knowledge of binding and separating the elements. Alchemists led the way for philosophers and writers in the Romantic era in a quest for the legendary “philosophers’ stone” and in seeking what they called the “chemical marriage.” Reading representations of alchemy by Goethe, Novalis, Hoffmann and more recent texts such as Hofmannsthal’s Andreas, we will analyze and write about the tensions between the mystical and the scientific.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Anna Glazova 28467 Brent McBride
GERMAN STUDIES 1109
From Fairy Tales to the Uncanny: Exploring the Romantic Consciousness
As didactic texts that present explicit—and implicit—moral lessons, fairy tales shape cultural identity by questioning as well as affirming dominant cultural values. This seminar uses selections from the Brothers Grimm to analyze characteristic features of the genre and examine its evolution to the present day. Our investigation will focus on how the transformation of oral folk tales into literary texts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries sparked an interest in androids, the paranormal, and the pathological and spurred German Romantics to experiment with new forms of fiction that established the matrix for popular genres like horror, mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi. The emphasis of the course is on improving writing skills.
GERMAN STUDIES 1170.101
Marx, Nietzsche, Freud
A grasp of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud is essential to understanding critical discourse in the humanities and social sciences. This seminar introduces (1) the three revolutionaries who shaped modern and postmodern thought and practice; and (2) the key terms of the analytic models they pioneered: political economy, post- metaphysical philosophy, and psychoanalysis (including differences and points of intersection). Discussions and assignments will focus on short texts and excerpts from longer texts that are essential to understanding their work and lay a foundation for critically analyzing global society, politics, and culture. The core problem: Do alternative ways of thinking and acting exist in opposition to how we already think and act? The emphasis of the course is on improving writing skills.
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Carl Gelderloos 28472 Douglas Brent McBride
GOVERNMENT 1101.101
Power and Politics: Markets and Morals
The market is seen as the default mechanism of economic organization. But is it morally defensible? In this course, we examine defenses of the market—defenses emphasizing efficiency, rights, and deservedness—as well as critiques. What justifies private property? What is owed to those with less to offer the market, such as the disabled? Are there things that should not be bought or sold, such as bodily organs? Can a voluntary exchange still be exploitative? In addressing these questions we will read canonical thinkers—including Adam Smith and Marx—contemporary philosophers—such as Nozick and Sandel—and coverage of topics of relevance to public policy. Assignments will be designed to enable students to sharpen their analytical writing skills and develop and articulate their own views.
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Simon Cotton 28473 Isaac Kramnick
GOVERNMENT 1101.102
Power and Politics: Causes of War and the War in Iraq
Why do states fight wars? Moreover, what can existing theories of war tell us about the causes of modern conflicts such as the most recent war in Iraq? In this course, we will begin by examining prominent theories of war. We will then study the events leading up to the war in Iraq, assessing which theories best explain why, when, how, and with whose cooperation the Iraq war was fought. Students will answer these fascinating questions in writing assignments that are designed to help them hone their analytical skills and learn to communicate their ideas clearly.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Jessica Weeks 28474
GOVERNMENT 1101.103
Power and Politics: Islam and Development in the Comparative Perspective
Students in this class will undertake an in-depth survey of economic development and political power in the Muslim world. The world contains well over one billion Muslims, and the majority of them live under authoritarian regimes, in conditions of economic hardship if not abject poverty. Yet this underdevelopment exists alongside glimpses of prosperity in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, amidst astounding natural resource wealth, and despite widespread popular dissatisfaction with incumbent governments. In discussion, readings, and writing, we will study the political economy of the Muslim world in order to understand the varying development trajectories of Muslim-majority countries.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Tom Pepinsky 28475
GOVERNMENT 1101.104
Power and Politics: US Democracy Promotion
Over the past twenty years, the United States has made democracy promotion a major foreign policy priority. Does the United States always support democratic change abroad, or can concerns about energy supplies and national security dampen the enthusiasm for democratic change? How does democracy assistance actually work—on the ground and in Washington, DC? How distinctive is the US approach as compared to European efforts in this area? Has the United States actually contributed to democratic change in other countries, or have such interventions undermined democratic development? Finally, given our answers to these questions: can and should the United States be in the business of promoting democracy in the international system? Students will write short papers on issues highlighted in the readings and in our discussions.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. Valerie Bunce 28476
GOVERNMENT 1101.105
Power and Politics: Authoritarianism in the Age of Globalization
Do authoritarian leaders care about globalization? Does it make their lives more or less difficult? How do authoritarian regimes navigate today’s highly globalized world economy? These are some of the questions we will try to answer in this course. Approaching these topics will require a discussion of complicated concepts, such as capitalism, democracy, authoritarianism, property rights, globalization, and many others. In addition to Frieden’s Global Capitalism, the readings for the course will come from political science and economics journals. We will aim to clarify our ideas about these issues by writing them down and then, re-writing them many times over. For this purpose, the course will be organized around writing assignments that will ask students to reflect on readings and class discussions.
TR 08:40–09:55 a.m. Igor Logvinenko 28477 Valerie Bunce
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 1120.101
Psychology and Literature: Voices of Vermin, Vagabonds, and Vampires
What are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and about others? What is our responsibility to ourselves and to others and how does this responsibility impact identity? We will examine the interplay between developmental psychology and literature, to see how life imitates art and vice versa. For instance, students will apply broad developmental theories to literary characters, as if these characters were case studies, and students will also apply these theories to their own lives. By reading texts such as Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, students will begin to think about their identity and start to write their narrative. Reading and writing will be used not just as an academic exercise but as a transformational process in self- discovery.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Charlotte Sweeney 28478 Steve Ceci
HISTORY 1102.101
Roma (Gypsies) in Europe and the United States
The Roma, one of several groups of people lumped together by outsiders of the group under the name “Gypsy,” have a long history in Europe and were among the flood of immigrants to the United States at the turn of the century. This course will introduce students to the history of the Roma in Europe and the United States using literature and films made by Roma about Romani culture. Additionally, the course will identify the representation of “Gypsies” in film and literature and ask students to interrogate these representations through a variety of writing exercises.
TR 02:55–04:10 p.m. Ann Wilde 28863
HISTORY 1114.101
The Cold War: Revolt and Revolution
This course introduces students to three major, closely related themes in the study of twentieth-century United States and world history: the Cold War, revolutionary movements in the postwar era, and nationalism. How did the Cold War and revolutionary movements shape the global political landscape as we know it today? How do we write about the role the politics of nationalism played in the outcome of the Cold War and revolutionary movements? Texts in this course include the writings of Ché Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Franz Fanon, and historians Eric Hobsbawn and John Gaddis. Essays of varying length will be assigned throughout the course.
MWF 11:15–12:05 p.m. Jorge Rivera Marin 28501 Fredrik Logevall
HISTORY 1128.101
Women and Black Nationalism in the United States
Although often overlooked, Black women have played an important role in the development and practice of Black Nationalism in the United States. Through an examination of Black Nationalist women throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this course will explore the history of such women, paying particular attention to the unique position they held and the challenges they faced as women. Additionally, students will be challenged to explore and write about the ways in which feminist and/or Womanist perspectives complimented and/or complicated Black women’s interpretations and expressions of Black Nationalism. Ultimately, this course offers a more gender-balanced lens into the study of Black Nationalism in the United States.
TR 01:25–02:40 p.m. Candace Katungi 28502 Margaret Washington
HISTORY 1137.101
Theories of World History
How did the idea of world history arise? To what extent are our present views on history indebted to the theories of the past? What is the relationship between theories of world history and current trends towards globalization? In engaging with these questions, this course will explore different interpretations of history from the eighteenth century to the present. It will also examine competing explanations about the causes of globalization and the special status that has often been accorded to Western civilization in the shaping of world history. Particular emphasis will be devoted to developing writing skills and careful analysis of historical and philosophical texts. Readings include selections from G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Francis Fukuyama, Jared Diamond, and others.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Taran Kang 28503 Dominick LaCapra
HISTORY 1138.101
The Quest for Commercial Empires in Early America
Early America of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was a remarkable place. Historians often portrayed trade during this period as Anglo-centric: primarily peopled with English and managed from London. In practice, trade had no core. It was not managed from any center—London, Amsterdam, or elsewhere; men and women on both sides of the Atlantic made strategies, choices, and decisions. Today, everyone thinks about globalization as something new. But here, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is the true beginning of it. This seminar will examine four Atlantic empires trading in early America—the Dutch, English, French, and Spanish. In this course, students will develop the skills necessary to analyze historical and contemporary writings and to communicate their ideas in written presentations.
TR 11:40–12:55 p.m. Kim Todt 28504 Mary Beth Norton
ITALIAN 1105.101
The Humanities Confront Climate Change
Climate change is the most significant crisis of our age. Because greenhouse gas emissions have an effect on climate wherever they are produced, it is arguably the first truly global event. While scientists and social scientists work on solutions and policy, what role, if any, could the humanities play? Are literature, art, and cinema reduced to merely raising awareness about climate change? Or in their very impracticality, can the humanities provide a necessary response to the climate crisis? These are the fundamental questions that we will ask in this class as we read literary and philosophical texts, view films, study art works, and reflect on ways of writing about the crisis in a number of short essays and a longer research paper.
MWF 01:25–02:15 p.m. Karen Pinkus 28479
LINGUISTICS 1100.101
Language, Thought, and Reality: Testing the Language Instinct
When children first acquire language, in all its complexity, they do so with such ease and effortlessness that it seems they are pre-programmed for it, as an instinct. Linguists are discovering common properties throughout the world’s languages; perhaps the universals are due to a common biology. In this seminar, we will examine the issues surrounding the debate on language innateness. We will focus on the contrast between taught and untaught knowledge of language. How do children learn to speak? How are languages similar to and different from each other? Do other animals have language? Do some people speak more “grammatically” than others? Readings will include Steven Pinker’s 1994 bestseller The Language Instinct. Students will write a series of short papers and a longer paper.
TR 10:10–11:25 a.m. Esra Kesici 28480 Wayne Harbert
LINGUISTICS 1100.102
Language, Thought, and Reality: The Death of Language
This course will address issues related to language death, including: What does it mean for a language to be endangered? Why should we care? Are some languages more viable or valid than others? We will discuss issues such as the globalization of English, language as a vehicle for culture, linguistic prejudices, language revival programs, etc. This course will touch on languages and dialects around the world, including modern Hebrew (Israel), Mayan (Mexico), Bunong (Vietnam), and Ebonics (United States). Students will write short papers on a subset of the language issues discussed in class and one longer paper on a related issue of their choosing.
MWF 11:15–12:05 p.m. Becky Thompson 28481 Wayne Harbert
LINGUISTICS 1100.103
Language, Thought, and Reality: From Cuneiform to Cryptography
When ancient writings are discovered we are faced with a challenge: how can we decipher an unk
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695
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https://thestacksbookstore.com/book/9780143129257
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The Artist's Way: 30th Anniversary Edition
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"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times "Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue Over four million copies sold!Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors. A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.
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https://thestacksbookstore.com/book/9780143129257
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Description
"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."—The New York Times
"Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"—Vogue
Over four million copies sold!
Since its first publication, The Artist's Way phenomena has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery.
The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors.
A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.
About the Author
Julia Cameron has been an active artist for four decades. She is the author of more than forty books, fiction and nonfiction, including such bestselling works on the creative process as The Artist’s Way, Walking in this World, Finding Water, and The Listening Path. A novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television. She divides her time between Manhattan and the high desert of New Mexico.
Praise for The Artist's Way: 30th Anniversary Edition
“Without The Artist's Way, there would have been no Eat, Pray, Love.”
—Elizabeth Gilbert
"The Artist's Way is not exclusively about writing—it is about discovering and developing the artist within, whether a painter, poet, screenwriter, or musician—but it is a lot about writing. If you have always wanted to pursue a creative dream, have always wanted to play and create with words or paints, this book will gently get you started and help you learn all kinds of paying-attention techniques; and that, after all, is what being an artist is all about. It's about learning to pay attention."
—Anne Lamott
"This is a book that addresses a delicate and complex subject. For those who will use it, it is a valuable tool to get in touch with their own creativity."
—Martin Scorsese
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695
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dbpedia
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3
| 29
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https://open.spotify.com/episode/6j8v6kwTJvEbqroNjgcE11
|
en
|
Julia Cameron | Living the Artist’s Way [Best Of]
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https://i.scdn.co/image/ab6765630000ba8ab5005a8db66c24ec042d241c
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2021-10-07T00:00:00
|
Listen to this episode from Good Life Project on Spotify. In 1992, after years of teaching workshops on creative unblocking, Julia Cameron self-published The Artist's Way, which became a global phenomenon that sold millions of copies, was translated into 40 languages, and anchors companion workshops that have brought creativity into the mainstream conversation. Along the way, Julia has authored more than 40 books, plays and screenplays, written for Rolling Stone, The Washington Post and The New York Times, and collaborated with legends of television and movies, including Martin Scorsese, who would, for a time, become her partner in life as well. A few years back, I had a great opportunity to sit down with Julia in her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a beautifully honest and open, deep-dive conversation that ranged from her upbringing to her entrée into the writing life, her years-long struggle with addiction and awakening from it, her time in Hollywood, swept up in the world of movies, and her fierce commitment to her craft and to helping others find their creative voices and let them out. So excited to share this Best Of conversation with you.You can find Julia at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Chase Jarvis about the creative calling.My new book Sparked.-------------Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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en
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Spotify
|
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6j8v6kwTJvEbqroNjgcE11
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695
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dbpedia
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2
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https://www.unmpress.com/9780826335241/marc-simmons-of-new-mexico/
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en
|
Marc Simmons of New Mexico
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2022-04-26T16:47:45+00:00
|
New Mexico's best known and most distinguished historian, Marc Simmons, is also fully deserving of the epithet maverick, a term that originally referred to a...
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en
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University of New Mexico Press
|
https://www.unmpress.com/9780826335241/marc-simmons-of-new-mexico/
|
New Mexico's best known and most distinguished historian, Marc Simmons, is also fully deserving of the epithet maverick, a term that originally referred to a calf that had strayed from the herd and that is also used to describe a person who takes an independent path in his life, work, and philosophy. An independent scholar who has published at least 42 books, as well as over 1,400 magazine and newspaper articles, over 50 scholarly articles, and 74 chapters or introductions in books by other authors, Simmons is equally remarkable for his lifestyle.
He lives in a house he himself built, writing all his books on a manual typewriter because he has forsworn electricity and other modern conveniences. Simmons is internationally recognized as an authority on Spanish Colonial New Mexico, the Santa Fe Trail, the life and times of Kit Carson, and the Spanish documentary records that are the source for so many of his writings. He is known for his determination to write narrative history for general readers rather than speaking strictly to a scholarly audience.
Phyllis Morgan presents a biographical essay, a sampling of his writings, and a comprehensive bibliography that traces Simmons's work into 2004. Her work will be essential for all collections and collectors specializing in Marc Simmons or the Southwest.
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695
|
dbpedia
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1
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https://www.setonmagazine.com/catholic/spirituality/artists-way-secret-better-quality-life
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en
|
‘The Artist’s Way’: The Secret to a Better Quality of Life
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"Lorraine Espenhain"
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2015-01-10T11:00:00+00:00
|
by Lorraine Espenhain I’m reading 'The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity' by Julia Cameron. It's having such a profound effect on my life that I have to share what I am learning!
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en
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Seton Magazine
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https://www.setonmagazine.com/catholic/spirituality/artists-way-secret-better-quality-life
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I’m reading a book right now that is having such a profound effect on my life that it seems almost criminal for me to not share with others what I am learning. It’s called The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron.
It’s an international bestselling book that touches on the subject of creativity—a book that has inspired not hundreds, but millions, to overcome certain beliefs, thought patterns, fears, etc., that serve as a barrier to their creativity.
Center of Focus
In the second chapter of this book, Cameron speaks about the importance of paying attention to everything that is going on around you in order not only to connect with this world and survive in it, but also to overcome it.
She makes specific mention of her deceased grandmother, a woman whose life was filled with pain, heartache, and hardship, but who knew how to survive and be happy in the midst of it all simply by focusing on the lovely and wonderful details and miracles going on all around her. Even in the midst of gut-wrenching stress and trials, when her grandmother wrote letters to her family members, she didn’t just write about her problems.
She also interspersed her letters with the heart-thrilling news that the forsythia was starting to bloom, she saw her first robin that morning, her Christmas cactus was getting ready, and her new dog loved to sleep in her cactus bed, of all places.
Yes, she would write of the sad things that were taking place in her life so as to keep the family properly informed, but she made sure that she also wrote about the wild tiger lilies that were in bloom, the lizard that had found the perfect sun spot, and the roses that were holding their own in the heat.
Julia Cameron’s grandmother was a world beater and an overcomer because she saw life, not as a series of problems, crosses, and trials to be endured, but as a series of miracles and small detailed wonders continually taking place all around her throughout the course of her day. She paid attention to those miracles. She made those countless wonders the center of her focus, and in so doing, moved the darkness in her life into the background where it clearly belonged.
Capacity for Delight
In this extraordinary book, the author shares with the reader that the quality of one’s life has nothing to do with success or failure, but with one’s capacity for delight! In other words, to the extent that you are capable of taking delight in the many wonderful things going on around you is to the extent that your life will have any quality.
When I read this, I said to myself, “Wow… simply wow!” Cameron wrote of the importance of simply living in the moment, for when we do this, life, no matter how difficult it may be, becomes bearable. If we pay attention, if we listen, we will see that each moment is not without its beauty. By focusing on that beauty, we will not only survive, but thrive!
This may be something that you have already learned how to do, but for someone like me, it’s a whole new way of looking and living. Simply put, I tend to focus on the wrong things. When the alarm clock goes off each morning, my husband is already smiling and whistling before he’s even opened up his other eye!
While he’s enjoying his first waking moments, I’m intently focusing on problems that have to be confronted and dealt with that day. Sometimes I even find myself getting irritated. How am I supposed to decide what to get miserable about with all of his noisy whistling in the background?
Getting off on the Wrong Foot
As I reflected and meditated on the words written in The Artist’s Way, I vividly recalled a memory of an incident that took place when my firstborn daughter, Elizabeth, was about five or six years old.
We had gone to the supermarket, and my husband and I couldn’t understand why she kept tripping and stumbling. When I looked down at her feet, I saw that she had placed the wrong shoe on the wrong foot.
Her right foot was shoved inside of the left shoe, and her left foot was shoved inside of the right shoe. No wonder she was stumbling and having difficulty walking. As soon as she placed her feet into the proper shoes, the problem was solved. No more stumbling.
I think that there is a huge element in our society (of which I am a card-carrying member) who tends to make the same mistake when it comes to walking in this life. The reason why we’re always stumbling while others around us are walking and whistling is because we’re thinking the wrong thoughts. Put the right thoughts into your mind, focus on the right things, and you’ll stop stumbling.
You might even whistle too.
And so, I decided to try it. After meditating on Julia Cameron’s words, and wishing with all of my might and main that I could have known her grandmother, I said to myself, “I can do this. It might seem foreign at first, the language might seem awkward and unfamiliar, but I can do this!”
Starting on that particular afternoon, I decided to pay attention and focus on the many ordinary—yet wonderful and lovely—things going on all around me that I never noticed before because I was too busy focusing on problems.
Going Crazy?
I decided to test the waters on a dearly beloved friend of mine in Philadelphia. This woman is old enough to be my mother; yet, we’ve been best friends for so long that I can’t even remember not having her in my life. We met at church many moons ago, and we just connected and bonded.
We were both Italian, loved coffee that was so strong that our husbands called it brewed peat moss, and were gloriously intoxicated with Jesus. What more did we need? My friend has seen me at my worst, and I have seen her at hers, but we still love and accept each other. We appreciate that we don’t have to put on an Oscar-winning performance when we’re talking on the telephone or emailing each other because we accept each other unconditionally as we are.
And so, I decided to send her an email from The New Me. It went something like this:
Hello, Soul Mate!
Just checking in this morning to see how you’re doing. I have a migraine headache this morning, but there’s a fresh pot of coffee brewing, Christmas carols are playing softly on my stereo, and outside my kitchen window is a beautiful tree with orange and gold leaves shimmering in the breeze beneath a golden morning sun.
The house is pretty dusty since I didn’t get a chance to clean it, but when the heater goes on, all of the dust mites come to life and dance like ballerinas in the air, waltzing to and fro in the dazzling light, holding me captive with the beauty of a dance they’ve been dancing for thousands of years. The Philadelphia Academy of Music never put on anything this spectacular! You have to see it to believe it!
I don’t know how I’m going to pay for the car insurance at the end of this month, what with Christmas and all, but the sun that is shining through my sliding patio doors has hit one of the crystal balls in the chandelier hanging over my dining room table.
It’s absolutely beautiful! It’s magical! Twinkles of dancing light and lovely rainbows are everywhere! Wishing you were here to see it! Just thought I’d share this magical moment with you!
Write back soon! Love and Hugs in Jesus!
My friend’s response, which came back within 20 minutes, was quick and to the point:
“Honey, talk to me. You know that you can tell me anything. Are you on something? Do you want me to call you tonight? I have free minutes on my cell phone, and it won’t cost me a cent… not a single blessed cent.”
A New Way of Walking
Okay, so it will take her a little while to get used to The New Me, and maybe I do need to tone it down a bit, but I think life is a lot better this way than just focusing on migraine headaches, bills, water stains on my bathroom mirror, empty wallets, chores, and gloom.
It’s like learning how to see all over again, but I have to say that I’m loving it! I’m really loving it! I’m still stumbling and falling as I learn how to walk in this new way, but then God shows me something beautiful, and I focus on that instead.
This afternoon, I felt myself dwelling on the stack of bills that have to be paid this week and all of the different appointments that I have this week as well. I found myself tensing up. As I dwelt on these things, one of my daughters came into the room and started talking to me about something.
I stared into her eyes, which are the most beautiful eyes that I’ve ever seen on anyone. They’re big and brown. They remind me of two chocolate Hershey’s Kisses every time I see them, and I have to drop whatever I’m doing, make her close them, and give her kisses on each eye.
As I stared into those Big Browns, and as my daughter’s eyelashes tickled my lips, I thanked the Lord that in that moment He had sent me something better to focus on rather than the things that were causing me to tense up.
Those Big Browns staring up at me pushed the stack of bills and the pressing appointments back into the background where they belonged, and I was able to see the beauty of that moment clearly. I was able to see the most important thing, the better thing, and it was this that made the moment, which was threatening to go sour, turn sweet.
Yes, there are bills to pay. Yes, I have a lot of appointments this week. But I also have a daughter with beautiful brown eyes that look like huge chocolate Hershey’s Kisses. Yes, my windows are dirty and need to be cleaned, but when I opened them this morning for a bit of fresh air, I heard my neighbor playing Ave Maria on his flute. The dirt on the window was pushed to the background, and center stage was given to my neighbor and his flute.
I no longer saw the dirt, only the beauty of that moment. I saw what mattered most, what brought joy to my heart, and refreshed my spirit. I saw that I had within me the capacity for delight of which Julia Cameron wrote, and I knew that because of this, I was well on my way to a better quality of life.
I think I’m going to like this new way of walking. I’m still tripping and stumbling as I learn to adjust to my corrected vision. Sometimes I even fall, but I know that I’m on my way…
Somehow, I’m going to make it.
Boat on Sea Image © Warren Goldswain / Dollar Photo Club
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https://online.nmartmuseum.org/nmhistory/art-architecture/history-art-and-architecture.html
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en
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New Mexico Tells New Mexico History
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Culture Rush
The history of art in New Mexico begins with the earliest inhabitants, the Paleo-Indians, who developed their arts over thousands of years, and left artifacts buried in ruins and mysterious images drawn on canyon walls. Eventually Native Americans, first the Pueblo culture, followed by the Apache and Navajo, settled permanently in New Mexico. These early artists created designs and images based on strong spiritual connections to the surrounding natural world.
In the 1500s, the Spanish culture arrived and brought new ideas, including Christian iconography, and materials to the region such as metal, wool, paints and dyes. In the 1800s, the first European-American tourists began to visit via trail and train. The artists who followed were inspired by the region’s cultures and landscape, and they in turn brought new ideas and trends from their art world to the region. The artwork that has been produced in New Mexico since this time has been influenced by these the indigenous, Spanish and Anglo traditions and by the unique qualities of the region’s communities and natural environment.
When the transcontinental train reached the territory of New Mexico in 1879, a “culture rush” began, and European-American artists and anthropologists hurried to the region to collect artworks and document native lifestyles before everything was changed by the influx of outsiders. The drawings, photographs and paintings that artists made at this time were often used to advertise the exotic Southwestern landscape, and the native people who lived here.
The first images of Native American cultures in New Mexico were made by artists, writers and photographers who were paid by journals such as Harper’s Weekly and Scribners. Illustrated articles about the Zuni tribe by Frank Hamilton Cushing and the Hispanic Penitente Brothers by Charles Fletcher Lummis are examples of popular articles from this time. Lummis went on to write many more articles about the peoples of the Southwest, and he helped create a mystique about the picturesque Southwestern cultures and land.
Photographers capitalized on this mystique and made postcards and calendars of Native Americans that created stereotypical images of the people who lived here. In 1902, the Fred Harvey Company built the Alvarado Hotel at the railroad station in Albuquerque. Part of the hotel was designated “The Indian Building” as a place where Native American artists sold their wares to tourists. This enterprise was successful, and the artists began to change their styles depending on what sold. Consequently the artwork became less authentic and more commercial. In time, prominent artists and anthropologists would try to fight the commercialization of indigenous arts, and influence the quality of work that was created.
Statehood and a New Museum
Edgar L. Hewett created thefirst art museum in New Mexico in 1917. Hewett was an anthropologist, teacher and administrator who played a pivotal role in turning Santa Fe into a center for art and anthropological research. After New Mexico became a state in 1912, Hewett created an economic plan based on developing cultural institutions and promoting the unique, indigenous qualities of Southwestern arts. After holding art exhibitions in the hi storic Palace of the Governors, Hewett’s Pueblo Spanish revival style art museum opened in 1917. As director, Hewett was committed to exhibiting work that mixed anthropology with art, such as Henry Balink’s painting Pueblo Pottery. Hewett was also committed to an “open door approach”, a policy promoted by the artist Robert Henri, which allowed any artist working in New Mexico to exhibit at the museum. This was a radical approach created in opposition to the exclusive academies that recognized only European academic art.
Hewett was also the director of the School for American Research, and as an anthropologist he was very involved with Native American artists . He created the “Santa Fe Program” initially to encourage potters from San Idelfonso to improve their wares. He lucked out by meeting Maria Martinez and her husband Julian, who became masters of their medium and invented the elegant, matte black and polished black pottery that became world renown. Hewett and his partner Kenneth Chapman worked with other Pueblo potters and encouraged the revival of ancient designs that were found on excavated pottery and petroglyphs throughout the Southwest.
San Idelfonso day school teachers were influenced by the Santa Fe program and began a controversial project encouraging Native American students to draw pictures form their own experiences. At this time the Dawes Act supported the assimilation of native students into the mainstream society, and did not permit federal Indian School students to acknowledge their own traditions and lifestyles, or to speak their native languages. Students like Alfred Montoya continued the practice regardless, and pueblo easel painting was incorporated into the Santa Fe Program. In later years, Hewett would exhibit Pueblo easel paintings at the museum, and the artwork was highly appreciated by the local art community.
Modernism in New Mexico
In the beginning of the 20th century, there was a growing interest in the Southwest among European and American artists, and many came to visit, tour and work in New Mexico. Santa Fe and Taos became the most popular artist communities and the centers of the art scene. After statehood in 1912, a wave of academically-trained realist painters came who were attracted to the land, the light and the native cultures. They painted images of the native peoples, their homes and the surrounding landscape.
The 1913 Armory Show, in Chicago and New York, introduced the public to the most radical European and American art, and artists began to align themselves either with the new, the "modernists," or the old, "the academic realists." Modernist art expressed a more personal and emotional response to the world, rather than a replication, or mirror, of reality. In New Mexico, modernists were drawn to Santa Fe, where the Open Door policy of the Museum of Fine Arts created a place for progressive and modern artists to show their work. Well-known artists Robert Henri and his friend John Sloan were frequent visitors from the East Coast who drew other artists to Santa Fe. European-trained academic painters and illustrators mostly congregated in Taos. After WWI these communities broke into distinct societies that sometimes overlapped and sometimes opposed each other. As time went by, art from both groups became more modern and abstract.
Academic painters based in Taos created pictures of Hispanic and Native American people engaged in everyday activities and religious rituals. These romantic and impressionistic pictures became some of the best-known art from New Mexico. Their images were both ethnographic studies and nostalgic portrayals of an almost bygone era. The Taos painters were exclusive about their membership, and at one point, had members deported if they were not U.S. citizens. Irving Couse, Joseph Henry Sharp and Victor Higgins were influential members of this group.
In Santa Fe, five young artists formed Los Cinco Pintores on the idea of bringing art directly to the people . Will Shuster and Jozef Bakos were influential members of this group. The Santa Fe artists were somewhat notorious for wild parties and drinking in the time of prohibition. The social conservatism of the political leadership in Santa Fe did not approve of their life style, or their progressive political views.
Another group known as the"New Mexico artists" attracted more modernist painters. The coalition did not last long, but members such as Andrew Dasburg, Gustave Baumann, and Randall Davey have had a long and lasting impact on the arts in New Mexico.
Artists in these different groups also worked together. In 1925, Will Shuster and Gustave Baumann built a human-sized marionette in their backyard and named him “Zozobra”, or Old man Gloom, and burned it during the Santa Fe Fiesta. Their objective was to burn away gloom, and to express their disapproval of the commercialized tourism that was taking over the authentic Santa Fe that they loved. The burning of Zozobra became a tradition and the most notorious event of the annual Santa Fe Fiesta.
Modernism’s Second Wave
Hewett was more interested in ethnic imagery than abstraction and modernism. However, he did stay true to his policy of allowing any style of art to hang at the museum by scheduling regular exhibitions of local artists working with abstraction. Raymond Jonson was in charge of these exhibits, and he took the opportunity to present work contrary to the predictable Southwestern ethnographic genre. Jonson and his fellow abstractionist Emil Bisttram spearheaded a group of painters known as the Transcendental Painting group. Their mission was to create non-objective work that did not refer to the natural world.
In Taos, a new group of itinerant modernist artists formed around the writer Mabel Dodge. Dodge had come from New York in 1917, originally with her painter husband whom she quickly divorced after she arrived. She married Tony Luhan from Taos Pueblo shortly thereafter . Mabel had been the center of a radical salon of artists, writers, intellectuals, socialists and activists in New York, and she invited her friends to visit her in New Mexico.
One of the first artists to visit Dodge was Marsden Hartley, who was searching for a uniquely American approach to painting. Later she would be visited by Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Paul Strand and Rebecca Salsbury James, all prominent painters and photographers who were creatively inspired by their New Mexico visits and experiences. This group of artists were mostly associated through the gallery that Alfred Stieglitz, O’Keeffe’s husband, ran in New York City.
The Depression and the WPA
In 1929 the stock market crashed and the United States entered the great Depression. The tourism market in New Mexico crashed as well, and a period of prosperity for artists ended. Educational and vocational programs were developed to promote artistic and economic development in the state.
The Spanish Colonial Arts Society and the Colonial Hispanic Crafts School, in Galisteo were both formed in 1929 with the goal of encouraging and promoting traditional Hispanic arts. Traditional arts such as weaving, furniture making, tinwork, colcha embroidery and wood carving were taught and promoted. Taos and the smaller villages of Northern New Mexico were the centers for these activities, and both traditional and modern artists, philanthropists, intellectuals, and writers were involved in promoting interest in Hispanic arts. Romero de Romero became the best known Hispanic painter from New Mexico during this time.
In 1932, Dorothy Dunn created the The Studio Program at the Santa Fe Indian School. Dunn was an art educator who felt that art instruction helped her Native American students master English and achieve academic success. She taught her students a painting style based on ledger drawings, Kiva murals and first generation Pueblo easel painters. She encouraged students to depict their cultural traditions and lifeways by using flat outlined forms, without 3-D perspective or modeling. Though the aesthetics were narrowly defined, Dunn’s students included the likes of Allan Houser and Pablita Velarde. The Studio program was a success and the new style of painting became a powerful force in New Mexican art. Dunn was succeeded by one of her students Geronima Cruz, and the program was continued until it was replaced by the Institute of American Indian Arts in 1962.
Federal Arts Projects
The PWAP (Public Works Arts Project) and the WPA (Works Progress Administration) were created during this time to support unemployed artists throughout the country. In New Mexico,160 artists created public art in 29 New Mexican communities . Will Shuster created 4 large murals to honor Pueblo Indians at the Museum of Fine Arts, through the short-lived PWAP. The WPA supported a wider range of projects in public buildings and supported artists and craftsmen making prints, paintings and photographs, as well as traditional Hispanic and Native American artworks.
FSA, or Farms Security Administration photo project
The FSA, or Farm Security Administration, hired photographers to document rural American lives during the Depression. John Collier Jr. and Russell Lee photographed in farming and ranching communities, small villages and along the highways crossing the state. Their documentary work has inspired many photographers who focus on the vernacular- on the everyday life of distinct American cultures and communities.
The Post-War Period
The romantic images of southwestern life seemed irrelevant after WWll. Los Alamos, NM was the home of the Manhattan project during the war years, and the Trinity Site near Alamogordo, NM was the site of the first atomic bomb explosion. Many New Mexicans had fought and died in the war, and the state became more connected to the rest of the country and world.
The arrival of the Atomic age ended New Mexico’s cultural and technological isolation. The postwar boom increased industry, transportation, tourism, and the population. Albuquerque became the population center, and the arts community at the end of the 1940s blossomed there as well. The University of New Mexico became the center of a thriving community of modernist artists.
Raymond Jonson moved to Albuquerque to teach at the University and opened the Jonson gallery, the only gallery in New Mexico devoted to abstract and non-objective art. Jonson attracted a broad range of students to the university's Fine Arts program, including returning veteran Richard Diebenkorn, from the San Francisco Bay area, and native son Joe H. Herrera. Though artists continued to congregate in the enclaves of Taos and Santa Fe, Albuquerque became the center for younger, more progressive artists.
In the Cold War era of Sputnik and the arms race, science and technology became dominant forces in the culture. New Mexico became well-known for its scientific laboratories in Los Alamos and Sandia and the top scientists who migrated to the state. Artists working with abstraction embraced two opposing formalist strategies in response to the times and trends: rational/geometric styles and expressive/ intuitive styles.
Native American art also began to change radically during the Cold War era. In 1962, the Institute of American Indian Arts replaced the Studio at the Indian School. The school hired new faculty who were engaged in contemporary issues and styles. Fritz Scholder became an important teacher there, and he energized a rebellion against the prevailing formalist styles of the day. Scholder combined Native American stereotypes with abstract expressionist brushstrokes. He influenced many young Native American artists including T. C. Cannon, who attacked Native American stereotypes and transformed them into political commentary. Subsequent movements in Native American arts became more political. Bob Haozous’ Apache Skull, and Jaune Quick-To-See Smith’s Matching Smallpox Suits... have clear political messages about tragic events in Native American history.
Comtemporary Art and Pluralism
American art since the 1960s has been defined by many different movements and styles. In New Mexico, the 1960's Counter Culture, which attracted rebellious youth, political activists and back-to-the-earth hippies, encouraged the rejection of mainstream values and authority. Artists in the region moved away form modernism and began to develop multiple forms of artistic expression. Pop art, minimalist art, Conceptual art, Land art, political art, and feminist art, were movements that influenced New Mexican art during the post-modern age. Photographers continued to migrate to the state, to document the land and culture and to experiment with new processes and ways of picturing the world.
New Mexican artists investigated the atomic legacy in New Mexico’s history, and made artwork that challenged and informed our understanding of historic events. Multiculturalism is a defining characteristic of New Mexican art and Native American and Hispanic artists continue to assert their own culture and question the dominant Anglo culture through provocative artworks.
Today, New Mexico is still attracts artists, and Santa Fe is among the largest art makets in the nation. Museums, art centers, galleries, art markets and events also attract many tourists who come see the diversity of art and culture thriving in the state. New Mexico continues to be a place where the arts are highly valued, and where artists play a vital role in the state’s economy and culture.
Ancestral Pueblo Architecture
The Ancestral Pueblo people of the Four Corners area created the first permanent shelters in New Mexico. Their history is divided into two distinct periods, the Basketmaker and the Pueblo. The earliest Basketmaker shelters were built with rock and made use of canyon overhangs and caves. Shelters evolved into pithouses, underground dwellings with earth and timber roofs. Sometime after the year A.D. 700, rooms were built above ground; this is considered to be the Pueblo I period. The above ground shelters were made of stone and mud, and pithouses were still present in groups of buildings.In the Pueblo II period shelters included multi-storied houses constructed from stone masonry and subterranean ceremonial kivas. By the period known as Pueblo III, the Ancestral Pueblo people had evolved into extraordinary architects, masons and community planners.
Chaco Canyon is a famous Pueblo III site in the four corners area and Pueblo Bonito, a “great house” in Chaco, is a fine architectural example of this period. Important characteristics of Pueblo Bonito include a D-shape plan with rectilinear buildings facing south for warmth, a large central plaza, and approximately 35 small kivas and 2 great kivas. The Chacoans were expert masons, and they used local sandstone, which they shaped into bricks and laid carefully in horizontal strata. The ruins that exist today are a testament to how well they were built.
Archeologists believe that Chaco Canyon was an important spiritual center for the Ancestral Pueblo people, based on the great number of kivas, and the many spiritual objects found in the ruins. There is also a belief that Chaco buildings were carefully aligned in order to observe lunar and solar cycles. Periods of drought, and possibly other strife, caused the inhabitants of Chaco Canyon to leave by the 14th century.
After they left their settlements in the 1300s, the Pueblo people made their way to the Rio Grande and its tributaries, and to more mountainous settlements in western New Mexico. Pueblo IV architecture was made from “puddled adobe” (mud laid in horizontal layers to build up walls), stone and sod blocks. Multi-storied residences were geometrically arranged around large plazas that included ceremonial kivas. Doors and windows were minimized, and ladders were used to access upper level buildings. They were situated to make use of water and to provide protection from marauders.
Taos Pueblo was first settled during this period and it has been continuously occupied ever since. Over the centuries the pueblo grew into a beautiful arrangement of stacked and clustered blocks of buildings that have inspired architects, as well as painters and photographers, throughout recorded history.
Adobe building changed after Spanish contact, beginning in 1593. Pueblo Indians adopted the Spanish technique of forming mud into sun dried adobe bricks. In the Pueblo V period, which began in the 1700s after the Spanish reconquest and continues to the present day , Spanish and Pueblo cultures shared and adapted construction techniques and design.
Zuni Pueblo is considered a Pueblo V building. The original, small community built of stone grew organically into a large multi-storied pueblo built with adobe bricks. Fireplaces, chimneys, horno ovens, parapets, and terraces were some of the architectural developments that occurred during the early Pueblo V period.
Spanish Colonial Architecture
While New Mexico was under Spanish rule, architectural developments occurred slowly. Spanish settlers were cut off from trade with their fellow North Americans. Supplies, as well as technology and ideas, had to come from far-away Spain. During these years of isolation, settlers lived a subsistence lifestyle and had little money or energy for developing architectural styles or engineering. Adobe homes were simple and made from basic local materials. Details included flat roofs, earthen floors sealed with animal blood, mud plaster, wooden bars on windows, vigas and latillas for the ceiling. Glass, nails, and hardware were not available. Communities were often arranged around a plaza for defensive purposes.
Spain focused most of its effort and money on missionary activities. The mission churches were the most significant architecture during this period, and they have been painted and photographed by numerous artists over the years. Churches were built within Spanish communities in the northern mountains like at Rancho de Taos, Trampas and Chimayo, and in all of the Pueblos. The friars were in charge of Pueblo church design and engineering, and the Pueblo people supplied the hard labor. Though the history of the Pueblo mission churches is fraught with controversy and tragedy, the buildings themselves are known for their simple beauty, and they have provided inspiration for important developments in New Mexico architecture.
Territorial Architecture
With Mexican independence in 1821, New Mexico’s period of isolation ended. Trade on the Santa Fe Trail brought new people, cultures and materials. Glass, nails, hardware and tools were finally available.
In 1848, New Mexico became an official territory of the United States. American visitors who arrived in Santa Fe via the Santa Fe Trail did not always appreciate the native architecture. Some even said Santa Fe looked like a prairie dog town! Americans brought in milled posts and trim to make the buildings look more European, and built Greek Revival style buildings with white columns and classical proportions. U.S. military forts and government buildings adopted this style, now known as “Territorial.” Churches were also influenced by European design, and Bishop Lamy, who came from France, built Santa Fe’s St. Francis cathedral in the Romanesque Revival style.
In 1880, the railroad began to influence the architectural styles in new settlements. Towns built along the railroad like Deming, Albuquerque and Las Vegas resembled small Midwestern towns with Victorian houses, pitched metal roofing, and front porches. Towns not along the railroad, such as Santa Fe and Taos, retained more of their regional character.
Pueblo Spanish Revival Architecture
After statehood, in 1912, New Mexico began to grow and change more quickly. Politicians, businessmen, artists and archeologists were involved in making decisions about how New Mexico should grow. Tourism was the key to economic development, and the “Santa Fe Plan” was created to promote and maintain a characteristic regional style based on ancient pueblo architecture. The model for this architecture was the mission churches of Acoma and Isleta, and the sculpted adobe masses of Taos Pueblo. The New Mexico Museum of Art and the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, both built by the architectural firm of Rapp and Rapp, first set the example for this type of building. Spanish colonial details such as carved and painted vigas, herringbone patterned latillas, and hand-carved furniture were also incorporated in these buildings. This became known as “Pueblo Spanish Revival” or “Santa Fe Style.”
The Fred Harvey Company built hotels and train stations with the objective of luring tourists to ride the railroad. The railroad financed the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque and the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe. The building designs were based on the Pueblo Spanish style, and Mary Colter, the interior designer, incorporated Native American designs, symbols, weavings and traditional artworks into the private rooms and public spaces.
The first New Mexican architect to invest in and develop the Pueblo Spanish Revival style was John Gaw Meem. Meem was trained as an engineer and came to Santa Fe to receive treatment for tuberculosis. While recovering, he met interesting intellectuals and artists including Carlos Vierra, who photographed and painted all the mission churches in the state. Both Vierra and Meem became key players in an organization dedicated to preserving New Mexico’s mission churches and, in the process, became strong proponents of Santa Fe style architecture.
Pueblo Deco is a style related Pueblo Spanish revivalist architecture. The Kimo Theater in Albuquerque is an excellent example that combines elegant, simplified Art Deco lines with ornament and decoration based on Native American motifs and designs.
WPA Architectural Projects
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression to provide jobs for people in need. Architects and artisans benefitted from this program and built many fine buildings throughout the state during this time. Public buildings, such as schools, courthouses, city halls and the university, were built as well as public parks, plazas and gardens.
Extraordinary projects funded by the WPA include John Gaw Meem’s buildings at the University of New Mexico and at Highlands University in Las Vegas. Many county courthouses were also built through the WPA. Trost and Trost, architects from El Paso who described their work as “Arid Land Architecture,” built the impressive McKinley County courthouse. Their work was inspired by Meem, as well as by Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, who coined the famous phrase “form follows function.” Other courthouses, such as the Curry County Courthouse, were inspired by the linear simplicity and decorative ornamentation of art deco, or “PWA Moderne.”
The architect W.C. Kruger leaned more towards the Territorial style in his WPA buildings. Territorial Revival combined the local (flat roofs, earth colored stucco) with the classical (symmetrical buildings with white pedimented lintels and porticos and brick ornamentation) in buildings such as the San Miguel County Courthouse in Las Vegas. The culmination of Kruger’s career came later with Territorial Revival State Capital building, the “Roundhouse,” in Santa Fe.
Post-War Modernist Architecture
The post-war period and population growth brought influences in from new directions. Modernist buildings based on the “International Style,” emphasized angles and precise wall planes, symmetrical balance, and minimal ornamentation. Simplified rectangles, floor-to-ceiling glass, and an honest use of materials, revealed rather than concealed, were also characteristics of this style. The Simms building in Albuquerque was built in the modernist “International Style,” and it was the first skyscraper built in New Mexico.
The automobile boom brought the need for an architecture of motels, gas stations and diners by the roadside. This populist architecture incorporated modern buildings, desert decoration, neon signs and advertisements developed to attract motorist from a distance as they drove across the state. Photographers and artists have been inspired by the colorful roadside attractions and buildings that can still be seen when driving on highways across New Mexico such as Route 66.
Contemporary Architecture
John Gaw Meem’s influence and Santa Fe Style is still a part of contemporary architecture in New Mexico especially in the northern part of the state. However, many different styles of architecture exist in New Mexico today. Postmodernism has meant more freedom for architects to express themselves and to be influenced by a wide variety of styles.
The land, space, sky, light and the history of New Mexico continue to inspire contemporary architects. It is a place for building in experimental ways with alternative earth materials such as straw bale, fired adobes and rammed earth. In addition, the abundance of solar energy in the Southwest, has encouraged architects to create energy-efficient buildings that rely on the sun for heat and electricity. New Mexico architecture is still influenced by its past, but it also looks toward the future with innovative and environmentally conscious, “green” materials and technology.
Antoine Predock is an internationally renowned architect based in Albuquerque. His La Luz residence, on the West Mesa, and Rio Grande Nature Center, in the Bosque, are elegant buildings that blend with and focus on the surrounding landscape. He believes in a “portable regionalism” that he discovered through living and working in New Mexico and now takes with him around the world. For more information> http://www.predock.com/
Michael Reynolds came to Taos, New Mexico, in the 1970s and began to build his “Earthships” from earth and recycled materials, including tires, bottles and aluminum cans. His buildings are designed to be off-the-grid and self-sufficient with solar power, thermal mass, and water harvesting. His building forms are organic and fluid, decorated with colored glass and aluminum. For more information> http://www.earthship.com/
Bart Prince is an Albuquerque architect who builds residences through an organic process, synthesizing the client’s needs, the site, the materials and his own ideas. Prince’s buildings are eccentric, eclectic, creative and fun. For more information> http://www.bartprince.com/
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https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/listening-the-key-to-creativity-656175
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Listening - The key to creativity
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https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_407,w_690/469939
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"NICOLE BRODEUR"
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2021-01-21T01:54:00+00:00
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Be a better listener, says ‘The Artist’s Way’ author Julia Cameron
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The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com
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https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/listening-the-key-to-creativity-656175
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For more than 25 years, millions of people have awakened and grabbed not their phones, but paper, filling stream-of-consciousness “morning pages” – a creativity-boosting ritual first prescribed in author Julia Cameron’s breakthrough book, The Artist’s Way. (The book has sold more than five million copies.)
Now, Cameron has published The Listening Path, which lays out a six-week method of creative and personal transformation through better listening, not just to others, but to the silence around us.
Q: What inspired ‘The Listening Path’? Was the book in the works for a long time, was it inspired by recent events, or one event in particular?
The Listening Path was a long time in the making. I moved from busy and noisy New York to calm and quiet Santa Fe, New Mexico. The change was abrupt and healing. In the quiet of my new home, I began thinking about sound. When I went to lunch with my publisher Joel Fotinos, he asked me what I was thinking about and I said, “listening.” “Oh,” he said, “I’d love to hear more on that.” So his curiosity and my own experience combined to be the catalyst for the book.
Why is this a good time for a book like this one?
I think that our enforced solitude has caused many of us to be more introspective. The Listening Path provides a channel for our often chaotic energies to quiet and deepen. Now is a good time for a book on listening, as we are all listening – like it or not – to our tumultuous thoughts.
Do you think that people are more open to creative and personal transformation after their experiences in lockdown?
Yes. I believe that lockdown has shown us a need to be in touch and comfortable with our authentic selves. “It’s now or never,” we may catch ourselves thinking, as we turn to a spiritual toolkit.
How has the pandemic impacted people’s creativity and sense of self?
Our identity has come to be seen as something separate and distinct from our previous markers. We no longer feel it is our job, or our material possessions, which define us. Instead, we are led through the long hours of the pandemic to seek spiritual grounding. I believe this is good, important, and the silver lining of difficult times.
What makes it difficult for people to really listen? Does it have anything to do with social media and the ways in which our attention is pulled in so many directions?
People find it difficult to listen because they are overwhelmed by the input coming to us from all directions: social media, the television, the constant barrage of news. All of these things make it difficult for people to focus on the root of all listening: the still, small voice that wells up from within.
Do you see ‘The Listening Path’ as a workbook for reentry, when we are all able to gather again? Or is it something we can use now?
I believe The Listening Path is needed in our current times and will be needed, too, in our future.
What are three things that we can do, right now, to be better listeners?
The first tool I would suggest, as I always suggest, is the practice of morning pages: Three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing, done “first things first.” The pages quiet our chaotic thoughts and allow us to be authentically present.
The second tool is focusing on the sounds in our environment, perhaps keeping a weekly log of the sounds, pleasant and unpleasant, that we daily encounter. This allows us to tune in, rather than tune out, on our soundscape.
The third tool involves listening to others without interruption; allowing our intimates to fully finish their thoughts, which often surprise us. These three simple tools awaken our inner listener, allowing us to be more present and fully engaged.
What are some of the common experiences people have shared with you about ‘The Artist’s Way’? Are there common threads in the way the book, and morning pages, have impacted their lives?
The sentence I most often hear is, “Julia, your book changed my life.” I tell them, “You changed your life. I offered you tools, but you used them.” Practitioners report a heightened spiritual awareness: “My perception of the world shifted from hostile and threatening to encouraging and benevolent.”
Many people speak of what might be called “God consciousness.” I don’t think it matters what you name it; the tools of The Artist’s Way engender a spiritual awakening. As the book title says, The Artist’s Way is a spiritual path to higher creativity. I have found creativity and spirituality to be intertwined. If you work on your creativity, your spirituality increases; if you work on your spirituality, your creativity increases. People sometimes tell me, “Julia, I fell in love... with myself.”
(The Seattle Times/TNS)
THE LISTENING PATH
By Julia Cameron
St. Martin’s Essentials
208 pages; $36.99
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Artists from New Mexico
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2022-08-01T15:57:54+00:00
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Listing artists from New Mexico is akin to listing artists from New York. There are thousands. That history of creativity goes back centuries.
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en
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See Great Art
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https://www.seegreatart.art/artists-from-new-mexico/
|
Listing artists from New Mexico is akin to listing artists from New York. There are thousands. Artists who were born in New York. Artists who studied in New York. Artists who worked in New York. Major artists. Artists with books written about them and museum exhibitions.
Same goes for New Mexico which, outside of New York, has birthed, trained and homed more artists influential to what is considered American art than any other place in the country. That history of creativity goes back centuries, long before there was a United States, long before there was a New Mexico.
This introduction to artists from New Mexico starts there.
New Mexico Indigenous artists
Human habitation in New Mexico dates back thousands of years. Chaco Canyon is just one of many examples of how what is now called New Mexico has long been a center of civilization and culture.
These people created weavings, baskets, musical instruments, pots and tools, all of which should be considered art. These are the original artists from New Mexico.
Of these artforms, pottery, particularly Pueblo pottery, has experienced the greatest prominence within and outside of New Mexico. Historic and contemporary Pueblo pots are staples of the best art museums in the US and fine art collections worldwide. Pueblo pottery has become synonymous with New Mexico and vice versa. It’s like wine in France.
Since no article could possibly be comprehensive of art from New Mexico, let’s begin our introduction to artists from New Mexico with Maria Martinez (San Ildefonso Pueblo; 1887-1980). Martinez remains the most famous, influential and lauded of all the pueblo potters, recognized worldwide for her black pots.
“She’s really the one who made all the rest of this possible and that’s because she was, first of all extremely talented,” Andrea Fisher, owner of Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery in Santa Fe which since the early 1990s has been selling top New Mexico pottery. “She had collaborators along the way. First, her husband (Julian) and then her daughter-in-law, then her son, she had four sisters who were also potter’s. In those early days the sisters were getting 25 cents for their pots and Maria was getting $1 and so those sisters, because pottery makings always been a family affair, the sisters would help her out, make sandwiches for the kids and do the laundry. That way Maria can be incredibly prolific.”
Martinez also had a knack for business.
“She was sort of the first Indian marketer,” Fisher explains. “She could talk to the white guys who came out and bought it. There were a lot of people in those early days in the 1920s and 30s in Santa Fe, who recognized her talent and so all of those things combined, really, made her the founder of contemporary American Indian potters.”
While she is best known for her striking black pots, she didn’t invent the style. Black pottery dates back ages. She and her husband Julian Martinez, a fine artist in his own right, re-popularized it.
Black pottery results from an alteration of the firing process. Red and black pots come from the exact same clay. When the pots have been formed and it’s time to fire them, they’re fired in the ground. Every family has its own special secret about how they fire pots, but for the most part, they’re put in the ground and protected in some way. They are mounded over with wood and torched.
When pots come up to temperature, which is a visual sense from the artist, not something measured by a thermometer – low heat, relatively, 1000 degrees or so – the fire is cooled down and the pots come out the reddish color. If when the pots come up to temperature potters take dried manure and shovel it on top of the fire creating a large mound, what happens is it’s still hot inside and that manure on the inside catches fire. It needs oxygen to burn, but since the outside oxygen isn’t available to it, the place it gets the oxygen from is the clay body. The burning manure sucks the oxygen out of the clay and because of the chemical content of the clay, it turns black.
In whatever way anyone chooses to look at it, Maria Martinez – to this day – is the most prominent artist from New Mexico.
She wasn’t the only matriarch however.
Margaret Tofoya (1904-2001) at Santa Clara.
Rose Chino Garcia (1928-2000) and Lucy Lewis (1895-1992) from Acoma.
Nampeyo of Hano (1860-1942) at Hopi.
“(Nampeyo) did the same thing that Maria did, took (pottery) from utilitarian to an art form, away from a curio into a piece of art,” Fisher said.
Also, like Martinez, Nampeyo paired business acumen with brilliant artistry, venturing to the Grand Canyon not far from the Hopi villages to sell her work to the throngs of tourists there
“All those matriarchs, they raised the bar for everybody,” Fisher said.
Pottery traditions are passed through families and each of New Mexico’s now 19 Pueblos has a unique style.
Beyond pottery, Indigenous artists from New Mexico produce Zuni fetishes, Navajo weavings and baskets in addition to paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography – you name it.
Jewelry is one of the most popular and well recognized styles of artwork from New Mexico. I’ve detailed Native American jewelry in a separate post.
IN PERSON: The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque offers a fantastic introduction to New Mexico’s pueblos and their culture, artwork and people. Authentic Indigenous artwork can be bought there as well. The on-site Indian Pueblo Kitchen serves Indigenous cuisine.
Institute of American Indian Arts
Well into the 20th century, Native American art continued being produced in traditional ways. Collectors wanted “traditional” material and instructors tied their students to traditional methods.
In 1962, the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe opened, dramatically breaking from the traditional, launching a thrilling era of contemporary Native American art which continues to this day. IAIA was founded “to empower creativity and leadership in Native Arts and cultures through higher education” and become “the premier educational institution for Native arts and cultures.”
Check and check.
A staggering number of the most influential artists in Native American and American art history from New Mexico and beyond either taught or took classes at IAIA.
Fritz Scholder, Charles Loloma and Allan Hauser, arguable the most influential and respected Native American painter, jeweler and sculptor to this day were among the first instructors at the school. Their students, a who’s who of first generation “contemporary” Native American art – of course, all art is contemporary when it’s made by definition, but these artists were the first to work in a dramatically non-traditional style. Earl Biss, T.C. Cannon, Kevin Red Star, Dan Namingha, Linda Lomahaftewa, Doug Hyde.
The list of prominent artists from New Mexico restricted only to those who attended or taught at IAIA would be over 100 long itself. Tony and Elizabeth Abeyta. Diego Romero. Cara Romero. Roxanne Swentzell. Giants. Will Wilson. Anita Fields. Jody Naranjo. Marie Watt. Kathleen Wall. Rose B. Simpson. Canupa Hanska Luger.
That list continues to the present with recent graduates like Del Curfman.
Some of these artists are born and raised in New Mexico, some lived in New Mexico after graduation, others simply pass through, but all of them contribute to New Mexico and New Mexico has contributed to all of them.
IN PERSON: The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts exhibits the work of IAIA students and faculty as well other Native American artists.
Dorothy Dunn’s Studio School
Spend any time among the visual arts in New Mexico and you’re likely to hear the name Dorothy Dunn. In 1932, Dunn, a white woman and artist, began teaching art at the Santa Fe Indian School.
What would come to be known as the “Studio Style,” or more derisively the “Bambi School” for the common motif of doe eyed deer prominently featured in her student’s work, dictated “flat,” two dimensional, colorful, narrative paintings of traditionally Native subject matter – ceremonies, mythology, animals – employing watercolors. Once you recognize the look of a Dunn Studio style painting, you’ll be able to instantly recognize it anywhere.
The downside of Dunn’s instruction was how it hamstrung her student’s creativity, pigeonholing all of them into one specific style. While she advocated for the creativity of her Native students, she only advocated for it in very limited, restrictive terms.
The great Chiricahua Apache sculptor Allan Houser, one of Dunn’s students, was particularly critical of her narrow instruction.
Dunn only taught for a handful of years, but her studio school was an important step on the way toward IAIA and contemporary Native American art. Narciso Abeyta, Harrison Begay, Pablita Velarde and Pop Chalee were among her students who would go on to successful careers as artists.
IN PERSON: Most guest rooms at Santa Fe’s magnificent La Fonda Hotel feature Dorothy Dunn studio style artworks inside.
Taos Society of Artists
Non-indigenous artists have been drawn to New Mexico for its extraordinary light – similar to how artists across Europe have been attracted to the French Riviera. The favorable climate, contrasting mountain and desert landscapes, solitude and attraction to Indigenous cultures all lead countless artists from “back east” to visit New Mexico. Some stayed only a few days. Others never left. The migration continues.
Joseph Henry Sharp first visited Taos, N.M. in 1893. Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips followed five years later. All were captivated by what they saw. The land. The people. The light. The air.
“In just a few weeks I had found more material and inspiration for creative work than I could use in a lifetime,” Phillips wrote.
In July of 1915, Sharp, Blumenschein and Phillips were joined by Eanger Irving Couse, Oscar E. Berninghaus and W. Herbert “Buck” Dunton in forming the Taos Society of Artists. These “Taos Founders” would later be joined by Cattharine C. Critcher, Ernest Martin Hennings, Julius Rolshoven, Kenneth Adams, Victor Higgins and Walter Ufer.
The Taos Society of Artists lasted just 12 years as a cohesive group, but the aesthetic they established – breathtaking mountainscapes, buttery fall cottonwoods and aspens, warm, serene portraits of the area’s Indigenous people – has hung on firmly ever since and continues defining what “Western Art” aspires to be in many ways.
The art colony they established in Taos lives on. Taos remains a pilgrimage site for artists and collectors. An extraordinary number of artists, galleries and museums continuing calling the small town home, all of which stems from the Taos Founders.
IN PERSON: Learn the story of the Taos Society of Artists at the Couse-Sharp Historic Site in Taos which includes the home and studio of E.I. Couse and Sharp’s adjacent property.
Georgia O’Keeffe
Georgia O’Keeffe may be the most famous female artist in history. It’s her or Frida Kahlo. Almost 900 results return from a search of “Georgia O’Keeffe book” on Amazon.com.
With all that information available on O’Keeffe, I’ll keep this brief.
O’Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917, returning for the summer of 1929 to paint. She was transfixed by the desert. The light. The visuals. Anyone who’s ever been to New Mexico understands the hold it can take on you; why it’s called the “Land of Enchantment.”
O’Keeffe was enchanted.
She returned in the summers of 1930 and ’31 and the fall of ’34. It was on this visit when she discovered Ghost Ranch 20 miles north of tiny Abiquiu. For the next 15 years, with the exception of 1939, O’Keeffe spent part of her year working in New Mexico.
Part of the year was not enough and she moved to New Mexico full time in 1949, occupying the property at Ghost Ranch she’d bought years prior and later adding another home and studio in Abiquiu.
In New Mexico, O’Keeffe created her famous paintings of skulls and cliffs and sky.
O’Keeffe died in Santa Fe in 1986, essential to art history.
IN PERSON: The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe shares the artist’s work and story.
Los Cinco Pintores
Extant for just five years in the 1920s, Fremont Ellis, Jozeph Bakos, Walter Mruk, William Schuster and Willard Nash formed Los Cinco Pintores – the five painters. The group of 20-something transplants to Santa Fe, like the Taos Founders, took as their inspiration New Mexico’s landscapes and people.
Even before Los Cinco Pintores, Santa Fe had been building a reputation as an artist colony due to its location along historic trade routes, bringing both artists and tourists to buy their work to the area. Santa Fe for centuries had been a center for Indigenous and Spanish Colonial trade, including functional objects such as pots, jewelry, baskets and blankets now considered fine art.
The reputation of New Mexico’s capital as a hotbed for the arts only increased throughout the decades and the city, despite its population of roughly 90,000, boasts nearly 300 galleries, more than a dozen art museums, IAIA and the world’s largest, longest running and most prestigious Indigenous art market, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Indian Market. Not to mention the thousands of artisans who live there and more who travel in from around the state, nation and globe to sell and show their work.
Per capita, Santa Fe has the liveliest, most robust and significant art scene in the world.
Transcendental Painting Group
Formed in Santa Fe in 1938 by a group of artists including Emil Bisttram, Raymond Jonson and later to include Agnes Pelton, the Transcendental Painting Group has come to be recognized as having an outsized influence on Modern art writ large despite its brief, six-year existence. That influence is continuing to be revealed.
The group was founded on the principles of creating and promoting a pure abstract painting style imbued with spiritual intent. Their paintings remain as intriguing and mysterious now as they did when they shook up the art world 85 years ago.
IN PERSON: The University of New Mexico Art Museum’s Raymond Jonson Collection is the largest and most significant collection of his artwork as well as that of his Transcendentalist colleagues. Johnson, a Black man, taught at UMN in Albuquerque.
Famous artists who visited and painted New Mexico
Stuart Davis
Marsden Hartley
John Marin (1870-1953)
Robert Henri
Randall Davey
Maynard Dixon
Richard Diebenkorn
MAJOR Contemporary Indigenous artists born in New Mexico
Tony Abeyta
Virgil Ortiz
Rose B. Simpson
Roxanne Swetzell
Dan Namingha
Susan Folwell
Helen Hardin
Nani Chacon
MAJOR historic artists who lived New Mexico
Nicolai Fechin
Gustave Baumann
Leon Gaspard
R.C. Gorman
Agnes Martin (1912-2004)
MAJOR Contemporary artists living in New Mexico
Judy Chicago
Walt Gonske
Billy Schenck
Mateo Romero
Nocona Burgess
Who is the most famous artist in New Mexico?
For as long as she lived, O’Keeffe held this title. Today, I’d say Judy Chicago.
Who were 3 famous painters from New Mexico?
Start with O’Keeffe, Martin and Pelton – three women. None were born in New Mexico, however. Looking for 3 famous painters from New Mexico who were born there: Tony Abeyta, Dan Namingha and Pablita Velarde.
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https://medium.com/%40bonnieubarnes/blue-sky-and-transformation-3307368708b4
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Blue Sky and Transformation
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2023-10-02T16:40:11.049000+00:00
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I spent five days, weekend before last, in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico. I met, talked with, and heard from other writers, both unknown and famous. Anne Lamott was a headliner, as well as Julia…
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en
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https://miro.medium.com/v2/5d8de952517e8160e40ef9841c781cdc14a5db313057fa3c3de41c6f5b494b19
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Medium
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https://medium.com/@bonnieubarnes/blue-sky-and-transformation-3307368708b4
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I spent five days, weekend before last, in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico. I met, talked with, and heard from other writers, both unknown and famous. Anne Lamott was a headliner, as well as Julia Cameron and several writers I didn’t know much about. Sam Lamott and Jacob Nordby organized and ran this conference, billed as a Transformational Writing Retreat. And it was all of that and more.
My sister graciously came to Memphis to be here with my mom, who had just gotten out of the hospital with some health issues that were, thankfully, mostly resolved. She’s doing better now, but I was prepared to cancel the trip at the last minute and possibly attend the retreat online, or at least part of it. I got there a day early because of airline schedules, and I finally got to visit the Georgia O’Keefe Museum and walk around town, which helped make me ready for this experience.
If you haven’t been to Santa Fe and Taos, you should go. The towns are beautiful and historic, with art galleries and food and local jewelry and crafts you can buy. But even better, mountains surround the towns, and the skies are vast, expanding, 360-degree vistas that couldn’t be adequately photographed, at least not by me. Beautiful, blue, and endless. Some say the area is a “thin place,” and to me it was.
What happens at a transformational writing retreat? First of all, you write and write and write. The speakers give you prompts or tell you to make lists or draw circles where you analyze your own thoughts and feelings and your entire life; a topic might be how you manage your days or why someone is your hero. Then you share what you just wrote with a complete stranger or maybe with a group, or even with the whole conference of 600+ people. You might also describe a new acquaintance without mentioning their physical appearance or get up in the morning for a full hour of yoga. You become much better acquainted with your brain and your heart, the sources of all your writing.
I attended a pre-conference workshop with Julia Cameron on Friday, and here are a few things I learned there: other writers are friendly and encouraging; we can name our inner critics and reduce their power over us; we can ask ourselves for advice and receive valuable guidance. The suggestions from her book, The Artist’s Way (which I read many years ago and now plan to work through again), can expand us and bring out our creativity. You must do some handwriting first thing in the morning, go on a 20-minute solo walk twice a week, take yourself on a weekly “artist’s date” to see something new, and ask for daily guidance. Julia was funny and direct and instructive. She used some of the ideas from her book, The Right to Write, which I happened to have at the conference. She taught us a song she had written and told us how she had discovered that she could write songs.
She divided us into breakout groups of three (which had to be different each time), and we would share what we had just written or drawn or listed. Ideas flowed from my head and heart into my hand, and I met people who were willing to share about their lives and losses and careers. I tried to write down all of their first names. I told them about losing my husband four years ago and retiring from my job, and others talked about trying to find a way to work full-time and still write or let go of a job and retire. Time was limited, so we only shared tidbits.
The final group answered questions about what we needed to accept, celebrate, and be proud of. One woman said she was proud that her marriage and kids had all succeeded, which made her feel validated because she had stayed home with them, and that is something to be proud of. I had planned for my life to be like that, but it didn’t happen. My answer was that life is short, I need to celebrate love for everyone, including myself, and that I’m proud that I’m still here breathing, after losing my husband four years ago and then my adult son just four months ago. That took the others’ breath away, or at least took their words away for a second, but then they said, “you’ve been talking about being joyful!” and I said yes, you have to find joy in life every day and you can survive. I didn’t burst into tears, but one tear spilled out and I smiled a little, and we went back to our original seats. I felt that I had left them in a state of bewilderment, but it was all okay.
This was rightly called an intensive workshop. I was exhausted when it was over, and then there were keynote speakers that evening. That day, I ate protein bars, snacks they provided, and a smoothie, since I didn’t really want to sit down at a restaurant for lunch or supper.
Saturday and Sunday were also intense, but in a different way. After what happened at Julia’s workshop, I didn’t write or read to others about the recent losses of my husband and son. I felt that it was too soon for me, and there wouldn’t be enough time in the short breakout sessions to tell about it authentically. My intuition and my inner guide said that I can talk about it when I’m ready. The story will be long, if and when I write it, and I will be able to tell it much better.
I did mention the struggles of being just one of the caregivers for my mother and told my final group that I’ve had a whole lot of stress and loss in my life recently.
A few people read about their hard lives: having been abused, struggling to get sober, being trans or surviving “conversion therapy,” and people clapped for them and their courage. But you could also write about finding a four-leaf clover and they would clap for that, too. Anything and everything was accepted, and I didn’t hear a single reading that was poorly written or expressed.
Some of the sessions were more like gigantic group therapy sessions than a writing conference, but when you’re a writer or an artist, thoughts and feelings are behind everything, so it made sense.
Lauren Sapala’s session, for example, which focused on anxiety and the fear of writing, dived into the fact that we’re often discouraged, ridiculed, or shamed for expressing ourselves as children, and that things like procrastination and perfectionism are trauma responses that come from the fear of self-expression. Dysfunctional families discourage true thoughts and feelings and push children to conform to the parents’ thoughts and feelings. Her final point was that “the writing path is the path of power,” as we learn to build or regain our confidence and freedom of expression.
I enjoyed and learned from every single speaker, but my favorite speaker had to be Anne Lamott because I’ve read most of her books on how we all get through this life together. She spoke to us about a few things we should remember as writers:
· We’re here on earth to pay attention and be ourselves.
· Writing is a gift, something we’ve been created to do and we have a debt of honor to write.
· Because we’ve gotten a Willy Wonka “golden ticket,” we must take it seriously.
· Stop “not writing”!
· Stop multitasking — before you start your day every day, cross two things off of your to do list.
· Do it a day at a time; don’t wait for a different stage in life.
· Trust someone to read and comment; join a writing group and/or get a partner.
· As her husband Neal Allen says, use verbs! and fall on your butt with the first draft; let yourself fail so that you can learn.
· Step across the threshold into living a writer’s life (you may need to give up a TV show or two).
· Today is the start of a new season (it was really the first day of fall, so yes).
· Use your vision to go deep, and explore what the universe is about.
Along with this last point, Anne talked about “Teddy,” J. D. Salinger’s story, which I love. Afterwards, I lined up for her to sign my new copy of Bird by Bird, and she asked me about my circular necklace, one circle within another, and I just said, “It’s an eternity thing.” She asked if I was writing and I said yes, and she said, “Good!” I know she has a best friend named Bonnie, so I thought she might have connected me to her friend. I have a photo of the moment, but I think I’d need permission to publish it here.
On the last day, we were all encouraged to share something we’d written in the large forum, so I finally stood up and read: it was about having made choices throughout my life to de-prioritize practicing the piano, mainly because my love of reading and writing led to a career as a teacher and librarian. I still play and sing and enjoy music, nevertheless. The final sentence was, “But I’m still a musician.” We’re all “multitudes,” as Walt Whitman said, and we have to make some choices, but we don’t have to give up the pieces of ourselves that really matter.
I recommend next year’s workshops to anyone who wants to develop a stronger writing practice. You can find out more by going to the site: AWritingRoom.com, or following the group, A Writing Room Collective with Anne Lamott, on Facebook.
After the workshop was over on Sunday, I drove to Taos and let myself breathe, look, and contemplate this transformation in my life. I drove home the next day, relaxing and feeling a release from worry and fear and anxiety. I have several new friends, a whole lot of compadres, and a few new things to do every day and every evening, instead of binge-watching too many TV series. I’m full of gratitude for my family, who all support my transformation, and for the joy of getting away.
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https://www.tgci.com/funding-sources/new-mexico
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New Mexico Grant Resources
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2013-10-03T10:24:11-07:00
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While New Mexico is known as ‘The Land of Enchantment,’ the state’s nonprofit sector has historically faced a lack of resources needed to serve the state’s population.
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The Grantsmanship Center
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https://www.tgci.com/funding-sources/new-mexico
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Because New Mexico is one of the most underserved states in America, it’s of the utmost importance that organizations have access to information about how to apply for nonprofit grants. If you’re wondering how to get nonprofit funding in New Mexico, you’re in the right place! It doesn’t matter if you’re from Taos Pueblo, Grants, Roswell, Santa Fe, or another locale within the state— we’re here to help you find the New Mexico nonprofit funding you’re looking for.
An invaluable New Mexico nonprofit grant resource is SHARE NM, a unique on-line system created by state grantmakers to post, find and apply for grant opportunities. This resource also functions as a “first stop” for community information within New Mexico.
Facilitated by Groundworks New Mexico, the New Mexico Grantmakers Directory is a searchable database of New Mexico grantmakers, as well as out-of-state grantmakers who fund New Mexico nonprofits. The Grantmakers Directory is a great resource for New Mexico nonprofits in need of foundation funding and corporate funding!
A significant and unique (the only one of its kind in NM) resource is New Mexico Women, which leverages philanthropic investments in programs serving women and girls of color and those in rural, low income communities statewide through donor education and strategic grant-making efforts.
Below you’ll find a list of some New Mexico grant resources- know of a resource we may have missed? Reach out and let us know!
General New Mexico Resources
Legislator Lookup
Below are links to elected officials, funding sources and other useful agencies for grant-seeking groups in New Mexico. Please let us know about others that you feel would be helpful so that we can continue to improve this listing. Thanks!
Government offices:
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham - (505) 476-2200, Santa Fe
Senator Ben Ray Juján - (202) 224-6621, Washington, DC
Senator Martin Heinrich - (202) 224-5521, Washington, DC
Attorney General Raúl Torrez - (844) 255-9210 (toll free), Santa Fe
If you’d like to know the names and addresses of other elected officials that represent you and your area, click here to locate them: New Mexico Elected Officials.
New Mexico Office of African American Affairs
New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
New Mexico Environment Department
New Mexico Indian Affairs Department - Multiple grants available to Native American Communities.
The Governor's Commission on Disability Quality of Life Grant
New Mexico Humanities Council Grant Program
Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program in Rural New Mexico
Other helpful organizations:
An invaluable New Mexico nonprofit grant resource is SHARE NM, a unique, on-line system created by state grantmakers to enable nonprofit organizations to find and apply for grant opportunities. This resource also functions as a “first stop” for community information within New Mexico.
Another excellent resource is the New Mexico Grantmakers Directory, a searchable database of New Mexico grantmakers and out-of-state grantmakers who fund New Mexico nonprofits. It is maintained by Groundworks New Mexico, who have a wide variety of resources, including the CNPE Principles & Practices Guide. This guide covers legally required practices and recommended standard practices for nonprofit organizations in New Mexico.
Also, check out New Mexico Women, the only fund of its kind in New Mexico that works to advance opportunities for women and girls statewide so they can lead self-sufficient, healthy and empowered lives. NMW leverages philanthropic investments in programs serving women and girls of color and those in rural, low-income communities through donor education and strategic grant-making efforts.
New Mexico Thrives - New Mexico’s Nonprofit Association advocates for the New Mexico nonprofits sector and promotes, strengthens and connects individual organizations.
Keep New Mexico Beautiful - KNMB is the official clearing house for beautification projects in the State of New Mexico granted by the Litter Control & Beautification Act H.B. 158. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and educating New Mexicans about beautification, xeriscape, graffiti eradication, litter control, recycling, community stewardship, volunteerism and pride in our state. Its grant program is supported by New Mexico Clean & Beautiful, a program of the New Mexico Tourism Department. The grant program supports projects that improve communities, public spaces, and institutions. Approval of grants and allocation of funds is dependent upon KNMB Grant Committee review, availability of funds, the number of applications received, and compliance with grant requirements set forth in the Grant Guidelines section.
The Loan Fund - TLF is an award-winning nonprofit organization that provides loans, as well as consulting and training services, to small businesses, entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations across New Mexico. Most of our clients are unable to obtain financing through banks or credit unions. TLF was founded in 1989 to help alleviate poverty by creating and preserving job opportunities throughout New Mexico, particularly in low-income and underserved communities. The Loan Fund has made over $75 million in loans that have helped create or preserve over 9,000 jobs in New Mexico since inception.
New Mexico Health Equity Partnership - HEP focuses on building the organizational and community infrastructure necessary to improve the living conditions in our communities. We are the glue that brings people, community organizations and decision makers together to improve living conditions for historically impoverished communities. We are the coach, cheerleader, connector, mentor and project manager that make healthy communities possible in New Mexico. We build infrastructure through trainings, coaching and by sharing tools that allow both residents and community groups to hold policymakers accountable. We help elevate the community’s voice so residents can be the drivers of change. In 2017, 254 parents and 214 young people and children advocated for systemic change. Overall 70 decision makers were engaged.
Nonprofit Back Office Resources - NBOR’s mission is to help nonprofits accomplish more through our team-based, professional financial management and administrative services. By taking care of everything behind the scenes, 501(C)PA reduces risk and improves financial wellness so nonprofits can spend their time and energy where it matters most: their missions.
Nonprofit Resource Group - NRG is a program of The National Center for Frontier Communities (NCFC), a research and advocacy organization dedicated to improving the health and quality of life in frontier America. NRG staff and consultants are dedicated to helping build and sustain nonprofit and other community organizations so that they can fulfill their roles effectively and sustainably, in partnership with private business and government. Most services are provided on a sliding-scale fee. One free service is our “Curbside consulting,” which offers brief consultations to nonprofit leaders and staff on any nonprofit topic, including grant opportunities from around the country.
Non-Profit Support and Success Program at Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce - The LCGCC Nonprofit Support and Success program helps nonprofits become better organized, operate more efficiently and works with them to develop plans and strategies that ensure their sustainability.
SCORE - (National website) is a uniquely American organization that synthesizes two historic national ideas: entrepreneurial spirit and volunteerism. We are passionate about using our knowledge and expertise to assist and support local business owners, entrepreneurs and nonprofits during every phase of business. Listed below are the local SCORE organizations in New Mexico:
Albuquerque SCORE - Based in Albuquerque and serving the counties of Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia, SCORE is a catalyst for businesses, nonprofit organizations and job creation. SCORE helps strengthen our local economy. We're committed to helping small businesses grow from start-up through maturity with thoughtful guidance from our team of experienced entrepreneurs, business owners, corporate executives and managers. Business owners have unique professional development needs. This is why we offer different ways to help you build the skills and clarity you need to move forward.
Las Cruces SCORE - SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses and nonprofit organizations get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship.
Santa Fe and Northern NM SCORE - In any business, the more you know, the better opportunity you have to grow. SCORE Santa Fe, in partnership with the Santa Fe Economic Development Department, makes this possible by offering a variety of free educational programs including workshops and seminars. Topics include business plans and money management, fundraising basics, pitching your ideas, QuickBooks and more. Our workshops and seminars are offered yearly in spring and fall. For information/online registration, go to www.score.org/santafe/local-workshops.
Training Resources for the Environmental Community - TREC has a vision of leaders, organizations and diverse coalitions working effectively for environmental protection, conservation, and sustainability in Western North America. TREC cultivates effectiveness by providing premier capacity-building services, delivered in-depth and over time.
NEW MEXICO COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
Have you checked out your local Community Foundation yet? These are potential funders who know the needs of your community in great detail, and who will want to learn how your organization fits within the local service network. Each Community Foundation is entirely unique, but their general goal is to recruit donors and their contributions, then help distribute those dollars to local nonprofits, schools, artists, churches and other groups. Click here on New Mexico Community Foundations to see a list of them and the geographic areas they serve, or simply click on the specific Foundation names below.
Want to learn more about Community Foundations before approaching your nearest one for funding, or learn about their other resources? Click here on What’s a Community Foundation? Remember, research and insight are key to developing a successful Letter of Intent (LOI) and proposal writing approach.
Santa Fe Community Foundation - SFCF is devoted to building healthy and vital communities in the region where: racial, cultural or economic differences do not limit access to health, education or employment; diverse audiences enjoy the many arts and cultural heritages of our region; and all sectors of our community take responsibility for ensuring a healthy environment. To this end, we commit our resources to building Philanthropy that is robust, effective, and focused on critical issues facing communities, and nonprofits that achieve their missions with excellence. The SFCF Giving Together catalog allows fundholders to see a summary of SFCF’s community grant cycle applicant proposals and provides an opportunity to fund those proposals. Fundholder participation has allowed us to increase our discretionary grantmaking dollars by nearly 100%.
New Mexico Foundation - We improve the quality of life in New Mexico by building and managing charitable funds established by individuals, families, groups, organizations, and institutions. Grants to nonprofit organizations are made from these funds that both anticipate and respond to community need. In addition, we offer a wide variety of services dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations achieve their missions with excellence, including workshops in Advocacy, Board Management, Collaboration, Communications and Marketing, Evaluation, Finance, Fundraising, Grant Proposal Writing (provided by The Grantsmanship Center!), Human Resources, Leadership and Planned Giving.
Albuquerque Community Foundation - The Foundation is a New Mexico philanthropic entity concerned with all aspects of community well-being. Since our establishment in 1981, over $58 million has been granted to nonprofit organizations serving the greater Albuquerque area. Our Foundation grants in the following fields-of-interest through the competitive-grant programs: Arts & Culture, Economic & Workforce Development, Education, Environmental & Historic Preservation, Health and Human Services.
Carlsbad Community Foundation - The Carlsbad Community Foundation is a charitable nonprofit organization that promotes and enhances the lives of people in Carlsbad and South Eddy County. The Foundation was established in 1978 and has been a primary supporter of education, arts and humanities health and human services and other key issues for four decades.
El Paso Community Foundation - The El Paso Community Foundation was established in 1977 to foster philanthropy and provide a long term endowment to address the unique opportunities and challenges of the El Paso, southern New Mexico and Ciudad Juárez region. Today, the El Paso Community Foundation provides a wide-range of philanthropic services in the region as a grantmaker, convener and leadership organization to the community.
Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico - Based in Las Cruces.
C.W. and Dee McMullen Community Foundation - Based in Tucumcari.
Taos Community Foundation - TCF is dedicated to serving the unique needs of the communities of Taos and western Colfax Counties. Our philanthropic efforts support and enrich the lives and opportunities of citizens and protect the environment which sustains us. Our initiatives amplify donor investments which directly and powerfully support growth in our community.
UNITED WAYS OF NEW MEXICO
All United Way organizations around the country are dedicated to supporting projects within the four main areas of Health, Education, Financial Stability and Disaster Recovery of Individuals. While they share this common focus, each UW chapter also provides funding and support for programs customized to the needs of its home area. To find out more about a specific UW and its resources and nonprofit funding opportunities, please click on the links below:
San Juan United Way - Based in Farmington, serving San Juan County.
United Way of Carlsbad & South Eddy County - Based in Carlsbad, serving South Eddy County.
United Way of Central New Mexico - We serve our neighbors in Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia Counties. In some cases, our reach extends further, serving the entire state of New Mexico and beyond through our 2-1-1 information hotline and Tax Help New Mexico.
United Way of Chaves County - Based in Roswell, serving Chaves County.
United Way of Eastern New Mexico - Based in Clovis and Portales, serving Curry and Roosevelt Counties.
United Way of Lea County - Based in Hobbs, serving the cities of Eunice, Hobbs, Jal, Lovington, and Tatum in Lea County.
United Way of Northern New Mexico - Based in Los Alamos, serving Los Alamos, and Rio Arriba Counties.
United Way of Santa Fe County - Based in Santa Fe, serving Santa Fe County.
United Way of Southwest New Mexico - Based in Las Cruces, serving Dona Ana, Luna, Grant, Sierra and Hidalgo Counties.
RECENT BLOGS
NEW MEXICO ARCHIVED TRAINING
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https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ethical-wisdom/201401/the-artists-way-interview-julia-cameron
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The Artist's Way: An Interview With Julia Cameron
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"Mark Matousek"
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2014-01-23T14:56:46-05:00
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Julia Cameron talks about her landmark book The Artists Way and why it wouldn't exist if Jon Voight had returned her phone call
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en
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https://cdn2.psychologytoday.com/assets/favicon.ico
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Psychology Today
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https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ethical-wisdom/201401/the-artists-way-interview-julia-cameron
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When Julia Cameron began sharing her ideas about creativity with a few friends in her living room 25 years ago, she never imagined that these conversations were leading her to a gold mine (both artistic and financial).Since its publication in 1992, Cameron’s landmark book, The Artists Way, has helped millions of people around the world to discover–and recover– their creativity through daily, free writing exercises she calls Morning Pages.
Cameron, a poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, composer, and short story writer, began journalism career at the Washington Post, then moved on to Rolling Stone. After meeting director Martin Scorsese during an interview for the magazine, she married collaborated with him on three films, married in 1975, and divorced two years later (they have one daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese). Cameron's memoir Floor Sample details her descent into alcoholism and drug addiction, which led her to a point in her life when writing and drinking could no longer coexist. After getting sober in 1978, began teaching “creative unblocking” – and creativity as an authentic spiritual path – which led to publication of The Artist's Way.
Since then, Cameron has traveled the world, spreading her gospel of inspiration, self-trust, and “showing up” for the daily practice of Morning Pages. Widely recognized as the grande dame of creativity gurus, Cameron was Writer in Residence at Northwestern University, and is the author of dozens of other books (including The Right To Write) as well as plays, musicals, poetry, and dramatic works for both television and big screen. Julia Cameron recently spoke to Mark about the creative process, Morning Pages, and the challenges of training a new puppy, from her home in Taos, New Mexico.
MM: How do you explain the transformative power of writing?
JC: I think writing is by its very nature transformational. I believe that the minute you put pen to page you start to alter your consciousness and the more writing you do, the more closely connected you are to a higher power. Some people can call it the muse. Other people say it’s God. Whatever you care to call it, when you write, you connect to it.
MM: And what is it about writing in particular that does this? More than, say, sculpture or painting?
JC: I feel like any art form connects us to the muse. And writing is the one we’re most familiar with. It’s our daily path if you wish. Not all of us sculpt or paint, but all of us do speak.
MM: Do you think that spoken story telling has the same effect? Or is it about putting pen to paper?
JC: Well, I think I’m an advocate of the pen to paper group. When we put the pen to paper, we articulate things in our life that we may have felt vague about. Before you write about something, somebody says, “How do you feel?” and you say, “Oh, I feel okay.” Then you write about it and you discover you don’t feel okay.
MM: So it’s going more deeply into our experience?
JC: Yes, I think so.
MM: Tell me about Morning Pages, Julia. People who may not even know the title of your book know about Morning Pages. Can you talk about the purpose of this practice?
JC: I think the purpose is what you mentioned: transformation. We do Morning Pages in order to connect to our own consciousness and to connect to a larger something. Again, that’s the muse, the higher power, the Toa, God, the universe, whatever you care to call it. You do Morning Pages in order to touch base with it.
MM: How did you come up with the idea of Morning Pages?
JC: I was desperate. At the time, I was a Hollywood screenwriter and I had just written a movie for Jon Voight and his partner had called me up and said, “It’s brilliant.” Then they didn’t get back to me again and I was sort of stuck with the feeling of, Oh my god. I have this quote “brilliant movie” and I can’t get him on the phone. So, I started writing Morning Pages as a way to solace myself.
MM: It really was a healing impulse that brought you to it.
JC: Yes. And they still work to this day. I have an old writing partner and asked him if he still does Morning Pages. He said, “I do them whenever I’m in trouble.” And I said, “Don’t you think you might not get in trouble if you did them consistently?”
MM: That’s great. But isn’t it also true that we tend to introspective writing when need out something painful?
JC: Yes. And that was definitely how Morning Pages began for me. I was living in Taos at the time and I was in a little adobe house at the end of a dirt road. I felt like, “What happened in my career?” and I started doing Morning Pages. After I had been doing them for a couple of months, a character for a novel strode into them. I went off and wrote a novel and that was how I got the notion that the pages were healing because I had healed myself.
MM: And you wouldn’t have found that character if Hollywood had returned your phone call.
JC: That’s right. If they had returned my phone call, I’d still be a Hollywood screenwriter and The Artist’s Way would not exist. So, thank you, Jon Voight.
MM: Do you agree that a life story is something we make up? In the sense of everything life being a work of fiction?
JC: Well, we hope not. If we write our life story out, we hope we’re being objective. We strive for objectivity but whether or not we achieve it is the other question. When I wrote my autobiography, I strived for objectivity but I know that the truth telling was selective, as I was trying to see the other person’s point of view. And that’s why people who read the book told me that I had been kind.
MM: Why do you think writing is so scary for so many people?
JC: I think we have a great deal of mythology around writing. We believe that only a few people can really do it. I wrote a book called The Right to Write. In it, I argued that all of us have the capacity to write. That it’s as normal to write as it is to speak. But we have a mythology that says that only a few people are talented enough to be real writers.
MM: Why do you call writing a spiritual path?
JC: Writing is a spiritual practice in that people that have no spiritual path can undertake it and, as they write, they begin to wake up to a larger connection. After a while, people tend to find that there is some muse that they are connecting to.
MM: Is this muse connected to the power of confession?
JC: That’s an enticing idea. I think there is a great deal of power to confession and that as we try to be accurate, we find ourselves confessing foibles and shortcomings and all sorts of glimmerings of shared humanity.
MM: And that process is enlightening in itself. Tell me, what are you working on now?
JC: My life is dominated by a ten-week-old puppy. (laughs) She’s very mischievous. The trainer said to me, “Oh dear, you’ve got your hands full with this one.” And I do Morning Pages. I’m working on a book that’s still sort of top secret, with Emma Lively. I’ve worked with her for 15 years and this is our fourth book together. She lives in New York and I live here and we do it by phone. We are about two-thirds of the way done. It’s a self-help book.
MM: Well, there are millions of people out there eagerly awaiting a book like that from Julia Cameron. Thanks for you time. And good luck with the puppy!
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https://www.elpalacio.org/2024/02/jean-toomers-search-for-identity-in-taos/
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Jean Toomer’s Search for Identity in Taos
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By Darryl Lorenzo Wellington Mysterious, mercurial, hard-to-pin down sociologically or racially—and even described as being unbearably vain and pretentious—why is Jean Toomer important? My attention turned to him shortly after I became the 2021-2023 poet laureate of Santa Fe. I researched Toomer while looking for Black literary precursors, given that he is one of the few figures in African American literature who has written about this region. Toomer is also an iconoclast, whom Henry Louis Gates called “an ex-Negro.” His New Mexico connection began at the point when he rejected conventional racial categorization. Toomer was a literary trailblazer. He was, to my mind, one of the most important lyrical writers in the English language, possessing a gift comparable to Shelley or Hart Crane. He authored lines as biting and as immutable as: Black reapers with the sound of steel on stone Are sharpening scythes. I see them place the hones In their hip pockets as a thing that’s done, And start their silent swinging, one by one. The poem “Reapers” is in the mode that initially defined Toomer. It evokes the resilience exhibited by Black sharecroppers, bent but unbroken by continual hardship. It is one of similar pieces in Toomer’s classic work, Cane, [...]
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El Palacio
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https://www.elpalacio.org/2024/02/jean-toomers-search-for-identity-in-taos/
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By Darryl Lorenzo Wellington
Mysterious, mercurial, hard-to-pin down sociologically or racially—and even described as being unbearably vain and pretentious—why is Jean Toomer important? My attention turned to him shortly after I became the 2021-2023 poet laureate of Santa Fe. I researched Toomer while looking for Black literary precursors, given that he is one of the few figures in African American literature who has written about this region. Toomer is also an iconoclast, whom Henry Louis Gates called “an ex-Negro.” His New Mexico connection began at the point when he rejected conventional racial categorization.
Toomer was a literary trailblazer. He was, to my mind, one of the most important lyrical writers in the English language, possessing a gift comparable to Shelley or Hart Crane. He authored lines as biting and as immutable as:
Black reapers with the sound of steel on stone
Are sharpening scythes. I see them place the hones
In their hip pockets as a thing that’s done,
And start their silent swinging, one by one.
The poem “Reapers” is in the mode that initially defined Toomer. It evokes the resilience exhibited by Black sharecroppers, bent but unbroken by continual hardship. It is one of similar pieces in Toomer’s classic work, Cane, intimately describing rural Black life in the South, or the psychological travails of Black people who journeyed North. Cane was published to great acclaim in 1923. It was immediately embraced as a seminal text in the cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance led by 1920s Black intelligentsia. Toomer subsequently “disappeared” and disassociated himself from the Harlem movement, even to the point of allowing Cane to fall out of print.
Cane’s reputation was restored in the late 1960s by new scholars spearheading the first Black studies programs. Cane has been a staple of African American literary studies ever since. If you study the Harlem Renaissance, you study Cane. But in the past fifteen years, more attention has been paid to Toomer’s biographical lacuna. What happened to him after his “disappearance?”
The story relies on examining his unpublished work, which today is still gradually seeping into print. In terms of literary detective work, the emphasis switches from the arguable literary quality of his post-Cane material to accessing the significance and symbolism of his personal biography, which has become a focal point for issues involving social construction, essentialism, multi-culturalism, communalism, individualism, and post-racial dreams. These issues extend from his time to ours.
I note that renewed interest in Toomer’s biography compels a re-reading of Cane, being such an avant-garde and geographical book, like an experimental travelogue, with stories and poems honoring flash points in the Great Migration. A re-reading of Cane involves a partial rerouting since Toomer’s biography extends in another direction—the American Southwest.
Cane successfully fused several settings and genres into rich, layered poetry, underpinned by a heavy sense of burden and apocalypse. It takes its title from a scene describing a tired sharecropper, as she falls asleep, and a stranger—possibly God—retrieves her cat.
Someone… echo Jesus…soft as the bare feet of Christ moving across bales of southern cotton, will steal in and cover it that it need not shiver, and carry it to her where she sleeps: cradled in dream-fluted cane.
Given that the book’s primary subject is Black identity, Black psychology, and modes of Black survival, when initially published, Cane was heavily publicized for being the work of a ‘Negro”—that is, an American Black writer capturing the song and soul of his birth race. Readers then and now presumed the author drew from the “Black experience” to achieve literary immortality. These assumptions were not wholly inaccurate. Nor wholly accurate. The story is more complicated.
From Fame to Obscurity
Born in 1894 in Washington, D.C., Toomer was the scion of a renowned light-skinned family, who were mixed race yet identified as Negro. They were culturally elite. Toomer boasted that his maternal grandfather, Pinkney Pinchback, had served as governor of Louisiana, during the brief, anomalous period in Reconstruction when Black people were free to vote.
Most people surrounding him during his formative years were highly aware that he was from a special ancestry. Although Toomer sometimes attended majority-white schools in Washington and New York, to his peers, judged by the American one-drop standard, he was Black. His self-conception may have differed because families from Toomer’s class and background were sometimes called “elite mulatto.” Certainly, in his later years, he emphasized his cosmopolitanism and multi-cultural heritage, and when he revisited Cane—which he rarely did—he underscored that it was written by someone with little direct experience of Southern Black struggle and strife.
Always restless and living an adventurous life, Toomer attended six colleges without graduating, experimented with bohemianism, then became interested in socialism, which in turn inspired his visit to the Deep South. Toomer took a job at an agricultural school in Sparta, Georgia, where he experienced a kind of epiphanic transformation, hearing folk songs, attending rural church services, and witnessing rituals among sharecroppers who lived under white hegemony. Beauty and horror converged against a Southern backdrop. Its pathos ignited intense, rich poetry inside him.
Toomer’s time in Sparta, Georgia, was relatively brief—lasting only a few months—but his letters from 1921-23 record that he spent the next two years industriously wrestling stories he gathered in the Deep South into the literary masterpiece Cane. Following his apex in the public eye, when twenty-nine-year-old Toomer published Cane to acclaim, his paper trail becomes confused. Toomer never subsequently published a full-length volume.
While enjoying flash-in-the-pan fame, Toomer briefly lived in Harlem, the center of Black intelligentsia. He corresponded with renowned writer Sherwood Anderson about possibly creating a Negro magazine, and in these letters, Toomer, vehemently proselytizing for Negro causes and social uplift, sounded like a Negro spokesperson. Perhaps Anderson expected this. Toomer assumed the Negro leadership mantle in other ways, too, discoursing freely on Black psychology in an essay on Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones. In another piece, he wrote, “The Negro says: I am. What I am, I am searching to find out. Also, what I may become.”
Then, though he lived forty additional years, he fell off the Harlem Renaissance map.
Esteemed poet Langston Hughes’s 1940 autobiography, The Big Sea, includes several sardonic paragraphs on Toomer’s vanishing act. Hughes blames Toomer’s investment in a quirky spiritualist quest, after he followed the teachings of Russian-born mystic George Gurdjieff.
Gurdjieff (1867-1949) made a splash in Harlem in the 1920s. He required his students to make a daily practice of physical exercises and sacred dances toward the goal of liberating the consciousness from a state of “sleep” by stretching body and mind. The exercises purportedly pared away false identities, pride, vanity, or identification to any classification (including race) rather than human oneness. Gurdjieff was like a whirling cyclone, often initiating drama among his students as a means to siphon away their personal vanity, while he behaved like an overbearingly charismatic leader. Hughes had trouble taking Gurdjieff’s principles seriously, quipping with jovial wit, “Nobody in Harlem could afford to pay for Gurdjieff. And very few there have evolved souls.”
But Gurdjieff’s philosophy answered a longing that Toomer’s prior success left unfulfilled. After discovering his mentor, Toomer became an important figure in Gurdjieff’s movement, spending the bulk of his energy over the next decade traveling to new cities to establish training institutes and communes (with limited success) based on living by its ethics. Sometimes Toomer—who throughout his life was known for having a flamboyant, difficult, and self-centered personality—was negatively critiqued by his fellow adherents, as when he self-consciously adopted Gurdjieff’s mannerisms, an affection others called obnoxious. The men were both strong-willed and eventually clashed, parting ways after a disagreement over finances. Toomer, in the meantime, filled several unpublished notebooks with heavy-handed Gurdjieff-inspired stories and married twice (both times to white women named variant spellings of “Majorie”). He lost touch with his Harlem associates. Or did he purposefully alienate himself? Langston Hughes framed the mystery in this manner, writing in The Big Sea:
The next thing Harlem heard of Jean Toomer was that he had married Margery Latimer, a talented white novelist, and maintained to the newspapers that he was no more colored than white—as certainly his complexion indicated. When asked for permission to use some of his poems in the Book of American Negro Poetry, James Weldon Johnson reported that the poet, who, a few years before, was “caroling softly souls of slavery” now refused to permit his poems to appear in an anthology of Negro verse—which put all the critics, white and colored, in a great dilemma. How should they class the author of Cane in their lists and summaries?
With wit and insight, Hughes summarized the beginning of the great divide in Jean Toomer studies, reflecting the divergent lives of the man. The publication of Cane was both an end and a new beginning. Who was the soulful poet behind Cane, cited as a major influence by countless Black writers, including Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, vis-á-vis the man who refused to have work republished in an Afrocentric anthology? Who was Jean Toomer up to 1923, vis-á-vis the mystic sojourner who came afterward? His disparate career is like a house with two doors. It confounds some readers, depending on which door they enter.
Toomer’s Shifting Self-Identification
Henry Louis Gates is the preeminent African American literary scholar today, and he has extensively studied Toomer’s surviving records. His conclusion is that, given Toomer’s background—judged alongside the extremity of his break with his Black roots—Toomer began “passing.” The word has unpleasant connotations. It critiques someone who falsifies their genealogy to gain privileges in the American racial hierarchy. Gates makes this argument primarily because Toomer began intentionally obscuring that his parents and grandparents lived and worked in Negro communities.
In his earliest preserved document, a 1917 draft registration card, Toomer self-identified as “Negro.” On 1920 and 1930 census forms, he marked himself “white.” Eventually, Toomer claimed ignorance about whether he had any “colored blood.” Later in life, Toomer encouraged the assumption that he was East Indian. After 1923, he appeared overeager, or at least willing, to link himself to any heritage but Black heritage.
It is dismaying that the author of Cane actually, almost unbelievably, stated, “I would not consider it libelous for anyone to refer to me as a colored man, but I have not lived as one, nor do I really know whether there is colored blood in me or not”—while refusing to allow his work to be republished in any volume highlighting the word “Negro.” What could be a more hurtful irony?
Gates relates the mystery of Toomer’s post-1923 decades to the author being a self-conflicted soul, preoccupied with misrepresentations. “He was running away from a cultural identity that he had inherited. He never, ever wrote anything remotely approaching the originality and genius of Cane. I believe it’s because he spent so much time running away from his identity.” In 2010, Gates said to the New York Times:
The fact that Toomer’s family tree consisted of a lot of light-skinned mulattoes who married one another is not exceptional. Many African American family trees are shaded the same way… Toomer was right to declare he was of mixed ancestry, and that the opposition between black and white was too simplistic. But he was wrong to say he had never lived as a Negro. He lived as a Negro while growing up.
Gates suggests these falsehoods were means of “passing” that eased his racial tensions or the burden of Blackness. Someone who “passes,” furthermore, however intellectually sophisticated, is victimized by an inferiority complex, or a horrendous level of internalized oppression.
This is one point of view. In the last fifteen years, other critics have emphasized Toomer’s second life as visionary. He lived in a time of binary racial constraints; he admirably pushed back against them. “Passing” suggests someone chasing social standing or behaving disingenuously. Toomer’s letters indicate his reservations ran deeper. Even before he was thrust into the limelight, he grumbled in a pre-publication letter to his publisher, Horace Liveright, “My racial composition and my position in the world are realities which I alone may determine… Feature Negro, if you must, but do not expect me to feature it in advertisements for you.”
He married his first wife (who later died in childbirth) in 1931. Given Toomer’s name recognition and a hint of remnant notoriety from Cane, the powerful chain of Randolph Hearst-owned newspapers (less interested in his writing abilities than in pure sensationalism) snatched the story and ran ugly, rabble-rousing headlines, such as “Negro marries White Woman.” His problematic disavowal that he possessed Black ancestry warrants sympathy and understanding when considered alongside this particularly painful incident. Toomer shot off a forceful response to the press:
There is a new race in America. I am a member of this new race. It is neither white nor black nor in between. It is an American race, differing as much from white and black as white and black differ from each other. It is possible that there are Negro and Indian bloods in my descent along with English, Welsh, Scotch, French, Dutch and German. This is common in America; and it is from these strains that an American race is being born…. Now is the time of a new order, a new vision, a new ideal of man. I proclaim this new order. My marriage to Margery Latimer is the marriage of two Americans.
Prior to 1923, Toomer might have argued for full Black equality, or against miscegenation laws. This was not his style after becoming—in Gates’s words—“an ex-Negro.” Challenges to the political system or specific systems of oppression had become peripheral. Like Perceval, searching for a grail, Toomer avowed “a new ideal” free of labels, while in his mostly unpublished post-Cane writings, he described an enlightened group of adherents who belong to a transformational type he calls (somewhat confusingly) “an American race.” But Toomer’s new American Eden needed a birthplace. This is why his search turned to the Southwest, leading him to the frontier cities—Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The Quest for Racial Transcendence
Like innumerable readers, I initially encountered Toomer in college. His poetically apocalyptic language in Cane thrilled me. My fascination with him would be justified by his work alone; it is enhanced by my familiarity with points in his travelogue. I was raised in Georgia, near the area that inspired Cane. I have since relocated to the Southwest, and I am now living in New Mexico, near the areas that magnetized Toomer.
I am a student of the state’s Black history. Though New Mexico’s Black population has historically been infinitesimal, its Black history presents a thrilling narrative, top-heavy with stories of persons who migrated in desperation or under tense circumstances, such as Buffalo Soldiers. Many Black people relocated to escape Jim Crow, which was less pervasive in New Mexico, given its small Black footprint.
They all sought freedom, yet Toomer’s legacy proves that “freedom” is a relative concept. His story is the most unique.
Previously unpublished writings, since collected in A Jean Toomer Reader (1993), and A Drama of the Southwest: The Critical Edition of a Forgotten Play, left unfinished in 1936, then belatedly published in 2016, reveal the previously underestimated extent that New Mexico compelled him. It is no exaggeration to write that of all the places he visited in the Southwest, only Taos, New Mexico ignited hopes that he could resolve the dilemma of race and identity that had pursued him since Cane.
Renowned art patron Mabel Dodge Luhan met Toomer in New York and funded him with $15,000 to establish a Gurdjieffian institute in Taos. These plans quickly disintegrated. But after Toomer arrived in 1926, he was too enamored to end his burgeoning romance. He later reflected, “I have never tried to put into words the unique gift of New Mexico to me… Something in New Mexico came to me fifteen years ago. It is a penetration deep under the skin.”
Note the reference to skin; there is an inference that through penetration of skin (and skin color), the truth-seeker finds peace. Color is both static—what separates people from other people—and symbolizes the spectrum, as the color wheel turns. These kinds of metaphors that play with the concept of race—sometimes engaging it as a nominally fixed or fluid concept—became common in Toomer’s New Mexico journals.
He began filling notebooks with prose songs, comparing Taos to a germinal seed, and reiterating the word “God” whose metaphorical presence in New Mexico is as elemental as “a hawk in a tree.” His writing while in New Mexico assumes an apocalyptic quality, too, as though fate is speeding to a culmination, and race is a notion whose time is passing.
What did Toomer see that struck him so deeply? Certainly, like tourists even today, he was struck by Native, Spanish, and white diversity—a kaleidoscope of clothes, facial features, and colors—an interplay that suggested social relations were significantly more fluid, more cross-cultural, and less rigid than elsewhere. Specifically, he discovered that New Mexico’s social landscape was heavily influenced by mestizaje, which means “of mixed race”—a sense of identity created by centuries of relations between Spanish, Mexican, Black, and Indigenous populations. To Toomer, the hordes of mestizaje were a provisional drawing—if not a complete picture—of a better world, as he pondered the mix of people he encountered.
What I do not know is—Do the elders of Taos vision the coming destruction as the end of man, or the matrix of new birth? Will resurrection follow this death? And if so, who will be resurrected. White men? Red men? Black men? An entirely new race?
In New Mexico, the pre-Cane Toomer became the most articulate version of the post-Cane Toomer. Perhaps the major moment representing his rejection of Negro identity occurred when Toomer sent a letter to James Weldon Johnson refusing to have his work republished in a Negro anthology, explaining, “I must withdraw from all things that emphasize racial or cultural division” to align himself with projects “that spring from the result of racial blendings here in America.” New Mexico, apparently, was a project Toomer considered worthy.
Having abandoned Gurdjieff, Toomer and his second wife, Marjorie Content, decided to build their own spiritual community in Taos, where they returned several times over the subsequent twenty years.
Toomer’s writing by now placed a passionate emphasis on interracial unions. In “The Blue Meridian” a poem he worked on throughout the 1930s, he celebrated a people who achieved the “spiritual fusion… of racial amalgamation” so that their children were born blue and purple. The blue people stood at the highest point of human development. “The Blue Meridian,” which he labored over for years, can be long-winded, didactic, and heavily sentimental, but the Land of Enchantment represented the closest he had discovered to a providence of “racial amalgamation” in the United States.
Choosing Taos was obviously a reaction against his demoralization in cities like Washington or Harlem, defined by strict racial classifications, Black-white binary oppositions, and civil rights politics. Taos is linked in his mind with birth and renewal—spiritual as well as physical birth—producing a mestizaje or blue people for the salvation of the nation. In 1939, Toomer visited India, where he was dismayed by the prevalence of poverty and sickness. He left India thankful that the possibility of humanity “cooperating upon a higher plane” survived in Taos, whose very name is a spell, synonymous with seed imagery.
Taos is an end-product. It is the end of the slope. It is an end-product of the Indians, and end-product of the Spaniards, an end-product of the Yankees and puritans. Out of the fertility which death makes in the soil, a new people with a new form may grow. I dedicate myself to the swift death of the old, to the whole birth of the new. In whatever place I start work, I will call that place Taos.
Toomer, the Enigma
Toomer’s unrealized plan to build a commune in Taos sired a major creative work, published posthumously. The University of New Mexico Press edition of A Drama of the Southwest, published in 2016, is a lasting record of Toomer’s vision. In it, Tom and Grace Eliot (a white couple who represent Toomer and Content) return to Taos where they have dreamt of buying land. The plan has been stymied by financial constraints, personal shortcomings, and indecision. Is New Mexico ready? The play reads like a series of static conversations, debating whether Taos is prepared to be the catalyst for racial, sexual, and intellectual transcendence. It ends irresolutely, although Tom Eliot’s unrepentant romanticism conflates possibility with accomplishment.
Toomer and Content instead settled in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where they lived thirty years, and he spent his last two years in a nursing home. Toomer died in 1967, just as Cane was finally reprinted by University Place Press. We can only speculate about whether Toomer himself knew.
According to Emily Lutenski, in her essay “A Small Man in Big Spaces,” during his decades in Doylestown, Toomer convinced his neighbors he was of East Indian origins. Why? His white neighbors in a segregated suburb would not accept a Black/white interracial couple, nor allow his daughter to attend community schools. An East Indian, however, was permissible.
Was adopting an East Indian (rather than a Negro or multi-racial) identity an example of Toomer “passing” and fleeing his Black heritage to gain privilege? Or was he a daring visionary for his commitment to a multi-racial identity?
Having lived as a Black New Mexican since 2010, I believe these perspectives can have simultaneous merit, like a puzzle that adds up to a life lived in between visionary ideals and inherited realities.
I can find his ideas both inspiring and naïve. My feelings are related to why I deem Cane by far his most significant literary work, because its complexity combines poetry, pathos, and idealism with an unblinking study of racism. There was a time when, in Cane, Toomer acknowledged the impact of generational oppression, but an absence of social protest against systems of oppression weakens his post-Cane material when he extols a degree of racial fluidity which was not available to most Black people in a segregated city.
Similarly, although mestizaje identities make New Mexico less racially binary, this land and its people purchased mixed-race identities at the cost of a long history of colonialism, barbarism, cruelty, and rape. Toomer’s New Mexico writing understates these scars. This is why passages of his journals and A Drama of the Southwest risk perpetuating the worst aspects of the tri-cultural myth which elides New Mexico’s violent history to attract tourists to an imaginary Elysium.
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A late night conversation with Julia Cameron
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"Emma Gannon"
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2023-12-28T05:29:45+00:00
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The iconic author of The Artist's Way on anxiety, writing for guidance and her brand new book which she describes as her most "woo-woo book yet". Spoiler alert: It's brilliant.
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https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F69a3b18f-b1c3-4735-9978-560fe06e2fa3%2Ffavicon.ico
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https://thehyphen.substack.com/p/a-late-night-conversation-with-julia
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There are only a handful of people who will entice me onto Zoom in the evening (I still have residual Zoom-fatigue from the pandemic) away from the Celebrations tin so close to Christmas (we recorded on the 22nd) and at 9pm (Julia’s timezone is in New Mexico) and I usually go to bed at 10pm. She is one of those special people who I would drop absolutely anything for, be it night or day, for a chance to speak with her. I’m excited to share our conversation, in the lead-up to the publication of her brand new book Living The Artist’s Way which launches on January 4th, the perfect New Year read. It’s gentle, friendly and full of ways we can all get better at self-compassion.
For years now, Julia Cameron has been a mentor figure to me from afar. Earlier this year, I also had the absolute honour and pleasure of writing the introduction to the UK re-release of her memoir Floor Sample. A hard-hitting beautiful memoir all about early career as a writer for Rolling Stone, and her marriage to Martin Scorsese, and her experiences with alcohol, sobriety and life in Hollywood.
Like millions of others, she changed my life with her book The Artist’s Way (first published in 1992) for which she is probably best known. She brought conversations about creativity to the mainstream and built a dedicated following of fellow artist fans including Alicia Keyes, Reese Witherspoon, Elizabeth Gilbert and Kerry Washington.
Living The Artist’s Way is an easy, comforting read. It is not as intense as her other books, it doesn’t require weeks of dedicated work. This is for people who are even more curious about where creativity ‘comes from’ and who want to access a deep well of support in every day life. This is an intimate, open and vulnerable look at Julia’s life, now aged 75, living in New Mexico and how her tools play out in the big and small moments of life. If The Artist’s Way is about the work of creativity, this new book is about life itself — the bits in between the creative ‘work’. The creative life.
Julia said during our conversation that she felt she may have been ‘hiding’ from writing this book for years — worried it might be seen as a bit ‘out there’ to be writing about guidance, writing and speaking to higher forces. In her previous books she has written about the power of walking, seeking wisdom, listening, the power of prayer and the impact of Morning Pages, but this book feels different. It is not beating around the bush. She shows you that if you ask (for help/for wisdom/for next steps), you will be guided. By whom, exactly? I suppose we’ll never know, but it's amazing what happens when we write by hand. She believes deeply that we live in a kind, benevolent, responsive Universe — and it felt warm, comforting and safe reading her book about accessing some sort of inner or outer “source” of creativity or energy or whatever we want to call it. As Albert Einstein once said: “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” Speaking to Julia, it certainly seems a lot more enjoyable, on a day to day basis, to believe it’s friendly.
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https://junieswadron.com/julia-cameron-live/
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Julia Cameron Live
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2011-07-01T12:06:56+00:00
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For many years I have been a student and teacher of Julia Cameron’s life-changing book, The Artist’s Way. If you are not already familiar with The Artist’s Way please read on because you are in for a major treat. If you already know of it and even if you have worked through the 12 chapters,
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Junie Swadron
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https://junieswadron.com/julia-cameron-live/
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For many years I have been a student and teacher of Julia Cameron’s life-changing book, The Artist’s Way. If you are not already familiar with The Artist’s Way please read on because you are in for a major treat. If you already know of it and even if you have worked through the 12 chapters, you might not know that Julia is now offering something new and very special.
It is called Julia Cameron Live, and includes access to hours of videos, where she shares exclusive insights and anecdotes fuelled by more than two decades of teaching her creativity tools. Julia does this in a relaxed and easy way from the comfort of her living room in Santa Fe, New Mexico, creating a very intimate and inspiring experience.
By joining Julia Cameron Live you also get access to the Active Artist community, a social network where artists can form groups and engage in conversations. Julia takes part in the community by answering artists’ questions, hosting live chats and blogging about the things that inspire her.
I am extremely excited to tell you about this because Julia Cameron and The Artist’s Way have profoundly changed my life.
Let me share with you my personal experience.
In the early ‘90s, I bought my first copy of The Artist’s Way and began to read it.
I quickly learned it is not a book to “read”. It is a book to “do”. It’s a 12-week program that deals with deep core issues as to why people get creatively stuck and disheartened and why they are not doing what they would really love to do in their life. Somewhere along the way they let go of their creative dreams and settle for less.
Some of them become what Julia describes as “shadow artists”. Although highly creative themselves, they live “in the proximity of people who have been crowned creative” instead of pursuing their own creativity.
I learned early in the book that I was one of those people. Many of my friends were artists, and I both admired them and envied them at the same time.
I worked my way through about five chapters of The Artist’s Way and then stopped. I had hit a vulnerable place and didn’t want to continue. The book sat on my bedside table for months with other books stacked on top of it. I didn’t even want to look at it because, every time it caught my eye, it reinforced the fact that I had missed the mark. I had let my dreams of becoming a writer, singer and actor die on the vine many years before and thought it was too late to change this. I was already in my 40’s. (As if that were old!) Yet, I also knew deep down that the wisdom in The Artist’s Way was exactly what I needed to move me past my negative beliefs about myself. Still, it was a huge leap.
At the time I was working as a psychotherapist and facilitating writing workshops. I was suggesting to many of my students, who were creatively stuck, to work through the processes in The Artist’s Way. I figured it was time to take my own advice as well and, as I did, I also began to facilitate The Artist’s Way support groups, which Julia generously encourages people to do.
And so began a 15-year journey! Over the years, I watched students who were blocked, sad, angry, hopeless or apathetic transform their lives. They would show up at the first class not even able to stutter the word “artist” as it may apply to them and 12 weeks later were acknowledging their bravery, new found creative spirit and could authentically say, “Yes, I am an artist.” Whether they intended to put their work “out in the world” or do it as a healthy, self affirming process, they were transformed and knew it. It was exhilarating to witness. As well, several became published authors, poets, singer-songwriters and acclaimed painters.
Years went by and while I watched my students and therapy clients move forward in their creative lives, I remained a shadow artist enjoying the successes of others but not believing I could share the stage.
One day in 1999, only 9 months after moving to Vancouver from Toronto and following another unanticipated visit a mental health facility, I knew I had to do things differently. I couldn’t race back on the treadmill pretending nothing had happened as I had done many times before.
I chose not to go back to work. I had no idea what to do but continually asked the Universe for guidance. It didn’t take long before a message came through loud and clear. “You must tell your story in a play or a book or a one woman show,” the voice insisted. I refused. I argued with The Universe. I shouted, “No, not me! That’s what other people do.” The voice was relentless. Eventually I felt I had no choice but to follow what my deeper guidance was telling me.
Julia Cameron’s encouraging words, “baby steps”, would enter my mind. Or, “Just show up. Put one foot in front of the other. You don’t need to know what it will look like. You are responsible for the quantity. God will handle the quality.”
This was the moment that I began re-reading The Artist’s Way. I re-committed to the morning pages—three pages of longhand writing of whatever showed up. It wasn’t about great writing, it was about allowing. After a few months of this, what showed up was a play with original music called, “Madness, Masks and Miracles”. It was about the madness or the dark night of the soul that most of us go through at some time in our life, about the masks we wear to hide it so we’re not ostracized and marginalized and finally… it’s about the miracles that let us take off our masks and be real. It is a play to help dispel myths and stigmas about mental illness.
Throughout the process, I kept returning to The Artist’s Way for courage and support. I began to stop judging myself so harshly and the terror I felt in exposing myself as someone with bi-polar illness started to dissipate. In time it was replaced with enthusiasm and drive as ideas kept leaping into my head. As well, people I would never have expected to meet serendipitously showed up wanting to get involved.
Some also lived with bi-polar illness and we co-wrote the play together. One year later it was staged at the World Assembly for Mental Health at the Vancouver Conference Centre to an audience of hundreds of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health workers as well as the general public including people living with a mental illness and their care givers.
The feedback was outstanding. In fact, Dr. Michael Myers, the then president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association had this to say, “This play is a winner. June Swadron and her writing team and actors engage the audience immediately and throughout with what it’s like to have a mental illness in contemporary society. We feel the anguish and confusion, we witness the denial in co-workers and family, we experience the shame of the sufferer and the multiple losses and we learn painfully about the limitations of our treatments. Yet this production is not cynical or depressing. It is moving, inspiring and intensely evocative. A gift. A call-to-arms. A must-see for every Canadian citizen.”
I attribute my ability to go the distance to Julia Cameron and The Artist’s Way. Without the brilliant processes, the encouragement that comes with every page, the exercises and the artist’s dates (which I resisted the most, yet found to be the most valuable). I may not have succeeded. I may never have had the courage to move past my many fears. Yet I did. Not only did I co-write the play, I co-produced it, wrote the lyrics to all the songs and played the leading role. WOW!
Two years ago I published my first book called Re-Write Your Life, A Transformational Guide to Writing and Healing the Stories of Our Lives.
I certainly learned to re-write my story. I reframed my story of shame about living with bi-polar illness and came to realize that by sharing my truth, I would be set free. I stopped identifying myself as my illness. I have an illness, but I am not my illness. I am so much more. Not only did I free myself, I inadvertently inspired countless others to have a voice and let go of their shame.
My next project is creating a centre of creativity for people with mental health challenges to participate in every art form available. I can honestly say that by doing our art, we become alive, restored, and have a renewed sense of self-worth.
The centre is called The Academy for Creative and Healing Arts for People with Mental Health Challenges. The first centre will be located in Victoria, British Columbia.
Watch for more information on my website. It is, to-date, the most exciting vision I’ve ever had. And I couldn’t do it alone. Once again, people are coming out of the woodwork to support me.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Esther Hart. Esther is my dear friend and now business partner who has been there for me both personally and professionally since we met in 2003. Esther lovingly holds my hand when I get ill, and in my well times (which gratefully are many) we play together and most of all, she dreams my dreams with me, knowing their viability, and is my champion in bringing them to fruition. I wish everyone had an Esther in their life.
My life continues to be abundantly blessed by the people who have come to love and support me on my path. We all need teachers, friends and mentors.
My life has been profoundly affected by Julia Cameron. I am tremendously grateful for her teachings. But please don’t take my word for it. Pick up her book, The Artist’s Way. And to further support you on your creative journey, join Julia at Julia Cameron Live.
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Julia Cameron – Rita E. Gould: An Artful Sequence of Words
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2024-08-12T02:13:00-04:00
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Posts about Julia Cameron written by Rita E. Gould
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Rita E. Gould: An Artful Sequence of Words
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https://anartfulsequenceofwords.com/tag/julia-cameron/
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Week 9 provides the framework for blasting through our artistic blocks. Certain hazards, however, still exist for sustaining our creativity. Week 10 investigates how to protect our creativity by recognizing and neutralizing these threats.
Dangers of the Trail
Each creative person has a myriad of ways to block creativity.
Cameron starts this week on self-protection with “blocking devices” (eg, sex, drugs, food, alcohol, etc.) associated with addictions. She claims that artists with creative doubts may choose to shut down their creative flow using one or more of these blocks. Noting that these devices only become “creativity issues” when abused, she cautions us that these coping mechanisms at best assuage fears momentarily but are ineffective long term. She urges us instead to abandon this tactic. Identifying our coping mechanisms is key, as we’ll eventually take note of when we’re on the cusp of a creative U-turn before choosing to use our block(s).[*] In these instances, Cameron recommends that we employ the nervous energy generated by our artistic fears to instead create something. However, individuals who are concerned that they may have a substance use disorder or behavioral addiction (eg, gambling disorder) should seek help.
Workaholism
Workaholism is a block, not a building block.
Cameron then delves into workaholism, which was a recently identified process addiction (now behavioral addiction) when The Artist’s Way was published (1993). Cameron argues that working long hours represents avoidance, not “dedication”.[†] While she respects working toward “a cherished goal”, she remains concerned with how excessive working blocks “creative energy”. She, therefore, provides a questionnaire to assess our work–life balance so that we can assert more appropriate boundaries if needed. A small caveat should be observed here, as people may work too much for other reasons (eg, economic necessity, caregiving). While the dangers linked to overworking remain, the solutions are likely different.
Drought
For all creative beings, the morning pages are the lifeline…
Creative droughts represent long periods of being creatively blocked, which Cameron assures us occurs commonly in artists’ lives. However, lengthier stretches of being blocked can further compound our blocked state, because we tend to interpret the duration as a sign that our creativity is gone or never really existed. However desperate droughts may be, Cameron believes they serve the purpose of bringing us “clarity and charity” because we refuse to give up. To survive a creative drought, she suggests that we stalwartly continue with morning pages to work through our fears and find our way back to our creative path.
Spiritual Drugs
Fame is really a shortcut for self-approval.
When we focus on competition…we impede our own progress.
Finally, Cameron includes two “spiritual drugs” to the ways in which we spiritually block ourselves: fame and competition. Fixating on either the desire to win (competition) or for recognition (fame) can derail our creativity because both redirect our attention from creating to comparing ourselves (usually unfavorably) to others. Fame, according to Cameron, “creates a continual feeling of lack” if we’re not recognized “enough”, while being competitive [‡] makes us monitor what sells instead of seeking our own artistic inspiration. We may even abandon nascent projects should they fail to show their potential quickly. Cameron warns strongly against this impetus, noting that even “bad work” can lead to new artistic horizons.
Cameron has theories on why people pursue external validation (ego for the competitive, fears of being unloved for fame seekers), but her antidote for both is self-approval. For fame seekers, she advises us to nurture our artist to reassure ourselves of our worth and to partake in creative play (eg, artist’s dates) to forget our craving for fame. For competitive artists, she notes that self-approval supplants the desire for others’ approval, reminding us that “showing up for the work is the win that matters.”
Some Closing Thoughts
Spiritual maladies[§], as described above, are this week’s insidious creative bugbears and involve situations that may crop up during an artist’s career. Self-protection is the week’s stated goal, but building resilience is another way of thinking of it. Affirmations, morning pages, and artist’s dates are the core recommendations for issues discussed this week, all of which work towards building that resilience.
Having said that, certain discussions about addiction gave me pause. To Cameron’s credit, she remained relatively nonjudgmental and kept the conversation centered on how self-soothing with substances/behaviors harms creativity. Equally valuable was her push for honest evaluation of worrisome behaviors, which is necessary for personal change. But I found her theory on creativity and addiction puzzling[**] and her recommendation to “use anxiety” concerning. The latter reads like “use willpower”, which isn’t necessarily the best strategy for those dealing with addiction however helpful it could be for others. As I’ve stated before, this book hasn’t had a substantive update on mental health issues. Readers should refer to recent literature or the appropriate health professionals for current thinking here.
With that said, there is one standout tenet that I’d like to emphasize from this week. Cameron reminds us that we always can find our artistic direction again and again, regardless of whether we’re derailed by life or our own blocking. It’s one of the more important points of The Artist’s Way and a good reminder for all of us wherever we are on our creative journeys.
Updated on 13 August 2024 to add captions to photos and updated a term.
NOTES:
[*]Per week 9, sudden indifference towards one’s artistic projects also signals an impending creative U-turn.
[†]Workaholism may also mask underlying psychiatric disorders.
[‡]Focusing on self-improvement is key here. While competition has its uses, less competitive people tend to be more successful in the long run.
[§]Cameron considers them to be spiritual issues as these blocks specifically stop the flow of creative energy that she defines as divine.
[**] Cameron states that “it could be argued that the desire to block the fierce flow of creative energy is an underlying reason for addiction”. For what it’s worth, most evidence seems to suggest that causes of addiction are multifactorial, with genetics playing an important role.
As we inch toward the end of The Artist’s Way, some loose ends begin to wrap up. Week 9 closes out the prior weeks’ thoughts on our negative conditioning, revealing what keeps us blocked. It also provides us with insights into what we need to do to start and sustain our creative work.
Fear: What’s in a Name?
Blocked artists are not lazy. They’re blocked.
Week 9’s theme is one of compassion, the kind that artists likely need when recovering from the losses discussed in week 8. Cameron introduces this theme by investigating how we label ourselves. She observes that artists often engage in negative self-talk by calling ourselves lazy when we fail to get creative projects underway (never mind finished). Gently disputing this opinion, she states that we actually are blocked. To prove her point, she recounts how much energy we spend on feeling of self-doubt, regret, and grief (among others). Our artistic inaction, she asserts, is caused by being blocked, and as she reveals, we’re blocked due to fear.
Cameron doesn’t specifically draw out why our calling ourselves lazy is so harmful, but we can readily observe how blaming our “lack” of willpower turns to shame when we fail to get artistic projects underway, in turn begetting a cycle of regret because that fear remains unnamed and unaddressed. For Cameron, calling things by their right name is not a matter of semantics[*] but an act of compassion, because we cease scolding ourselves when we acknowledge what truly impedes our artistic endeavors. Moving deeper into this conversation, she explores what makes us afraid, focusing on how these fears (eg, fear of abandonment caused by parental displeasure[†]) may contribute to an artist’s desire to be wildly successful.
The internal pressures fueling our ambitions and need for success (regardless of the source), however, make it challenging to either create art or be an artist. As Cameron reassures us, we should regard any difficulties in getting going as an indicator that we need help versus a sign that we’re not meant to be artists. Such help comes from our supporters, higher powers (if one is so inclined), and ourselves (eg, “filling the form” from week 8). Conquering our fears, according to Cameron, requires us to love our artist. Normally verbose on these matters, her instruction here doesn’t exactly explain how she envisions this working—which would’ve been helpful—but surely the impetus to be kinder to ourselves is an excellent place to begin.
Enthusiasm as Motivation
Remember, art is a process. The process is supposed to be fun.
In the next section, Cameron answers an unposed question: How do we keep going once we’ve finally got those artistic projects started? Many of us believe that rigid discipline, powered by an artist’s indomitable willpower, is the answer. Cameron’s disdain for self-will, long a familiar sight to readers of The Artist’s Way, surfaces as she somewhat uncharitably states that this belief merely panders to one’s ego (making discipline our source of pride opposed to creativity). Discipline, she argues, only delivers temporary results. What sustains us as artists is enthusiasm.
Throughout The Artist’s Way, Cameron firmly states that art is meant to be an enjoyable process. Enthusiasm, in her view, is both a “spiritual commitment” to this process that allows us to recognize the creativity surrounding us and a source of creative energy flowing from “life itself”. Therefore, it’s the joy that we experience from our artistry that keep our artistic momentum going more than our slogging through a schedule. While we may still set schedules, we use them to plan our creative playdates. Similarly, our works areas are more likely to be a bit messier and colorful than the “monastic cells” that we tend to associate with disciplined artists. After all, our artist child self is more likely to create art when their efforts feel like play and their workspaces resemble playgrounds.
The one question Cameron hasn’t answered, however, is how enthusiasm relates to compassion. Between the lines, though, one might note the exclusionary whiff associated with discipline as would-be artists see this as the obstacle to their becoming artists. Subscribing to the myth of discipline is another way in which we’re unkind to ourselves, as this belief implies that creating art requires great willpower that only certain people possess. In truth, creativity is available to all, once we give ourselves permission to have fun and see what happens.
Creative U-Turns
A successful creative career is always built on creative failures. The trick is to survive them.
Week 9 opens with Cameron urging us to keep going, noting that we’re on the cusp of learning to disassemble our emotional blocks. It’s an appropriate warning, as impending success is when we most often experience a creative U-turn. As mentioned previously, creative U-turns are losses associated with self-sabotage (eg, opportunities we refuse). Cameron, as promised in week 8, returns to creative U-turns to flesh out why they occur and how to deal with them.
Cameron cautions that some artists might feel threatened by their approaching recovery and balk at this progress. Others may find it easier to remain “victim to artist’s block” than to take on the risks of being a productive artist. While Cameron is wearing her “tough love” hat here as she uncomfortably points out how we resist recovery, she also wants us to be sympathetic when we reflect on our U-turns, because creativity has its frightening moments. We can, as she suggests, look at such moments as “recycling times”, that is, moments when need a few tries before we succeed in making a creative leap. However, she emphasizes that creative U-turns happen in all artistic careers—a point so important she mention it twice in short succession before providing a lengthy list of artists who themselves had creative failures preceding their eventual successes.
Failure is a part of the creative process, but it is survivable. To do so, we need to recognize that our creative U-turns or series of U-turns represent a reaction to our fear.[‡] Once we’ve acknowledged our U-turns and their sources, we need to seek help. To begin, we can outline what part of the creative process makes us feel uneasy. We might give ourselves confidence by building up to these difficulties (eg, trying a workshop before seeking an agent). We also can tap into our resources by asking other artists we know for assistance. As Cameron assures us, the help will come.
Blasting Through Blocks
Blocks are seldom mysterious.
Perhaps the most exciting part of week 9 involves some advice on how to “blast” past our artist’s blocks. Cameron maintains that we need to be relatively “free of resentment (anger) and resistance (fear)” before we can work on our artistic projects. Therefore, we first need to consider what undisclosed concerns exist with a project or whether we have some lingering, unstated payoffs for not working. As she observes, our blocks are relatively straightforward: they act “artistic defenses” against what we may feel is an unsafe situation. Our mission, therefore, is to assure our artist child that it is safe to proceed. Cameron closes this week by providing a short questionnaire that’s aimed at unearthing these concealed barriers to artistic work, which she indicates is also helpful for clearing away obstructed flow in instances where the work becomes challenging (for an abridged version, see the text box).
Some Closing Thoughts
Week 9 ventures into both new and familiar territory as it persuades us to treat ourselves compassionately. While Cameron’s not one to shy from tough talk should she feel it’s necessary, this push to be kinder to ourselves is as valuable as deepening our understanding of how we artistically block ourselves. We’ve all experienced failures in our artistic lives. But we rarely do we let ourselves off the hook for them. There’s something comforting in being permitted to recognize our fears, let go of shame, and accept that we can move past our creative U-turns.
What particularly resonated with me this week, however, was Cameron’s insightful conversation on calling things by their right names. Being told I wasn’t lazy lifted a weight I hadn’t known I was carrying until I realized that my undone projects had little to with my drive.[§] This section makes the case as to why willpower and ego aren’t to blame for our artistic works in limbo—or sufficient in themselves to get us across either the start or finish line. In doing so, Cameron also highlighted (perhaps inadvertently) how dangerous negative self-talk is. Here, it works as a subtle pattern of self-shaming that convinces us we haven’t what it takes to be an artist while neatly preventing us from dealing with the fear blocking our path. This behavior does a tremendous disservice to our creative lives and likely elsewhere. It’s something that gave me pause even as I enjoyed the sense of liberation I felt at being judged “not lazy”.
Many chapters in this book deal with difficult subjects (shame, anger, jealousy, etc), with week 8 focusing heavily on our artistic losses. It’s easy to see why week 9 might seem like a good place to call it quits. Despite the time it took for me to get to and through this week,[**] I found it to be among the more positive experiences with this book thus far, because Cameron’s advice here generally is useful and easy to enact. While I continue to long for Cameron’s writing to stay a bit closer to the point or to explain how love will conquer my fears, week 9 overwhelmingly is one that should be considered unmissable for those reading The Artist’s Way.
NOTES:
[*] Similar to week 7’s discussion on the difference between invention and inspiration in terms of “thinking something up” versus “getting something down”.
[†]Cameron’s is laser focused on attributing artistic blocks to negative childhood conditioning from parents, which, while important, becomes tiresome and neglects other ways in which the same results may be achieved by different means. For instance, someone from a working-class background could also feel compelled to excel artistically to justify the sacrifices their made to provide their child with the opportunity to be an artist.
[‡] We should, too, mourn them as was suggested in week 8.
[§] Briefly, I wished this was something we were told from the outset of the book or was emblazoned on its cover. But I also almost instantly recognized that I would’ve unlikely to accept this point so early on.
[**] I’m closer to a 12-month than 12-week plan.
After examining some major creative blocks over several weeks, week 7 shifts the discourse by looking into the kind of mindset we should embrace for creativity. With these insights in mind, Cameron returns to dissecting creative blocks associated with time in week 8. Much like week 4, week 8 represents a turning point as we begin to look at healing our artistic wounds.
Week 7: Recovering a Sense of Connection
Listening
Providing a welcome respite from reconsidering our negative conditioning, week 7 focuses on practicing what Cameron defines as the right attitudes for creativity, beginning with listening. Cameron reminds us that we’re strengthening our listening skills with morning pages and the artist’s date, which respectively helps us hear past our inner censor and tap into inspiration. Describing inspiration as “getting something down” instead of “doing”, she asserts that another party (God, the universe) accomplishes the “doing”. Connecting inspiration to listening, Cameron states that artists are actually listening when we are “getting something down”. When artists are “in the zone”, they are listening for the next artistic step.
Cameron likens such listening to delving below “the surface of our normal consciousness”[*] or dialing into a “stream of inspiration” like a radio. Artists use these ideas but, as Cameron emphasizes, it’s more like “taking dictation than anything fancy having to do with art”[†] as artists are “more conduit than the creator of what we express”. Cameron supports this concept by quoting several expressions (“the brush takes the next stroke”) and artists (eg, Michelangelo) who share her view that guiding force(s) assist us with creating art. Whether this interpretation suits you or not, Cameron’s clearly intends to alleviate any stress we might be feeling about finding our inspiration. For her, it’s important that we’re in the moment listening as we create, knowing that universe will help us.
Embracing the Imperfect
Perfectionism is not a quest for the best.
Perfectionism, as Cameron quickly makes plain, is a wrong approach to art, one that diverts artists from “getting it down” to “getting it right”. In doing so, perfectionism slows a project’s momentum and dampens the joy of creating. It also sets unrealistic expectations for both early drafts (which should be unpolished) and finished pieces (as perfect is impossible). Trapped in a perfectionist cycle, an artist might never reach the project’s close. Cameron’s tough love attitude makes an appearance here, as she castigates perfectionists for claiming humility instead of the egotism that she believes inspires them. This comment should be taken with a grain of salt: fear, not pride, seems to drive unhealthy perfectionism, and perfectionism itself may be associated with mental health disorders.
Taking Risks
We deny in order to do something well we must first be willing to do it badly.
Artistic recovery requires us transform our wish to be creative into being creative, something that involves risk. As Cameron observes, we excel at avoiding risk. Lingering at past triumphs, we claim we can’t try new things given our limitations. But, as she tartly retorts, we’re really unwilling to try without being assured that our efforts will be perfect. If we want to become proficient at our craft or expand our artistic range, we must accept that our initial undertakings will be imperfect. Cameron, therefore, recommends we drop this unrealistic expectation. Furthermore, she endorses taking risks for their own sake, because they let us redefine our limits and make it easier to continue taking more risks that may work out. Cameron provides a brief exercise here to encourage us to think about what we might attempt if we were unworried about being “good” at them.
Jealousy: An Indicator of Artistic Desire
Much like anger in week 3, jealous is not a “right attitude” for creativity but an emotion that covers other feelings. Unmasked, however, jealousy offers powerful insights into what we desire as artists—knowledge that we can utilize to live more creatively. As Cameron explains, jealousy hides our fear and resulting frustration when we watch other artists doing or being admired for things that haven’t yet mustered the courage to do. As a “stingy” emotion, it falsely persuades us that only an artist can be the “best” when there’s space for everyone. It similarly blinds us to our alternatives, namely that we can escape this cycle by acting on our desires. Cameron provides two exercises to help us conquer our jealousy by taking “antidote” actions (The Jealousy Map) or find ways to soothe and encourage our inner artist child (Archaeology).
Week 8: Recovering a Sense of Strength
Most would agree that time is a major creative block. Cameron has at least indirectly dealt with issues of time management when she urged us to explore how we occupy ourselves.[‡] In this week, she intends to address other time-related issues as they also serve as creative blocks. Relating heavily to some “wrong attitudes” and unrealistic expectations that week 7 illustrated (notably, perfectionism), this week seeks to unpack these attitudes as we concurrently move past artistic wounds.
Artistic Wounds and Survival
Cameron investigates artistic losses from the perspective of survival. In an artist’s career, both personal as well as artistic setbacks will occur. Cameron points out the danger of turning such moments into “secret losses” that, left unprocessed, could become artistic blocks. Before we attempt to convert these “losses into gains” (see below), they need recognition and time to be mourned. By respecting our losses, we protect our future as artists.
Meditating further on artist’s wounds, Cameron reiterates that bad criticism (weeks 3 and 2) is among the worst wounds because such critiques imply the work or artist somehow is faulty without evidence. She also briefly discusses self-inflicted wounds. Such wounds, caused when artists refuse artistic opportunities, typically become sources of regret. Promising to further review this topic in week 9, Cameron recommends that we, for now, mourn these losses.
Malevolent Mentors
Alongside bad criticism, Cameron also condemns those who carelessly wield their critical powers. She strongly believes that mentors act as authority/ parental figures to young artists who place their trust in these guides’ judgement, with significant harm done when these teachers fail to fulfill their duty.[§] Lacking resilience, support or the experience to seek other mentors and/or opinions, some surrender their artistic aspirations altogether while others become shadow artists (week 1).
Cameron, having detailed how such poor mentoring occurs in childhood, takes pains to provide examples of how unwary young artists may encounter harmful mentors in the university setting and beyond (The Ivory Power). Sandwiched between her illustrative examples, however, are her sweeping generalizations about academia and intellectualism that lean into overstatement.[**] Her larger point—that academics should nurture young artists at their level—however, is indisputable.
Gain Disguised as Loss
The key here is action.
Artistic losses, however, are more than wounds from which we need to heal. They are also lessons. Cameron assures us that we can use such losses to guide us when deciding how we should proceed after a loss. Asking how losses help us and our craft can reveal new directions and approaches that we might have otherwise neglected. Drawing from her own experiences, she emphasizes the importance of eschewing self-pity (“Why me?”) that leads to artistic blocks or setbacks in favor of determining the next move. Searching for alternatives is a sure path to developing a diverse artistic career.
Age, Time, and the Creative Process
I’m “too old” is an evasive tactic. It is always used to avoid facing fear.
As blocked artist, we often believe there’s a “right” age to be creative—one must be either young and crazy or old and eccentric enough to take up art. Citing “crazy” as the precondition for creative excursions reveals the truth. Age is less problematic than our egos, as we dislike revealing our inexperience or fear looking foolish. This same fear also causes us to question the time we invest in learning new skills or spend working on art.
Time is a touchy subject because we want results that justify our efforts. Focused on product, we might bypass the pleasures of exploring artistic sidelines or new skills, which misses the point of creating. Creativity, Cameron explains, is about “doing” not being “done”. There is always more to learn about practicing our craft. Even when we complete projects, they will suggest further avenues to study. Viewed properly, the artistic process is a continuous one of creating and learning.
Filling out the Form
Large changes occur in tiny increments.
Cameron’s emphasis on centering the creative process includes some practical advice on getting started. Aware that recovering artists often rush towards their goals or impulsively yield to subconscious beliefs that their lives must significantly alter before they embrace their creativity, Cameron advocates that we take some baby steps. By now, Cameron exhortations to pace ourselves as we work through creative blocks/limitations should be familiar. Here, she details her reasons for taking one’s time.
Filling the form is shorthand for breaking our loftier goals (however ambitious they may be) into small, daily tasks. In addition to being a means to manage projects, performing incremental “next available steps” affords us immediate success that sustains our progress. In contrast, “big picture” thinking fuels our anxiety about achieving results, leading to procrastination and discontent with our constraints. Similarly, dramatic lifestyle changes and their attendant difficulties distract us from creative work. By filling the form, we employ our current resources and move forward steadily. Cameron closes the chapter with an activity that again scrutinizes (Early Patternings) how earlier conditioning may continue to block us.
Some Closing Thoughts
Given the motivational nature of weeks 7 and 8, it’s unsurprising to see familiar themes emerge. Perceived through Cameron’s unique lens, some fresh perspectives and original ideas pop up, which make repeating the advice bearable however discursive her material may be.
Notably, Cameron’s right attitudes weave these familiar elements into the means for reframing our thinking about creativity that’s often actionable.[††] Helpfully, these ideas also build on each other. For example, perfectionism—the section that contains the most conventional thinking—becomes a thread that runs through week 7 into week 8 as she identifies how it interferes with inspiration’s flow to how adopting anti-perfectionism grants us the humility to be a beginner at any age. Ideally, I would have been preferred reading the perfectionism section couched in more positive terms, as we’re advised on what to avoid in lieu of what we should do (my headers in week 7 indicates how that might look). Particularly praiseworthy, though, is how she turns jealousy, a hateful little emotion, into a tool that detects our unrealized artistic dreams, one that points out the risks we need to take.
Week 8’s return to deconstructing our negative conditioning is a bit drearier, as it pokes at our artistic wounds (to heal them!) and revisits how we earned a few of those wounds. Least successful is the section on academia, which could’ve been more concise and far more nuanced. This week shines, though, when Cameron shares how to both mourn and learn from our artistic wounds. Filling in the form, as part of her discussion on embracing the artistic process, illuminates a concrete plan for moving on past losses that help us reach larger creative breakthroughs. While I still have quibbles with some of Cameron’s ideas (see the footnotes), these weeks provide the solid reasoning that should persuade us to question why we aren’t creating.
Are you working on improving your creativity with The Artist’s Way? How far have you gotten? If not, would you try it? I’d love to hear why or why not.
NOTES
[*]Potentially, the collective unconsciousness or an individual’s subconscious (as Jackson Pollock, an artist referenced in week 7, claimed about his work).
[†]I dislike how this comparison diminishes the artist’s role to that of an amanuensis, given the skillsets artists cultivate.
[‡]Cameron cites multiple ways in which we squander time (week 2’s crazymakers, week 4’s media deprivation and week 5’s obligations) that could be otherwise used to create art.
[§]I appreciate Cameron’s desire to highlight both the betrayal and insidious emotional abuse wreaked by these teachers, but I wish she hadn’t linked this to sexual abuses (particularly incest) given the other abuses they bring to mind.
[**]Universities aren’t for everyone, as both brilliant self-taught artists and other instructional venues for artists exist. However, I’m not persuaded that universities are ill-equipped to support artists so much as they, too, possess some bad apples on staff.
[††]Bonus points for shoeing in how indispensable her own tools, morning pages and the artist’s date, are to creativity.
After the tribulations of week 4, weeks 5 and 6 moves into less difficult though still thought-provoking material as Cameron continues to unpack our negative conditioning when it comes to art. With week 4 being something of a turning point, Cameron digs deeper into her subject, making connections among her themes in a way that brings greater depth to the original material while relating it to topics under review.
Week 5: Recovering a Sense of Possibility
Limits and Possibilities
“What dream are you discounting as impossible given your resources?”
Week 5 investigates how our own thinking (the product of “negative patterning”) interferes with our creative life. In the Limits and Find the River, Cameron aims to change how we view our so-called limitations. She notes that we serve as gatekeepers to our artistic possibilities, because we assume there are limits to what we can accomplish. These beliefs may manifest as dismissing inspiration as overly impractical/ambitious or feelings guilty for the bounty we possess or receive.
Cameron indicates such beliefs may be shaped by scarcity thinking (more commonly called scarcity mindset or mentality). The Artist’s Way doesn’t explore this concept further, but I feel it is worth reviewing given the associated negatives. Scarcity mentality results from an excessive focus on what an individual lacks (typically, time, money or connection), which absorbs too much of their “mental bandwidth” and makes it difficult for them to make good choices (eg, eating healthier, exercise, and, here, delving into artistic interests). In Cameron’s eyes, however scarcity thinking causes blocked artists to view God/the universe as a “capricious parent figure”, effectively making the divine the scapegoat for our artistic underachieving.
Rejecting this notion, she suggests that we listen to our internal creative guide/intuition to find our path instead. Morning pages may be helpful here: Cameron recommends asking questions in the evening and listening for answers while writing on the following morning. However, we first need to believe that we can make progress towards our vision. Such progress occurs by continuing to work through artistic blocks, taking meaningful steps to achieve these goals (“doing the footwork”), and being open to opportunities from diverse sources.
Problematic “Virtue”
“The urge toward respectability and maturity can be stultifying, even fatal.”
Seemingly switching topics abruptly halfway through the chapter, Cameron revisits a theme first mentioned in week 2 (recovering a sense of identity). Week 2 largely focused on how others (fellow blocked creatives, crazymakers[*]) may fuel our self-doubt or otherwise sabotage our creative recovery and lead us into self-destructive behavior.[†] Reexamining this theme from the opposite viewpoint, this section looks at how “obligations” to others block artists creatively. The perhaps understated connection here is that this form of self-sabotage serves to limit to our artistic possibilities when we get caught up in “virtuous production”.
Cameron begins with observing that artists require both time and space alone to create and heal/recharge. After sharing some longish if relatable scenarios, she reveals that many of us prioritize the needs of others, giving up our time and/or money to satisfy their wants at tremendous personal and artistic cost. Dubbing this the virtue trap, Cameron claims we’re afraid to decline requests or prioritize our needs and desires because we enjoy our positive reputation.[‡] Referring back to week 2 reveals some likely reasons (eg, guilt at disappointing loved ones seemed to be spot on for me) as to why artists continue “making nice” instead of “nurturing” a “sense of self”. Also similar to week 2, Cameron’s “telling it as it is” approach here can seem harsh (she equivocates this behavior with embracing a “martyr’s cross”), but her concerns are valid ones. An important takeaway is that we need to consider whether our generous impulses are genuine or are rooted in feeling obliged.
Cameron doesn’t offer suggestions for negotiating with the people in our lives, although I imagine “the footwork” here may entail require some honesty about our needs, establishing boundaries and counselling for some. However, she recommends that we embrace our creativity, continue to discover who we truly are, and trust in God/the universe. The tasks for this week are designed to assess whether we’re caught in the virtue trap as well as help us suss out our personal desires, something Cameron believes will help remove barriers to investigating these interests. I would also add that embracing an abundance mindset, which dovetails with Cameron’s advice, might be useful as there are instances where real scarcity requires tradeoffs.
Week 6: Recovering a Sense of Abundance
Faith and Finances
“Creativity is not and never has been sensible.”
Week 6 builds off week 5’s examination of limitations, as it launches into a related (though meandering) conversation on issues surrounding finances. In The Great Creator, Cameron points out a panoply of negative ideas we have about the divine/higher power, money, work, virtue, and art. For example, money can be viewed as the only “true” source of security, the proverbial root of all evil, and a necessity that must be amassed in sufficient quantities before one can safely (if ever) practice art. By these standards, artistic pursuits seem foolish and likely to make our lives unpleasant as though we might be defying either God’s will or acting recklessly. Attributing such beliefs (much like week 5) to toxic ideas about God, Cameron recommends revising one’s concept of the divine in morning pages, an exercise that likely won’t appeal to some nonbelievers.
According to Cameron, our beliefs that we should be sensible (garnered from what others’ think “is sensible for us”) spurs us to be a “cheapskate” to ourselves while blaming the divine because we dismissed our opportunities. From her perspective, there’s little evidence that God/the universe or creativity is particularly sensible. Therefore, we should expect support from our higher power. Art, too, should involve enjoyment and generosity to ourselves in the form of breaks and treats, which in turn will helps us accept gifts from the God/the universe (as first suggested in week 3). Finally, we should pursue our interests as they are what we’re meant to do and doing what we’re intended to do will lead to us opportunities, money, and relationships. Here, Cameron seems to be making the case that abandoning our artistic dreams is the less practical choice.
Luxury
“Art requires us to empower ourselves with choice.”
Completing the week is Cameron’s discussion on luxury, which loosely continues her thoughts on artistic needs from week 5 (The Virtue Trap). Explaining that our ideas about money affect our ideas about creativity, she observes that we might blame our financial limitations when we feel blocked instead of realizing that we’re actually feeling powerless or constrained. Art, she explains, requires expansion and the belief that we have sufficient supply[§] from God/the creative force.
To experience this abundance, we should practice self-care (at a minimum) and pamper our inner artist child by indulging in what Cameron labels as authentic luxury. What constitutes self-care or luxury, of course, varies among individuals. But it’s less about lavish spending (as her case of the famous artist illustrates) and more about enjoying things that bring us joy. Cameron’s examples center on small, typically inexpensive luxuries like watercolors sets, fresh fruit, or a flower. Luxury, too, may represent time to relax and recharge or spend time with loved ones.
These examples also illustrate several ways in which we deny ourselves creative joys, such as undervaluing ourselves (one artist tellingly indicated her reasonably priced luxury was “more than I thought I was worth”), perfectionism, or feeling obliged to work when they have a moment to relax (a recipe for burnout, creative or otherwise). As “serious adults”, we’re likely to deliver “wet blanket messages” about how we “should be working” or how we should deny ourselves simple pleasures as they’re unnecessary or “silly”. But, as Cameron indicates, this is the entire point: “serious art is born from serious play”. The chapter closes with an accounting task, which should reveal whether our spending on ourselves matches our priorities.
Some Final Thoughts
“Pray to catch the bus, then run as fast as you can.”
Weeks 5 and 6 cover similar ground[**] in their discussions about our (often unconsciously held) beliefs that interfere with our creative lives. Strikingly though, I found it more helpful to embrace being more openminded about my artistic prospects when Cameron exposed how contradictory and conflicting (not to mention miserable) these so-called sensible beliefs can be than to lean more into spiritual dependence. Perhaps the reason why The Artist’s Way works for people regardless of their stance on spiritual matters relates to its ability to plainly show us what we need to consider (and reconsider) in our lives.
I found Cameron’s firm push towards some personal accountability in weeks 5 and 6 to be particularly vital, as we should be aware that we (not our circumstance or higher powers) get in our own way when we “responsibly” say no to ourselves and yes to obligations and hardship that we resent undertaking. Such accountability also necessitates voicing our needs to the people in our lives, as it’s unlikely that anyone else will say carve out free time for our artistic practice or notice we’re struggling if we say nothing.
Cameron’s more practical suggestions also provide solid advice. For example, she effectively recommends utilizing project management tactics (ie, breaking our artistic projects into manageable chunks) to work through our blocks or around our more immediate difficulties or limitations. With this approach, it seems less reasonable to dismiss a potentially intimidating project, because we genuinely don’t know what might be capable of achieving without giving it a trial. And, frankly, Cameron’s ideas that we should enjoy a creative life (sprinkled with rewards and rest) sounds far more appealing than the alternatives. Given that many of her ideas about adding enjoyment to our lives seem fairly attainable, one might argue that giving them a try would be the sensible thing to do.
NOTES:
[*] In week 2, Cameron states that our ongoing involvement with crazymakers occurs as an attempt to avoid a creative life (thusly using their abuser to block their creativity, the veracity of which depends on the situation) and claims that such blocked artists may be codependent. Codependency represents an unhealthy relationship dynamic in which one party is a giver and the other a taker, with varying causes. Since Cameron terms this abuse and mentions potentially abusive situations, it’s important to understand that some mental health professionals would not consider an abused individual to be codependent. The concept of codependency has evolved much since this book’s publication, which means Cameron’s discussion and advice may not be current. For those experiencing abuse (US), you can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline (https://www.thehotline.org/) for assistance.
[†] This term, first used week 2, likely should have been defined there, as I took it to mean some more obvious forms of self-destruction (eg, self-harm, substance abuse) versus the subtler ones (eg, clinging to relationships with a disinterested partner, maladaptive behaviors like avoidance and procrastination) eluded to here in week 5.
[‡] For anyone interested in nuance here, “positive reputation” applies both to situations where an individual is praised for their (reluctant) deeds and to situations where their actions let them escape criticism because they choose to meet others’/societal expectations. In the latter scenario, praise tends to be in short supply (people assume your generosity constitutes a duty or feel entitled to your assistance) but criticism is quick to follow should you buck conventions.
[§] This term is not specifically explained, but in the context of week 5 it refers to artistic inspiration, friends, lovers, homes, etc.
[**] Understandably, there’s some overlap as week 6 is a more in-depth discussion of a specific limit (finances). In fairness, though, Cameron’s discursive presentation may bear some responsibility, too.
Recently, I posted a review on my first three weeks working on The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a self-help book aimed at teaching its readers to embrace their creativity. Week 4, which I’m discussing here, proved to be challenging enough that I felt it needed its own post. Because it contains an exercise that many find difficult (something Cameron also acknowledges), I want to emphasize that there’s always something valuable to learn in such cases—but patience and perseverance are attributes you might want on hand as well.
Allow me to explain.
Getting to Know Me
The snowflake pattern of your soul is emerging.
Julia Cameron
Week 4 focuses on reflection, specifically considering how previous lessons help us become our more authentic selves. While it runs a tad long, this discussion notes how these changes may manifest and affect us before reminding us to use our affirmations to deal with these feelings as we work through our various artistic blocks. The two main exercises focus on learning more about that authentic self and its preferences. “Buried Dreams” explores past interests to provide some activities to try during the second exercise. While the connection between tasks was clear, restating how they relate to the chapter’s theme would be a useful addition.
The second and more challenging exercise is called reading deprivation (now renamed media deprivation). For one week, participants must not read, watch television, or go online—similar to digital or social media detoxes. In The Artist’s Way, Cameron argues that reading and other media distract artists from self-examination. Removing such distractions let us (1) get in touch with our feelings and thoughts (introspection); (2) connect with our inner voice (inspiration); and (3) refill the artist’s well by experiencing the sensory world. With our time freed up, Cameron first predicts we’ll become productive but eventually will shift to playing once we run of busywork. Play is important, because it lets creative grow (eg, the artist’s date). With this tool improving our understanding of ourselves, our creativity should increase as blocks dissipate.
Understanding the Challenges
Problems with Persuasion
This lesson unfortunately includes some elements I found counterproductive to getting onboard with media deprivation. As observed in my previous review, Cameron occasionally hints at a topic before she talks about it. Week 4’s introductory page contains one of these spoilers, as it urges readers to use the “reading deprivation” tool. Inserting this brief admonition before the lesson, detrimentally shifted my focus onto this alarming development. If preparing readers for this concept is a must, it’d be better to mention that we’ll later encounter a tool that assesses media’s impact on creativity where reading blocks are first mentioned in conjunction with filling the artist’s well (“Basic Tools,” p. 23 in the 2020 edition).
But the commentary itself also creates some barriers to reader buy-in. It’s difficult to summon enthusiasm for using this tool when the essay first characterizes words—my artistic medium—as a cross between tranquilizers and junk food. Some claims made here also seemed questionable (eg, that artists are “addicted” to reading[*]). Beyond the rhetoric lies the real problem: people eschew the hard work of examining their feelings and thoughts, using media as a shield. Starting with this point and connecting it to reflecting on our authentic selves could avoid creating more resistance to an already challenging exercise.
Creative Concerns
Turning to those challenges, there’s the matter of motivation. Usually, people who limit their media consumption (as I generally do) voluntarily do so, placing Cameron in the unenviable position of warding off her students’ displeasure[†] while encouraging them to undertake an unwanted challenge. Others understandably worry about how they’ll manage their obligations with such restrictions. These are the prime reasons some find this assignment frustrating. I also identified some other potential obstacles. The introspective among us might not need more time for self-scrutiny. Others who find media inspiring may find it puzzling/upsetting to be deprived of that inspiration. With these latter points, clearly stated goals[‡] might diffuse some resistance here, as these persons could focus instead on other goals such as exploring alternate sources of inspiration.
Getting Some (Online) Guidance
Cameron does respond to the more obvious concerns involving reading deprivation in The Artist’s Way but provides minimal instruction. Being told to procrastinate when it came to work or school struck me as unhelpful, as that’s not always possible. Because I previously found an online resource for this book, I consulted it and discovered that Cameron had been calling this tool media deprivation since at least 2012, which made me wonder why my book from 2020 didn’t reflect this. Regardless, Cameron’s website does advise her students to limit their inflow of media as much as possible without being irresponsible or getting fired. Her online description of media deprivation as a form of “conscious unplugging” also appealed to me more, convincing me that checking my media consumption couldn’t hurt.
It is a paradox that by emptying our lives of distractions we are actually filling the [artist’s] well.
Julia Cameron
Mixed Results
Less Internet, More Doing
With my plans in place and the household informed, I grumpily undertook the requisite week of media deprivation. I quickly discovered my mobile phone was a problem. For a device I spend half my life trying to find when I need it, it felt uncomfortably handy when I didn’t want it. While I couldn’t switch it off,[§] I could relocate it to a nearby room (something I plan to continue doing). With my phone out of reach and apps keeping me focused, my time on my computer was more productive. I also zipped through my to-do list efficiently and finished some projects lingering in my backlog.
Bookless and Bored
Not all my results were rosy. For example, I felt left out when my spouse and child watched television while I tidied up again (apparently, that supply IS inexhaustible). While I hardly missed games and television, losing some family time due to an undesired obligation was difficult. I also missed my reading time. Putting aside a great book (Lulu Allison’s The Salt Lick) was tough but receiving THREE more books in the mail that I also wanted to read (including Sarah Tinsley’s just released debut novel, The Shadows We Cast) felt unfair. The occasional boredom here wasn’t great, nor was having the time to dwell on it helpful. But I have to say, heading to bed instead of fuming was a good solution.
An Unexpected Twist
Ultimately, the promised boost in creativity never occurred, because my grudging efforts ended with deprivation. I could not summon any enthusiasm for hobbies, new or old. Afterwards, I struggled with understanding why I’d been so angry, given that I’ve chosen on numerous occasions to put aside books and other media for weeks with far less difficulty. The Artist’s Way, as it may surprise you, did help here.
In week 3, Cameron explains that we should pay attention to our anger, because it tells us something. My subsequent interrogation here was illuminating. I realized that this assignment unwittingly resurfaced memories of being too exhausted to read while caring for my then newborn, which was a painful instance where I briefly lost “me” in motherhood. This contributed to my resistance, as lacking sufficient reason to set aside books kept me unmotivated. Exploring the source of this reaction or looking for some way to make this exercise meaningful to me might have produced different results. Putting in a more since effort with the other activities, too, may have helped.
Conclusion
One of bigger takeaways of this week is that The Artist’s Way might benefit from an update that modernizes it in general and specifically brings it in line with Cameron’s current thinking. I found the more recent descriptions of media deprivation more appealing as they avoided hyperbole and provide more guidance. As for me, media deprivation proved to be more of trade off than a trade up, but I still learned things about myself (eg, buy-in is critical for me). Knowing what I do now, I’m seriously considering giving this another try, as I’d like to see whether I finally reap those rewards.
TLDR: Trying new things is hard, especially with a bad attitude. Staying positive and finding purpose in doing things differently might help.
Further Reading
For a more positive take on media deprivation, read Ben Kassoy’s article here. While I disagree that Cameron’s goal involves understanding our media consumption (it’s always bolstering creativity), he makes some great points on why media deprivation/detoxes aids mental health and makes us more mindful about our time online.
NOTES:
[*] I suspect that Cameron means reading blocks instead of a reading-based behavioral addiction, which apparently is a compulsion to read that negatively impacts on one’s life and mental health.
[†] Understandably, no one enjoys bad news (or tough love, as the case may be here), but some of what Cameron endures seems uncalled for.
[‡] The Artist’s Way might’ve benefited here by using tactics seen in traditional textbooks (eg, enumerating goals with bullet points, objective statements) so that main points are easy to locate and understand.
[§] It’s a must for someone with a school-aged child who seems to be an injury magnet this year.
Towards the end of 2021, a writer friend shared that she planned to work with The Artist’s Way. I’d never heard of Julia Cameron or this book before, so I was curious about it. Since we were discussing how we both wanted to write more going forward, I decided it might be worthwhile to see if this book would help me achieve that end. When in a pandemic and dealing with another surge and some unpleasant life stuff, jumping feet first into a new endeavor sounds fun—especially if it helps your writing life. So, without further ado (that is, reading up on it), I ordered it and planned to get underway in January.
Nothing like leaping before you look, right?
What is The Artist’s Way?
It’s a self-help book based on classes that Julia Cameron teaches on creativity. Meant to be used by any artist (from the hobbyist to the professional), it does not focus on a specific art form, although writing does feature in it (more on that shortly). Cameron doesn’t teach creativity per se, so much as she encourages her readers to allow themselves to be creative. For this reason, the book works on what undermines people from embracing their creativity and provides various techniques to encourage/explore creativity.
People who study certain subjects (psychology, philosophy/religion), attend therapy, or belong to 12-step programs (the course is 12 weeks, which I doubt is coincidental) may recognize some techniques from these disciplines. The benefit here is that these various ideas are specifically aimed at living a more artistic lifestyle. Spirituality is heavily emphasized, as is the belief that all of us are meant to be creative (a central tenet). Overall, this book focuses on helping its readers to live a more artistic life.
Morning Pages
The Artist’s Way provides two tools (meant to work together) to use throughout the 12-week course and, ideally, going forward: morning pages and the artist’s date. Morning pages, as the name suggests, should be completed every morning upon awakening.[*] Whether the reader happens to be a pianist or a sculptor, they must sit down and write three sides of paper (that is, 1.5 pages) of text by hand every morning. Generally, no one should look at them—not even their composer initially.
The purpose of these pages is a more difficult to explain. Their job, much like a first draft, is to exist. They don’t have to be about anything specific or planned, just what comes to mind. By getting them done early, it allows you to express yourself less critically, regardless of your mood. They may reveal problematic patterns in your life, provide inspiration, or be an outlet for your complaints, but primarily they help you clear your mind.[†] Cameron describes them alternately as meditation or prayer.
If morning pages are a freewheeling process designed to get your thoughts on the page, the artist’s date is about doing. Much like morning pages, the second tool should not be missed but be performed weekly (around two hours, although a specific time is not required). The artist’s date requires you to go on something like a solo playdate. The idea is to experiment with things that interest you, which don’t have to be especially artistic.
While what you do on the date varies (this depends on the reader’s tastes but there are exercises that provide inspiration), the goal is to help you refill your artistic well (that is, replenishing your source for creativity) by observing and experiencing. Some examples of artist’s date can include taking a walk, cooking a new dish, visiting a museum, etc. Cameron notes that artist’s dates can provide solutions to concerns that come up during morning pages.
Both tools have the potential to help readers working on their artistic recovery (that is, embracing their creativity). Arguably, we all have artistic blocks that prevent us from creating, whether it’s holding us back in our artistic expression or preventing us from being creative at all. Using these tools can help expose those blocks (morning pages) and work through them by allowing yourself to do fun things (artist’s dates).
Potential Challenges
In the introduction, Cameron announces that she uses the term God throughout (accurately), but the reader can interpret “God” however they choose. She is clear that she does not want or expect people to believe in God if they don’t or aren’t sure about that concept (she suggests the workaround of viewing God as short for “good orderly flow”). I would’ve preferred that she more liberally used generic terms (eg, the universe or even higher power) to be inclusive and more neutral, but the burden is really on the reader to work around the terminology if it makes them uncomfortable. Although she insists her version of God is benevolent, I doubt her assurance erases the reader’s constructs of God, religion, and spirituality that term evokes, for better or worse. Week 3, which involves a more in-depth discussion of God, may prove challenging for some.
Some Minor Difficulties
The Artist’s Way is meant to be used creatively, with readers having a lot of freedom to use Cameron’s suggestions as works best for them. As such, it was not designed to operate as a traditional textbook, but there are areas where I wished there was more guidance present. I ran into a few minor difficulties trying to find information and instructions.
Cameron states in an early chapter called “The Basic Tools” that there’s “no wrong way to do morning pages” and suggests writing on loose pages and storing them in an envelope or using a spiral notebook .[‡] With the idea that any approach would work, I initially decided to use a comparably sized composition notebook as that works better for me. However, the first two tasks in week 1—when you presumably get underway with these pages—specifically refer to loose paper stored in an envelope. Fearing I misunderstood, I went hunting for the instructions on morning pages, which took some time to find as I forgot that they were in the aforementioned chapter (the index eventually led me back). But better instructions here would have saved me the bother. If the paper choice isn’t set in stone, the associated tasks should reflect that freedom (eg, it could state the notebook cover or envelope could get a star for task 2 of week 1).
Admittedly, this is a mild quibble, but there are other instances where more detail would be helpful. When you encounter tasks for the first time, there are no instructions provided about how to do them, because this was again discussed previously in the chapter called “Spiritual Electricity: The Basic Principles”. Here, referring to that chapter (as is done elsewhere: tasks 1 and 5 refer in week 2 refers you back to week 1’s affirmations) or just restating the instructions would be useful. With that in mind, the reader might need to be more diligent about taking notes or highlighting specific instructions.
I should also note there are some potential areas of confusion when it comes to some ideas and topics. Morning pages, as discussed above, are hard to describe, because potential use cases and benefits may vary depending on the person and their specific blocks or challenges—which is fair. However, Cameron does occasionally hint at topics that will be discussed in more depth later. Flagging such instances as future topics would be ideal, as I found myself wondering what she meant or whether this was an important practice.[§] Again, it might be best to be patient with the process or just look up items in the index if you want the description immediately.
My Own Journey with Artist’s Way Up to Week 3
Having made the plunge and purchased the book without investigating what it offered, I likely expected something more focused on writing than artistic recovery. I also missed the “spiritual path” part, which normally I would hesitate to buy. As a rule, I avoid discussing various religious or spiritual belief/disbelief systems for various reasons that include weariness with such discussions.
Since I made the commitment to try something new,[**] I decided to continue onward despite my trepidation. As soon as I began reading the prefatory chapters, this book turned up in numerous places online—and another writer friend also started working with it. It seemed like a sign I should give it a chance. As with many self-help books, it’s useful to have a read, learn from what works, and ignore what doesn’t. So far, the morning pages seem helpful when it comes to meeting my goal to write regularly, although I’m not sure I’ve had enough artist’s dates to comment on their effect.
Going forward, I will continue to skip reading ahead as it’s a bit more adventurous this way—plus it allows me fewer opportunities to avoid anything else that’s challenging but negotiable. And, having just completed week 4, this choice already proved to be a good one, as this particular lesson was sufficiently challenging (though negotiable) to merit its own post, which I’ll link to when I finish writing it.
NOTES:
[*] Acquiring caffeine first is permitted and is, in my opinion, mandatory. Under the tasks for week 1, she also suggests getting up half hour earlier to do your morning pages, which I cheerfully ignored as I’m a night owl.
[†] For writers, there is the additional benefit of establishing a daily writing practice, which potentially could extend into establishing a more regular creative writing practice. This is one reason I’m interested in continuing onward with this course.
[‡] Her website offers clearer, perhaps more prescriptive suggestions about morning pages that you can find here and here. For the artist’s date, some more information can be found here.
[§] The most intriguing instance of this (thus far) involves a task in week 4, which asks you to create an altar. Here, it states the altar reminds us creativity is a spiritual versus ego issue. Using an altar and its purpose were not mentioned let alone discussed in any detail previously, which made this task seem out of place. However, the index suggests this conversation will occur in about 100 more pages, so I assume their relevance will become clearer then.
[**] Yes, I’m familiar with the sunk cost fallacy, but I think a trial in such cases can be worthwhile before you decide whether it’s prudent to cut your losses.
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Agency — Blog — ERIC SMITH
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[
"Eric Smith"
] |
2019-02-28T00:00:00
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en
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https://assets.squarespace.com/universal/default-favicon.ico
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ERIC SMITH
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https://www.ericsmithrocks.com/blog/category/Agency
|
Hey there writers!
I'm opening up to queries again! I've been closed for a bit while juggling my own writing, a major move back to the East Coast, a toddler, and you know, life. And I'm just so excited to read new work again!
New here? Have a look at my sales and list. That'll also give you an idea what kind of books I work on.
Here's what I'm looking for in 2019.
-#-
Genre Blending Literary & Commercial Fiction
If you love novels like Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson, The Last One by Alexandra Olivia, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneggerand, The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters, The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff, and every book by Colson Whitehead... then your work is a good fit for me.
I'm looking for genre-blending fiction... books that pull a bit of genre into the literary.
When it comes to my clients, Mike Chen's Here & Now & Then, Erica Boyce's The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green, and Alison Stine's The Grower, are the perfect example of this. Literary fiction with splashes of time travel, secret societies, and the apocalypse? Yes. Please.
I also really love literary fiction that takes you into small worlds and communities where I'm an outsider. A glimpse inside a complex family, or a workplace. One of my favorite novels of 2018 was Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li. I'd love to find a book like that.
As for weirdly specific things I'm looking for... I'm dying to find a great book about a cult or a survivalist or a plague... maybe all of them in one?
I'm hoping this will be a big focus for me this year and pushing forward, so please, query away!
-#-
Young Adult
Hey, it's that category I also write in! I'm always hungry to find bright new voices in YA.
As for what I'm specifically looking for, that's a hard thing to pin down. I read widely in YA, and enjoy just about every genre in it. I love moving contemporary reads, thrilling sci-fi, and lush fantasy.
To get a sense of my taste in YA, my favorite novels of last year were Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, A Conspiracy of Stars by Olivia A. Cole, The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk, Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutski, Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston, The Summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spalding, and Contagion by Erin Bowman.
My favorite YA novel of all time is Hero by Perry Moore.
When it comes to my favorite YA authors, I've read every book by writers like Becky Albertalli, Adam Silvera, Nova Ren Suma, Mindy McGinnis, Zoraida Cordova, Meg Medina, Jeff Zentner, Brandy Colbert, Bryan Bliss, and Nina LaCour.
Very hungry to work on more LGBTQ+ YA novels and diverse, inclusive reads. I'd also love to see more YA non-fiction hit my inbox.
-#-
Select Science Fiction & Fantasy
I'm a bit picky when it comes to sci-fi and fantasy novels. I love them. I read a ton of them. But they have to be accessible.
What does that mean? It means that readers who don't traditionally pick up much sci-fi or fantasy, can pick up one of these novels, and enjoy it.
Some of my favorite recent sci-fi and fantasy reads include The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty, Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller, The Book of M by Peng Shepherd, Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne, and the Sleeping Giants series by Sylvain Neuvel. I also love anything Chuck Wendig, Kat Howard, and Delilah S. Dawson writes.
-#-
Memoir and Essay Collections
I love powerful personal stories, especially from essayists. I'm lucky enough to work with Bassey Ikpi, whose novel I'm Telling the Truth But I'm Lying is out this year. Some of my favorite essayists include Nicole Chung and Michele Filgate, whose books are absolutely filed in "books I wish I could have worked on."
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung was my favorite memoir of 2018, and one of my favorite books of the year, period.
-#-
Cookbooks
I love quirky cookbooks that explore topics that are hard to find in the bookstore, or haven't been explored at all. Odd, single subject books tend to grab me really quickly. If you think your project is too niche, I might be right for you.
Recent projects of mine in this category include Eat to Feed by Eliza Larson and Kristy Kohler, a cookbook that dishes recipes that help mothers with breastmilk production,Are You Afraid of the Dark Rum? by Sam Slaughter, a cocktail book full of 90's inspired drinks, and Lindsey Smith's Eat Your Feelings, a mental health focus cookbook about pairing food with emotions.
Wildly different, right? But each are wildly unique and very specific.
Cookbook authors should be platformed... which doesn't necessarily mean a big ol' Twitter following. If you're writing articles for food-related places, doing speaking engagements, or run your own blog... that counts!
-#-
Non-Fiction History & Pop Culture
I love love LOVE books that introduce readers to untold stories. My author Alex Rubens' 8-Bit Apocalypse is the perfect example, telling the untold story of the creation of the game Missile Command.
I've loved every single book written by Mary Roach, and would love to find a non-fiction book along those lines. One of my favorite non-fiction titles ever is The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson.
-#-
And now, a quick rundown of what I'm not looking for, to save everyone's time.
What I'm Not Looking For:
Middle Grade or Picture Books (pitch my colleague Maria!)
Angel & demon love stories, Heaven / Hell stories.
Adult epic fantasy or military sci-fi.
Books significantly over 100,000 words.
Douglas-Adams-esque sci-fi.
Non-fiction about sports or politics.
Your bad thriller about a white guy fighting terrorists.
Portals.
Novellas.
Main-character-is-a-bigot-and-learns-a-lesson. Hard pass.
Redemptive story arcs for abusers. Nope.
New Adult books.
Horror novels. I like them, but I don't know what makes a good one.
Anything comped as "Lovecraftian" (he was racist, not interested)
Anything comped to Orson Scott Card (if I have to explain this, we can't work together)
Commercial fiction about sports (exceptions made for sports YA, I love sports YA!)
Updated: April 2024
A while back, the iconic fantasy author Kat Howard worked on Mike Chen's novel Here & Now & Then. Her guidance helped get the book where it needed to be, and it’s since netted acclaimed reviews. His next books, A Beginning at the End and We Could Be Heroes are in stores everywhere, with more novels to follow.
A good eye, can get you on track.
But wait. Why have someone else looking over the manuscripts by the authors I've been signing?
Well, here's the thing, writerly types. I can still miss things that need work. Generally when I'm picking up an author, I'll have read through their manuscript pretty quickly (if I'm in love with a manuscript, I read it like I read any book... by devouring it), and when it comes time for edits, I'll read it again, slowly, making notes. Then usually another time. And then again.
By the time we're ready for sub, I've likely read the book four, maybe five times. At that point, I'm probably missing stuff. If I didn't catch it by the fourth or fifth read through, I'm not going to. And if that book isn't quite landing with editors I'm subbing it to, another set of eyes becomes so key. This goes for my work process as an agent and as a writer, as well as any author working on a query letter or a rough manuscript. A new set of eyes will catch things you might have missed, and pick up on issues that are closer to them.
TL; DR: More eyes, means a better letter or a better book.
I thought it might be a good idea to roundup other authors and editors that offer up freelance editorial work. Because who better to help you work on that query / manuscript, then someone who has been there before? Authors and editors know what solid queries and manuscripts should look like, having read and written so many.
So... here we go!
Kat Howard (@KatWithSword): Kat's an author with Saga and a published short story writer with over 30 shorts out there in the world. And she has a Ph.D in literature, you guys. Check her site out for more info regarding what she edits and her rates. [Website]
Katherine Locke (@Bibliogato): The author of The Girl with the Red Balloon duology (please read these books!), Katherine knows their genre well, and works on Young Adult, Romance, and middle grade books. They offers up help on query letters, full reads, and line edits of manuscripts. [Website]
Shelly Romero (@_smromero): I chatted with Shelly plenty during her time at Scholastic and in other places through the publishing industry, and let me tell you, she’s one of the most brilliant people in this business. AND she’s available for critiques? Details on her website, but wow! [Website]
Sophia Jimenez: Sophia has worked on some astonishing books at S&S, including some of my very favorites from Laura Taylor Namey. She’s available for editorial assessments and sensitivity reads. [Website]
Hannah Morgan Teachout: With experience at agencies and a bundle of services available, you can scope out what Hannah’s all about on her site, here. [Website]
Victoria Rose (@WordsFlickering): During the first year of the Philadelphia Bookstore Crawl, Victoria came on board to write a bunch of blog posts and copy, and basically saved the day. She offers up proofreading and copyediting, amongst other services. Highly recommend. [Website]
Meghan McCullough: An editor I’ve been lucky enough to interact with plenty in my agent life, Meghan offers all kinds of critique and editorial options. Just visit her website. [Website]
Samantha Paige Rosen (@samanthaprosen): A local writer and editor I admire quite a bit, Samantha’s services are available via her website, here. She even book coaches! [Website]
Olivia Valcarce (@OliviaValcarce): A freelance editor for MG and YA, who has worked in the industry for quite some time. And I love quite a few of the books she worked on at Inkyard (see those here). Details on how to hire here, via her website.
Diana M. Pho (@writersyndrome): A former editor at Tor and a three time Hugo award nominee, Diana is amazing. You’ve absolutely read books she’s worked on, and she’s one of the most brilliant people in publishing I know. Details can be found here [Website].
Emily Ohanjanians (@storyphile): I was lucky enough to work with Emily a bit during her time at MIRA, and now she’s freelance editing. You can learn more about her services on her official website, and she’s also hirable via Reedsy. [Website]
Julie Scheina: Julie’s worked with folks like Tara Altebrando and Kami Garcia, working in publishing and as a freelance editor. You can get a sense of what services she offers via her website. [Website]
Koren (K.M.) Enright (@KM_Enright): A former literary agent, Koren also worked in various spaces throughout publishing, and also writes books! You can check out their rates on their website, here. [Website]
Kerry Kletter (@kkletter): Kerry wrote one of my favorite YA novels of all time, and her adult books have been astonishing. And you can hire her for critiques and edits! Details here [Website]
Revise and Shine: Run by a number of experienced folks including Lesa Cline-Ransome, Jennifer Richard Jacobson, Jo Knowles, and Rob Costello, they offer a bundle of editorial services. Check out their website.
Laura Silverman (@LJSilverman1): A YA rom-com titan, Laura’s works are fantastic, and she offers up editorial services. Details here [Website]
Lori Anne Goldstein (@loriagoldstein): An author of several books I adore, Lori’s available for coaching, edits, and even runs a retreat. More info on her website.
Natalia Sylvester (@nataliasylv): I’ve been a big fan of Natalia’s novels ever since her debut, and watching her take over the kid-lit world has been amazing. Guess what! She offers up critiques and editorial services! Details here on her website. [Website]
Sarah LaPolla (@sarahlapolla): A former agent who I’ve been at dozens of events with, Sarah’s gone freelance editor! I’ve adored the romance and YA novels she’s worked on, and you can learn more about how to hire her via Reedsy [Website].
Diana Gill (@dianagill): I’ve read a bunch of the books Diana has worked on, and goodness, do you want an opportunity to work with her. A former editor at Tor, HarperVoyager, Random House, and more, you can find her details here [Website]
Lauren Smulski (@LaurenES): So Lauren was the editor of Don’t Read the Comments, my first book over with Harlequin / Inkyard Press, and she’s worked with a whole bundle of authors you adore. She’s worked on New York Times bestsellers, even! And you can hire her, what! Details are here on her website. [Website]. You can also hire her via Reedsy.
Amy Spalding (@theames): If you’ve ever listened to an episode of Hey YA or talked to me about books, you know how much I adore Amy Spalding’s brilliant YA contemporary novels. You can hire her for book coaching and more. Details on her website. [Website]
Kendall Davis (@kenashcreative): Kendall has written for all your favorite geek outlets and writes books of her own, with plenty of experience working at major publishing houses. You can check out her services here [Website]
Julie Eshbaugh (@JulieEshbaugh ): Author of the Ivory & Bone series and other wonderful YA novels, Julie is available for writing coaching, critiques, and more. [Website]
Sonia Belasco (@SoniaBelasco): Philly author and writing coach Sonia Belasco writes really lovely in-verse YA and more, and is available to help with critiques, query workshopping, and more. Details here! [Website]
Lilly Dancyger (@lillydancyger): An author with Seal Press and an essayist for sites like Catapult, Lilly offers up a bundle of editorial services. [Website]
Michelle Meade (@MichelleEllise): So Michelle is the editor who acquired Mike Chen’s acclaimed Here & Now & Then, and thus, has a special place in my bookish heart forever. [Website]
Rebecca Enzor (@RebeccaEnzor): An author I was lucky enough to work with early in my agent career, Rebecca is great at helping out with queries and synopsises. [Website]
Bev Katz Rosenbaum (@bevrosenbaum): A former editor at places like Harlequin and McGraw Hill, as well as an author of Young Adult novels, Bev comes with experience from both sides of the business! Details on how you can hire her for critiques and workshops, here on her website. [Website]
Laura Lee Anderson (@LLAWrites): Laura, like me, is an author with Bloomsbury's digital imprint Bloomsbury Spark. Her novel, Song of Summer... well, you're going to have a lot of feelings after reading it. Have tissues ready. She looks at query letters and full manuscripts. [Website]
Alison Weiss (@alioop7): In my agent life, Alison worked on two of my favorite projects, and is such a wild champion of kid-lit. You can hire her freelance via her website, and goodness, if you need a recommendation, I will scream about her to anyone who will listen. [Website]
Sangeeta Mehta (@sangeeta_editor) A former acquiring editor of children’s books at Little, Brown and Simon & Schuster, Sangeeta is now a full-time freelance book editor specializing in middle grade, young adult, and commercial women’s fiction. She also writes articles featuring literary agents she admires, including this Q&A about how agents approach diversity. Visit her website for more information.
Nicole Frail (@nfrail17): Nicole's an editor over at Sky Horse Press (and also worked on three books by authors I’ve worked with), and she's also written a few non-fiction titles of her own. You can check out her rates here. [Website]
E.C. Myers (@ecmyers): The author of Fair Coin, Quantum Coin, The Silence of Six, and so many more books, Eugene is an awesome YA author that I'm a big fan of. And guess what? He offers up some freelance editing services! Manuscript critiques and the like. Drop him a note regarding availability. [Website]
Jon McGoran (@jonmcgoran): An author with Tor, Jon's DRIFT series is a favorite of mine. Drift, Dead Out... all killer thrillers, that you should be reading. And his YA series Spliced is brilliant. He's taught a number of writing courses and novel editing classes, and is available for select projects. Drop him a line, especially if you're working on thrillers or mysteries. [Website]
Ashley Kuehl (@ashley__kuehl): Ashley here does proposal critiques, edits, and manuscript consultations! You can see all the details on her website here. [Website]
Angela James (@angelajames): A founder of publishing presses and an editorial extraordinaire, you can hire Angela to polish up that manuscript. Details regarding rates and more can be found here. [Website]
Sarah Hannah Gómez (@shgmclicious): A prolific author, podcaster, and just all around excellent human, Sarah’s available for edits, critiques, you name it. Details here on her website [Website].
Samantha Wekstein (@SWekstein): A literary agent who also offers up freelance editing services. [Website]
Lexi Small (@lexi_smail ): A former editor at major publishing houses in NYC, Lexi is available for freelance services. [Website]
Jay Whistler (@JayWhistler): I met Jay at VCFA! You can work with her or anyone else on her editorial team via Angel Editors. Details here. [Website]
Sarah Jane Singer (@TheNewSarahJane): A freelance editor who has worked with New York Times bestselling authors and more, details here on their website [Website].
Ilana Masad (@ilanaslightly): I was lucky enough to work with Ilana early in my agency career, and I am such a massive fan of her work. And hey, she critiques and edits. She's won scores of awards for her short stories, her debut novel is AMAZING, and you definitely want to work with her. Drop her a line regarding her rates via her website. [Website]
Lara Willard (@larathelark): Working on comics? Graphic novels? Picture books? Lara's the gal for you, specializing in work with a visual angle, though she does other stuff too. You can learn more about her via her site. [Website]
Jocelyn Bailey (@thebookhooker): A former editor at Thomas Nelson and a freelance editor for places like Pegasus, Jocelyn's a rockstar. You can see what she offers up on her website. [Website]
Megan Manzano (@megan_manzano): Has worked with some PitchWars folks, and these days, is a literary agent at D4EO. Check out her website for her rates and details [Website].
Kaitlyn Johnson (@RedPenKaitlyn): Freelance editor and literary agent at Belcastro, I’ve done a ton of events with Kaitlyn, and she’s just great. Check her website for details and rates in her freelance editorial life. [Website].
Mary Dunbar (@MaryCDunbar): YA author and editor! Details on her rates can be found on her site. [Website]
Liana Brooks (@LianaBrooks): An author with HarperVoyager and loves science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, romance, and crime fiction for any age group. If it goes boom, bang, kiss, or crash, she can help. Check out her rates on her website.
Celeste Paed (@CelesteReads): A writer who has served as EIC behind two literary magazines, Celeste offers freelance editing, copyediting, and other services with query letters and manuscripts. First her websites and contact her for rates and information. [Website]
Adalyn Grace (@AdalynGrace_): A Young Adult author who is now open to critiques and editing services! Check out her offerings, here on her website. [Website]
Holly Ingraham (@holly_ingraham): A former editor at St. Martin's Press and a former literary agency assistant, Holly has experience across the industry! Check out her rates here. [Website]
Julia A. Weber (@JAWeberEdits): A former literary agent gone freelance editor? Yes! Julia works across categories and genres, check out what she offers on her personal site. [Website]
Dev Petty (@devpetty): Looking to get notes on your picture book? You can hire this published picture book author (I Don’t Want to be a Frog is a favorite of my toddler), to give that manuscript a look. Details on her rates and availability on her website. [Website]
Raquel Henry (@RacquelHenry): Raquel has been published in way too many literary journals to name here (just check out her website), and does freelance editorial work. You can learn more about what she offers here [Website].
Ekta R. Garg (@EktaRGarg): An author and editor who offers up edits and critiques. You can see her rates and what she works on via her official website. [Website]
Swati Hedge (@SwatiHWrites): A published with with Bell (check out Match Me if You Can), Swati offers up editorial and coaching services [Website].
Melissa Ann Singer (@maseditor): A former editor at Tor, Nightfire, etc. who worked on a number of books I love (and you likely love too!). Check out their Reedsy profile here. Novella or full novel length projects only, please!
Jennifer Prokop (@jenreadsromance): Yes the voice behind your favorite romance novel podcast does freelance edits. I cannot imagine how awesome it would be having a pro like Jennifer working on your romance novel. Details on their website.
Kristen Weber (@kristenwEditor): A former editor at Hachette (Grand Central, Mysterious Press, etc) Kristen is available for query letter packages, manuscript critiques, etc. [Website]
Jennifer Banash (@jenniferbanash): An author who offers up editorial services, ghostwriting, and more. [Website]
Have someone you'd like to add to the list? Are YOU that someone? Email me! ericsmithrocks at gmail dot com!
I love taking in-person pitches at publishing conferences.
It's how I found Lindsey Smith (her award-winning cookbook, Eat Your Feelings, came out with St. Martin's Press in 2017!), and I've had the wonderful opportunity to talk with numerous writers around the country. About their books, about their platforms, all kinds of good stuff, sharing advice as well as dishing out suggestions for their projects.
But without fail, at every conference I attend, there are certain questions I ask that seem to trip writers up. And sometimes, not having answers to those questions sends up serious red flags.
So I thought I'd do a little post, to dish out some tips for those of you pitching agents and editors in-person. Because while you may have polished that pitch to perfection, you're going to need to answer these kind of questions.
Leave Room To Talk
First, before we dig into any of these bits… leave room to talk. It can be tempting to spend the entire ten or fifteen minutes explaining why your book is amazing, but… what if the agent has questions? What if you forget to mention word count or talk about your platform? What if the discussion ends before you finish even explaining your book?
You might miss out on answering the questions the agent needs to really get hooked. Don’t spend the whole time talking. Leave room for a conversation.
What's Your Book About?
Right away, at every conference I go to, when I sit down with an author, this is what I open up with. Tell me about your book. What have you written? What's it about? Give me the details.
This should be the quickest and easiest question to answer, but sometimes it trips people up.
Every writer comes prepared to talk about their book at these things. It's why you are there, for the most part. But not every writer is able to talk about their book in a quick, succinct way. Remember, you've only got like ten, maybe fifteen minutes here to sum up your entire story.
Don't use this time to explain the entire intricate plot of the book. This isn't a book report. Treat it as though you're reading the back-jacket copy of a book to a friend in your local bookstore. You're shopping and you're trying to sell them on this book. That's what you would show them.
You can read the jacket copy of a book in a minute or two. You want to have plenty of time for the agent to ask YOU questions and for you to ask your own. Don't spend it explaining every little thing. Save room.
How Many Words?
Know the word count of your book. Agents and editors are going to ask this.
And that being said, before you even get ready to pitch, know what the typical word count is for your respective genre. If you show up boasting an enormous, unheard of word count for a book, it might tell the agent / editor that you're not familiar with the genre.
Writer's Digest has a great post about typical book lengths here. There are exceptions to every rule, of course. Just be savvy.
What Have You Read in the Genre Recently?
Speaking of genre... I get pitched a lot of YA, sci-fi, and fantasy at conferences, which is fantastic, because that is what I'm there looking for. But nothing makes me hit the brakes faster than when I ask what a writer has read recently in their respective genre, and they don't have an answer.
Or even worse, when they say they don't really read in their genre.
If you tell me that you don't actively read, that throws up a red flag. When potential YA authors tell me the last great YA novel they read was The Chronicles of Narnia (this happens a lot, this isn't a silly joke example) or that they don't really read YA at all, I immediately lose interest.
I want to work with writers who actively read where they want to write.
Be ready with an answer. And if you don't have an answer because you aren't actively reading the kind of books you want to write... maybe rethink what you're writing? The best way to be a good writer, is to read. If you aren't reading, you probably aren't writing anything worth reading.
What's Your Platform?
This is the kind of question you're going to get asked if you're writing non-fiction.
As I've rambled about on here before, platform doesn't really matter when it comes to fiction. It helps, sure. But, your story is what's important here. But with non-fiction, editors and agents want to work with experts. Writing memoir? They want to work with authors who can prove people want to hear their story. Writing a collection of essays? We're going to want to see where you've been published before.
And when it comes to that non-fiction book you're working on, be it about a major historical figure or how to be a good parent, you need to show your expertise. Where have you been blogging? Where have you been speaking?
Remember, platform isn't just your social media presence. It's your regular speaking engagements, the places you've written. Make sure you're established there, and have something to discuss.
What's Your Life Outside of Writing Like
Gasp! A question that doesn't have to do with your book? That's right.
Here's the thing about agents and writers, friends. It becomes a very personal relationship. For some. At least, for me it does. These become the people you talk to every day. Me and my authors, we talk in Google Chat constantly. We text. We gossip about non-book things frequently. The relationships often become friendly.
So be ready for an agent to want to get to know you a little better. Don't shrug and say "oh, nothing really interesting" when chances are, you do have something interesting. Share bits about yourself. Your hobbies. What you do for a living. What you're studying. Things like that. Making a personal connection is important here.
---
And those are the usual things I bring up. So! Come ready with answers. Because we are going to have questions.
At this point, most of the Bookternet seems to know. But in case you didn't hear, after five years at the fabulous Quirk Books, I'm packing up my little toy-decorated office this week.
Several New York Times bestsellers, books that won numerous awards, a dozen (mostly) viral book trailers, several bookish websites, plenty of social network profile launches, the publication of my own book, tons of conventions, and thousands upon thousands of books mailed to bloggers... it's been a really wonderful and fulfilling experience, working with all the awesome people at Quirk.
But, it's time for a new chapter, as they say. A new challenge.
This month, I'm jumping into a new career as a literary agent with P.S. Literary.
As anyone who has ever met me will tell you, I'm happiest when talking about other people. Asking me about a favorite book or a favorite author usually ends with me doing something like this.
I mean, when I was emailing friends and media about my latest book, I linked out to another person's book in my PS (again, ya'll should add More Happy Than Not to your Goodreads). Some of the best blog posts I've ever written on BookRiot and The Huffington Post have to do with me talking about other people. Hell, I started a blog and an awards show to give others a platform.
Using my voice to help others get their stories out there... it makes me happy.
So exploring a career where I get to discover new writers, boast about how amazing their undiscovered works are, help launch their careers, and be their voice? Ah, what a perfect, perfect opportunity. Thanks for giving me a shot, Curtis and David!
And while P.S. Literary is located in Toronto, I will be staying in Philadelphia, working out of my new home office / coffeeshops all over. I may even crash Indy Hall once and a while, when Adam and Alex aren't busy making websites.
So before I list the kind of books I'm looking for, here's a big ol' public thank you to Quirk Books, for an awesome five years.
If it wasn't for Quirk taking a chance on some local blogger with zero publishing experience, I wouldn't have had... well, any of this. Two published books (one of which was published with Quirk, thank you Jason!), dozens of lectures and talks at conferences, and now this, a new career to explore. For that, I'm not quite sure how to express my thanks. It's just so huge.
But I think about that fact often, how I got from Point A to Point B(ook). Thanks for giving me a shot after my awkward, nervous interview, Brett, and giving me the chance to grow over the years. I won't ever forget it.
Ah, and the Quirk authors and the many, many book bloggers. I've come to know so many of you outside the walls of our publishing house, and I'm happy to call many of you my friends. Thank you for your awesome words, whether it was a book you wrote or a book you reviewed.
Quirks, it has been an absolute pleasure. I'll see you at all the conventions. And you'll certainly see me in the area. Blair and I have new comic book day every Wednesday, and I don't plan on breaking that tradition.
I also have to thank my awesome future-wife Nena. Without her support to move forward with this, it wouldn't be happening.
And as for the books, here's what I'm looking for. You can scope me out on the agency website here. I'll update this site soon with all of this. But for now, here you go.
Note: To my friends that I've listed here as comps... well, I'm not sorry. I admire each of you so very much, and I want more writing like yours in the world.
Young & New Adult: I'm eager to find bright, diverse new voices in YA. Send me your sci-fi, your fantasy, your contemporary, your pretty-much-any-genre in YA. I write and read YA frequently, so this is a genre I'm fiercely passionate about. If you're curious about my tastes, I adore authors like Susan Dennard, Lauren Morrill, E.C. Myers, Rainbow Rowell, Chuck Wendig, Andrew Smith, Marie Lu, Tahereh Mafi, and new kids on the YA block like Aisha Saeed, Sabaa Tahir, Brandy Colbert, and Adam Silvera.
To quote Andrew Smith, "keep YA weird." Give me your weird, give me your quirky!
With NA, send me your awkward romances and your bold new ideas. It's a growing genre, I'd love to find something that surprises me and makes me swoon. Steamy kissing scenes are awesome... but I'd love to see some NA jump into new genres. Are those kissing scenes in... oh, I don't know, SPACE? Would it make Kirk and Uhura blush? Awesome. Send it to me.
Science Fiction & Fantasy: Looking for high fantasy and exciting sci-fi, new worlds that simply can't be put down. I would love books in the vein of titles by authors like Brandon Sanderson, Lev Grossman, Cory Doctorow, John Scazli, Jeff Vandermeer, Cherie Priest, or Andy Weir.
Cookbooks: I'm particularly interested in cookbook ideas from bloggers. Do you have an awesome food blog with a growing audience? Can you take amazing photos? Are you an active part of the food blogger community? Let's talk. I'm very open to helping develop ideas here, even if the book isn't quite there yet.
Non-Fiction: When it comes to non-fiction, I'm interested in books that focus on pop culture, geekery, and/or teach readers about the odd and the unique. If you've ever picked up a book by Mary Roach, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Non-fiction that explains big ideas and large concepts in ways that are accessible, fun, and humorous.
I'm also interested in essay collections, particularly humor though I'm open to anything that's really compelling. Think Davy Rothbart, David Sedaris, or Anna Goldfarb. Give me your awkward confessions. Make me laugh.
Blog to Book Ideas: I would love to work with bloggers kicking around ideas for developing their blog into a book. Think your massively popular Tumblr deserves a fun hardcover gift book? Let's discuss.
Literary Fiction: Very open to and excited to read some adult literary fiction, especially anything contemporary with a rom-com twist (think Nick Hornby) or mystery / thrillers that touch on current affairs (think Jon McGoran).
I'm also very interested in literary fiction that does a bit of genre mashing. Think Station Eleven, The Last Policeman (one of my favorite books ever), or The Night Circus.
And there we have it. The adventure starts. Send me your books. Have a pitch? Email me. And I'll see you all at BEA. This time around though, it'll say "agent" on my tag.
Agent... Smith?
Oh dear.
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Sense-Making in Complex Times: Writing in Service to the Collective
October 1–29, 2024
Join us for our third annual Fall Online Writing Program. Immerse yourself in a community of creative beings led by world renowned authors, healers, story tellers, poets and folks who make meaning using the power of words.
In this month-long writing program, we will come together to answer the following questions:
How can we use writing as a tool to help us slow down and listen for the truth of our own experience?
How can we turn to our writing practice to support us to find connection and cultivate clarity within ourselves?
How can our words help us make meaning and add value in these complex times?
How do we become visible in the world with our words?
What does it look like to write in service to the collective?
Whether you are seeking to connect more with your truth, creativity, hone the practice and habit of writing, deepen your healing journey or publish a book, we invite you to join us for an incredible writing journey with an amazing panel of professional writers from a multitude of backgrounds and disciplines.
With over 24 hours of curated content with facilitators such as Julia Cameron, Waylon Lewis, Brynn Saito, Eric Maisel, Victoria Erikson and more plus two Writer’s Coffee House sessions and a Share Out Writing Slam at the end, this full immersion can be done live.
NOTE Note Kripalu is delivering this livestream experience through a third party platform. When you purchase this program, you will be sent to union.fit and asked to create an account to complete your purchase and receive further details on accessing the program. All sales are final. All recordings will be available within 72 hours of the end of each session. You will have access to the video recording for 30 days after the program ends.
Explore the Sessions
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en
|
https://juliacameronlive.com/the-artists-way/
|
The Artist's Way online course is divided into twelve weeks of videos and prompts to complement the structure of the book. Choose a week below to watch Julia discuss the tools for unblocking your creativity.
Purchase This Course
Week One: Recovering a Sense of Safety
Key concepts: Shadow Artists, Core Negative Beliefs, Affirmations
Week Two: Recovering a Sense of Identity
Key concepts: Poisonous Playmates, Crazymakers, Nigel the Inner Critic and the Act of Attention
Week Three: Recovering a Sense of Power
Key concepts: Syncronicity, Shame and Criticism
Week Four: Recovering a Sense of Integrity
Key concepts: Writing Prayers and Media Deprivation
Week Five: Recovering a Sense of Possibility
Key concepts: Limits, Wishing and The Virtue Trap
Week Six: Recovering a Sense of Abundance
Key concepts: Money, Luxury, Counting and God's Will
Week Seven: Recovering a Sense of Connection
Key concepts: Perfectionism and Thinking ideas up vs. Getting ideas down
Week Eight: Recovering a Sense of Strength
Key concepts: Age, Time, Creative Loss and the Ivory Power
Week Nine: Recovering a Sense of Compassion
Key concepts: Enthusiasm, Creative U-turns and Blasting Through Blocks
Week Ten: Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection
Key concepts: Competition, Work, and Finding Balance
Week Eleven: Recovering a Sense of Autonomy
Key concepts: Movement and Defining Success
|
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dbpedia
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| 28
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https://guides.loc.gov/united-states-state-poets-laureate/new-mexico-south-carolina
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en
|
U.S. State Poets Laureate: A Resource Guide
|
https://guides.loc.gov/ld.php?screenshot=bcbfbch.png&size=facebook&cb=1724607100
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https://guides.loc.gov/ld.php?screenshot=bcbfbch.png&size=facebook&cb=1724607100
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[
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[
"Peter Armenti"
] | null |
A comprehensive guide to all current and past state poets laureate of the United States. Includes a history of the laureateship in each state as well the District of Columbia.
|
en
|
https://www.loc.gov/favicon.ico
|
https://guides.loc.gov/united-states-state-poets-laureate/new-mexico-south-carolina
|
Current New Mexico Laureate: Levi Romero
Start of Term: January 30, 2020
Position History: In 2014, New Mexico companion House and Senate memorials (HM 35 and SM 40) requested that the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs develop a "New Mexico poet laureate" position and program to foster a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry and to highlight the importance of poetry in the everyday life of ordinary and extraordinary people to the creation of the New Mexico Poet Laureate position." Lack of funding External preventing this recommendation from being implemented, however.
Ultimately, SB 536 of the 2019 Regular Session of the New Mexico Legislature (signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on April 5, 2019) allocated $107,000 to the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs for the creation of a state poet laureate program. On January 30, 2020, Albuquerque poet Levi Romero was appointed New Mexico's inaugural Poet Laureate. New Mexico became the 46th state to offer an official state poet or state writer position.
According to the New Mexico State Library Poetry Center External:
The three-year position of Poet Laureate includes an annual stipend of $25,000, travel and printing expenses, and part-time staff support. The position will support literacy and enhance education while promoting arts enrichment across the state. Through speaking engagements statewide and programs at schools and libraries, the poet will engage all New Mexicans with poetry. They will also document their travels via web journal and podcast.
Current New York Laureate: Willie Perdomo (official title: State Poet)
Start of Term: January 30, 2020
Position History: Position created by special mandate August 1, 1985, of the New York State Legislature (Statutes, Sec. 8.11). The text of the law follows:
§ 8.11. New York state Walt Whitman citation of merit for poets. 1. The governor shall biennially present the New York state Walt Whitman citation of merit to a distinguished New York poet upon the recommendation of the panel constituted in this section. The poet selected shall be considered the state poet and the citation shall carry an honorarium of ten thousand dollars.
2. The institute shall biennially appoint and convene an advisory panel of distinguished poets and persons with particular expertise in the field of poetry. The director of the institute shall be a permanent member of the advisory panel and each current state poet shall serve as a member of the panel in choosing the next New York state Walt Whitman poet. The panel shall recommend to the governor a poet whose achievements make him or her deserving of such recognition.
3. The state poet shall promote and encourage poetry within the state and shall give two public readings within the state each year.
4. The institute shall establish such procedures and guidelines as are necessary to effect the provisions of this section.
The laureate is awarded with the New York state Walt Whitman citation of merit for poets. Term length is two years.
On January 8, 2016, Governor Cuomo appointed Joseph Tusiani External Poet Emeritus of the State of New York in recognition of his contributions to international literature. This position is a one-time award and distinct from the positions of New York State Poet and New York State Author.
Previous Laureates:
Stanley Kunitz (1987-1989)
Robert Creeley (1989-1991)
Audre Lorde (1991-1993)
Richard Howard (1993-1995)
Jane Cooper (1995-1997)
Sharon Olds (1998-2000)
John Ashbery (2001-2003)
Billy Collins (2004-2006)
Jean Valentine (2008-2010)
Marie Howe (2012-2014)
Yusef Komunyakaa (2015-2017)
Alicia Ostriker (2018-2021)
Further Resources
Current North Carolina Laureate: Jaki Shelton Green
Start of Term: July 1, 2018
Position History: Position established 1935 (General Assembly Resolution No. 60). First laureate was Arthur Talmadge Abernethy. The laureate is appointed by the governor, typically with the advice of a committee assembled by the North Carolina Arts Council. The term of office, formerly lifetime, and then five years, is now two years.
On July 11, 2014, Valerie Macon, was appointed to the position by Gov. Pat. McCrory without input from the North Carolina Arts Council. Almost immediately after the appointment Gov. McCrory's was criticized for his selection process, and Macon's qualifications for the position questioned External. Macon resigned from the position External on July 17, 2014, after less than one week in office. The position remained open until December 22, when Gov. McCrorary appointed Shelby Stephenson the new state poet. Stephenson was inducted as laureate on February 2, 2015.
The current poet laureate, Jaki Shelton Green, was appointed to a second two-year term by Gov. Roy Cooper in May 2021.
Previous Laureates:
Arthur Abernethy (1948-1953)
James Larkin Pearson (1953-1981)
Sam Ragan (1982-April 1996)
Fred Chappell (December 10, 1997-December 2002)
Kathryn Stripling Byer (February 24, 2005-February 2009)
Cathy Smith Bowers (February 10, 2010-June 30, 2012)
Joseph Bathanti (September 20, 2012-July 10, 2014)
Valerie Macon (July 11, 2014-July 17, 2014)
Shelby Stephenson (February 2, 2015-July 30, 2018)
Jaki Shelton Green (July 1, 2018-
Further Resources
Current North Dakota Laureate: Larry Woiwode
Start of Term: 1995
Position History: Position established February 8, 1957 (Senate Concurrent Resolution E, 1957 S.L., p. 843). It is a lifetime position; however, the Academy of American Poets notes External that on June 25, 2004, "Woiwode named seven associates to help bring 'an enlightened literary consciousness' to people around the state: Dave Solheim, Shadd Piehl, Madelyn Camrud, Rick Watson, Heid Erdrich, Louise Erdrich, and Jamie Parsley."
On June 20, 2019, current poet laureate Larry Woiwode named Bonnie Larson Staiger External an Associate Poet Laureate "to help bring an increased awareness of poetry to people around the state." The official installation ceremony occurred July 10, 2019. During the three weeks between Woiwode's announcement and the installation ceremony, and unbeknownst to Woiwode at the time, the Budget Section of North Dakota's Legislative Branch considered a grant transfer proposal from the state Council on the Arts that would have eliminated the entire poet laureate program. The Budget Section rejected the request External in a 34-1 vote.
In 2000, David Solheim was named North Dakota Centennial Poet by the North Dakota Centennial Commission.
Previous Laureates:
Corbin A. Waldron (1957-April 1978)
Henry R. Martinson (1979-November 1981)
Lydia O. Jackson (1979-April 1984)
Current Ohio Laureate: Kari Gunter-Seymour
Start of Term: June 10, 2020
Position History: Amended Substitute Senate Bill Number 84, which created the position of Ohio Poet Laureate, was signed into into law by Gov. John Kasich on December 19, 2014. According to the law:
The Ohio poet laureate shall be appointed by the governor from a list of not less than three candidates recommended by the Ohio arts council based on qualifications developed by the arts council under division (F) of section 3379.03 of the Revised Code. The arts council shall submit its list of candidates to the governor not less than ninety days prior to the beginning of the Ohio poet laureate's term of office.
The term of office is two years, with the possibility of reappointment by the governor.
Amit Majmudar, Ohio's first laureate, was appointed to the position External on December 17, 2015.
Previous Laureates:
Amit Majmudar (January 1, 2016-December 31, 2017)
Dave Lucas (January 5, 2018-June 9, 2020)
Further Resources
Current Oklahoma Laureate: Joe Russell Kreger
Start of Term: April 22, 2021
Position History: Position established June 21, 1923 (Statutes, 1995 Supplement, Sec. 98.4). Full text of law follows:
§25-98.4. State Poet Laureate.
There is hereby designated the honorary position of State Poet Laureate. The State Poet Laureate shall be appointed by the Governor from lists provided by poetry societies and organizations and such person shall have this honorary position for a period of two (2) years. Each appointment shall be made by January 1 of every odd year beginning January 1, 1995. The person appointed to the honorary position of State Poet Laureate shall not be considered a state official or a state employee for such person's service in the honorary position of State Poet Laureate. The State Poet Laureate shall not be prohibited because of said appointed position from:
1. Running for and being elected to any office in the state or a political subdivision of the state; or
2. Being employed as a classified or unclassified employee of the state or a political subdivision of the state.
Added by Laws 1994, c. 53, § 1.
The Oklahoma Arts Council website provides the following information about the position:
The Oklahoma Arts Council works on behalf of the Office of the Governor to solicit nominations for the honorary position of Oklahoma State Poet Laureate. The position was codified in 1994 through State Statute 98.4. According to the legislation, the appointment by the Governor shall be made by January 1 of every odd year thus the Oklahoma State Poet Laureate serves for a period of two years.
During even numbered years, the Oklahoma Arts Council puts out a call for nominations from cultural organizations, such as poetry societies, writers’ groups, colleges and universities, local arts and humanities councils, and libraries. A review committee that may consist of poets, university professors, former poets laureate, and others with expertise in poetry reviews submissions and makes a recommendation to the Governor. The final determination and appointment of the Oklahoma State Poet Laureate is made by the Governor. Poets laureate appointments holdover until a succeeding Oklahoma State Poet Laureate is named.
Previous Laureates:
Violet McDougal (1923-1930)
Paul Kroeger (1931-1940)
Jennie Harris Oliver (1940-1943)
Della I. Young (1943-1944)
Anne Ruth Semple (1944-1945)
Bess Truitt (1945-1946) (No other poets laureate were named until 1963, so Truitt is generally considered the state's poet laureate until then.)
Delbert Davis (1963-1966)
Rudolph N. Hill (1966-1970)
Leslie A. McRill (1970-1977)
Maggie Culver Fry (1977-1995)
Carol Hamilton (1995-1997)
Betty Shipley (1997-1998)
Joe Kreger (1998-2001)
Carl Sennhenn (2001-2003)
Francine Ringold (2003-2007)
N. Scott Momaday (July 12, 2007-Jan. 1, 2009) (Official title: Oklahoma Centennial State Poet Laureate)
Jim Barnes (January 15, 2009- December 31, 2010)
Eddie Wilcoxen (January 2011-December 31, 2012)
Nathan Brown (January 2013-December 31, 2014)
Benjamin Myers (February 11, 2015-December 31, 2016)
Jeanetta Calhoun Mish (March 23, 2017-April 2021)
Further Resources
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https://guides.ucf.edu/readingsonrace/multiracial
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en
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Readings on Race
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UCF Research Guides: Readings on Race: Multiracial Identities
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https://guides.ucf.edu/readingsonrace/multiracial
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For information on how to access UCF Libraries ebooks, please visit our guide: https://guides.ucf.edu/ebooks
Links will take you to UCF library catalog, where you may be asked to log in to access the item.
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695
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dbpedia
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2
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https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-drawn-new-mexico
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en
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Why Georgia O’Keeffe, Judy Chicago, and Bruce Nauman Were Drawn to New Mexico
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2019-05-17T21:57:17+00:00
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Artists from Georgia O’Keeffe and Agnes Martin to Ken Price and Bruce Nauman have been lured to the solitude and sweeping landscapes of New Mexico.
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https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-drawn-new-mexico
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Georgia O’Keeffe had an unexpected train detour to thank for her first encounter with New Mexico. Little did she know, it was the land that would free her—both artistically and emotionally.
Several months after photographer-gallerist Alfred Stieglitz presented O’Keeffe’s first New York solo show, in April 1917, the 29-year-old painter embarked on a trip across the American West with her youngest sister, Claudia. While they’d planned to head straight from Texas to Colorado, their train detoured to Santa Fe. New Mexico’s vast, mercurial skies and incandescent light mesmerized the artist. “I’m out here in New Mexico—going somewhere—I’m not positive where—but it’s great,” she gushed in a letter to Stieglitz, dated August 15th. “Not like anything I ever saw before.”
“There is so much more space between the ground and sky out here it is tremendous,” she continued. “I want to stay.” By 1949, O’Keeffe had made the New Mexican high desert her permanent home, indelibly tattooing its landscape to her work, identity, and legacy.
Portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe in Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1974. Photo by Joe Munroe/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
Portrait of Bruce Nauman in New Mexico by Francois Le Diascorn/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.
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O’Keeffe is just one of countless modern and contemporary artists who’ve been drawn out of big-city art centers by New Mexico’s magnetic pull. They’ve been lured there by expansive vistas, quietude, and respite from social and market pressures. Other prominent New Mexico residents have included Marsden Hartley, Agnes Martin, Dennis Hopper, Ken Price, Larry Bell, Nancy Holt, Bruce Nauman, Richard Tuttle, Harmony Hammond, and Judy Chicago, among many others. Arts patrons, scholars, and writers—like Mabel Dodge Luhan, Willa Cather, D.H. Lawrence, and Lucy Lippard—have landed and stuck there, too. Long before them though, Native American artists started making art inspired by the transcendent, boundless landscape.
“New Mexico is a place where you—as a creative person, as an artist—can really work,” explained Lisa Le Feuvre, the director of the Holt/Smithson Foundation, from her office in Santa Fe. “A lot of the buzz in your peripheral vision that you get in bigger cities disappears, so it makes your thoughts and ideas much more intentional.”
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About a year ago, Le Feuvre relocated from London to Santa Fe to run the Holt/Smithson Foundation, an organization set up to preserve the legacy of Holt and her husband Robert Smithson, both land artists. The couple, who married in 1963, lived itinerantly for most of their lives together, until Smithson died tragically in a 1973 plane crash. Holt moved to New Mexico in 1995 and stayed there until her death in 2014.
“From what I’ve learned, she felt it was a good place to live and to think,” Le Feuvre explained of Holt’s attraction to Galisteo, a small town with a population of around 250, which rises from a vast expanse of desert around 20 miles south of Santa Fe. “For Nancy Holt—like for Harmony Hammond, Bruce Nauman, and most artists [who relocate here]—New Mexico is a choice of somewhere to live and to work, rather than being a necessary place to live and to work.”
The early years: the Taos Society of Artists and Mabel Dodge’s grand entrance
The history of artists choosing New Mexico over big cities and coastal states is long and rich. As early as 1898, Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Geer Phillips, two painters traveling from Denver, made the unexpected decision to live in Taos—one of several New Mexican towns (including Santa Fe, Galisteo, and Belen) that have since become artist havens.
Blumenschein and Phillips had a different destination in mind—Mexico—when they left Colorado on a sketching expedition. But when their wagon broke down 20 miles north of Taos, they fell for the desert town, and soon encouraged other artists to follow them.
By 1915, three years after New Mexico officially became a state, they’d established the Taos Society of Artists with fellow male painters Joseph Henry Sharp, E. Irving Couse, Oscar Berninghaus, and William Herbert Dunton. They made paintings in response to their new surroundings: sweeping landscapes and vigorous, expressive portraits of cowboys and Native Americans. The latter representations tend to read as uncomfortable exoticizations today, especially considering white settlers’ encroachment on Native American land and the bloody altercations that ensued at the time.
Portrait of Mabel Dodge Luhan (undated). Courtesy of Bettmann/Contributor via Getty.
Two years later, in December 1917, art patron Mabel Dodge landed in Taos. At the time, the town had a population of 2,000, compared to the 4 million–plus people living in New York City, where Dodge had been a prominent modern-art collector and salon host. In her 1987 memoir Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape to Reality, she described New Mexico’s allure like a panacea: “From the very first day, I found out that the sunshine in New Mexico could do almost anything with one: make one well if one felt ill, or change a dark mood and lighten it,” Dodge wrote. “It entered into one’s deepest places and melted the thick, slow densities. It made one feel good. That is, alive.”
By 1918, she’d fallen in love with Antonio “Tony” Luhan, a Native American of the Taos Pueblo. Not long after, the couple—who eventually married in 1923—purchased 12 acres of land and built a 17-room home. Named Los Gallos, the ranch became a retreat-cum-residency for countless artists, writers, and intellectuals of the day. Cather, Hartley, D.H. Lawrence, Andrew Dasburg, Ansel Adams, Martha Graham, and Carl Jung were all guests.
Ansel Adams, Church, Taos Pueblo National Historic Landmark, New Mexico, 1941. Courtesy of The National Archives.
As a patron and a cultural theorist, Dodge also supported the art of local Native American artists. Pueblo painters Ma-Pe-Wi, Pop Challee (Luhan’s niece), and Awa Tsireh were among Dodge and Luhan’s circle. Dodge commissioned Tsireh to create a sprawling mural in the entryway of Los Gallos. In the early 1920s, she also helped found the Indian Arts Fund, with a mission to “[educate] the people of the United States as to the value of America’s only surviving indigenous art.” In her writings, too, she praised traditional Pueblo paintings, weavings, and vessels, having been drawn to the way artists channeled the transcendental power of the New Mexican landscape into geometric patterns.
But like most white artists and patrons who’d settled in New Mexico, Dodge’s response to Native American artists was often reductive. She grouped their work together, rather than recognizing individual practices; she praised their creative instincts over their honed formal skills. In 1919, Dodge organized a New York exhibition of Native American artworks, which she labeled as “primitive,” while simultaneously positioning them within the Western modernist tradition. As Chelsea Weathers pointed out in Artforum, the decision to do so “points to [Dodge]’s—as well as many modernist artists’ and audiences’—difficulty accepting the art of non-Anglo cultures on its own terms.”
Autonomy in the desert: Georgia O’Keeffe and Agnes Martin go west
Georgia O’Keeffe
My Front Yard, Summer, 1941
"Georgia O'Keeffe" at Tate Modern, London
It was also Dodge who encouraged O’Keeffe to make her second trip to New Mexico, in 1929. The two women had previously known each other in New York, where O’Keeffe had attended Dodge’s salons. “I like what Mabel has dug up out of the Earth here,” the painter wrote soon after arriving at Los Gallos, promptly making a connection between the environment and productivity. “It is just unbelievable—one perfect day after another—everyone going like mad after something.”
Even in her first months in Taos, O’Keeffe experienced newfound freedom, autonomy, and tranquility taking hold of her. “I chose coming away because here at least I feel good, and it makes me feel I am growing very tall and straight inside—and very still,” she wrote to Stieglitz, who was by then her husband, and rooted in New York.
Georgia O’Keeffe on the patio of her home in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Photo by Cecil Beaton/Condé Nast via Getty Images.
Almost instantaneously, Taos also influenced O’Keeffe’s work. “I made several little drawings,” she wrote again to Stieglitz in 1930. “It was wonderful sitting there alone watching the light and shadow over the desert and mountains.…It all interests me much more than people—they seem almost not to exist.” Later, O’Keeffe made homes on the remote lands of Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu—located east of Taos and Santa Fe. She’d speak of the desert with ownership, linking it directly to her paintings. “It’s my private mountain. It belongs to me,” she once said of the Cerro Pedernal mountain that rose up from the sandy expanse behind her home. “God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it.”
Abstract painter Agnes Martin stayed put in New Mexico for similar reasons, including to escape the pressures of New York. “At that time, I had quite a common complaint of artists—especially in America,” she told John Gruen in a 1976 profile in ARTnews. “It seemed to have been something that happens to all of us. From an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, we sort of cave in.” Martin had struggled with mental illness during her life, and settling in a place like rural New Mexico, where solitude was easier to find, calmed her and fueled her productivity.
Martin’s first introduction to the state came in 1946, after a period of itinerancy. The artist moved from Manhattan—where she’d been enrolled at Columbia Teachers College—to Delaware, Washington, and many places in between. Along the way, she made ends meet as a waitress, a dishwasher, and even a tennis coach.
When she set foot in New Mexico, though, Martin’s wandering stopped. She stayed put for more than 10 years, devoting her full attention to painting for the first time. There, she also made her first big stylistic leap: “decisively towards abstraction,” as Nancy Princenthal wrote in her 2015 biography of the artist.
Artists have equated the state’s wide-open spaces and remove with freedom—to experiment, to be themselves, and to veer boldly away from trends or norms.
Martin returned to New York in 1957 at the urging of art dealer Betty Parsons, who was looking out for the artist’s career. But Martin found herself back in New Mexico by 1968. “I drove around and drove around, and then I had a vision of an adobe brick,” she remembered somewhat mystically, in 1987. “So I thought that must be New Mexico so I went back.” She lived between the small towns of Cuba and Galisteo for the rest of her life. It was the longest she’d settled in any one place: 36 years.
Martin adored the pared-down New Mexican landscape, and she made her enthusiasm for the outdoors loudly known. In Princenthal’s biography, local photographer Mildred Tolbert remembered a hike with Martin up Wheeler Peak. As they descended past a stream, the painter yelled happily into the mountains: “I like your plumbing, Lord!”
Agnes Martin, Blessings, 2000. © 2018 Estate of Agnes Martin /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Agnes Martin
Untitled #1, 2003
"Agnes Martin" at Tate Modern, London (2015)
From the homes she built in Cuba and Galisteo, Martin could take in wide swathes of desert and sky. In New York, the urban grid had been her jumping-off point for hard-edged Minimalist abstractions. But the compositions she painted in New Mexico loosened, diffused, and became decidedly more atmospheric: filled with bands of hazy pink and soft, diaphanous yellows. Princenthal connects this shift to the desert landscape that surrounded Martin: “It could be said that the urban grid gave way, gradually but conclusively, to a rural vision of open expanses and to sunlit shades of desert, rock, and sky.” Importantly, she offered a caveat: “As always, [Martin] would resist such associations to the landscape.”
For Martin, New Mexico’s “Wild West” also offered a reprieve from overbearing social conventions. She lived in a community “where single women were not uncommon, where homosexuality was more acceptable than elsewhere, and where independent spirits were welcome,” Princenthal wrote. In this environment, the less-guarded Hartley was free to be openly gay, and Dodge and O’Keeffe had unabashed relationships with women.
Getting the hell out of L.A.: Dennis Hopper, Ken Price, and more escape to Taos
Many artists came to New Mexico to get away from the throngs of big-city artists, and the competition they came with. The tight-knit, liberal communities of Santa Fe, Taos, and Galisteo offered welcome support and creative exchange.
In 1970, the artist, actor, and filmmaker Dennis Hopper craved respite from Hollywood and looked to New Mexico—and to Dodge’s retreat-residency model. He didn’t want to completely relinquish his community, though. Rather, he hoped to transport it to a new context. That year, he bought Dodge’s compound from her granddaughter for $160,000. The goal was to resuscitate it as a “counterculture mecca,” according to Patricia Leigh Brown in her 1997 New York Times article “The Muse of Taos, Stirring Still.”
Douglas Kirkland
Dennis Hopper, New Mexico 1970, 1970
Mouche Gallery
Hopper called his new hippie hideaway “Mud Palace.” He promptly invited creative types from around Los Angeles to nest and let loose—often with the aid of psychedelics—in its sprawling honeycomb of adobe rooms. Jack Nicholson, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan made the trip to Taos. So did a number of L.A.’s burgeoning cohort of Cool School and Light and Space artists, who’d convened around the legendary Ferus Gallery.
Ken Price, one of the radical artists in this group, first descended upon New Mexico at Hopper’s suggestion. In the early 1970s, he rambled to Mud Palace with sculptor Robert Irwin and painter Ed Moses. He downplayed the experience in a 1980 interview, saying: “[We] pooped around, and we came back again.” But it wasn’t long before Price and his wife, Happy, bought a home in Taos. “We ended up just coming on up here—and staying.”
The year was 1971, and Price had begun feeling overwhelmed by the Los Angeles art scene. “I was just being bombarded with images all day long in L.A., and had no control over it,” he explained in the same interview. In Taos, he could clear his head and raise his family. “It provided a kind of solace—a safe place [to be with his family] and a nurturing place to create work,” said LACMA curator Stephanie Barron, who organized the 2012 retrospective of Price’s work and visited him several times in New Mexico before his 2012 death.
The time that Price lived full-time in Taos—from 1971 until the early 1990s, and from 2003 until his death—deeply affected his practice. “Coming to New Mexico influenced my work right away,” he recalled, in 2007, of his first stint in the state. The bulbous ceramic cups he’d been making prior became craggy and rough, as if hewn from desert rock or recently cooled lava.
Ken Price
Yellow, 2007
Xavier Hufkens
Price’s use of color shifted, too, reflecting the vibrant New Mexico sunsets. Blazing pinks and fierce, sulfuric yellows began flooding his watercolors. “The sunsets aren’t pretty and sweet,” he said of the skies that shifted outside of his Taos home, “they are spectacular and amazing.” Barron linked the state’s landscape even more directly to Price’s work: “The richness of his palette was absolutely in sync with his environment. I don’t think those could have been done in an urban, New York studio.”
Like so many artists drawn to New Mexico, Price also relished the quiet. “I think [New Mexico] provides the same benefit for most of its artists: It leaves us alone and doesn’t prevent us from doing our work. It leaves us to control our activities and succeed or fail on our own,” he said in 2007.
“A lot of the buzz in your peripheral vision that you get in bigger cities disappears, so it makes your thoughts and ideas much more intentional.”
Still, Price wasn’t lacking a supportive community. Light and Space artist Larry Bell—Price’s dear friend and onetime studio mate in Los Angeles—relocated to New Mexico, too. “I just loved the place, and I fell in love with the people. And it was quiet. You could really control your distractions,” Bell told Galerie in 2018.
Bruce Nauman landed in New Mexico in 1979, drawn to that mix of Wild West remoteness—land stretching for miles, keeping neighbors at healthy distance—and relative proximity to like-minded artists. Nauman didn’t live far from Agnes Martin; their friendship developed over trips to the local racetrack to bet on horses. “She knew how to pick ’em,” Nauman told the New York Times last year.
Barron summed up this balance, where privacy and social interaction coexist: “[New Mexico] allowed [these artists] to be an individual, as well as part of a loosely knit community.”
Space for women: Harmony Hammond, Nancy Holt, and Judy Chicago
Harmony Hammond, a leader of the feminist art movement, “didn’t come [to New Mexico] for a community of artists at all,” as she insisted in a 2008 conversation with Julia Bryan-Wilson. But that didn’t stop several of her friends from joining her in Galisteo. Lippard—a feminist theorist and curator—and Holt—a land artist—both followed Hammond’s lead and settled in the small town. “I started staying with Harmony when I was out here,” Lippard told the Santa Fe New Mexican last year, “and suddenly the land across the creek was open, and I never looked at anything else.”
Portrait of Harmony Hammond by Clayton Porter.
For her part, Hammond connected her move to Galisteo to a longer lineage of female artists, like Martin and O’Keeffe, who settled in New Mexico before them. “There’s something about this big space that gives everybody room to be who they think they are. Historically that’s been true for women,” she told Bryan-Wilson. “If they didn’t fit into the social structures on the East Coast, and they didn’t have money to go to Europe, they went west. They could smoke cigarettes. They could wear pants. They could swear. They could do whatever. Many were bisexual or lesbian. The west—it’s outlaw territory. I’m just assuming that’s one reason I feel quite comfortable.” (Five decades of Hammond’s work is currently on view at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum through September 15th.)
Judy Chicago, another pioneering feminist artist, also described her attraction to New Mexico in terms of space—both physical and psychological. “The light, the quiet and the psychic space to pursue my own vision far from the pressures of the market-driven art world,” Chicago explained, drew her to Belen, a small town with a population of around 7,000, located 30 miles south of Albuquerque.
Chicago has lived in New Mexico full-time since 1985. In 1993, she and her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, bought a 7,000-square-foot derelict railroad hotel in Belen, transforming it into their home and studio space. More recently, it’s also become home to Chicago’s nonprofit art space, Flower, whose mission is to “counter the erasure of women’s achievement through art,” the artist explained.
“New Mexico is a choice of somewhere to live and to work, rather than being a necessary place to live and to work.”
Hammond and Chicago join a long line of artists who equate the state’s wide-open spaces and the remove from the pressures of urban art centers with freedom—to experiment, to be themselves, and to veer boldly away from trends or norms.
It’s no surprise that many of them installed massive windows in their homes and studios, so they could perceive the landscape’s expansiveness—and the sense of freedom it offered—even indoors. Price’s and Nauman’s homes both contain windows with sprawling desert views. Holt’s did, too. “Through [her windows] you can literally perceive time,” Le Feuvre explained. “You can see the light changing, you can see the conditions of the earth changing. And when you watch the light, something amazing happens: you become aware of your own physical presence—not just on the Earth, but in the universe.”
Portrait of Nancy Holt at her property in Galisteo, New Mexico, 2008. Photo by Alena Williams © Holt-Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA/New York.
She continued: “And that’s something that is fundamental to Nancy Holt’s work: This sense of how we, as human beings, find our place in the universe.”
O’Keeffe also transformed a wall of her Abiquiu studio into a long picture window, creating a panorama of the Chama river valley and her beloved Pedernal mountain beyond. The landscape became the subject of over 20 of her paintings.
“I wish you could see what I see out the window,” O’Keeffe wrote to Arthur Dove in 1942. “The earth pink and yellow cliffs to the north…pink and purple hills in front and the scrubby fine dull green cedars—and a feeling of much space.” She continued, summarizing New Mexico’s impact with pure, unadulterated awe: “It is a very beautiful world.”
AG
Alexxa Gotthardt
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Want to stand out from the crowd this summer? This week's Chic of the Week Julia Cameron can transform your look with one of her unique jewellery accessories. Founder of Julia Cameron Ltd, a luxury British heritage brand, Julia fuses her rich artistic heritage and elements from her Great Great grandmother’s photographs whose powerful and provocative…
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The Chic Seeker
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https://thechicseeker.com/2014/04/11/julia-cameron/
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Want to stand out from the crowd this summer? This week’s Chic of the Week Julia Cameron can transform your look with one of her unique jewellery accessories. Founder of Julia Cameron Ltd, a luxury British heritage brand, Julia fuses her rich artistic heritage and elements from her Great Great grandmother’s photographs whose powerful and provocative expressions of women have been rebirthed and realised in Julia’s current collection.
Julia’s nature is represented by choosing our dusty pink DSQuared bag, distinctive soulful and powerfully feminine!
What do you do?
I’m a fashion designer and launched my brand of jewellery accessories under my own name last year. I produce shoots and do freelance styling as well as voiceover and compering work. www.julia-cameron.com
What are you most proud of?
Starting my brand independently from scratch and hopefully creating a distinctive and strong aesthetic in a relatively short space of time. Since then I have adorned several brides on their wedding day with my creations which I think is pretty special. Being chosen as one of Triumph lingerie’s makers collective campaign was definitely up there and I’m very proud of my artistic heritage which has really inspired me.
What can’t you live without?
Statement Jewellery, a good leather jacket and my new skullcap headphones, which are vital as I walk everywhere. A good pink lippy always does the trick and of course a headpiece or two to change up my outfit. Also can’t live without my mentors that have guided me in the last couple of years and friends who have supported me through all my crazy ideas.
What is your most memorable fashion purchase?
A rail of exquisite vintage clothes that I won in a bid at an auction house a few years ago. The clothes had belonged to a very famous aristocratic ballerina. It was a treasure trove full of incredible Escada, Missoni and Yves saint Laurent jackets. I don’t think I’ve been so excited since and I still wear all the pieces regularly.
What is your favourite shop of all time?
MG Seamans in Rugby where I’m from, it’s a very well curated vintage emporium. I have found many gems there over the years, its like going back in time, everything is beautifully laid out and I always look forward to going there when I pop back home full. It’s got a real old school glamour nostalgia about it.
What is your biggest fashion mistake?!
I think hankerchief tops with flared jeans in the 90s wasn’t such a good look for me, I’m pretty sure I was inspired by the irish pop band bewitched. Not so trendy.
Who would play you in the film of your life?
In my dreams Charlize Theron as she is cool elegant, strong and independent.
What’s your Chic Beauty/Fashion tip?
Don’t be afraid to experiment with a headpiece. It can really transform your outfit, making it super glam or with a more relaxed bohemian edge. You can style it up with jeans and a t-shirt to take an outfit from dusk til dawn. Beauty wise I always carry a good highlighter for some shimmer on the cheekbones for a dewy refreshed look especially after a long day.
Make a statement like Keira Knightly in one of Julia’s stunning headpieces
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Cameron
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Julia Cameron
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2004-03-18T22:42:56+00:00
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Cameron
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American author
For the British photographer, see Julia Margaret Cameron.
Julia B. Cameron (born March 4, 1948[1]) is an American teacher, author, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, composer, and journalist. She is best known for her book The Artist's Way (1992). She also has written many other non-fiction works, short stories, and essays, as well as novels, plays, musicals, and screenplays.
Biography
[edit]
Julia Cameron was born in Libertyville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and raised Catholic. She was the second oldest of seven children.[2] She started college at Georgetown University before transferring to Fordham University. She wrote for The Washington Post and then Rolling Stone.[3]
She met Martin Scorsese while on assignment for Oui Magazine.[2] They married in 1976 and divorced a year later in 1977. They have one daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, born in 1976. The marriage ended after Scorsese began seeing Liza Minnelli while the three of them were working on New York, New York.[2] Cameron and Scorsese collaborated on three films. Her memoir Floor Sample details her descent into alcoholism and drug addiction, which induced blackouts, paranoia and psychosis.[4] In 1978, reaching a point in her life when writing and drinking could no longer coexist,[5] Cameron stopped abusing drugs and alcohol, and began teaching creative unblocking, eventually publishing the book based on her work: The Artist's Way.[4] At first she sold Xeroxed copies of the book in a local bookstore before it was published by TarcherPerigee in 1992.[2] She contends that creativity is an authentic spiritual path.[3]
Cameron has taught filmmaking, creative unblocking, and writing. She has taught at The Smithsonian, Esalen, the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, and the New York Open Center.[3] At Northwestern University, she was writer in residence for film.[3] In 2008 she taught a class at the New York Open Center, The Right to Write, named and modeled after one of her bestselling books, which reveals the importance of writing.[6]
Cameron has lived in Los Angeles,[7] Chicago,[7] New York City,[7] and Washington, D.C.[1] She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[2]
Works
[edit]
Nonfiction
[edit]
Living the Artist's Way: An Intuitive Path to Greater Creativity (St. Martin's Press, 2024; ISBN 978-1-250-89758-9)
Write for Life: A Toolkit for Writers (Profile Books, 2023)
Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection (A Six-Week Artist's Way Program) (St. Martin's Press, 2021)
The Listening Path: The Creative Art of Attention (St. Martin's Press, 2021)
It's Never Too Late to Begin Again: Discovering Creativity and Meaning at Midlife and Beyond (Tarcher, 2016)
The Artist's Way for Parents: Raising Creative Children (Tarcher/Hay House, 2013)
The Prosperous Heart: Creating a Life of "Enough" (Tarcher/Hay House, 2011; ISBN 978-1-58542-897-7)
Faith and Will: Weathering the Storms in Our Spiritual Lives (Tarcher, 2010; ISBN 1585428019)
The Creative Life: True Tales of Inspiration (Tarcher, 2010)
The Artist's Way Every Day: A Year of Creative Living (Tarcher, 2009)
Prayers to the Great Creator: Prayers and Declarations for a Meaningful Life (Tarcher, 2008)
The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size (Tarcher, 2007; ISBN 1-58542-571-0)
Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance (Tarcher, 2006; ISBN 1585424633)
Floor Sample (Tarcher, 2006; ISBN 1-58542-494-3), a memoir
How to Avoid Making Art (2006; ISBN 1-58542-438-2), illustrated by Elizabeth Cameron
Letters to a Young Artist (Tarcher, 2005)
The Sound of Paper (Tarcher, 2004; Hardcover ISBN 1-58542-288-6)
Supplies: A Troubleshooting Guide for Creative Difficulties (Tarcher, 2003; Revised & Updated edition ISBN 1-58542-212-6)
Walking in this World (Tarcher, 2003; Reprint edition ISBN 1-58542-261-4)
The Artist's Way, 10th Annv edition (Tarcher, 2002; ISBN 1-58542-146-4)
Inspirations: Meditations from The Artist's Way (Tarcher, 2001; ISBN 1-58542-102-2)
God is Dog Spelled Backwards (Tarcher, 2000; ISBN 1-58542-062-X)
God is No Laughing Matter (Tarcher, 2000; ISBN 1-58542-065-4)
Supplies: A Pilot's Manual for Creative Flight (2000)
The Artist's Date Book (Tarcher, 1999; ISBN 0-87477-653-8), illustrated by Elizabeth Cameron Evans
Money Drunk Money Sober (Ballantine Wellspring, 1999; ISBN 0-345-43265-7)
The Writing Life (Sounds True, 1999; ISBN 1-56455-725-1)
Transitions (Tarcher, 1999; ISBN 0-87477-995-2)
The Artist's Way at Work (Pan, 1998; ISBN 0-330-37319-6)
Blessings (Tarcher, 1998; ISBN 0-87477-906-5)
The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life (Tarcher, 1998; ISBN 1-58542-009-3)
Heart Steps (Tarcher, 1997; ISBN 0-87477-899-9)
The Vein of Gold (1997; ISBN 0-87477-836-0)
The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal (Tarcher, 1995; ISBN 0-87477-886-7)
The Money Drunk (1993)
The Artist's Way (1992)
Fiction
[edit]
Popcorn: Hollywood Stories (Really Great Books, 2000; ISBN 1-893329-12-7)
The Dark Room (Carroll & Graf Pub,1998; ISBN 0-7867-0564-7)
Musicals
[edit]
Avalon
Magellan
The Medium at Large
Plays
[edit]
Four Roses
Public Lives
The Animal in the Trees
Poetry collections
[edit]
This Earth (Sounds True, 1997; ISBN 1-56455-549-6)
Prayers for the little ones (Renaissance Books, 1999; ISBN 1-58063-048-0)
Prayers to the nature spirits (Renaissance Books, 1999; ISBN 1-58063-047-2)
The Quiet Animal
Film/TV
[edit]
Miami Vice TV (1 episode)
God's Will (independent movie)
References
[edit]
Biography portal
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https://www.kbtx.com/2024/08/07/burleson-county-democrats-host-dinner-social-discussing-state-democracy-90-days-election/
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en
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Burleson County Democrats host dinner social discussing state of democracy 90 days from election
|
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"Julia Lewis"
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2024-08-07T00:00:00
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Caldwell Democratic candidates host candidate social dinner
|
en
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//webpubcontent.gray.tv/gray/arc-fusion-assets/images/favicons/kbtx/favicon.ico?d=430
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https://www.kbtx.com
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https://www.kbtx.com/2024/08/07/burleson-county-democrats-host-dinner-social-discussing-state-democracy-90-days-election/
|
CALDWELL, Texas (KBTX) - With the 2024 Presidential Election just 90 days away, Burleson County Democrats hosted a dinner and candidate social to discuss the state of the party on the heels of Tuesday morning’s news.
Within the social at the Caldwell Civic Center Tuesday evening, several local democratic candidates spoke on the race. This dinner came just hours after US Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic nominee in the presidential election announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Theresa Boisseau, running for US House of Representatives in District 10, told KBTX her party remains hopeful. She said she hopes for a “safe and secure election,” with a “ticket that is going to defend democracy.”
Meanwhile, Linda Adair, the Burleson County Democratic Party Chair, spoke to the character of Walz, the US VP Democratic nominee.
“He’s intelligent. He has a lot of work experience, a background that is really helpful to relate to people, and that’s really important that we relate to people,” said Adair.
Last week, supporters of former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump gathered at the Burleson County Expo Center for a “Make America Great Again” rally. The man of honor was not in attendance, but the spirit was certainly palpable.
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dbpedia
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2
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https://www.britannica.com/place/New-Mexico/The-arts
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en
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New Mexico - Art, Culture, History
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1999-07-26T00:00:00+00:00
|
New Mexico - Art, Culture, History: Many writers and artists have been influenced by New Mexico’s history and culture. Among those who have drawn on the state’s rich cultural heritage in their work are natives Rudolfo A. Anaya, Simon Ortiz, and Leslie Marmon Silko. Other writers who have focused on New Mexico include Paul Horgan, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Erna Fergusson, Ross Calvin, Mary Austin, Edward Abbey, and N. Scott Momaday. English novelist D.H. Lawrence lived in Taos in the early 1920s, and his ashes are buried there. Painters have been especially intrigued with the unique landscape of New Mexico, which offers a variety of scenery found
|
en
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/favicon.png
|
Encyclopedia Britannica
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https://www.britannica.com/place/New-Mexico/The-arts
|
Many writers and artists have been influenced by New Mexico’s history and culture. Among those who have drawn on the state’s rich cultural heritage in their work are natives Rudolfo A. Anaya, Simon Ortiz, and Leslie Marmon Silko. Other writers who have focused on New Mexico include Paul Horgan, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Erna Fergusson, Ross Calvin, Mary Austin, Edward Abbey, and N. Scott Momaday. English novelist D.H. Lawrence lived in Taos in the early 1920s, and his ashes are buried there.
Population:
(2020) 2,117,522; (2023 est.) 2,114,371
Governor:
Michelle Lujan Grisham (Democrat)
Date Of Admission:
Jan. 6, 1912
Painters have been especially intrigued with the unique landscape of New Mexico, which offers a variety of scenery found in few other areas of the United States. New Mexico’s cities have attracted artists from many parts of the country and the world. Taos was the first to have an important art community, which included painter Georgia O’Keeffe and her photographer husband, Alfred Stieglitz, but it is now rivaled by Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Spanish folk art has been preserved largely by the Penitentes, a religious group within the Roman Catholic Church. In rural areas medieval Spanish music, art, folklore, and social customs also have been preserved.
Local Indians also produce a great deal of artwork, notably beautiful high-quality pottery. Each village has its own design to identify the work of its people. Maria Martinez, from San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico, along with her husband Julian, revitalized Pueblo pottery in the early 20th century with works of art that gained international attention. Navajo blankets are famous throughout the world. Many Indians make buttons, beads, pins, rings, necklaces, earrings, and belts, mainly for sale to the growing number of tourists. The United States Indian Arts and Crafts Board has attempted to preserve the authenticity of Indian jewelry by establishing standards in handworked silver. The Santa Fe Indian Market, held each August, is an important event for producers and collectors of Native American artwork; about 1,200 artists from some 100 tribes attend annually. Individual pueblos preserve traditional dances by performing at numerous fiestas, the most important being the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, which draws thousands of visitors to Gallup every summer.
New Mexico is also well known for its historical architecture. Indian pueblo buildings were modified by Spanish settlers when they built Santa Fe, and many of these original structures have been restored. The statehouse, most public buildings, and many private ones have been constructed in the modified Spanish mission style. New structures to be built in the historical districts of Santa Fe and in some other communities are subject to construction requirements and restrictions, and modifications to existing buildings are strictly regulated.
Cultural institutions
Of international renown is the Santa Fe Opera (1957), which performs in an outdoor theatre in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near the capital city. In most counties there are museums stressing history, Native American arts, or subjects of local interest. The Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, part of the Museum of New Mexico, helps preserve archaeological artifacts, mementos, and folk arts. The state archives also contain important relics. Also in Albuquerque is the University of New Mexico’s Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, which houses artifacts from all over the world. The Wheelwright Museum of Navajo Art, the Museum of International Folk Art, and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum are in Santa Fe. The Kit Carson Home and Museum in Taos is a history and art museum featuring Indian and Spanish art and 19th-century Western furniture. The International UFO Museum and Research Center is in Roswell, the supposed site of an extraterrestrial-spacecraft crash in 1947, and its library contains thousands of books on subjects relating to unidentified flying objects.
Sports and recreation
At the centre of spectator sports in New Mexico is the rivalry between the University of New Mexico of the Mountain West Conference and New Mexico State of the Western Athletic Conference. Although State traditionally has fared less well in football than New Mexico, both schools have strong men’s basketball programs, and New Mexico’s University Arena, better known as “the Pit,” has one of the college game’s most exciting atmospheres; indeed, in 1999 Sports Illustrated named it one of the top 20 U.S. sport venues of the 20th century. Minor league baseball has a long if intermittent history in Albuquerque, dating from 1915 and most memorably including the Dukes’ stint as the top farm club of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1972 to 2000.
New Mexico’s topography is conducive to many recreational opportunities, of which skiing, snowboarding, biking, hiking, and horseback riding are favourites. White-water rafting is popular on the Rio Grande, and during the winter the state’s ski runs attract enthusiasts from far and wide. Hunting is common in the fall, when there is a greater variety of game birds and animals.
Gregory Lewis McNamee
|