Latest iteration of my Pam Grout-inspired tarot card, Kali the librarian of destruction! An improvement on the first efforts, I feel. I’ll be documenting every stage of the game here, because this version was fun to do, I’m quite happy with it so far and I’ll probably be cocking it up completely at some point! So she’s currently unfinished – but don’t worry! She’s completely ‘armless, Guv!
And she’s got a rack on her, cuz I’m rollin’ that way!
Week 9 (boy, these weeks are going by fast, ain’t they?) and Ms Grout is talking, in ‘Art And Soul, Reloaded’ about finding the time for your creative projects.
Phew. Easier said than done, half the time. Isn’t it?
Well, Ms. Grout’s first suggestion is not to just to stay up later writing, or to get up early. In fact, she says, have a lie-in! Daydream for half an hour!
Hey, I’m liking the sound of this!
Her second bit of advice: ditch the perfectionism, then that makes it easier to bang out a bit of your project without worrying about reaching some peak of creative perfection. Ehh, I don’t think this one is so applicable to me. In the midst of writing, I’m generally whistling, laughing my arse off, and holding a simultaneous conversation with the OH about whether Wyatt’s dead wife on Timeless is going to be re-animated via the wonders of time-travel, and spring out at him from a closet — giving him a heart attack in the process.
It freaks the OH the fuck out when I type and talk simultaneously. Which is of course most of the reason that I do it.
Bit of advice, no. 3 from Ms. Grout – give up on self-sabotage. Ehh, also not my problem. I write lovely stories for lovely people. Those other folks, ehh, not so much.
And finally – Pam says – in essence – do what you wanna do. (Yes! This is right in my wheelhouse!) Including your projects.
Yep. She’s a genius. This is the proof.
And the main task for the week? Give her 3 ideas for smartphone apps. Well, at least I don’t have to actually program them…
gif by Shane on Flickr, licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
Picking up speed on this project now! And the Zumba ideas for this week, from Ms Grout’s ‘Art And Soul, Reloaded‘, are:-
a) make a sock monkey or some such soft toy
ehhhh. Sewing etc. are not my strong point! Still, at least I don’t have to knit the sock… I doubt I can come up with anything as malevolently genius as this little dude by Gus and Ollie on Flickr, though. The mis-matched eyes make him look like Sir Patrick Moore on The Sky At Night.
b) buy a sub-£5 pressie, wrap it ‘creatively’, give it to somebody.
This one is probably easier. I’m always picking up things for presents in the future. (And forgetting about them, coming across them five years later. I may take inspiration from the kitty below, by Kitty Baby Love also on Flickr.
c) draw your Year 1 classroom.
How the heck do I remember that? Well, I remember the teacher reading Kipling’s ‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’. So maybe something based around that. (What the heck does a mongoose look like? Is the plural of mongoose mongeese?)
image – Gus and Ollie on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/gusandollie/, licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
image – Transport Pixels on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/levien66/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
image – Kitty Baby Love on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/kittybabylove/, licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
image – smalljude on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/judemasti/, licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Moving right along! A week a day, it’s like one of those stop-motion nature vids with a plant growing before your eyes!
Anyhow: this week’s chapter is called Summoning the Muses. It’s about showing up, being faithful to your creative practice, like Woody Allen advised. And the main task for the week, is to ‘invent a creativity ritual’, to get you in the right state of mind for your project, for creative endeavour.
Well. Thinking about it, I guess I already have one. Because every day, I get up, and I watch a little Frasier (because Frasier is of the immortals, never gets old, is never not funny.) Then I put the kettle on, I make a cuppa, I eat biscuits.
I watch an inspirational video: a Ted Talk, or Joel Osteen, or Steve Pavlina. (Love Steve Pavlina!)
And I write. It seems to work. I’m grateful to the writers and speakers who put me in the right frame of mind, who act as my trainers and call up the Muse for me, a long-distance connection.
So that’s my ritual. Tea, biscuits, and a little positive thinking. Pour a second cup, put a bourbon cream on the saucer, invite the Muse.
image – Betta Living https://www.flickr.com/photos/bettalivinguk/licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
Yeah, you read it right! What the hell – I’m only about 13 weeks behind with this project. Never mind bringing it up to speed: what about skipping forward twenty-six weeks or so?
Why not? Just because, hey, it’s a hella fun project and I can’t wait 26 weeks to get on it!
So, the main task for the chapter, lemme quote: ‘DESIGN A TAROT CARD’.
Yeah? Pretty cool? Here’s what I came up with, ta-da….. drum-roll…
The Bookstore Clerk! AKA Kali, (Hipster) Goddess of Destruction! (My own personal role model!)
(BTW it is Kali, right? Not Shiva? Hang on a mo… Yeah. Woah, yeah. That’s me. *nods* Mother Kali.)
Aw, gosh-darn. You don’t need to tell me my drawing chops need work. Dammit, I used to be able to get a likeness at least, I wasn’t awful. See, use it or lose it. Gotta practice. Think I will have another try drawing her digitally. Those are attempts at books and pens in her hands, although you might never know it!
Yep, she has three pairs of arms – or I tried to give her the appearance of them, at least. And I like the font: it’s got that old-skool hand-printed library-ticket vibe. She needs extra arms, for stamping all of those books with her old-skool library stamp. (Which I also tried to draw. THAT’S NOT A RAMPANT RABBIT! It’s a library stamp. Granted, possibly not one that would hold together structurally, but that’s the intent.)
Kali’s got a Scooby-Doo Velma vibe, right? More than I intended. She may evolve in further iterations. I think a monochrome card and a slinkier goddess of the bookstacks is possibly in order.
Practice, practice, practice. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
Oh, dammit! I am totally getting on this! I will be getting up to speed with it very shortly indeed, scout’s honour!
Ehhhh. Anyhow! Zumba for week 7 (and we’re only on, *gulp* week 20? eeeeeeek)…
i) ‘2 hrs in a hammock doing nothing’.
Does the sofa in front of Netflix count? I think it counts!
ii) ‘Record yrself acting out a scene from A Wonderful Life.’
Hey, I could do Clarence the angel! Yeah! I identify with Clarence… I don’t know why… Maybe it’s just that humans are so exasperating… Or maybe it’s the nœud papillon.
iii) ‘Find the best vantage point possible and watch the sunset.’
I can watch the sunset from my living-room window… Sorted!
image – https://www.flickr.com/photos/slgc/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
image – https://www.flickr.com/photos/tom-margie/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
image – Laura Cook on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/63036883@N07/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
Wow, and it’s week 7 already! ehhhh, no it’s not! But it was!
The title of the week 7 chapter is ‘Baby Steps’ – one of my favourite admonitions to myself, so it’s gonna please me. I guess maybe this week I should post another chapter of ‘The Entomologist and No-Spiders Man’ – that would be a baby step all right!
The main task for the week, though – as set by Ms Grout – is to write a six-word memoir. Unsurprisingly, she gives as an example the ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn‘ story. And attributes it to Hemingway – the pompous self-important old dud. Although as far as I was taught, it’s actually ‘Baby shoes, never used’ and was written by Scott Fitzgerald in response to a challenge from Gertrude Stein. Vastly superior! Papa H, you were an ass, and a sucky writer too.
Ehh, this one is not as easy as it might seem.
Tooled-up, smiling, pretend to agree. Hee-hee.
Maybe! Or something else, later. I THINK HYPHENATED WORDS COUNT. I TOTALLY THINK THEY DO! Hey, I’m the one who’s tooled up, who’s gonna argue with me?
image – Nick Harris on Flickr, licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
So, what week are we on again? *whistles* well, time flies! Moving on, in any case:
Zumba for this week! (Or eight weeks ago, whatevs…)
image – Lavendar’s Legacy https://www.flickr.com/photos/soloflight/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
Hey! I’ve only missed three days of my Ms Grout-related daily-posting project! *high 7 & 3/4s self*
here, have the cutest kitty alive.
image – stratman² https://www.flickr.com/photos/stratman2/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
Leave it, Red! Leave it! The bitch ain’t worf it!
image – nfosnbs bozda https://www.flickr.com/photos/129179280@N04/ licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
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