by Heather Plett | Nov 27, 2009 | Uncategorized
I’ve been thinking a lot about shadows lately. Last weekend when I was painting hands and faces, it occurred to me that most of my energy was spent trying to get the shadows right. Without the shadows on a painting or photograph, the hands and face have no shape.
It struck me that that’s a powerful metaphor for life. Sometimes we get lost in the shadows. It feels like the light has passed us by and may never shine on us again. Eventually, though, (and sometimes very slowly) we emerge from the shadows into the light, and the warmth and brightness is so much richer because of the time spent in the shade.
If there were only light in our lives, it would seem flat and uninteresting. But throw in some shadows and various intensities and shades of light, and suddenly you have shape and beauty. Though it was hard to believe at the time, I am a richer person for having been through the shadows of death, rape, more death, the near loss of my beloved, and many lesser shadows.
Making Art
Dipping my brush into the paint
I wrestle with the shadows
The face emerges
Only because light balances with dark
Dipping my memories into the past
I wrestle with the shadows
The beauty emerges
Only because hope balances with fear
by Heather Plett | Nov 26, 2009 | books, Creativity, parenting
“Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.” – Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
It’s a pretty good sign that you’ve got a great book in your hands when you can’t stand reading it without a pen close by. The War of Art is one of those books. It’s a quick read with lots of wisdom packed into its pages.
Steven Pressfield has been reaching out to bloggers, and I got a chance to lob a few questions
his way…
1. I’ve only read part of the book so far, but in the part I’ve read, you approach the idea of “life’s work” and “resistance” from the perspective of someone who knows his life’s work is to write. What about those people who have a lot of creative talents and they’re not sure what to focus on for their life’s work? What suggestions do you have for them?
Remember that old Lovin’ Spoonful song, Heather?
Did you ever have to make up your mind?
To say yes to one and leave the other behind?
It’s not often easy, not often kind.
Did you ever have to make up your mind?
It’s really hard when one is multi-talented and pulled in multiple directions. It was easier for me because I can’t do much of anything except write. What I would say is this:
If we find that we’re pulled in multiple creative directions–start a business, write a screenplay, move to India and work for the Mother Teresa Foundation–the key question to ask ourselves is, “Which one am I most afraid of?” Put another way: “Which one elicits the most powerful Resistance?”
I say in The War of Art that Resistance can help us in a weird way in that it can tell us what we have to do. If Resistance is our enemy (and it is) and if it wants us NOT to tackle Project X, then…
2. What advice do you have for parents trying to foster creativity in their children? Can we do things to help them grow into adults who give in to resistance less?
That’s a great question. I’m not a parent so I can only answer theoretically. One thing I heard once that made a lot of sense to me was on a disk called “An Interview with the Coach,” which was an interview of Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach by Joe Polish of the Genius Network Interview series. It’s worth tracking down, this disk, by logging onto “Strategic Coach” or “Genius Network.”
What Dan Sullivan was saying was that our schools don’t teach the entrepreneurial mind-set. And they should. Instead our schools regiment our children. They prepare them to be cogs in a machine, to work for organizations, etc. Nobody teaches us the skills of self-motivation, self-discipline, self-validation that are necessary to succeed as an artist or an entrepreneur or anybody who follows his or her own heart and who values the work for its own sake and for the joy it brings us, rather than just chasing a paycheck.
I think a parent should identify in her own mind the virtues that she’d like to teach her children and then teach them just like she would anything else–i.e., reward them when they appear spontaneously, reinforce them in all ways, talk equal-to-equal to the child about the reasons why these qualities are virtues and why they’ll pay off. And be alert to counter-conditioning, to nip it in the bud or to amplify it in the proper way. For instance, if your kid is on the football team and the coach is hammering him to work hard, be tough, fight till the bitter end (all good things, in my opinion), amplify this by highlighting for your child the difference between externally-enforced motivation (what the coach is doing) and internally-enforced motivation (what the child will need when he goes out on his own.)
What virtues and what skills am I talking about? They’re the virtues of self-reliance (see the famous essay by Emerson): patience, kindness to oneself, self-motivation, self-discipline, self-validation, generosity toward others, ability to endure hardship, delayed gratification, the talent of listening to one’s own heart and trusting one’s own intuition.
3. Do you think the proliferation of blogs and social media networks is fostering more creativity in our culture or less? (ie. Do you think this is offering more writers and artists the opportunity to try out their craft or is it just giving us more opportunity for resistance?)
Great question, Heather! To me, the qualities of mind that produce really good work (and also, in my opinion, produce happiness) are focus, concentration, the ability to go deep, and perseverance over time. Things like Facebook and Twitter promote the exact opposites–shallowness, distractability, short attention spans, etc.
That being said, the one person in ten thousand who starts a blog and really
goes deep with it may take the skills that she develops from this pursuit and use them at the next level–starting a business or non-profit, writing a novel, getting a Ph.D.
Note: I’ve got an extra copy of The War of Art, so if you’re interested in it, leave a comment by Monday, Nov. 30 and I’ll pick a winner.
by Heather Plett | Nov 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
Maddie has been quite taken with the Flat Stanley books of late. (For those unfamiliar with them, Flat Stanley is a young boy who gets flattened when a bulletin board falls on him. Being a flat boy has its advantages – he gets to travel the world in envelopes.) Maddie’s class is doing a Flat Student project in school, and Flat Madeline has already made her way to Kenya where she will spend a little time with my Aunt and Uncle, take a few pictures, meet some of the local schoolchildren, and then make her way back home.
Three dimensional Madeline made an extra Flat Madeline to keep at home and had taped her to her door where she was holding hands with the Flat Stanley cutout from the book we’d bought recently. (I think a romance was budding.) Two weeks ago, just as I was rushing out the door to fly to Alberta, I said “hey – maybe Flat Madeline would like to come with me!” 3D Madeline got very excited and tore her alter-ego off the door and tucked her in my computer case.
With the whirlwind of activities at the beginning of the trip, I didn’t remember to take Flat Madeline out until we’d reached Regina, halfway through the trip. There she finally got to eat soup with me and my companions after a long and arduous journey.
Dining with us was my friend and co-worker Paul, who was leaving directly from Regina to Rome to be part of the official Canadian delegation to the World Food Summit. Being a father himself whose own children had done Flat Stanley projects in the past, he said, “well, if Flat Madeline has her passport in order, she’s welcome to join me on my journey.”
Though I offered her the alternative of a day trip to the Rockies, Flat Madeline would have none of it. With barely a backwards glance in my direction, she jumped into his briefcase and was whisked away on an adventure across the ocean. When I told 3D Madeline about the change in travel plans, her eyes lit up with possibilities.
After Paul’s official duties were completed, he took his new flat friend on an adventure.
To Constantine’s Arch…
To the Colosseum…
And to Ostia Antica…
(I just love the fact that Paul, a policy wonk who was in Rome hanging around with big muckity-mucks in the upper echelons of power took the time to take pictures of a little child’s drawn paper cutout! It shows the whimsical father heart buried beneath his official position.)
Now that she’s had a taste of adventure, Flat Madeline won’t stop bugging me about where she can go next. If anyone would like to invite her to visit your part of the world, let me know in the comments (or by email) and 3D Madeline and I would be happy to serve as her travel agents.
by Heather Plett | Nov 23, 2009 | Creativity, painting
I like strong hands, especially on a woman. I’m not one for dainty, perfectly manicured hands. Give me strong work-worn hands with a firm grip over pale wimpy ones any day.
When I was traveling in India and Bangladesh last year, I often found myself captivated by women’s hands. As in most developing countries, the women tend to do the lion’s share of the work, especially on the farm. I’ve seen women maneuver plows, haul boats ashore, hand-wash their laundry on rocks by the river, cook meals over small household fire pits, carry water in large earthenware jugs, weave baskets, care for children, the sick, and the elderly, pound wheat into flour, carry home the firewood, dig up fresh potatoes, and build their homes out of twigs and mud. Such strong hands I have seen in so many places!
This weekend I tried to capture some of that strength in my painting. I haven’t done watercolour in a few months, so it was lovely to have some time on Friday to get lost in the paints again.
It turns out hands are really hard to paint. Almost as hard as faces. My first attempts kept looking more like claws than hands. In the end I was more satisfied with the hands in the bottom two frames than the face in the top. (The face gave me no end of trouble because I was trying to capture the shadows that were cast on that really sunny day when we met Mina Baidya, the woman with the water jug. It’s close, but not quite right.) I find it interesting that even though these photos were taken in 3 different regions (2 in India and one in Bangladesh), all of the women were wearing the same bracelets. And all three were wearing beautiful, brilliantly coloured saris even thought it was just an ordinary work day for them.
Note: it’s not the best photo of it, since I had to take it inside with the flash. Plus it wasn’t on a flat surface, so the top looks a little warped. If you’re interested in seeing the original photos, look here, here, and here.
by Heather Plett | Nov 20, 2009 | Uncategorized
1. Maddie just kicked my butt at the Winnie the Pooh stamp game. I’m licking my wounds and she’s dancing on my pain. Ah, the callousness of children.
2. I’m going downstairs to watch The Border with my husband. A little mindless TV now and then? A good thing.
3. I’m completely sick and tired of hearing about Sarah Palin. I wish the media would just shut up about her already. WHY are they giving her so much air time? (And PLEASE don’t tell me they’re going to give her a talk show.)
4. This morning I heard Linda Duxbury talk about the crazy burn-out there tends to be among middle managers and suddenly the last six months TOTALLY made sense.
5. Tomorrow is my “take a day off to recouperate from all the intense travel and writing board reports and hiring new staff time lately”. Yay.
6. I’m declaring tomorrow “play with paint” day. My only goals for the day involve making fun things and getting some rest.
7. Saturday is our second annual three-generational Christmas baking party. Anyone have any great suggestions for recipes for Christmas goodies?
8. Six months of stress? Yeah, well, it seems it equals about 15 pounds of extra weight to add to the whack I already had to lose. Blah. That’s all I have to say on THAT subject. (Except for this one thing – WHY do I have to gain most of my weight in my boobs?!?)
9. I bought some groovy new mitts. I don’t remember ever having mitts that I loved for their colourful funkiness before.
10. Adding a little colour to my winter wardrobe makes me want to go out and buy a fun and colourful parka. That may have to be my Christmas present to myself.
11. I’m going to see Twilight with my oldest 2 daughters tomorrow night. I’m a little embarassed to admit I’m looking forward to it. Yes, I read all of the books and enjoyed them more than I expected.
12. Given those 15 extra pounds, wouldn’t you think I’d have had the good sense NOT to eat that Rolo ice cream tonight? Sigh.
13. Maddie is taking her fish Bobbert to show and tell tomorrow. Here’s hoping there are no mishaps.
