An enthusiastic 1920's woman cooking up a recipe from "The Settlement Cookbook"
I’ve been embarking on a project that seems both so glaringly obvious and at the same time rather creative. People who see the bits and pieces of it are raving. “So creative” they say. “You are so multi-talented!” they say.
As for me, it all comes so naturally I waver between being embarrassed about taking credit and wanting to hide because the praise feels unwarranted.
I love the outcome I am seeing though, so for now - I will take any praise one may choose to offer.
I have been creating what I call a Morning Pages Quilt.
Gouache quilt squares. Just playful experimentation at this point
I literally have rows and rows of notebooks on my shelves. I have been revisiting old notebooks and new notebooks and noting any particularly vibrant and alive quotes and writing those words onto paper painted using either gouache, tempera or acrylic paint.
"The page is an alarm" is fairly accurate when I sit with my morning pages before anyone else in my house is awake.
On one quilt-in-progress (the tempera one) I have made floral quilt pieces on another (the gouache) I made more traditional “quilt squares” though my first draft is messier and less pleasing than the second draft.
My initial plan was to cut up the squares but now I may just use photographs as “cuts” and then keep the original piece all as one, perhaps mounting it on a board to hang.
I tend to defer to more experienced artist friends who question my motives which can be good but also makes me feel uncertain which is, I suppose, not bad.
What do you think of my “quilt”?
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I'm sharing this post with my friends at Creative Every Day
You may add your art posts there as well.
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
It doesn’t happen often, but yesterday I was bored. I shake my head involuntarily just reading that word because quite frankly “boredom” or “boring” or “bored” is a word we don’t use in my household. I don’t know what teacher taught me this, but boredom (boring bored) is a sign of an uncreative mind.
In 281 words I will offer three simple tips that work everytime to re-engage you with life. The story I tell in those 281 words may delight and inspire, so I suggest staying the course.
It is with that confession I come to you baring my tired soul to tell you how simply it was to snap out of it.
I logged onto twitter to review my morning #sitsblogging chat links and discovered in my trending sidebar #poemcrawl was trending.
Because I am a poet, this intrigued me so I immediately clicked and was captivated and promptly entered the poemcrawl which I incorrectly hashtagged as #poetrycrawl and once as #poemcrazy but because of the ecstatic state I entered rather smoothly, I didn’t care if I got any of it wrong or pissed off any poet perfectionists out there, I was just splattering words into less than 140 character combinations and quickly oozing my way from the “b word” state I was in.
I wrote:
surrendering in the midst of torn blankets & last weeks dog hair matted in the entryway corner she hesitates to fetch the broom
(and)
did I do this right? People get upset way too fast how illiterate do I appear will that academic scoff at my deconstruction?
(and)
In her teen wisdom she said "You've loved each other so long - why don't you just see this love thru? (I don't get adults!)
These fun mini poems were written and tweeted before the “right” way was explained to me. I laughed and continued to write.
This #poemcrawl fascination has only begun to spur her fancy - her word love into spasms, overtures, lusty vowels and soft swishes
(and)
misplaced apostrophes & selfish words take their place on the podium. Confession, Obsession, Condescension. Scolding eyes scowl
I read other poems, I connected with other poets, I switched from being disengaged to smiling and happy and best of all, immersed in serious creative flow.
All of this is great, yes, but to benefit you in your next moment of (hear me whisper *boredom*) take these steps:
Realize you are not “napping” because you are tired, you are hiding out because you have disengaged. Re-engaging includes letting go of perfection (exhausting) and connecting with fun (exhilarating.)
Be open to any possible path back into engagement with life. Does that mean a conversation with friends? Perhaps painting or drawing? Reading a book? Visiting blogs? Any path will work if you remain open. For me, it meant visiting twitter.
Take action on the openings you find. An old and treasured principle I follow is this: insight with action has nearly no meaning. Insight coupled with passionate action brings results beyond my imaginings.
Are you ready to re-engage with life and stop blaming “boredom” for your frame of mind? Passionate action in the direction of what delights you. It works every time.
Writing prompts and more for your creative inspiration
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
I had no plan when I hit "start" on my timer to write. What follows is clear stream of consciousness flow which turned into an invitation of sorts.
Absolutely. Which is why I love this brand of writing, without attachment, without editing, without anything except blurting words onto the page.
Read on, loves...
If this was anything other than Stream of Consciousness, I would brighten up the Green Apple Books logo, but no, I will leave this be for now...
This morning I sipped from my Green Apple Books coffee mug and was reminded how much I need to go to San Francisco. Soon.
It isn’t that I want to go, it is I need to go. San Francisco is such a me place - I only live five hours away - but life and activity and lack of awareness has combined to give me an entire year absent from her cradle, her loving arms, her warm breasts of creativity - perfect pacing - and yes, the view the scent, the variety, the stuff to do, the cool people….
I sat writing poetry yesterday and it may have been her siren song calling me.
Inspiration and Ina Coolbrith park. Labyrinths and Land’s end. Russian Hill. Street corners and intersections are even liberating just by being street corners. Urban coffee shops: morning pages in urban coffee shops. Languages I don’t understand being spoken all around me, a chorus of vowel sounds combined which my intellect can’t translate but my heart - oh, my heart can.
A real estate show is on the television someone else is watching.
DIY in Bakersfield plummets in my head - oh wait, this is in some Texas Town, brought into my home.
Which is sort of like Bakersfield. Actually, Waco Texas is much more like Bakersfield than San Francisco is.
Across the bridge from San Francisco: Berkeley. Oakland. Emeryville. Bart takes me to and fro, under the bay. I could walk the Golden Gate bridge today if I hopped in my car and just drove!
I need to make a soul appointment and go. (And the timer goes off. Right then. How perfect is that?)
This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…
Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. This is writing in the raw.
Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
Link back to this post (feel free to use the SOC Sunday graphic).
Add your post below (be sure to use the permalink to your post, not your blog’s URL; and only NEW posts please).
Within an hour, three abandoned shopping carts caught my eye.
It started with a fluke, actually.
My fixation on shopping carts, that is.
It started when I would drive by a vacant lot every day I took my daughter to school. This vacant parking lot slowly started getting filled with shopping carts. I called it a "shopping cart library" and then noticed more patterns.
Shopping carts being arranged by an unseen artist of sorts.
I started documenting the carts. I never move carts to "make them interesting" instead I just shoot what I say.
And I started noticing more and more and more shopping carts.
And I started thinking about the social commentary behind abandoned shopping carts.
I found them everywhere, all seasons, in a variety of spaces.
It is like they were grateful to be seen, sort of like children love being seen with a camera. Completely unconscious and content to be a subject.
They seem to be magnets for each other. I'll see them in pairs and then some human splits them up for a bit. This pair lasted a weekend.
And today this cart is nowhere to be seen but the trash is all still there.
This is quite different to my last photo essay.
Or is it?
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This photo essay is a part of Pierced Wonderings Photo Friday:
Click the image and visit and then share your post, too!
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Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
It started as I rested on my porch couch, light leaving the sky. I wrote simply this:
“Twilight falling: completed transfer paperwork for Samuel today. Wrestled with personal not-exactly-demons. Scoffed and growled.”
Yesterday when I got my hair fixed up Jolie gave me permission to be a full-out grouch. No reason to hold my emotion hostage. If I was feeling like the resident of a trash can, my snarl perfectly appropriate.
I forget to give myself credit.
I’ve just completed back-to-back enormous projects. One of my closest friends - and constantly there member of my personal support system - moved a thousand miles from Bakersfield. I expended a lot of energy which, when over, creates a void - and without Jennie and her “Zen house energy” as a possibility for letting my hair and my mood down at times like these, it would be strange if I wasn’t out of sorts.
Why do we forget it is totally normal and acceptable to feel like crap on such occasions?
Today I am going to remember it is normal, acceptable and even appropriate to feel this way. It isn’t a sign of weakness or laziness or being indulgent, it is a sign of being human. It is a sign of love and loss. It is a sign of a job well done.
I remember the wise words of the Wizard of Oz or the man pretending to be the Wizard of Oz when he quoted Alfred Lord Tennyson’s words “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
The sense of loss and the sense of emptiness is a sign of love.
I’m grateful I’ve loved. I will continue loving.
I would rather love - and lose -than not love.
It’s a worthy price for a job well done, for loving and creating as best as I possibly can.
I’ll allow this grouchy season to take however long it needs to take.
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
This post was written in five minutes this morning and as necessary to getting through the rest of my day as drinking water and breathing. It is unedited, raw and all the details about its birth are listed below... so read as you will and write your own five minute stream of consciousness brain dump so that you may face the rest of your day with a lot less energetic weight on your shoulders.
I need more time to wander. I need time for my pencil to float across the page, to glue random pages onto advertisements otherwise headed for the garbage can. I need to have space for people to stay away.
I may be friendly, I may be social but dammit, I need time to wander alone through to whatever fascinates me, even if it is just mixing paint with water and throwing it on the page or circling random words in vintage books and seeing what associations I can make.
I don’t want to be bothered by other people’s needs 24/7 because it is my needs that get emptied and my soul right now needs to be filled.
Your needs can get met elsewhere, perhaps.
Five minutes. Five minutes to write. It is all I ask for.
While the laundry is whooshing and my hair needs curling its 11:11 in 49 minutes I need to make myself ready for the next thing on the calendar that felt like it would be awesome six months ago but right now it is squeezing my heart shut.
Or at least without these five minutes and with people asking me questions and pulling on my shirt strings and watching television in a room where I would love to have quiet, please for God’s sake let me be for the rest of these moments: one minute and thirty one seconds to be precise.
I need more time to wander.
I need more time to watch the world, even if that world is a corner of my porch filled with profusely spun spider webs and yesterday’s yesterday’s yesterday’s magazine I lazily read when I had more than five minutes to spare.
I can feel my friend getting angry on the other side of these five minutes and lordy, I don’t have time for that anger.
People, your perceived emergency can not become my urgency. Not now. Not tomorrow. Please.
This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…
Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. This is writing in the raw.
Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
Link back to this post (feel free to use the SOC Sunday graphic).
Add your post below (be sure to use the permalink to your post, not your blog’s URL; and only NEW posts please).
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
Spring, like a new year, inspires your artistic rebirth -
“And now we welcome the new year. full of things we have never been.”
Rainer Rilke
March 20: the first day of Spring.
It feels so much more new year like than January 1, when my world is at its coldest. In March, the central California leaves are new and that fresh baby colored green. The flowers are fragrant, the birds are boldly singing their familiar yet new songs.
All feels perfectly right and good and holy.
I look out my living room window and I see grey clouds to the east and the lark outside my open window is serenading me.
On St Patrick’s day morning I heard “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes playing just moments after I wrote these words in my notebook:
“I start the day with a clean slate mind, without the beveled edges of memory offering me grace I don’t deserve.”
Spring feels like grace, the definition being mercy, favor, approval, pardon - not offered due to merit, but offered freely due to love, extraordinary, love without condition. Love that doesn’t keep score or give way to pressure. Yes, that is how Spring feels.
New beginnings, just because.
A fresh piece of paper.
The blended scent of lilac, wisteria and the heady invitation of orange trees full of ripe fruit.
The purr of your kitty, a constant companion either at your feet or beside you on the bed or perching on your hip, so happy no words may contain the feeling adequately.
And now we welcome Spring, in all her newness, and allow ourselves to be who we have never before allowed ourselves to be, simply because.
No other explanation necessary.
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
The best action to take after completing a project that has taken much of your time and attention is to use your passion to play, to adventure, to continue in motion and to make that movement with serious attention to.... not accomplishing anything beyond play.
That's right, to just play - especially for the seriously passionate person I am and those I tend to enjoy the most, we need to let ourselves play and explore with the same amount of exuberance as we create.
Last Sunday I did exactly that - I invested my morning in playful and soul-filled adventuring and my afternoon in delighted process exploration.
In other words, I visited heaven.
I spent the last few months building up to last Friday and Saturday nights’ performances of A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, a production of VDay Bakersfield 2015 which is a part of the #OneBillionRising campaign to end violence against women and girls worldwide.
I knew I wanted to make Sunday into a special day of rejuvenation and alone time.
It just so happened my friend Maria’s daughter, Marisa, was an artist whose work was on display in Ventura, a beach city two hours from Bakersfield. It seemed like a complete no-brainer to me. There was an artist discussion planned for the afternoon and I knew I had to be there.
Thursday before the big day I discovered the Instagram weekend hashtag project was “from the water” and there I was, headed to the beach and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take some water shots.
But then again, me being me, I knew I didn’t just want to go take photos of the Pacific Ocean in all her wonder. It didn’t seem challenging enough or interesting enough.
I pulled my car off the main freeway crossing from Santa Clarita to the coast and decided to visit some of the small towns along the way. There must be creeks or rivers or something beyond that huge ocean at the end of my trail that day.
Fillmore includes a darling, well preserved downtown I hadn't seen until this jaunty adventure.
First stop: Fillmore - a town I had only traverse to use a restroom or grab a soda in the past at one of the ubiquitous fast food establishment. I was shocked to find a delightful downtown - including an old school fountain - just waiting for my joyful snapping.
Every small town needs a fountain like this one. The water was cool and I was quite surprised there weren't any pennies in the fountain. If my kids were with me, there would have been four fresh ones tossed. That would. however, defeat the purpose of my solo adventure.
After enjoying my moments there, I decided to search for a creek or a river and found “Sespe Creek” so off I went.
I found orange grove after orange grove and even an old cemetery. I found an organic farm and a dry creek bed. I found leaking hoses. It was a wonder.
A little further some magical looking trees and mailboxes and a background to Santa Paula which made me smile wider than I had in any of the previous stress filled weeks.
By the time I arrived at the beach, I was completely refreshed. I sat on a bench on the pier and wrote. I communed with water birds. I stood directly underneath the pier and flirted with the water and felt my feet get buried deeper and deeper into the sand.
I even used a not-so-pleasant restroom to change into my fancier than beach clothes art show clothes.
Witnessing artists' processes delight me. Viewing "Expectations" and listening to the artists fed my passion.
You may be able to tell from this photo my friend Maria took how much I enjoyed the artist's talk and chatting with new friends afterwards.
I know some people just go to events. They just get into their car planning the time to drive from point A to point B and that’s what they do. I used to be that way also. But enjoying the surprises along the way, using a creative challenge such as the Weekend Hashtag project (and link ups like this one!) to inspired the adventure even more.
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people who want to write to experience artistic rebirth. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
Explore with me for a moment: it seems no matter where I find myself, I find the thread of women's lives who went before us, inviting us more deeply into their lives as well as into our own lives.
How will we be remembered?
Today I share my adventuring via my friend Jen's vlog link up at JVKom.com (The JVKom Chronicles) - very excited to share my moment of joyful meandering from this weekend.
A few words before we start -
Adventure: VERB - engage in hazardous and exciting activity, especially the exploration of unknown territory. (or as a NOUN) an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.
synonyms -- escapade, deed, experience, feat
Now - an invitation to an unlikely adventure!
So - no need to rush into your adventure - I like to look at this as an "in the moment choice" - spontaneous turning of the wheel in a slightly different direction.
I know you're up for it!
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people who want to write to experience artistic rebirth. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
“Writing practice brings us back to the uniqueness of our own minds and an acceptance of it. We all have wild dreams, fantasies, and ordinary thoughts. Let us to feel the texture of them and not be afraid of them.Writing is still the wildest thing I know.”
Natalie Goldberg
Even as someone who has written and written and written and written for years and years and years, there are times like the ones I am swimming in right now I could easily see my writing practice - and output - go away completely if I am not mindful.
What happens when my writing goes away like this?
Life doesn’t work as well. I get grouchy and ornery. My eyes start to sag and my spirit loses her luster.
I don’t have many photos of myself from my mid-thirties. I wasn’t comfortable with my outer appearance in those days. What I know now is I wasn’t comfortable with my inner appearance in those days, either. I was dreadfully uncomfortable in most aspects of my life. I had a job I didn’t like doing tasks that were out of alignment with my beliefs, I was lonely even when surrounded by groups of people.
I received compliments for my artful writing of legal briefs and business letters, but I wasn’t writing anything that held any real meaning for me.
I occasionally wrote poetry, primarily about grief because that was something I felt I was “allowed” to write about: it was expected.
It took a strange sort of writing prompt: the movie, Jerry Maguire, to get my words flowing again.
It wasn’t “show me the money” that did it, it was Jerry’s fervent desire to communicate his beliefs with the others, his passionate connection with what was most important to him.
Here's how it went: he wrote his personal manifesto and delivered it to all his peers and bosses. In doing so he sent his life in an out of control spiral that changed his entire world.
I was hooked. I knew I needed to write again.
I attended a women’s workshop several weeks later about goal setting and I wrote one hundred life goals. In a matter of weeks I was writing again.
Within a year I would leave my job as a county drone and like Jerry Maguire, my life would completely change - some for the better and some just for the different.
Now my life is fairly stable, but if I don’t write - my life stops working as well.
I also discovered it isn’t my writing that leaves me, it is me that leaves my writing.
This makes me curious about your creative life.
Do you have a writing practice? An artful practice?
I am back to writing my daily morning pages which are three pages of hand written stream of consciousness style writing. This morning I felt somewhat blocked so I just wrote “love love love love love love” across the lines when nothing else wanted to be written.
It was meditative, it was movement, I was writing.
From that simple exercise, my day turned out for the better.
Like Natalie Goldberg says, “Writing practice brings us back.”
Writing practice gives us the power to change our lives. Why aren't you doing it?
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people who want to write to experience creative rebirth. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
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