Summer's End, Work, and Dreaming

A great deal has happened since my last post, much of it trivial and silly--the normal every-day grind stuff of going back to work after a summer off. Here's a list then:

• surfing (or watching it rather)
• painting on little tiny surfboards, since I haven't found any real ones yet
• getting ready to retire from teaching art--this is my last year
• getting braces (no likey)
• losing another tooth
• entering a jewelry competition (I didn't get in)
• getting a new computer
• sending my sister my old one
• planning an addition to the house: a 576 sq. ft. studio above the garage (still no viable bids)
• planning a trip to Hawaii for spring break with my mom
• finding the perfect jeans that fit (!!!woohoo!!!)
• getting the perfect curtains to go on the clerestory windows: cotton voile
• writing a story
• studying Gaidhlig and trying out Level 4 at Slighe nan Gaidheal
• getting through every day...
• reinstalling my cool fonts onto my new computer (lost the Mason ones that I loved)
• learning how to use this new interface
• planning a birthday/retirement party on the Oregon coast

The list goes on, of course, but that's the way lists work. They never end.

some tiny surfboards (this is not all of them--I now have painted 24 of them, ranging from 8-10 inches)

Writing is Like...

Summer Haze, Summer Days

Writing. It's like building something from nothing. My current story, for example, at 124 pages and 68,474 words, is still just a disjointed skeleton with a few gobbets of flesh adhered here and there, but still undecided as yet what it will become, where the head fits, and the foot, and what will be done with the middle, that I'm thinking of putting nearer the front, and the other middle, which I'm leaning toward pushing out further into October (in the story).

Then there's the battle, and the time-jags, and the final denouement, who dies, who lives, who saves whom, coming home again, and how long they've been gone.

What of Minky the cat? What of the crops that need planting in spring on Eilidh's farm? The neighbors, who believe that Taliesin is a man from Australia rather than an elf from another realm? And Fannon, the enigmatic figure who becomes a key player in the plot? Can he come home too, for the first time?

It's all very exciting, building worlds, but a slog too, and one that, alas, in eleven days I'll have to give up on for ten months until I'm finished with teaching. I only hope the story's still there inside me, waiting for words to make it real.

Fèis Seattle & Birthday Loot

A wee reminder of Scotland: Thistles at Siccar Point

I just returned from another fine offering from Slighe nan Gaidheal: The Fèis Seattle. Every other year this all-volunteer organization brings to the Pacific Northwest five days of learning and fun in the Gaidhlig language; a wee bit o' Scotland right here. It was my second Feis and truly an amazing experience. Those who participated will understand the word "cianalas." It was home for a few days, a place to sing and dance and tap one's feet; to learn and grow and be who we are without people giving us the stink-eye! Cairdean ùr, old friends too. Lots of craic as well: Buntàta and Ga desh air! Uisge beatha, a day of sunshine, a concert, some cèilidhs, lots of singing and purt-a-beal, learning to construct sentences about Bob kissing a pig in a car...and something about Donnie Munro in a phone-box. And an international Cranky star...We learn through laughter, and there was plenty to go around. Chì mi na mòrbheanna!


And since it's my birthday today, I thought I'd post pictures of some of the loot I got at the Festival, at Wandering Angus, and then in Tacoma whilst running around with my daughter. (The Rodriguez CDs arrived from Amazon when I was gone.)

CDs, stickers for my car, and a cheap sgian dubh made in China. (I'm saving for a real one)

My new little bodhran, which I WILL learn to play! I also bought all four levels of Muriel's Gaelic course, which can just be seen to the right in the stack by the journals.

...and some Viking-Ninja ducks for Jeremiah.

Aig an Fhèis...a-màireach

Skye: an t-Eilean Sgitheanach

Calanais: Leodhais

I awoke at 2 a.m. and couldn't sleep, so...In an attempt to get my head ready for the Fèis starting tomorrow, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from our Turas Alba in 2010.

The one of the standing stones on Lewis was altered with solarization and other stuff I can't remember. I like the way the little tufts of grass grow around the bottoms of the stones, and the Lewisian gneiss with all its folds and striations is--well, gneiss!

The one of Skye was simply de-colorized from the original version. It was such a beautiful trip and I do want to return. Maybe we'll go next summer to hear Runrig during their 40-year celebration. They usually spend the summers touring Denmark and Germany. I hope they plan to play a couple of gigs in Scotland for their special year.

Progress on Drawing an Elf

Eilidh and Taliesin: Changes

Addendum: Taliesin is over 130 years old...time between the two planes--human and elf--has been messed up for a long time. Elves are not immortal, but they do have very long lives, provided they get to live them.

Update: Good progress but more work needed. It's funny how when one sees an image of what one is drawing, one sees areas for correction better than when one just looks at the original. Inntinneach...

And then one does not wish to utterly destroy what one has created, so one must find a way to make corrections--say to the longish nose and the resulting longish face (but, oh, that cheekbone, like a blade, and the perfectly good mouth...) sigh.

I used the eraser as a drawing tool for the hair, softened Eilidh's profile, put more shading on Taliesin's face, and generally wasted a lot of time I should have used doing other, less interesting things. Why aren't there jobs for people like me?

and...with a bit more work: shading.

...and then I ruined it completely. I'm not going to post the final version. It was an interesting process, however.

Surfers, Blue Water, and a New Story

Tilted view of the blue surf off the east coast of Kaua'i, Christmas, 2011



Just a song, just a story...just a random post.

On the 5th of April, I was riding a school bus to Portland with nineteen of my art students for a visit to the Portland Art Museum. It was a good trip and inspired me to prepare to make some changes in my life, one of which includes retirement...But, that isn't what this post is about, really.

It's about a story. On the way there I wrote two sentences: the first lines of a new tale: Eilidh was a witch. She had always known this, even as a child....

The words sat in my notebook for a few days, maybe even a week or more, before I typed them into Word. As stories go, I think it's probably my favorite so far, about a witch and an elf. Where it came from, I can't begin to say. From whence do any stories come?

Well, here's what happened: I started writing, and before too long I was building my characters, describing my two protagonists, Eilidh and Taliesin. She would have black hair and intense blue eyes, a Solitary; he:  ripe-barley hair, tall and thin, with golden-greenish eyes and a libido--but that's not the point either.

Back to the description: So I depicted them in words first, as I always do, and wrote some more, and then, in a moment of writer's block, I randomly searched the web for images so that I could draw them, because I like to know what my characters look like. It helps to solidify their personalities. So I typed in "guys with blonde hair." Here's the perfection I found:

Owen Wright, goofy-footed surfer from New South Wales, Australia.
Awesome, no? 6'3", lean, blonde...

 Looks like an elf to me...

And this is probably Eilidh...

And so, I have around ninety pages now, a tale full of intrigue, betrayal, lust, war, love, death, and...sex.
Stay tuned--this one might actually get finished!



Writing With Light

So, Blogger has decided to throw a curve ball and make me learn something new...


Well, all I wanted to post was this:

The secret to good writing is learning to write an interesting sentence. Write another, and another. Do it differently. Say the same thing a number of ways. Pracice, practice, practice.

Sin agad e...There you have it.











When I have time, I'll learn to navigate this new (again) Blogosphere. Thanks, Blogger, for making my life even MORE complicated.