I hope you will delight in these 10 things as much as I have over the past couple of weeks:
I wrote about artists Christo & Jeanne-Claude in my last update so imagine the gleeful zeitgeisty moment I experienced a few days later reading what Wendy MacNaughton wrote about the duo here. The first lesson she gleaned from the way the artists worked is “forget usefulness:”
Start by letting go of the expectation that art has to be useful, or say something, or mean something. Christo believed that art was an experience — and that his art was ultimately useless.
The idea of use value versus other kinds of value gets to one of my all-time favorite quotes about art, which I’ve pointed to a couple of times before (paraphrasing C.S. Lewis here but basically, art is not necessary for survival but adds value to survival).
A twist on date night! I love dates. Dates make me think of date shakes which you can get in Palm Springs which is really close to Joshua Tree which is one of my very favorite places in the world.
getting far away from people in June 2020 I also love this slightly healthier date smoothie.
I learned about Stilspoke earlier this week, a platform at the intersection of creativity and cycling, or, as they put it way more elegantly, “at the still point of movement and creativity.” How cool would it be to interview creative folks about cycling (touched on that topic here) and cyclists about creativity? The state of flow I feel doing something like mountain biking that requires my full physical and mental focus is something I’d really like to rediscover in my creative pursuits.
Speaking of, I’m struggling mightily with creative block for perhaps the first time in my life. While I realize there are loads of books written about creative block, I’m considering instead looking to the more instructional books (self help for creative types?) on my studio shelves as a way to break out of this rut of overthinking and wasting precious time in order to rediscover the joy of simply making stuff with my hands, regardless of conceptual considerations or fretting about where the work will end up. Here are my top 9 choices. Where would you begin?
The other thing I like about mountain biking, of course, is just being outside. To that end, I love discovering secret passageways on neighborhood walks, especially when they’re activated in such a lovely way, like this “sunflower” path in a very nice neighborhood of Oakland near Lake Temescal.
I went to the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse for the first time in ages and look what I brought home for under $20!
Persimmageddon is nigh.
If you’re local, be sure to check out the current show at the Bedford Gallery. What a thrill to see a Lee Bontecou piece in person!
My former foster kittens (Otto & Astrid) are still available for adoption at Oakland Animal Services.
Check out Astrid’s gorgeous coat! Local news site Oaklandside wrote a great article about the persistent mythology around black cats (October is black cat awareness month!) and how it continues to result in longer stays at the shelter.
Maria Popova recently shared 18 life lessons from 18 years of the Marginalian. From life lesson number 14 about choosing joy:
Delight in the little girl zooming past you on her little bicycle, this fierce emissary of the future, rainbow tassels waving from her handlebars and a hundred beaded braids spilling from her golden helmet.
P.S. My blog turns 19 next Tuesday! I did a roundup of my top 18 posts to celebrate last year’s blogiversary. What should I do to mark the start of my 20th year of blogging?