Category: Space

Draw your own tiger

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How often do you sit and draw in public? Or sit and write in public? Can you imagine sitting and colouring in a child’s colouring book in public? That was the first task I set for my students this week. Most students completed it. I did too.

And as I sat at my daughter’s violin lesson, crayoning colour onto a rabbit (who was wearing running gear) chasing a rooster (who was not wearing running gear), I kept hoping no one would notice. As soon as someone did, I felt compelled to explain: this is an assignment for blah blah blah. See, actually, I’m not flaky or weird. I’m doing this for a legitimate reason.

Because colouring rabbits and roosters with crayons is not legit all on its own.

Why not? Because I’m not a child.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I grew up, I put away childish things.

I don’t know where that came from — well, I do: 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 11 — but the words just popped into my head, and I want to rebel! I will not put away childish things!

I’m feeling such excitement about making space to make things. I’m feeling excitement because I’m making space! I’m making space for myself, and for others. We’re going to make so many things! We are already making things! I don’t know what these things will be. I don’t know. I’m going to let myself rest in the not knowing.

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from Lynda Barry’s What It Is

… To be able to stand not knowing long enough to let something alive take shape!

The two questions Lynda Barry is referring to, in her cartoon, above, are the ones we’re always asking ourselves, the ones that pop into our brains unbidden and stop us from making things: Does this suck or is this good? If it sucks, why bother? If it’s good, what’s it gonna do for me?

You can’t really stop yourself from asking those questions. I mean, the critical brain has its uses. But you can find an answer that will quiet both questions.

The answer is: I don’t know. But I’m doing it anyway.

It’s only week one, but already the work my students are showing me is blowing my mind. I’m seeing in many of them this huge appetite to make things. Like they’ve been waiting for someone to come along and tell them to make things. And these things, these amazing, expressive, funny, sad, wild things are just waiting inside of them to be made.

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I’ve never coloured in a public place before, though I often write and draw in public. In order to do this, I claim a built-in excuse: I’m a writer! What a privilege it is to give myself that kind of permission — permission to do these fundamentally embarrassing tasks in public.

Why embarrassing? Because someone might look at what I’m making? A little bit, maybe.

Because no one else is doing it? A little bit, maybe.

Because making things is kind of pretentious, while also being kind of childish? Ah. Yes. That.

At night, our brains dream, constructing metaphors out of images from our daily lives, whether or not we are aware of this activity. And our waking bodies and minds want to do this too — to construct meaning from the material that surrounds us, and that we carry in us. We want also, joyfully and freely, to play. To wonder. To be here and not here. To lose track of time because we’re so occupied by our task.

This is not merely a childish desire, it is a human desire, it propels us and compels us, and sometimes it makes us sick and sad and unhappy, when we bottle it up or it struggles within us, unrecognized.

The desire to make things, to express our creativity, is fundamental. It is human.

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On the page with the running rabbit and rooster, I coloured the leaves on the tree green — didn’t even think, just reached for green. Why green? I thought, pressing the crayon into the soft paper, feeling a bit annoyed with myself. Does the grass need to be green, too, and the sky blue? I found pleasure in choosing magenta for the tree’s trunk. But my flowers were yellow. I wanted everything to look pretty. In the end, I wasn’t satisfied with the colours I’d chosen, but I wrote my name at the bottom in purple block letters. A child would turn the page and start colouring another picture.

I’ll do the same. Because I don’t know yet what I’m making. I don’t know, I don’t know. But I’m doing it.

Do you need permission to do this too? If it helps, you can say that I told you to. Make things. Colour in public. Draw your own tiger. You have permission. You always, always have permission.

xo, Carrie

Word of the year, 2019

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Puppy photo unrelated to post. Rose with her best friend Murphy, who is six weeks older and three times bigger.

Hello, 2019.

Hello, pleasant glass of white wine near the wrist. Hello, Saturday evening.

Hello, my lovely kind encouraging friends who somehow have found me here, in this online state in which I exist, occasionally, as if I’ve peeled myself apart to become a thing both corporeal and ethereal at once.

Today, this is what I did with a spare hour or so — drew a cartoon showing the Classroom Rules* for my new course. It seemed like a good use off my time. Why not? *with thanks to Lynda Barry for the inspiration

 
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My new word of the year has arrived! Last night, I spoke it out loud at my Word of the Year group, so it’s official.

SPACE

Another one-syllable word: FIRE, 2018; STAND, 2017; PEACE, 2016; LIGHT, 2015. I must be drawn the solidity of the single syllable, because the choice hasn’t been deliberate. I only just noticed. The word SPACE called out to me this past fall, when I felt overwhelmed with tasks and responsibilities. I was craving not physical space, but spiritual space, mental space, space to think clearly and slowly, space to formulate, to spread out my ideas and gaze upon them, space to be whole, calm, peaceful. It has emotional and figurative connotations for me, rather than concrete ones.

But a word has a habit of showing more of itself than one can guess.

What will I make space for, in my mind and in my heart, and in my days? A friend on FB posted 100 things she intends to do this year, but I don’t think my list is so long.

  1. draw cartoons for class
  2. draw cartoons for larger project
  3. listen to music
  4. find new favourite songs, add to playlist
  5. revise / rewrite novel project
  6. write new stories for a partly-completed collection
  7. read peers’ work, share work with peers
  8. apply for grants
  9. go to Lynda Barry workshop this summer
  10. retreat weekend solo
  11. retreat weekend with friends
  12. yoga in front of the fire
  13. kundalini yoga
  14. read novels
  15. host a poetry night
  16. eat dessert with my family
  17. cuddle with Rose
  18. go for walks, be outside
  19. write in my notebook
  20. play the piano and sing
  21. visit my grandma
  22. meet friends
  23. connect with people
  24. lift weights
  25. cook vegetarian suppers
  26. play
  27. meditate
  28. sleep in
  29. go to Spain
  30. take a trip with my family
  31. go camping
  32. sit around a campfire
  33. lie on my back and look at the stars
  34. let myself dream

Today, I’ve done #1, #3, #16, and #28, and #16 is about to happen! (Panettone!)

xo, Carrie

PS Read this poem by a former student. It’s so beautiful, I keep reading it over and over. Sending huge gratitude to former students who continue to reach out to share their work with me. Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you.