Inspire 52 - Week 7. The Art Of Waiting

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination.  Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth. Napoleon Hill (1)

I've been waiting for inspiration to arrive all week and all of a sudden it has manifested itself in the act of 'waiting', so this is what has inspired me to create this week's 52.

This week being Valentines week, I thought perhaps I would do a piece on love, but it just hasn't inspired me, too 'expected' and 'obvious' maybe, and I'm just not that kinda girl! So you're not getting a piece about love this week, but you are going to get something that is equally intangible.

Waiting ... a space for imagination, dreams, desires, aspirations, inspirations ... The space that occurs before the jump, the voyage or the seeds to grow.

The Art Of Waiting

Hazel Evans

Whilst exploring my 'waiting', I started looking for a few quotes that inspired me and it seemed that there were two types of waiting that people wrote about:

1. waiting = time wasting 
2. waiting = patience

... oooh this has just got complicated, I guess the key is not to wait for too long! But how long is too long?

Time waits for no man

So you may ask, 'Hazel what are you waiting for?' Well, mes chers amis, I have been cultivating, planting seeds and now I am waiting for them to grow. Surely this is not time wasting, but indeed, patience?

Oh busy busy bees,

Keep flying for me

Into the pages I write.

I've written the words

Set them free like birds

Now can I sleep tonight?

Oh busy busy bees

Keep making honey for me

Nectar for my seeds to grow.

I'm ready on the block

Singing with the clock

I'm ready for the voyage you know!

Hazel Evans

I guess another consideration is the kind of waiting one does, what one waits for, and what one chooses to do with ones waiting time!

This week's top 3 waiting activities:

1. Listening to music
2. Sketching
3. Dreaming

All of the above activities are highly recommended and conducive to enlivening creativity whist in a waiting scenario, however, be careful of No.3 as too much of this could induce time wasting!

This week I knew I wanted to create an illustrative piece again, after all the Odeful words of last week, my pen was hungry for some linear scribbling. Where to begin? ... I saw a picture posted on Facebook of a woman dancing in the street and it looked like it had been drawn over a photograph, this lit up a lightbulb for me. I took one of my portrait shots for The Monochronium by Danika Westwood and used this as the departure for the new illustration.

It was a strange experience as I sat there poised with my pen looking at myself there sitting poised with a pen! It was like we were going to draw each other ... I took a deep breath ... stop thinking and just be with the pen ... Just follow the lines ... let the lines guide you into the blank paper.

And so the drawing began...

... The waves rumbled from my hair and created a sea on which my strong sailed ship voyaged upon the oceans wide. My shoulders bubbled me into a mixture of lines, dots and crosshatchings as I held on tightly to my pen I was determind to not let these waves disolve me into a blurred scribbling mess. 'Just keep following the lines', I kept repeating to myself. I knew that if I just kept following the lines everything would become clearer soon.

As I followed the lines I thought about home, 'Where was my home?' I was unsure at this point, but although this uncertainty questioned my mind, I realised that behind the front door, was a whole world of places and opportunities for a home to be, so I walked up the steps and took hold of the door handle. I felt safe opening the door as a warm breeze whispered in my ear, 'Home is where the heart is my friend'. I walked into the hall way and up the spiral staircase. There was a rounded window, but I couldn't quite see out of it, so I pushed up an old chest of draws, climbed on top, and from there I was able to see out.

Wow, what a view! From here I could see all kinds of flowers and trees that filled the garden below. There were glimpses of bright fresh budding stems and branches. Everything looked beautifully still and silent, but I knew inside it was growing, ready for the spring blossom. I looked out beyond the garden, acres upon acres of fields surrounding my entire house. There was a figure in the distance ploughing the fields, I called out, 'Hello!... Hello!' and waved. They waved back at me, and I smiled as I realised they were planting new seeds that would grow and make the garden bigger.

... 'Ouch!', I felt a prick on my leg and then a bee flew out of the window. 'That bee just stung me!' I exclaimed to myself. 'Bee, oh busy bee, do come back!', I jumped off the chest of draws and ran down the stairs, burst open the door and stopped. It was dark! What happened, where did the light go? I stood there stunned. 'I hope I haven't missed anything', I thought to myself. It was so silent and dark, I was afraid as I stood there alone. As the dark got darker, the light of the moon grew stronger and I began to hear a voice singing. I looked up into the sky and saw the crescent moon, she was singing to me. 'Oh busy busy bee, listen to me, keep your eyes shining bright, you've followed the lines and waited for times, and now you can sleep tonight.'

I smiled back at the moon, went inside my home and up to bed. I had a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. There was a ship waiting to take me on my voyage and I had to make sure I was up bright and early to get my ticket.


(1) www.brainyquote.com

Inspire 52 - Week 6. Off With Her Ode!

So what has inspired me this week? It's difficult to tell really, given that I have been feeling pretty uninspired all week! This is mainly due to the fact that I have been suffering from the third cold of the winter (once a month for the last three months ... it's getting a bit of a drag!) So the challenge is to make this an inspiration for Inspire 52 week 6 - here goes!

On Friday night I posted on Facebook "That's it I'm done with winter ... Can't do it anymore!" I've just logged and it seems to have generated a mini debate between friends.

"Winter is soft and white and fluffy and cold...merely a transition from old to new...hibernation and bug killing time"

And the reply to this was ...

"Nothing fluffy about winter... it's harsh... like a seasonal blade of ice particles, forever slicing the soul of sunshine dreamers. It's brittle, and freezing. The whole season should be damned... if it were not for the fact it reminds us how cool spring is."

Great, love it! Two completely contrasting views. There are way too many things I could comment on in the list of responses, but this one seems to be the most apt for what I am writing now.

" It is the void of uninspiration which inspires me"

Well I suppose I would have to agree at this point, as I am here trying to be inspired for my Inspire 52, something somewhere is in fact inspiring me through all this uninspiration ... does that make any sense? So lets focus on the uninspiration and see where it leads ...

 "off with her head!" The Queen of Hearts - Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1951

If I recall back to Monday for a moment, I did have a glimpse of inspiration. I was at work looking rough and ill and thought a head transplant would have been a good idea! 1, because my throat was hurting so much that the blade probably would not have made the slightest bit of difference! And 2, because the onset of winter blues had begun nibbling away at my psyche and this seemed like a good solution, albeit radical! For a moment I was transported, down the rabbit hole and playing croquet with the Queen of Hearts, having tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter. I thought perhaps I could be the Queen of Spades, a new addition to the story that way I could wear black and white of course! That is where my inspiration ended on Monday, day one of Week 6, what a great start!
(By the way, I hope that you are picking up on my sarcasm here!)

So here we are on Saturday, day 6, only one day to go until the self inflicted deadline. It's like having to hand homework in once a week, only to myself! I was chatting with my friend and colleague earlier, Caroline Parrott, she was the one who started Make 52 last year and who I am carrying on from with the creative '52' legacy. Aware that this week would be a bit of a rant about how crap winter was making me feel and that this would be reflected in my work she agreed and said that it had happened to her on occasions too, and that doing the 52 project was a bit like "a weekly dose of analysing yourself". So I guess there are going to be a whole host of emotions themes inspirations and uninspirations that get revealed as I am giving a piece of my life to you, this is a window of truth. Thank you Caroline, that did indeed help me to come to terms with what I have written, am writing and indeed will write in the future.

(By the way, I always much prefer having pictures to look at ... but there are no pictures so far ... lol ... I hope you're staying with me on this one :-)

Ok, where were we? Yes ... I am feeling particularly uninspired to create something visual so I thought I would do a written piece this week. So I have begun thinking about what it could be, a piece of prose, a poem or just a word! Hey that would be too easy ...

Having decided that I fancied writing a piece and thought back to Keats whom I studied as part of my A'levels. I thought his work was just great, especially the 50 line poem he wrote about a Greek pot! I remember studying this and being in fits of laughter with my friends, why would anyone write such an epic poem about a pot! Ode on a Grecian Urn is in fact one of his most acclaimed poems, hmmm.... - thanks Keats! Not the most chirpy of poets, but indeed a great man of words from the early 1800s. So in homage to Keats I have decided to write an ode.

What is this Ode going to teach me? Well, it will be a new poetic formula that I have never used before in my written work. Having looked at a few of his poems, I have decided I am going to attempt to follow Keats' example from Ode to Autumn; 3 stanza's each of 11 lines. Before I get onto my Ode, (which I haven't written yet 20.22 Saturday evening) I thought I'd find my inspiration from Ode To Autumn as it has a seasonal aptness that is speaking to me, and given that Keats did not write an Ode To Winter, I have now bestowed myself with this task ... bonding with a dead poet! The full Ode To Autumn, is at the bottom of the blog just in case you fancy a read.

Ode to Autumn is described to be a poem about the progression through the seasons, the harvest and the onset of winter. 'The work has also been interpreted as a meditation on death; as an allegory of artistic creation' (1) Interesting!! And apparently it is considered to be one of the 'most perfect short poems of the English Language'(2)  ... Okay, so I have not set myself a difficult task then! My attempt is going to be totally improvised and hopefully will be written before midnight tonight! I have three hours and thirteen minutes to go! ... no pressure then ...

Okay here goes, get into the zone .... think early 1800s, miserable poet! ...


Ode To Winter - Hazel Evans

Season of white and frozen-filled air
A companion of the darken'd night
Hatching bleak plans without a care
It will be a long time until warm light;
Taken at the throat and lining the lung,
The whitening cracks of splitting ice
Make their way through each pumping vein
Feeding the weakness, clamping the vice;
Tweeting bitter sliced tunes only half sung
Transitional operations are only half begun
As the wounds are cut open by frozen rain.

Who hath not caught a cold this winter?
Lucky bugger, abroad hath your time be spent?
Shackled here with my throat'd splinter
You lucky fellow, may your luck be lent!
For here this story gets icier than icy,
As the Queen of Hearts has ordered my head
But winter has frozen my coronary beat
And banished me, eucalyptus-fumed to bed.
Steady thy chili hand, go easy on the spicy
A hot water bottle will do me quite nicely
Thou watchest the socks dressing thy feet.

Where the songs of Spring? Where the hell are they!
Think not this state of time be forever in freeze
That one day soon we'll sing a warm play,
That our layers of layers remove with ease.
Recovered from the bitter poison injection,
Will the heart grow warmer and fonder?
Again the desire lives, sweet passion not dies
In the bleakness of this day, 'tis thy wonder,
The yearning and waiting upon your reflection,
The inspiration, creation in hibernation,
From whence the frozen bird again once flies!

Voila! Check in time 22.11
I quite enjoyed that, I hope you do too. I am sure Keats spent longer than two hours on his masterpiece, and I'm sure his sentences are much better composed than mine, but hey.

Now it's Keats' turn - Critical comparison anyone!

Ode to Autumn - John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

John Keats is considered as a Romantic Poet perhaphs this is a good lead into Valentine's next week.
Until then, I hope you have enjoyed my uninspired rant of truthful insight and masterful poem for Inspire 52 Week 6!

Now here's some pictures!

Wow, I've done it homework in!

Quotes
- (1) (2) Wikipedia

Inspire 52 - Week 2. The Rules Of The Game

Okay, I have written about three opening paragraphs, and for some reason I can't seem to express what it is I want to say ... so I will hand it straight over to my idol Mary Poppins to explain ...

"In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and - SNAP - the job's a game!" Mary Poppins

Thank you Mary. I don't think I need to elaborate more, you see I tried to, but it didn't work out, which brings me back to Inspire 52 Rule No.1 - Keep it simple (1) For full list of rules see end of Blog

After I began at the beginning with Week 1, my mind went into overdrive about what I could or should be doing, making or creating in order to make this project a success. But there are in fact no coulds or shoulds about it, note Rule No.2 -There are no rules. In trying to force myself to come up with a revolutionary life changing concept for Week 2, I remembered that I am actually doing this for fun! Yes, it is indeed a challenge, a 'job' that I have decided to 'do', but this job must be 'fun' ... note to self... repeat Rule No.3 - Have fun at all times x4, chant Rule No.1 for one minute followed by a round of Rule No.2.

Ok I think that's done the trick! (Hazel now deletes the original three paragraphs she wrote).
If you are still with me by now 'hurrah!', cos this is the bit where we get to the art! With the implementation of Rules No. 1-3 now firmly in place, welcome to Inspire 52 Week 2 ...

It's the simple things in life that are the most extraodinary. Paulo Coelho

This quote is not to imply that I have done something extraordinary, (or maybe I have ;-) but it is the deeper meaning of the experience which is in fact extraordinary to me - Dance ... I love it! A couple of months ago I was introduced to my first experience of BioDanza. I had been wanting to start dancing again and fancied doing something a bit more creative than ... 'and a 1234 and side 234, turn 234' ... and was invited to a BioDanza class ... it was exactly the kind of different I was looking for. Since then I have done about eight classes and simply love it. I just love the enlivening journey of dancitivity and the inner imaginariumation it takes you into during the lesson. (Yes I did just make those words up - artistic licence darling!)

This week was rather special. Due to the roof of the theatre having blown off in the recent storms (slight exaggeration) we were re-located to a ballroom in an old mansion House ... (I know!) As I walked in the room eight large chandeliers adorned the ceiling and flying above them were painted swallows on the ceiling. Magic... this dance was going to be magic, I could feel it.

Birds flying high you know how I feel. Nina Simone 

I spent the first half hour continuing to glance at the ceiling, and as each dance took place, we were all guided into a journey of movement. We were simply asked to 'Be and breathe the music'.

As the bird flew above us, I wandered how many people they had seen dancing in this ball room below them.

As we dance into a place where our souls are born

Every beat of yesterday from our body is torn.

An expression of freedom from soul and heart

Dance into the light, a youthful beginning, a sweet start.

Beautiful sparks of the divine, why aren't we living it?

Dare, love, express, dissolve into the music.

                                                                                                                                                  Hazel Evans

Dancing is an expression of freedom and connection. Connection to the people you dance with, a connection to yourself - body and mind, a connection to the floor we perform on and to the air that passes through our lungs.

I do not have the body of a Ballerina, but I do have my own expression and my own story to dance.

I do not have the wings of a bird, but I do have my own funky moves that will continue to take me on my journey.

And so this is where I have been taken for Week 2. I let go of my coulds and shoulds, I established and implemented the rules of my game, realised that my dance doesn't actually require any rules and as a result had a lot of fun. (Note Rule No. 3)

(1) Inspire 52 Rules:

No. 1 - Keep it simple

No. 2 - There are no rules

No. 3 - Have fun at all times

No. 4 - Make up rules

No. 5 - Break the rules

No. 6 - All rules are subject to change

No. 7 - TBC
(Rules 4 to 7 will be covered in another blog!)

P.S. There are no rules to the dance ... until next week, keep dancing!

Inspire 52 - Week 1. Begin At The Beginning

Bring on the fireworks and the Champagne ... my 2012 artistic challenge has begun!

52 inspirations (translated + regurgitated + communicated) = 52 works of art. What have I committed myself to? Will I be able to do this? Where do I begin?

'The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. "Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?" he asked. "Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." '
(Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 12)

I do suppose the best place is to start at the beginning, and so I shall begin ... here goes!

I had several ideas for how I wanted to start my Inspire 52 challenge, but the plan I started to concoct last week changed in the lead up to the New Year, and it is through that failure of Plan A that Plan B kicked into action ... and that's where my Week 1 begins.

I began asking myself 'what is inspiration?' and 'where does it come from?' so I simply began to gently observe the 'present' life around me. You see, two weeks ago I had no plans for New Year celebrations and then all of a sudden I find myself at a great party with live music from Richard James, the cast of Cinderella from Lighthouse, a costume designer who very kindly fixed my black wig, and I was waving a sparkler outside at midnight! The next day, New Years Day (minus the wig!), I made my way into the woods to spend the afternoon in a self-sustaining eco-lodge with some nice people I have only recently met. Sauna, steaming hot tub in the pouring rain, dancing, napping, eating energising food - Not bad for one afternoon's work!

The following morning, 2nd January, I woke at sunrise with the sunbeams breaking through the trees and into my bedroom window. I took my lovely new Moleskine black notebook and a pen with me as I wrapped up warm and ventured into the morning woodland, walking on the orange bed of fallen leaves sponging under my feet. The birds were tweeting and deer ran though the trees as they caught ear and sight of me. I began thinking about what had been inspiring to me since the beginning of this new year. I felt energised by the location and by the fact that I had just spent the last two days with people who I didn't know very well, but had been invited to share some wonderful experiences with, and for this I felt very grateful.

What was inspiring me right now? The music, singing and dancing; the sense of freedom that doing these things infuses in me. New ventures, new faces and new places; the feeling of being enlivened through new experiences. The fresh air, sunshine and the trees; stimulating a sense of love within my heart.

Inspire = infuse, enliven, stimulate

I sat on a log facing the sun, took a deep breath with my eyes closed. Opened my eyes and then opened my notebook. This is what came out...

What a gift to welcome the year,

It all begins from this place right here.

Another day just like before,

But this one's different from the last I saw.

Another day not like the last,

Different from the ones of past.

As the morning sun casts light on my skin,

It conjures up something else from within.

A new day, a new way.

A new ticket to play the game my way.

And so it seems that my first Inspire 52 takes the form of a poem with an accompanying illustration. Raw, Brut, Premiere Cru from my notebook. (I must admit, it does feel a little exposing opening up my notebook and scribbles onto the face of the internet ... this feels like this is going to be an interesting journey on many levels!).

I did share my piece with Caroline Parrott, from Make 52, and she said 'That's it, you've done it!', so I guess I had!! But it wasn't quite finished for me, so I took the poem and the sketch and incorporated them into one illustration, this is the final piece below.

Upon drawing this piece and getting absorbed into its lines and words I realised that this picture actually does represent the beginning of a new journey for me. I didn't really think about it when I was splurging it into my notebook, but it seems so obvious now looking at the image. I don't think I need to spell it out, I will leave it up to your own interpretation.

I don't really know what I was expecting, but I guess my Week 1 has marked the beginning of my journey into the word 'Inspire' and what it means to be inspired. A simple start that will lead me on an unknown creative voyage. At least I know now that I have indeed begun from the beginning.

One down, 51 to go! I hope you have enjoyed beginning at the beginning with me and continue to join me for the ride :-)

Until next week - Over and out x