A Poem for Halloween (and Plans for November)

Here’s a quick poem I wrote last October that seems appropriate for a Halloween night:

creeps the night

now early creeps the night
things shadowed on drape
when deafness pretends to dance, cavort, strut

the loss of brink
an exciting surge of crackle
flashes the display of light

i fall with blush
blended bold
of red and gold

a mother’s shriek
an artist’s filigree

and now i sleep

The reason I am posting a poem that I wrote a year ago is that I am saving my creative energy for November.  In past years I worked on a novel and a set of short stories for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) during November. I loved the discipline of forcing myself to write every day no matter what.

This year I’ve decided to skip the fiction writing and focus on my art and poetry instead.  Starting tomorrow, November 1st, I plan to create art AND write a poem every day for 30 days.  Yup, you read it right.  I plan to do both every day. But I am not seeking perfection in either.

I wish to keep up the creative momentum of the past months with my art. I’m in a learning mode and I wish to continue that into 2015.  The art I plan to produce could entail painting, art journaling, creating artist trading cards, making Christmas gifts, gelli-printing, doodling, whatever.  I just want to do something artsy every day.

I’ve been in a real slump with my poetry the last two years.  In 2010 I wrote more than 500 poems.  At the very least I normally write at least one poem each month.  But in the last two years I’ve hit some kind of brick wall with my poetry.  I tell myself that my Muse is on vacation . . . but a two-year vacation?  It’s time for her to sit and write.  I’ll worry about the editing.  Sometimes creating is WORK and that’s what I expect November to be as far as my poetry.  If I come away with 30 poems, no matter how good, I’ll be satisfied.

Tonight I’ll get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow I’ll create.  I hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!

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Journal 52 Weekly Art Journal (Week 20: Book Inspiration)

I have been participating in a weekly art journal workshop Journal 52 ( http://journal52.com/ ) since January.  It provides prompts and motivation to keep creating week after week. I have not missed a week yet, even though I have not posted all of my attempts to my blog and sometimes I am ‘late’ in creating my art journal pages. But I’m doing it!

The prompt for last week was “Book Inspired”.  Almost two years ago I wrote a novel (as part of National Novel Writing Month – NaNoWriMo).  It is mystery that takes place both in 1840’s Ohio and 21st Century Arizona. Part of the mystery is how two main characters in the book are connected across centuries. My book remains unfinished and unedited. There is still a lot of work to do before I can even think of trying to publish it. But it inspired me to complete this journal prompt. I tried to make this page look vintage, much like the 175 year old diary that is central to solving the mystery.

This is a mixed media collage.  I started with a torn blank page from my Dylusions journal.  I adhered torns bits from a printed page from my book to the journal page using Liquitex matte gel medium.  Then I used a generic background stencil and acrylic paints in two colors to ‘antique’ the text.  I collaged on two faces printed out from online images and smudged around them with raw sienna paint to make them blend better.  Then I used a vintage border stamp and black archival ink across sections of the page and stenciled words across the page using a StencilGirl stencil by Seth Apter and acrylic paint.  I used a fluer-de-lis stencil on the corners of the images to make them look like photographs from a family album.  Finally, I scanned the page into iPhoto and used the ‘Antique’ and ‘Edge Blur’ effects to tone down the paint colors and make it look more vintage.