Evidence of a Creative Mind | EOACM Art Zine
Issue Two: Forward
Article 1: The Fog of Now

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This circle

The path is narrow
Winding down
Though the mist
To the river below
Water is cold, deep, and dark
Yet unseen
Peering ahead
For the sudden turn
On the edge
Of the drop
To the river below
Rock and water wait unseen
As a ghost
Almost there
Slips away
And is gone
Without sound
Every step
Closed in from behind
This circle
All that is known
And beyond
What is not

- James Anderson

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Author’s note:
Forward into the Mist / I was thinking of years ago riding down a narrow road to a narrow bridge, crossing the river at night, in the fog. How all you are aware of is that tiny area around you that moves with you as you slowly move ahead.
James Anderson
February, 2011

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Photograph and background image by Woodie Anderson

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Also, I wanted to share this quote from Charles Eames (via Frank Chimero):

“We work because it’s a chain reaction, each subject leads to the next.”

I think that sums up one of my personal goals for work AND life: To keep exploring and moving forward. With that life attitude, every day will be a learning experience and there’s no time to say “I’m bored.” if you are, it’s YOUR fault! Hear, hear!

It is tempting to think there are no beginnings, no rebirths. Every new day we have to live with yesterday. That doesn’t mean we can’t change. Change is slower than we think. It sneaks up on us. We can’t shed our skin like snakes, we replace our cells, one-by-one. We cross-fade into becoming new people. One day you wake up and look in the mirror and say “Who is this person?”

Hello, nice to meet you.

But when we travel, we move more rapidly than the rest of the world. We change faster, revise who we are quicker. I think when we travel our cells replace themselves with more rapidity. We may not be able to shed our skin, but through the sheer velocity of movement, we slough off our old selves.

But that furniture is still in the same spot when we return home. Mostly, it seems that things will be as they were before. And yet, not. Things are different now. I know it. They WILL be different. And better. This time through, I’ll be better. At least that is how it feels. But it’s always tough to separate how things feel and what they really are.

- Frank Chimero

“Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.” – Chuck Close via Drawn

Some advice “for anybody who will listen” from Chuck Close. You can read some of my thoughts about this quote and about creating art on my personal blog.

Imagine your hometown no longer existed. Would your memories be enough? Would it be easier to move forward if the past was cast in amber and Kodachrome? Absorbing material about a town in Canada that was torn down and carted away, leaving its residents in exactly that situation. Originally collected for a book but turned into interactive website by Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons. Well worth the time to watch/listen/click through. Via Dooce.

I thought I’d share a recent print of mine that relates to the “forward” theme. This piece started with a stream-of-consciousness journal entry I wrote while reflecting on the past year and the one ahead of us. In the text, I talk about some of my goals for the new year and also some of the life lessons I learned in  2010.

Sometimes the simple act of writing words down can be a way of moving forward. We acknowledge and honor the thoughts in our heads, while making room for new ones by purging and refining our thoughts in writing. Drawing or sketching can also be a wonderful form of meditation, as I was reminded of this weekend when I attended a workshop on Drawing the Mandala. You can read a little more about that workshop on my blog, here. What simple acts do you use as a way to clear your mind and move forward in your life?

A nice post on on the flickr blog featuring photography on the theme of looking forward. There’s something interesting about seeing the human form but not seeing the faces that’s interesting. I guess it makes the image more universal, in a way.

fire/forward sketchbook thinking

Propagation model wildfire by Christophe Dang Ngoc Chan

Was working on a collaborative journaling project last night and started thinking about fire. The jumping off point in the journal was the phenix, but from there my mind when to the healing properties of fire. And from there to the other properties of fire and how people study it. And from there to the interesting charts and graphs (I love charts and graphs from a graphic designer perspective) about how fire propagates and it struck me… Fire moves forward… Fire moves with purpose and motivation. Fire moves forward based on external forces (like the wind), but also based on its need. Fire won’t burn if there’s nothing to burn. And, with nothing to burn, fire goes out instead of moving forward.

Forgive the bad photo, but the other night, the absctact, fragmented nature of this shadow in the hall struck me as almost poetic. I wish I could’ve captured the image clearly, but its nature made that hard.

Shadows on the walls. Sometimes they float around, like leaves on water. Sometimes they zoom through the room, like angry blue jays. When they move, are they moving forward or backward?