Tag Archives: artist inspiration

…But Fear Itself (Again) (Throwback)

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Climbing the Ladder to Balcony House, Mesa Verde

Climbing the ladder to Balcony House in Mesa Verde National Park, mid 1970’s

(Originally posted 20 November 2013 – almost exactly 2 years ago)

Back in the murky time BC (Before (personal) Computers) my family made the obligatory pilgrimage to “Discover America”.  Just like the Brady Bunch we all piled into the car and headed west.  Of course we piled into a Chrysler “that’s as big as a whale” instead of a station wagon, but it was the same concept.

 We hit all of the important spots like Yellowstone, the Golden Gate Bridge and Hollywood.  I had the time of my young life.  What could be better than going from watching the filming of a game show one day to standing barefoot in the snow on a high mountain pass just a few days later?  Desserts, beaches, huge trees, soaring mountains, waterfalls, geysers and more: everything was just enchanting.  Ah, the best of times.  Not a problem or care in the world.

Well, almost.  You see, I forgot to leave my fear at home. Continue reading →

It Started With a Dream

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The Hamlet Symphny - Alt Image

It started with a dream. And a very strange dream it was (*read the dream at the end of the post). It jumped around and didn’t make any sense and yet seemed real. I thought about it as I went through my morning routine. On my drive to work I wrote a little story in my mind based on the dream. By the time I pulled into the parking lot I had it pretty much down. I also realized it was more of a single scene than a standalone story.  i was thinking four, perhaps five, parts.  I took a break from work midway through the morning and cranked it out as fast as I could type. The scene was in my brain, I just had to type it out. I took less than 30 minutes to type and post the more than 1800 words of “The Halley Branch (Part 1)”.

For a few days it continued like this. I would think of the next chapter as I drove to work. Half way through the morning I’d take a half an hour break to write up what I had planned on my drive and post it. After the forth part I realized the story was going to be a lot bigger than originally planned, perhaps book length.

After about the fourth or fifth part I started doing a lot of the writing at home in the evening. Continue reading →

Challenge Me! (Again)

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Hamlet Symphony - Trent P McDonald

A few years back I followed a music forum.  One cool thing about this forum was the recurring composition challenges.  Everyone would submit a piece of music on a given theme.  The compositions would be posted anonymously.  We would then be given the opportunity to vote on our favorite.  The winner had the honor of creating the theme for the next challenge.

Of all of the challenges I entered and all of the pieces I created for them I liked Challenge 13 and the piece that sits at the top of this post was my favorite.  Obviously I enjoy the more obscure themes that challenge the imagination and force me to expand my boundaries.  To me the simple themes that many of the participants liked were a little boring, musical chewing gum if you will.  Listen to this little country dance Continue reading →

Seeing Colors

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I would define a visual artist as one who knows how to see.    If you can legibly write this sentence with pen and paper then you have the fine motor skills to be a de Vinci.  What Leonardo had is the ability to understand what he was seeing.

One simple method to help people see is to abstract objects to simple rectangles, circles, triangles, etc.  Most people can draw those, so if you start there and slowly refine your drawing you can eventually learn to see the shapes.

So how about color? Continue reading →