Category: Creativity

Creating something every day for 365 days

Some new challenges

Posted on by Dale

I’ve been inspired by Mike’s 24 Hour Toon venture, so I’m going to set myself a challenge, more about which in a moment.

The other challenge which I’ve set myself is to fill a couple of pages of sketches of people’s mouths. (I thought about leading off with some statement about sketching “body parts,” just to set your filthy minds in motion, but why waste the time?) Those Lichtenbergians who’ve had their reference photos taken will be my subject.

After I do mouths, I’ll move on to noses, eyes, etc. I may do chests or thighs.

OK, my 24-Hour challenge.

  1. Pick a number between 1 and 5.
  2. Pick a number between 1 and 1082.
  3. Pick a number between 1 and 40.
  4. Email those three numbers to me, in order: 2-563-24, for example.

Here’s what I’m going to do. I have selected five books of poetry from my shelves:

  • The Best American Poetry 1999 (2000)
  • A Controversy of Poets: an anthology of contemporary American poetry (1965)
  • Master Poems of the English Language (1966)
  • Poems for the Millennium: the University of California book of modern & postmodern poetry, vol. II (1998)
  • A Year in Poetry: a treasury of classic and modern verses for every date on the calendar (1995)

Those are not in order 1-5, by the way. Your three numbers will give me: a volume, a page number, and a line number. If the page number or line number exceeds the number of pages or lines, I’ll do the modular math thing until I get to a number which is contained in the volume/page. A couple of the books have essays interspersed; if the page number is within an essay, I’ll move to the first page of poetry after the essay.

And…?

I’ll post the sender and the line of poetry (perhaps the complete sentence, if I’m in the mood) and within 24 hours, I will compose a brief setting of that line for baritone voice, i.e, me, and post it here. I am not going to compose an entire piece, merely that one line, for voice and piano (or if I’m really inspired, a string quartet).

If all of you email me at once, I’ll take them in order as I get them.

Let’s see how far I get.

Painting, 5/18/09

Posted on by Dale

My goal tonight, art-speaking-wise, was to do at least five pages of sketches from photos I took Saturday night, and at least one painted sketch for Field III.

In all of that I’ve been successful. I ended up with eight sketches in the notebook, and this for Field III:

I think what I want to do next with this idea is explore more blogs along the horizon line.

Incidentally, this is not based directly on a photo, as were Field I and Field II. I have a photo I’m using as an inspiration, but its composition is not as strong as I want it. Of course, neither is this study.

More work is called for.

Random musings

Posted on by Dale

Nothing of import to discuss, just lots of little meandering ideas.

Yesterday was my birthday, yes, thank you for all the well wishes, and I received several nice things. Those of you who know my penchant for wooden boxes (and clearly my wife knows it) will understand the thrill I got from this:

It’s a pencil box, not an antique, but a very neat replica of one. Here you can see the inkwell on the left, and the upper “drawer” swung out to the side. The joint between the inkwell and the drawer is not distorted: it actually slants so that the drawer can swing out. When it’s swung in, the lid slides all the way in and holds it all together.

I’m thinking about making it my pen & ink case for all those many times I’m sketching with pen & ink. Well, you know, all those times I’m going to be sketching with pen & ink.

My dear wife also gave me, as a semi-serious gag gift, three little art kits: watercolor, sketching, and oil pastel. Each “artist’s kit” is about 12×14 and opens up to reveal a nice pad of paper, a tray of supplies, and a book by the series author, one Philip Berrill, the “Flying Artist.”

In what is surely a stunning example of the Newnan Vortex™ at work, Mr. Berrill died exactly two weeks ago. It almost makes me feel bad about what I have to say about his kits.

Here’s the cover to the watercolor kit:

This is it, guys. It doesn’t get any better in any of the illustrations in any of his guides. It’s awful. It’s so awful that it doesn’t even make me feel better about myself as an artist. I mean, this guy was famous and apparently rich from the sales of his books and kits. He flew to Dubai to teach ex-pats how to paint. Mercy.

Plus, the pad converts into an adjustable easel. At least there’s that.

I do think that such a kit would have been a godsend to me as a child. The quality of the materials is not the best, but it’s all there in a nifty little book/box, and there are some cheesy examples in the book to copy that wouldn’t strain the abilities of the rankest beginner, and I have to believe that these things will give the gift of art to more than a couple of people who would not have had it otherwise.

In other news, the sequel to Shubian’s Rift has begun shooting. Oh yes.

Did you know I’m in the Internet Movie Database? Oh yes I am. And in Amazon, where I am top billed.

The sequel, the title of which I am yet unaware, will be webcast in three episodes. I will not spoil it for you by revealing the dread secret of Sid Shubian and Tuka D’Nuul. Not to mention Dr. Ploo.

Today a box arrived from Cottage Garden, and it sorely puzzled me. I had not ordered anything, yet it was addressed to me. When I opened it, it was seven little plants, cunningly packed, a gift from Marc and Mary Frances Honea. They’re a little flowering shrub, Cuphea ilavea, and they’re in memory of our little dog Winnie, who passed away last month. This variety is called “Tiny Winnie,” which is why the Honeas gave them to us.

Here’s what they will look like:

For the moment I will plant them in planters, but eventually they’ll go in the planting area beside our “dance floor” patio overlooking the labyrinth.

I have a lot to get done between now and the gathering of the Lichtenbergians by the labyrinth on Saturday, and the amount of rain we’ve been having has not helped. Still, this afternoon I was able to drag some stuff together and start creating a new look for one of the lighting fixtures:

This is on the advice of my trusted shamanic advisor, who said that these lights, situated as they are by the southpoint of the labyrinth, needed metal, preferably copper. You can sort of see what it looks like in this photo. My puny camera cannot capture the glow and interplay of light in the night. You’ll just have to drop by and see it for yourself.

What else do I want to get done before Saturday? I have to finish the new lighting look at the southpoint. I need to plant the remaining ferns (Japanese painted) where the daffodils have finally died down, digging up the bulbs and transferring them, eventually, to the dance patio planting area. I have to clean off my work tables, no easy task. I’d love to get the stone circle made for the westpoint. I have to clean all the votives and replace the candles. I want to trim and sweep the stones. Etc., etc. I wonder how much I’ll get done.

Music, abortive attempts

Posted on by Dale

I had an empty block of time, so I thought I’d amuse myself by pulling up “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way” and filling in the gaps where, in the choral version, the orchestra is not doubling the chorus, i.e., there is no melody present. There are only a couple of passages where that is the case, so this looked to be like an easy re-entry into my composing.

The first stumbling block, you knew this was coming, didn’t you?, was my old nemesis Finale itself. Somehow, whenever there’s an upgrade, it completely loses the ability to read its own dynamic or technique markings. There’s been a steady degradation of playback on “Milky Way” since 2006.

Actually, that was the only stumbling block. Filling in the gaps was an easy thing, or should have been. There were plenty of lacunae in the orchestral fabric, i.e., several appropriate instruments were sitting on their butts during those passages. The problem became, what the heck does it sound like?

Then of course the reverse fear began to haunt me: what if, rather than getting worse, Finale was actually getting better, and the lush, flowing orchestral piece of 2006 was in all reality a dreadful, clunky piece of sludge? The fact that it can’t play its own pp or mf or pizzicato is a comfort in this case.

Anyway, I plugged the holes and am considering sending it to Stephen for his perusal.

Painting, 4/30/09

Posted on by Dale

I began making sketches for Field III, a commissioned work (hi, Seth!), out by the labyrinth. They all were atrocious. (Sorry, Seth.) But I’m regarding that as a good sign: I am not content with first efforts and can in fact recognize bad composition. Whether I can develop a good composition is the next question.

Painting

Posted on by Dale

An odd thing happened tonight while working on Field I:

The little vertical strokes got messier, more complex, and then I started adding the little black shapes above the their usual place in the white field. All of a sudden I felt as if I were looking at a small, inchoate Last Judgment: tiny souls ripped from their frozen waste and sucked up into an even colder empyrean.

Awful. I hope it lasts.

I just remembered that I hadn’t updated my fans on what happened with Field II. It was sold for $60 at the “Tulips & Juleps” affair on Saturday night. I actually do not know who bought it. I’m trying to find out. The start of a brilliant career.

An anniversary

Posted on by Dale

It was one year ago today that I stopped working on the Symphony No. 1 in G major. And since that day, I have written no music.

Yes, I’ve done a few exercises, one of which is promising, but on the whole I just haven’t been able to get back into that part of my brain. It’s not that I haven’t tried, although of course I have not tried very assiduously, it’s just that I’ve not been “inspired.”

And so I’ve piddled around, revising “Sir Christémas” and arranging “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way” for two-piano accompaniment; I’m supposed to be revising the orchestral score as a standalone piece. But new, exciting work? Nada.

It’s not that I haven’t been creative, because I have. I have been taken aback at how strongly my interest in painting has elbowed its way into my brain. Probably a Lichtenbergian strategy to keep me from writing music. We got Coriolanus up and running, and Lacuna keeps plugging along on Wednesdays. I write. I sing in Masterworks.

But I haven’t written any music for a year. Maybe I can make myself feel bad enough about it to want to do something.

Painting, 4/10/09

Posted on by Dale

This is a very, very odd feeling.

I stopped working on the painting on Wednesday, if you will recall:

I left it to see if would change on Thursday, and it didn’t. Late last night, I signed it.

This is the first painting I have signed in probably 37 years. It took me a couple of passes, actually. I used to sign my stuff with a sturdy DL, but I decided to start afresh with a more traditional Lyles. I tried a printed version, but finally went with my actual signature. I ended up having to practice for quite a while to get it right.

So now there’s a signed Lyles sitting downstairs, waiting to be picked up today. “Field II,” gouache on board, 15″x20″. I’ve dated it on the back with today’s date, along with the title and my signature again. That was mostly to indicate which way was up, actually.

This is a very odd feeling. It’s going to be displayed in a silent auction next to the work of Martin Pate, Georgie Dunn, and others, real artists. People are going to look at it. Evaluate it. Decide if they want it, could love it, would be willing to pay money for it. Or not.

And I will just have to smile and pretend that all of this is very natural which of course it is not. Even if I make small talk about how I’ve just taken up painting again, I cannot possibly say, “And this is my first painting.” And what if people say, “I’d love to see more of your stuff”? I cannot say, with a bitter laugh, “There is no other stuff.”

Yes, anticipating your response, that would be worse than their not asking to see more of my stuff.

This is the emotion of artistic fraud at its most basic. At least I’ll get a monolog for Bears & Giraffes (now in development by the Lacuna Group) out of it.

But Dale, you might say encouragingly, it’s a good piece. Yes, I think it is. (That does not mitigate its fraudulent nature.) And I want to do more in a similar vein. More “snow” compositions, or should I explore other colors?

It is interesting that what I wanted to do with the subject would be more effectively done with oils than gouache, but oils are for the future. They’re expensive and require a commitment of space and ventilation.

In other news, Stephen Czarkowski has, with prompting, remembered that he has a world premiere at his fingertips and has requested the score for “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way.” This is in addition to the idea we had recently of offering it to the Chinese Youth Orchestra for their Georgia tour this summer. And my goal today in fact is to try to finish the two-piano arrangement so that it might actually be performed by a chorus.

later

Done, for a ducat! I was hacking my way through the underbrush that clogs the “piano score” at “I will give up sleeping forever, I said,” when suddenly I emerged into what was clearly finished material. Apparently I skipped over the middle part and worked on the ending last summer. Which means, wait for it, I’m done. “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way” is now ready for choral performance without an orchestra.

Painting, 4/8/09

Posted on by Dale

No new paint yet, but I have broken my resolution not to buy things:

I went to buy a couple of new tubes of paint and ended up with the paint and a new sketch box easel.

Wait, please, I can explain.

I hate painting flat on the table. As my hands and eyes regain whatever it is they had back when I did paint, they’ve rebelled against making do with my drafting table. Also, I have been mulling over a series based on the labyrinth, and that means en plein air, and that means hauling all my crap downstairs. This gizmo solves all the problems. See the little drawer on the side? Isn’t it cute?

And the easel part actually extends below the edge of the table, which is more than perfect. So it wasn’t exactly the kind of purchase I was forbidding myself from making.

Besides, I already bought $300 worth of ferns for the labyrinth last Saturday.

Shut up. I don’t have to listen to you. You’re not the boss of me. I have a painting I have to finish.

later

This is what finished looks like before tomorrow morning when I look at it again and decide to futz with it:

The comments, as always, are open.