Lily's Froggie

My 17 year old daughter Lily is studying graphic animation. She hopes to work in the industry one day. She is in the process of putting together a portfolio of her original character creations for a current (beginning) job opening at a local company. She gave me permission to post "Froggie". She has some really cool images, some far more complicated than this one. I hope she will let me post more of them in the future. This last week was her college spring vacation and all she did was work on this portfolio the entire time. She is one determined young lady.

Tornado Days...

The last few days have been a whirlwind - a topsy turvy category 5 TORNADO of activity!

Sometimes life moves so fast that it's hard to remain standing upright and sane.

What do I mean by that? This last Friday -
1. I booked 19 gigs with the Dallas Public Library for their summer reading program.
2. I gave a 15 minute presentation at a performers showcase in Garland, Texas. When I was done, I was approached by a production company, or more specifically a broadcast and media company, about providing character voices for a children's animated television program.
3. I then went and had an awesome experience doing my Friday Night Live storytelling program for the Dallas Museum of Art.

It was all so exciting! But, when I got home that night, my legs ached with exhaustion and my voice was shot.

I have since followed up with the production company, and it looks like such a fun project. They have to work out the production schedule, budget..etc in the next week or two. I still don't know many details, but the main idea sounds fascinating. It would be so much fun to provide character voices for a children's show. Sure hope it works out.

We had a quiet Easter today, which was very good. Why? Because tomorrow my husband and I will close on our new home. Then we will start moving into it over the next few weeks. I will have a two week break in gigs after this Wednesday and I hope to get some painting done, most of the small stuff moved into it, the yard straightened up, and as always, some story writing done for several programs coming up in the next few months.

It is not the first time that I have found myself moving into a house while frantically juggling outside obligations. Once, I moved into a house during the day and then hurried off to the theater to play the lead in a Neil Simon play that was opening that very night. I survived, so I figure whatever happens, it'll all work out just fine.

At any rate, I have my fingers crossed for good luck!

New Book Alert!

"Listening Is An Act of Love: A celebration of American life from the storycorps project", edited by Dave Isay is remarkable, hopeful, beautiful, enlightening, inspiring, awesome...I can go on and on.

Instead, visit Amazon.com or http://www.storycorps.net/book to learn more about this incredible book.

I checked out a copy of it from the local library, and love it so much that I plan to purchase my very own copy for our home library soon.

I am!

Okay, I haven't finished the cut glass & wire sun, BUT I thought I'd share this picture I did a while back.

Often, I battle self confidence issues as a storyteller. My work involves my "entertaining" complete roomfuls of strangers on a regular basis. So of course I can get anxious and have self doubts about my story choices and performances. Come on, who wouldn't? This piece represents a self affirmation to my calling as a storyteller.

How does it do this?

The tree I created has leaves that are letters representing language/communication. In my imagination, when a breeze moves through a tree's leaves it sounds like the tree is whispering and talking to the world. It's roots are connected with the earth while it's arms are raised towards heaven. The roots remind me to always maintain harmony with the earth, to always stay "grounded". The raised branches remind me to reach out to others, to "go" confidently into the world. Along the bottom (I don't know if you can see this in the photo), but I've stamped,"LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN..." I believe that the best storytellers are even better listeners. The two main colors, blue & green are colors typically associated with healing. Ultimately, for me, I believe that stories do indeed heal people.

This tree reminds me to keep growing & striving to be better storyteller.

Even when I'm afraid, which happens more frequently than I care to admit.

Good News/Bad News

I like getting good news before bad, so here is the good news:

I go to the Dallas Museum of Art this past Saturday for their Family Celebration Day. Despite spending many long hours last week developing & fine tuning my lesson plans & stories for their spring break MaskART! class I will be teaching, I had prepared well for this day. Pheew! Good thing too.

The crowd was huge for my 10:00am storytelling gallery walk through the J.M.W. Turner Exhibit. I had a wee, brief moment of utter heart-thumping terror when I saw all the children, parents & grandparents squeezing themselves into the first gallery, but it passed quickly. NO energy for that, no siree! I needed every electrifying ounce I had for the program.

The program went very well! Yippee!!! The transitions & moves to other rooms worked and we even had time to walk over to see a Rothko piece in another part of the museum.

My second storytelling program later in the day was a delightful experience too, despite a low turnout. A children's band ran 30 minutes late. That meant they played right through my scheduled program time in another area. Oh well...the kids that skipped the band were with me and WOW! what a fun bunch they were.

Now, the bad news. It arrived about 15 minutes before the gallery walk. That's 9:45am to be exact.

The springbreak classes, including mine(MaskArt!)had been cancelled. What!?! Low sign-up of attendees was the reason given. These classes were set to start in less than 24 hours. I put in many, many hours of story & mask research, wrote highly detailed lesson plans, created a PLAY for the kids to perform as a grand finale, and had even packed up my props & tools. Plus, I was soooooo looking forward to the paycheck. Now nothing. Nil. Nada.

Yesterday, I unpacked all my things, put them away and reorganized my files. I now have a mask making workshop that I can do someday, somewhere stored safely away.

>sigh<

Life goes on. Now I have time to work on other projects. Plus, I've been feeling a strong tug to finish some of my visual art projects. This week offers a fine opportunity for completing my broken glass & wire hanging sun piece.

Ah yes, the sun! I need a little sunshine just about now.

It's Snowing in Texas!

We are having a snowy evening in Texas. Wahoo! Lily and I had a little snowball fight, but we didn't last long. It's Cold outside!

Our little family is now all cozy & snug inside by our glowing & toasty fireplace. Sweet!

March Schedule

My storytelling schedule for the month of March thus far:

Saturday, March 8 at 10:00-10:45am and 1:30-2:00pm
Dallas Museum of Art Family Celebration Day. In the morning, join me for a walk through the largest J.M.W. Turner exhibit to be shown in the U.S.A. Children and their families will listen to stories inspired by Turner's gorgeous landscape paintings. OR, in the afternoon, children and their families are invited to meet me on the 4th floor to hear stories inspired by Turner's work.

M-F, March 10-14 from 1 pm to 4 pm daily.
MaskART Spring Break Camp for 6-8 year olds at the Dallas Museum of Art.
I am teaching a unique camp designed around the museum's mask collection from indigenous people around the world. Kids will experience interactive storytelling in the mask galleries, learn theater basics, create their own mask & instruments and on the final day, perform in their masks an original storytelling/theatre program that I have created. Fun, fun, fun!

Friday, March 21 at 2:30
NETLS Performers Showcase. Performance will focus on telling stories to Young Adults.

Friday, March 21 at 7:30-8:00
Dallas Museum of Art's Friday Night Live. Stories on the 4th floor for children and their families.

Wednesday, March 26 Late morning.
I will be telling stories to preschoolers at the NorthPark Mall in Dallas.

That's it for now...

Spinning Woman Experiment

Recently Jeff brought to my attention an experiment where the viewer (you) looks at a spinning woman to see if she is spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise. If you see her turning clockwise, you are using your right-brain hemisphere and if you see her turning counter-clockwise, you are using your left-brain hemisphere. The ability to see her switch and spin both ways is also an option; meaning you can switch from right to left & back again according to your will. This experiment illustrates two very different ways of thinking and learning. See below.

LEFT BRAIN
Logical

Sequential

Rational

Analytical

Objective

Looks at parts

RIGHT BRAIN

Random

Intuitive

Holistic

Synthesizing

Subjective

Looks at wholes

I tested as an extremely right-brained thinker. In fact, I can't switch on the left-brain no matter how hard I try. Jeff & Lily can switch back & forth as most of the people who responded to my email did. Lucky folks. Several creative people I know (artists & writers) showed more right brain thinking.

This test explains so much for me personally.

1. My inability to learn in the traditional school setting in my early years. (I eventually figured out how to learn my own way.)
2. My continuing challenges coping with scheduling and paperwork. I can do it, but it takes lots of focused will power.
3. The way creative ideas come to me. Usually, they come as a complete “whole”. This morning for example, as I was waking up, two new art sculptures "popped" into my head. I then deconstructed them and figured out how to go about building them. My best stories come together within minutes too. The details are not all there, BUT the main story transitions are and so is the ending. In fact, I often can't work out a story until I have some idea of how it will end. Note: The ending can change if it needs to, but I can't even begin without some final image or final goal in sight.
4. My bazaar spelling and mispronunciations. If you know me personally, you will understand.
5. My war with technology. Machines require thinking step-by-bloody plodding through mud step. It bores me. I lose interest quickly. I frequently have to review how to use machines like digital cameras and computer programs because my brain doesn't want to retain the information. Truly, truly frustrating!

Cool experiment for sure. Thanks to all my family & friends for sending me your results.