Austin Kleons World K A to Z Challenge

 I am a HUGE fan of Austin Kleon.

The newsletter he churns out each week is a wealth of interesting thoughts, 

links & ideas from his hyper active mind. I strongly suggest you sign up, or at least click on random posts to see what I mean. I can't tell you how many interesting people or creative ideas I have been introduced to by this weekly piece of goodness in my inbox.

Austin is the one who gave me the idea for Guardians in my journals. 

My G post for the challenge.

 His latest book just came out. Being an artist is hard, to keep going as an artist even harder. 

The little video in the link gives you a good idea of what's in store. 

His first book "Steal Like An Artist" is great small pieces of advice for any creative. 

 

I could go on & on but I will let you decide to take a look for yourself, or not. 

The loss would be yours. 

This picture from his newsletter is what I'm doing in many of my posts

 in the challenge this time around. Honoring my creative heroes.  

They do keep me going when I'm frustrated or lonely.

Who do you admire? How do they keep you going? 

'Writing Down the Bones" #AtoZChallenge

Published in 1986 it continues to offer great advice   I decided to go through the book make notes in margins, dog ear pages, & put it to use. Gasp. I am a firm believer that you should make a book your own. That means it's OK to mark it  up. There is so much good stuff for life as well as how to write.

I printed a copy of this short list of advise from Josh Spector.  

I use it every time I do a blog post. To get rid of "ing" is tough.

Delete the word “that.”

At least 90% of the times you use the word “that” can be removed from your writing and it will instantly make your sentence stronger.

Example: “You believe that I’m lying, but I’m not.” becomes “You believe I’m lying, but I’m not.”

Delete the words “I think.”

It adds nothing. Remove it to strengthen your point.

Example: “I think this is a good sentence.” becomes “This is a good sentence.”

Avoid words that end in “-ing.”

In most cases, the “-ing” softens your word and adds no value. Your writing will read better if you avoid it.

Example: “The experiences we’re seeking end up being underwhelming and even disappointing.” becomes “The experiences we seek often underwhelm and disappoint.”

Short sentences. Short paragraphs.

Most sentences can be cut in half. Don’t be afraid to have a two or three word sentence.

Keep paragraphs to less than three sentences.

White space is your reader’s friend.

Shrink your opening sentence.

Make it compelling, but keep it short and conversational.

Short post today. Getting tuckered out. Only three letters left.  I'm gonna make it.

What advise do you turn to for your blog posts? Or life in general?  Would love to hear.

 

Amazing Times

Just got back from a truly wonderful experience at lake Louise in Northern Michigan. We 21 women had a fantastic Art Retreat with two exceptional artists, Pamela Paulsrud and Rosie Kelly. I suggest  you go poke around their sites or search for images.

We dabbled in paste paper, eco dyeing...with incredible surprising results, suminogashi, and binding the results into book form.

Over the next few posts I'll focus on one aspect of what we learned or played with. Here is a taste of how the process began:

 We filled a full sheet  40" X 26" of Arches Text Wove with writing, front & back. Pam offered prompts to get us to use different sizes, our non dominant hand, a conversation between ourselves and our 4 year old self.  A fun freeing experience.

Next came applying paste & pigment to the page, again front & back. To later be cut into pieces for book structures.

 It doesn't look like much yet, but hang inthere with me.

 Plus I have recently gotten addicted ot embossing letters. I incorporated this into my book for the title page which I will show you next time. This is my practice piece.

Till next time....