Artist’s Journal Workshop by Cathy Johnson

Artist’s Journal Workshop

creating your life in words and pictures
with insights from 27 artists
By Cathy Johnson

Now this would make a great Christmas present.  Hey, and she’s even offering autographed copies, a favorite gift of mine.  Of course, I highly encourage you to take a look at it through your local library, before you buy it.

Don’t think of this as a journal that only someone who is a trained artist would make, but as a journal to express the artistic part of yourself.

“People sometimes tell me their lives are too boring or uneventful to journal.  I’m not buying it.  They say there’s nothing to draw that’s not mundane.  But seeing and capturing such things in the pages of a journal rescues them from the mundane.”

I’ve always said everyone has a story to tell.  I encourage people to journal.  I’ve often heard people say they can’t write or they can’t draw, even though I know they made it through school so they must be able to put words on paper, and most people have at least doodled in the margins of paper while they talked on the phone. 

If you don’t enjoy these things, that is certainly valid, but what people usually mean is that they can’t create with the level of sophistication that they see coming from professionals.  Maybe it will be more representational than a direct picture, but you can draw.  You did when you were in kindergarten, right?  You can learn techniques and improve but just drawing will help you improve too.  If you are interested in this, don't let your current level of skill and knowledge deter you.  You will find your own mode of expression.

“This book will show you how to keep your own artist’s journal.  As you celebrate the moments of your life, you’ll discover your own way of capturing them on paper, whether you choose to do simple gesture sketches in less than thirty seconds or to design a complex page with borders, textures, layers or text.”

The author explores such basic questions as “What do you want from your journal?” and “What will go into your journal?”  It might seem art was intended to be shared but she suggests that even whether or not you share the journal is totally up to you.  She explores materials and supplies, like the many different types of pens and pencils, watercolor pencils, simple ballpoint pens.

She does stress that you should put name and contact info inside.  She says many friends have lost a journal and they usually get it back because they did that.

Looking at her images might be intimidating for those of us who are not artistically trained.  Let them serve as an inspiration instead.  What she’s showing you is much later in your journey, perhaps, but it’s also her journey, not yours. 

She encourages you to simply try things - try color, try ink, try collage. 

“For the first ten years or so that I kept an artist’s journal, I worked almost exclusively in black or brown with a pencil or technical pen.  For nature observations, studies and research, the pens worked beautifully – nice crisp details!”    Then she added colored pencils and built up to exploring all sorts of mediums in her journal.

This book provides just the right amount of art instruction as well as the inspiration to create an artist’s journal.  She provides instructions on how to do quick gesture sketches and even how to elaborate on things later, as well as different topics to journal about – nature, travel, dreams and your flights of fancy, challenges that you face in life, and/or your spiritual journal.

Making time may be the hardest part of any journaling endeavor but it can be done, trust me.  Whether you have some creative energy that is burning to get out or a spark that needs to be carefully tended to bring it back to life, you can do this.  Make time for yourself.

Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

Sh*t My Dad Says
By Justin Halpern

I was browsing the shelves one day in the humor section, looking for a pick me up, when I found Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern and took it to lunch.  I’m not sure that was a safe thing to do because laughing and eating often end in choking, but I did it and I enjoyed the book thoroughly. 

As the title suggests, the book is not for the easily offended.  His Dad absolutely uses language constantly that is bound to offend some people, but it’s also incredibly funny.

“For as long as I’ve known him, my father has been a blunt individual.  When I was little, I mostly felt terrified of him, so I couldn’t appreciate that I was dealing with the least passive-aggressive human being on the planet.”

Of course, the idea that his father is simply blunt is a gross understatement but the fact that he is remarkably non passive-aggressive is a good way to think of it.  His father says what is on his mind, good or bad.  He gets it out and then it’s over.

If you want to check out some of his Dad’s latest and greatest one liners, Tumblr makes them available at http://shitmydadsays.tumblr.com/ or they are on Twitter at http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays. 

“On My First Day of Kindergarten – You thought it was hard?  If Kindergarten is busting your ass, I got some bad news for you about the rest of life.”

While most of what you see online is in the form of one liners, his book, short though it is as 158 pages, takes the one liners into the short story length and has a bit more poignancy to it like the time his father helped teach another boy baseball, or the time he goes nuts because Justin doesn’t show up to help him with a project.  When Justin finally shows up, his Dad yells at him then hugs him and says, “I can’t wait till you have some kid and you got to worry about what happens to him.  You never stop worrying about your children.  It sucks.”

There are some truly hilarious stories too, like the time his father thought there was a burglar in the kitchen, got his gun and army crawled to the kitchen (naked) but it was only Justin’s aunt getting a midnight snack. 

Don’t worry, there are also some of his best one-liners at the end of each chapter.

“On Aging – Mom and I saw a great movie last night… No, I don’t remember the name.  It was about a guy or, no, wait, fuck.  Getting old sucks.”

It reminds me of Maxine from Hallmark Greetings or Walter from Jeff Dunham’s stand up comedy.  If you enjoy either of them, you’ll enjoy this book.  I sure did.

The Right Attitude to Rain ~ Alexander McCall Smith

The Right Attitude to Rain
By Alexander McCall Smith

You may know Alexander McCall Smith better as the mystery writer of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series but The Isabel Dalhousie Series also has some sort of mystery to the books, though it is often more of a puzzle than a mystery in the traditional sense. 

Isabel Dalhousie is a moral philosopher by profession and the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. She lives in Edinburgh and her thoughts are often taken up with the moral questions of everyday life. 

In this latest installment, Isabel’s cousin, Mimi, and her husband, Joe, come for a visit from Texas. 

Mimi and Joe also know someone else visiting from Texas, Tom and his fiancé, Angie.  Tom invites them all to a house party, but there’s something not quite right about Tom and Angie.  Is Angie a gold digger?  Is she more dangerous than that?  Is that uncharitable of Isabel?  It preys on her mind.

As a moral philosopher, Isabel is often concerned with the right and wrong of situations and behavior.  When she first sees Tom and Angie, she reacts quite strongly to them.

“She found herself disliking them, this man and woman standing beside their expensive car, because of their arrogance.  She looked down into her coffee cup, and then up again.  No, she thought.  This is wrong.  You should not dislike people you do not know.”

The Right Attitude to Rain introduces a romantic element to the series.  Isabel has become quite enamored of Jaime, Cat’s ex, but he is 14 years younger than herself and she just can’t accept the idea.  Then she takes him to help inspect a flat she is considering purchasing for her housekeeper, Grace, as retirement security.  The owner takes a liking to the two of them, and offers to sell the flat for ten thousand less than the asking price.  She wants to help the couple out.  But they aren’t a couple and it would be dishonest to accept the flat under such misapprehension.  But it does start Isabel thinking, why not?  Why not her and Jamie?  Grace points out the obvious.  Cat probably won’t like it. 

 “…she’s going to be furious… the reason we know Cat would feel that way is that people are human.  That’s something you need to write about in that Review of yours.”

In fact, Cat doesn’t like it, even though she has taken up with someone else.  She is very jealous and even calls Isabel taking up with Jaime “disgusting.”

The story has a lot to do with change, both how far Isabel has come and how much she changes just in this book.  At the beginning of the book, she notes the changes since her marriage ended.

“… now she would see through John Liamor; and she had changed in other respects too.  She had become more forgiving, more understanding of human weaknesses than she had been in her twenties.  And love, too, had become more important to her...”

I read this some time ago but picked up the book on CD because I needed something to entertain me on my long commute; and I always find these books thought provoking and yet relaxing.  It is read with a pleasant Scottish accent which does not detract from the ability to understand what is being said and lends a much stronger feeling of Edinburgh.  It is well worth the listen, or the read, and if you find you like it, there is more available.  The Right Attitude to Rain is the third book but there are now eight books in the series with the ninth, The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds, due out in October 2012.

A Strange Sort of Being by Bambi Lobdell

A Strange Sort of Being:
The Transgender Life of Lucy Ann/Joseph Israel Lobdell, 1829-1912
By Bambi Lobdell
        
Bambi Lobdell was at a loss as to what to research and write about for her dissertation when she was given a copy of an ancestor’s writings about her own life.  Her name was Lucy Ann Lobdell, but she didn’t live out her life under that name, later taking the name of Joseph Israel Lobdell and spending the rest of her life as a man.

“I see Joe as a transgender pioneer, one who bravely lived life as authentically as possible, even though it brought him harassment, ridicule and incarceration, and I feel it necessary to present Lobdell’s life from that perspective,” the author says in introducing her topic.

Lucy Ann Lobdell was born in 1829 and grew up in Albany County, New York, then moved with her family to Long Eddy.  She was pressed into marriage but her husband left her soon after.  The family looked the other way when Lucy wore men’s clothes while she did farm chores, worked in her father’s mill and went hunting.  She became known as the Female Hunter of Delaware County due to her prowess. 

Eventually she left home to earn money as a singing teacher, clothed as a man because, she explained in her writings, no one would pay a woman as much as they did a man.  First she went to Pennsylvania and then west. 

Though the information becomes more scarce about her life out west, it is clear that she was engaged to be married to a woman when she was found out and driven out of town.  She returned home, too depressed to work, and ended up in the poor house. 

There she met Marie Louise Perry and presumably fell in love.  They escaped the poor house together and Lucy become Joe permanently.  They were married in 1862.  They lived off the land in the woods until her brother helped her get the widow’s pension from her first marriage, her husband having died in the civil war, and she bought a house for herself and Marie. 

An understanding of the thinking at the time by the psychological community can help to explain the persecution that Lobdell underwent.  “Before the second half of the nineteenth century, there was no concept of homosexuality as an identity that described a type of person.”

Further, two women desiring each other made no sense at all to the psychological community.  “Since sexual desire was read as an active behavior, and active behaviors were gendered as masculine, it was believed only men possessed sexual urges.  Women were believed to have no sexual desire and simply passively received male advances and pleased men for the sake of having families.”

In the author’s research, she found that stories of Lobdell suggest she was a lesbian or a “passing woman” trying to further her earning ability through wearing men’s clothes.  The author’s research brought her to a different conclusion. 

"While others tell stories that present Lobdell either as an insane woman or a beleaguered lesbian, Lobdell’s own story about sex and gender is that he is a heterosexual man.”

It is a fascinating story of a brave person living their most authentic life.  It is a heartbreaking and tragic story as well.  Lobdell’s brother tricked him on a visit and had him forcibly institutionalized, where Lobdell spent the last decades of life, a prisoner.  False obituaries and reports ensured that Marie Louise Perry never knew what really happened to her husband. 

“Lobdell’s persistence in living as a man only brought him poverty and a lack of employment opportunities, a marginalized life outside of society, and persecution and incarceration by legal and psychiatric authorities.”

Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune
By Frank Herbert

Dune presents the reader with one of the single best examples of science fiction world building ever written.  The forces at work in this novel bring politics, environment, science, religion and more all into play.  The story begins on the planet of Caladan and introduces the hierarchal life there but the family already knows that they are being transplanted to govern Arrakis, also known as Dune, a desert planet.  Arrakis is the only source of a spice which the entire universe needs.  Paul’s father will not survive long there, an assassination ends his reign and Paul must go into hiding.  He goes to live amongst the Fremen, the desert dwelling natives, and learns their ways.  Their legend of a messiah seems to fit Paul and he becomes Maud’Dib.  He learns to ride the giant desert worms and uses the spices to enhance the mental powers he inherited.   

It is an epic story so complex that to encapsulate it in a paragraph can only fail to do justice to the story.  Perhaps the best I can do is to explain how the novel affected me.  It drew me in and held me in thrall. The litany against fear is firmly entrenched in my mind.

I first read Dune as a young teenager.  My father had taken my mother out to dinner and a movie.  Apparently they went by a book store and he saw a copy of the book.  He remembered how much he had enjoyed it when my oldest brother recommended it to him, so he bought it for me. 

I was surprised and I don’t remember exactly what I thought, but I suspect I looked at it with distrust.  I doubted I would enjoy it but I didn’t want to let my father know that because I was so pleased that he had thought of me.  I took the book, said thank you and I don’t recall whether I started it right away or it sat on a shelf for a bit. 

I certainly never suspected how deep an impact it would have on my reading selections or my thinking.  I’m not sure how old I was exactly so I don’t know if I was already reading fantasy and science fiction.  I suspect I was.  I read this book several times over the years, and can quote quite a few paragraphs.

One lesson that has stayed with me over the years comes from this section –

 "Jessica, have you ever stopped hating me?" the old woman asked.

"I both love and hate you," Jessica said. "The hate -- that's from pains I must never forget. The love -- that's . . . "

"Just the basic fact," the old woman said, but her voice was gentle.

The concept of that duality helped me immensely over the years.  I remember a classmate in high school saying that she hated her father.  “No, you don’t,” I said.  “You don’t hate him, you just hate his behavior.” 

Even now, I come across the quote “A beginning is a time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct,” and my brain automatically continues, “This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time...” 

Scary, right?  There was also a British accent in my head for some reason.

I can’t say how the new novels by his son Brian are, the continuation of the series never quite fired my imagination the way the first one did, and I’ve never seen the movie but Dune remains one of my all time favorite novels.  I highly recommend it.

Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson

Crunch Time
by Diane Mott Davidson

I have devoured each new installment of the Goldy Culinary Mysteries with abandon, ever since I was given a copy of Dying for Chocolate, the second book in the series.  Goldy is a caterer with a strong sense of curiosity and an innate ability to wheedle information out of people.  She owns and runs “Goldilocks Catering” (where everything is just right!) 

(Warning – these books may make you hungry.  The books are also filled with descriptions of delicious foods and recipes for many of the dishes that Goldy cooks as a caterer and for her family.  I’ve made one or two of the recipes and they came out just as good as they sounded.)

Goldy is a caterer but she just can’t resist asking questions when her friends are in trouble.  This time her friend and fellow chef, Yolanda Garcia, has had two residences burned down and her most recent employer, private investigator Ernest McLeod, was murdered.  As Goldy looks into Ernest’s open cases and Yolanda’s abusive ex-boyfriend, things get dangerous, but funny too with Yolanda’s cantankerous Aunt Ferdinanda.  Goldy will save the day in the end, but not without some bumps and bruises of her own. 

Goldy seems to me to be getting more and more cavalier about what she does that is outside the law.  I would love to see the author have her do something that puts herself in a compromising position which truly tests her relationship with her cop husband, where they could come out the stronger for it but have Goldy be a bit more cautious in the future.  I think it would be good for her growth as a character.

Crunch Time is subtitled a novel of suspense, instead of being numbered 14 in the Culinary Mysteries, as all the other books have been.  I have a suspicion that the publishers, the William Morrow imprint from HarperCollins, were hoping to make this novel a break out by asking for more from the author and not referring to it as part of the series.  Unfortunately, this really didn’t work.  The book is a bit longer than the others, but it feels that way.  Additional material that could have been cut was included and it makes the novel drag a bit toward the end.  I don’t know if her sales were beginning to slip a bit or the publishers just thought she could reach a wider audience but, to my mind, it’s better to be really great at what you are than try to be something you are not. 

Over all, I enjoyed this novel, just not quite as much as the earlier books in the series.  If you’ve never read one, I recommend, starting earlier in the series and working your way up.

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree

By Susan Wittig Albert

Step back in time, with a quiet and genteel summer mystery.

If there’s one thing that Susan Wittig Albert means to me, it’s a relaxing, cozy story, even when someone dies.  I’ve enjoyed her China Bayles’ herbal mysteries set in Texas and her sweet series, The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, so I had little doubt this one would be anything but an intriguing and relaxing read for summer vacation.

The Darling Dahlias are a garden club who come together in Darling, Alabama to garden and, apparently, to solve mysteries that involve the citizens of their town.  It’s May of 1930.  The Dahlias vote to reduce the dues for the club from 25 cents a month to 15 cents, in order to increase their membership.  They’re largely a mature group of women from different walks of life, some secretaries and some wives, a bank teller, a librarian and business owners.  There’s  even switchboard operators on a telephone party line – a handy way to come by some information.

But, just what is a cucumber tree?  “It’s such a big tree, and so pretty when it blooms, that it’s earned quite a reputation.  People driving or walking down Camellia Street always stop to admire it, especially at this time of year.  It’s in full bloom just now and covered with beautiful creamy blossoms as big as dessert plates, some of them.  The flowers produce little red fruits that look like baby red cucumbers.”

The Darling Dahlias have just inherited a beautiful old home, with gardens that include two huge cucumber trees, from a former member, along with a mystery and ghost.  Someone has been digging in the garden at night, but why?  The story goes that the ghost is Cornelia Cartwright but that’s where versions diverge.  The public tale is that the ghost is looking for the family treasure, which was hidden to keep it from the Union soldiers.  Another tale, told in the kitchens, is that she is looking for a baby that did not survive from an illicit love affair during the war.

But there is more than a ghost running around in the night.  An escaped convict is on the loose.  A beautiful young woman is found in a staged car wreck, though it is determined she was shot.  Adding to the tension is rumors that the bank may fail and when a Dahlia friend is accused of having embezzled money from the bank in her job as a teller, the Dahlia’s start asking questions.  Who is behind all of this and is it related?   One question leads to another until the ladies have solved the many mysteries in Darling, Alabama.

With another book (The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies) already added to the series and another one coming out in September 2012 (The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose) it should keep people who enjoy a good cozy mystery series reading for a little while.