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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, art, creativity, inspiration, itch reflex, NASA, persistence, the world-changing powers of caffeine, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, activism, adventure, art, creativity, inspiration, magic made real, nature, sculpture on July 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »
This is just all kinds of delightful:
Giant Trolls in Detroit Lakes Bring the Public on a Fairy Tale Adventure
The Danish artist has continued to expand his work in America and has just completed his most ambitious project ever with Alexa’s Elixir. Located in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, the exhibition takes people on a journey to solve a riddle and find a Golden Rabbit.
Sculptor, recycling artist and activist Thomas Dambo makes giant trolls and shares them with the rest of us. And when they say “giant,” they mean it!
If you happen to be in the Detroit Lakes area of Minnesota, this looks like a lot of fun.
WHERE ARE MY TROLLS ? LOST 9 SCULPTURES IN MINNESOTA! – YouTube
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, advice, art, artists, creativity, inspiration, Writers on July 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to the graduating class of New York’s Xavier High School is good advice for all artists, or anyone hoping to “experience becoming.”

Here it is read by another artistic treasure, Gandalf Ian McKellen:
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #peoplebeforeprocessors, art, creativity, innovation on June 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“I want Al to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for Al to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.”
— Joanna Maciejewska
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, art, kindness, Thoughts on May 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, art, memory, music, Thoughts on February 6, 2024| 1 Comment »
I tried to resist posting the Tracy Chapman / Luke Combs duet of Chapman’s “Fast Car” because it is everywhere. Why did I break down and change my mind? Because music, like writing and other forms of art, is a transformative time machine.
Tracy Chapman Duets “Fast Car” with Luke Combs
Listening to the performance, I remember who I was when I first heard the original song. I remember the road I’ve travelled to get to where I am. And I remember running down the steps at the Harvard Square T station and realizing that Chapman had been there before me, playing to distracted commuters as she built her own road to the future.
It’s also just a really good song.
And I love that a new generation is getting to hear it in a way that emphasizes the shared humanity, challenges and goals of its singers, and listeners.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, art, community, creativity, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I recently had an article featured in the Winter 2024 edition of Review Tales. (I’d share the essay but unfortunately it’s not freely available.) If you click through the magazine links, you’ll see my article highlighted in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover. I’m writing about something with which I am all too familiar! “When the Muse Takes a Holiday.”
* Find Review Tales at Amazon and B&N.
I will say that the promotional elements of creative work can be a little challenging. I’ve never been that comfortable talking about myself.
It’s not about me, I want to say. Art is about us, and the world we create together.
“It can seem like it’s about, Look at me! Like me! Approve of me!’, but I think it’s really about finding your people. It’s about connections, especially when you grow up feeling different and like you don’t have a community. Through art, you’re able to find that community, which is a wonderful thing.”
— Maya Erskine, on why she’s drawn to acting despite “a childhood in which she desperately wanted to blend in”
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Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, art, creativity, inspiration, photography, video on January 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I tried to skip past this link and couldn’t.
An augmented-reality filter reveals the hidden movements all around us
This simple technique produces dazzling results, causing tree branches to shimmer as they sway in the wind, dust particles to become bold beams of light, and camouflaged insects and animals to be instantly unveiled. De Boer’s montage serves not only as a free and easy tutorial on the possibilities of this creative tool, but also as eye candy for anyone keen to witness the hidden patterns of movement that surround us.
The effect is fascinating. In some ways it’s the opposite of a time-lapse, which captures what remains still and merges motion. Here, movements that typically remain hidden are visible. Like a camouflaged deer, or blowing leaves, or even footprints.
While some examples are just pretty, it’s hard not to jump to the scientific and creative possibilities of this technique. I haven’t explored video effects, but this makes me want to start.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, art, creativity, fail better, failure, Thoughts, Writers, writing on December 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“You need to drop glass on the floor, get the burns, all those things. The real practice is in all the pieces that didn’t make it, the cliched blood, sweat and tears. You can’t know the limits of something unless you’ve failed.”
— Will Shakspeare, artisan glassblower
And you can still make something beautiful along the way.
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Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, AI, art, creativity, genre fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on December 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Ken Liu is one of our modern masters of speculative fiction. The first story of his that I read was “The Paper Menagerie,” “the first piece of fiction to win three genre literary awards: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award.”
So he’s pretty good.
He’s also been thinking about art, AI and the evolving relationship between them. Here’s his new story:
Future Science Fiction Digest – Good Stories
Clara’s favorite part of the workday is the very beginning.
She likes flipping the switches on the wall right inside the office entrance, all sixteen of them, different colors and laid out in two neat columns, like the console from an old NASA space capsule that she got to sit inside once on a school trip to DC. As she takes a sip of her latte, her right hand running up the wall, click-click-click, flipping one switch after another, she imagines herself turning on rocket engines, initiating a docking maneuver, venting some dangerous alien spores out the airlock.
The story is one of the many interesting pieces in The Digital Aesthete: Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI, edited by Alex Shvartsman with an impressive roster of authors.
Today’s software can only imitate art, but what about tomorrow?
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