Interesting Thought.

You may have noticed that this past weekend I spent a lot of time with my camera recording. I had my normal acting video, my painting, and a special short story for my nephew.

My hope in doing acting videos is for people to watch, be entertained, and hopefully give feedback. I am doing them so I can grow. My focus with them is others that I may not know. I’m trying to reach the widest audience with these videos.
I recorded my painting because I find it interesting to watch a painting come to life. I know a few friends enjoy watching them, but I do it because I like it. I’m not really focused on the audience with these videos.
Finally I recorded my short story for an audience of one. I only cared about entertaining my nephew. I had fun writing for him and showing my love to him in a unique way; in a way that was very much me. He has been a big fan of mine and he may not even know how much him liking my art means to me, but it means the world to me. I can always count on him for a good review.

What is interesting about these three videos? Well I realized something important. It is something that I should have known and as an artist I should remind myself every time before sitting/ standing to create. I realized that when you focus your art on someone you love or share your love through your art, that is when it means something. When love is at the center you will get noticed.

I almost didn’t post my short story on youtube. I was just going to post it on my sister’s facebook wall, but I wanted to make sure my nephew would be able to see it whenever he wanted. That was the only reason I posted it on youtube. Now it has 11 views, (I know that is not that much) when I was hoping for only 1. My painting has 14, when I did not care and my acting has 3 when I was going for at least 14.

The lesson in all of this is remembered to do what you love because you love it, not because of others.



Palindrome Poem

poetry

Palindrome Poetry
Also Known as Mirrored Poetry
A palindrome, by definition, is a word, phrase, verse, sentence, or even poem that reads the same forward or backward. It stems from the Greek word palindromos: palin, meaning again, and dromos, meaning a running. Combining the two together, the Greek meaning gives us, running back again…
The carefully placed words form the same sentence, whether it is read forward or backward. For example, ‘Mirrored images reflect images mirrored’ which includes a word in the center as a reversal point for the sentence or even the poem.

Tick tock tick goes time.
Yes, time goes  Tick tock tick.

This one was actually harder to do than I thought it would be.  

Heart On Fire (Painting)

I normally do not like posting twice in one day, but I just finished an abstract painting that I’m calling “Heart On Fire.” It is very different from the other post so thought I would share it with you.

This painting started with a vague idea in my mind, but I was not sure how it would come out. It was my first attempt at painting a heart on fire. I do like how it came out. The purpose of this painting is to display the passion that is in at least my heart that shines even when the surroundings are dark.

The video is the recording of me painting it and the pictures are of the finish product (in case you could not tell).

Heart on Fire 003
Heart on Fire 004
Heart on Fire 005

Please know it has been purchased.

Want More?

On YouTube, I do have a playlist dedicated to sped up paintings. I also have a section on this site where I share my visual arts portfolio along with my painting portfolio.

DreamWard Bound (week of June 14- 21, 2014)

success

I feel like this week was very focused on this blog. I kept a close eye on my stats, reviewed them, and took note every time some one liked a post or started to follow the blog. I started to really look into the blog on Monday, which after I did I wrote, “I am loving the fact that for very post I have published some one has started to follow the blog. Now, some posts go unread or not liked as much as others, which is fine and will happen. – I’m not perfect and do not fool myself into thinking I am. –  Still I am so happy and thankful that you guys have at least found one post you liked enough to follow.”  When I say that for every post published some one started following my blog, I mean I have published 114 posts now and have 115 followers. On Monday these two numbers were the same.

I did not take any notes on Tuesday. I had apartment searching stuff to do and then went over a friend’s house. Thankfully I had written and scheduled a poem to be published already, so although I was not creative my creative journey still charged on.

On Wednesday I wrote and posted Free. I then looked at my stats, again,  and realized how many more visitors are coming to my site, since last year. I had months when no one would visit and others where only one would visit. Now I’m surprised if no one visits in a day. That just shows you what regular work will do. That little encounter with stats, reminded me that my creative life is a journey and I am walking/ working on it.

Thursday was improv day. I did find time to write a poetry post after the group though. It was actually made up of two poems, which I didn’t think I did that well with, but it got likes, so what do I know.

Friday I wrote the poem Talk, before going over a friend’s house for game night.

Saturday I recorded this weeks video, which is of me doing a Cock-eyed Optimist from South Pacific. It is a stated song that I really love, because I am an Optimist and can not be anything but an Optimist. I hold too tightly to hope and faith.

I also wrote this post on Saturday, but I only like to post once a day.

I want to close this post with a thought that, while writing keeps popping back into my mind. Being an artist and being creative is a journey and a life style. If you really are an artist you will create a life that helps you blossom in your art, but it is work to find the balance. Some days you will not see the fruit of your work and feel off-balance, others you will be thriving and feeling amazing. The real work is to find out how to work through your feelings, maybe even use the discouraged and alone feelings to make your art. I know a bunch of times this week I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere, that is the reason I looked at the stats so much.

Maybe I am just talking to myself right now and that is okay, but you need to find what works for you and work at it. You will be happier and live a more full life when you do live a balanced life. You will be more you, (if that is a thing) when you work towards goals that truly make you happy, because when you work towards the goals you start a journey and at least I realized that the fun is in the journey and the reward is the goal.

Here is a list of what I did this week:

Cock-eyed Optimist

Talk

Haiku

Free

My Tombstone

Epigram

Stated Song: Cockeyed Optimist

This week’s acting video is a Stated Song called Cockeyed Optimist. Cockeyed Optimist was composed byRichard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and is found in the musical South Pacific. The wikipedia page for the musical can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pacific_(musical). For a video of the actual song please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0DusO6ipLw.

The lyrics are:

When the sky is a bright canary yellow
I forget every cloud I’ve ever seen,
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green.

I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we’re done and we might as well be dead,
But I’m only a cockeyed optimist
And I can’t get it into my head.

I hear the human race
Is fallin’ on its face
And hasn’t very far to go,
But every whippoorwill
Is sellin’ me a bill,
And tellin’ me it just ain’t so.

I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart,
But I’m stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can’t get it out of my heart!
Not this heart…

I really had a fun time doing this monologue/ stated song. I enjoyed making this one the most, so far. Please let me know what you think.

 

Talk (a Ghazal poem)

poetry
Ghazal

A Ghazal is a poem that is made up of an odd numbered chain of couplets, where each couplet is an independent poem. It should be natural to put a comma at the end of the first line. The Ghazal has a refrain of one to three words that repeat, and an inline rhyme that precedes the refrain. Lines 1 and 2, then every second line, has this refrain and inline rhyme, and the last couplet should refer to the authors pen-name… The rhyming scheme is AA bA cA dA eA etc.

In a meadow I walk
with a friend I do talk.

Among the blooming flowers,
amidst tall bladed grass we talk.

Swept in a fantasy land
our imaginations are explored as we talk.

In a field I walk
with a friend I do talk.

While we converse
we explore all things about talk.

How can language be used
what ways can we talk?

We tell each other about fantasy lands
and let our imaginations talk.

We describe the flowers among us
and hear the words of the grass that we talk.

In open and in nature I walk
with a friend I do talk.

I’m not sure if I did this right. What do you think?

My flower Haiku and other

poetry

Haiku

Below is the most popular definition, but there is more to haiku than meets the eye:

Haiku (also called nature or seasonal haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Haiku is usually written in the present tense and focuses on nature (seasons).

The 5/7/5 rule was made up for school children to understand and learn this type of poetry. For an in-depth description of Haiku, please visit the Shadow Poetry Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka section. There is much more to haiku than the made up 5/7/5 version.

Flowers grow in spring

with the rain watering them

please bloom now flowers.

 

Yeah, that was a stretch, but at least I managed to get a poem in after improv. Let me try another one, that is more me.

These words must be said

they must come to life one way

the words that shine love.

Again, it’s after improv. My creative juices must be low.  Let me know what you think.

My tombstone

poetry

I did not want to think about writing any one else’s tombstone, because if I want to write about you it’s because I love you. That being said I’m not sure if how twisted it is to write an Epitaph for myself, but I kept it light and something I actually wouldn’t mind on my tombstone.

Epitaph

An epitaph is a brief poem inscribed on a tombstone praising a deceased person, usually with rhyming lines.

With life measured in love and not in time
she always shared her love and enjoyed a rhyme
now the time has come for her to venture on
she will be missed not a little but a ton.

 

Epigram Poems

poetry

Epigram

Epigrams are short satirical poems ending with either a humorous retort or a stinging punchline.
Used mainly as expressions of social criticism or political satire, the most common forms are written as a couplet: a pair of rhymed lines in the same meter.
Practitioners of this poetic expression include John Dunne, Ben Jonson, William Blake and Robert Frost.

 For examples and more poem information you can go to shadow poetry, which is where I am getting all my poetry write ups from.

I once woke from a wonderful dream
where my plans flowed like a stream.

When locked behind a body figure
no one will see the mind pulling the trigger

 

 

DreamWard Bound (6/7-6/14/14)

I did not take notes this week. I did not do anything amazing and had to push myself to do anything productive all week, which is partly why there is no notes. It was really tough for me to do anything this week. I do not really know why, but I was just not motivated at all. I have been wondering if the lack of motivation had to do with the fact that I had the house to myself. At the beginning of the week I was excited and thought I would be doing a lot more, maybe even record my monologue early, because there would be not distraction from the other 3 people I am currently living with.

I started the week off great. Monday I did some research on acting classes and how much an acting coach around here would cost. I was really looking to figure out where I’m going with everything. Research then drifted into ‘research,’ where I watched youtube videos of actor’s being interviewed. It was still helpful hearing experienced actors and actresses talk about acting and their advice, but I think I could have used my time more wisely.

I did record a video talking about why I act on Wednesday. I had nothing planned for the night and wanted or needed to get answers to questions I’ve been asking myself for a while. The problem with asking yourself questions I am realizing is that, unless you write the answers down or say them out loud you forget.

Now I could have just wrote my answer down or record it and keep it to myself.  I did not have to post it on youtube, but I did because I am hoping that by sharing this it may bring a smile to someone’s face or help clarify  questions some one may have.

Oh and here is the video.

Thursday I did go to improv and we actually did a great new game that is focused on developing fast characters. This is a trait that

As far as my walking/ fitness goal goes, I walked 3.73 miles. I did not meet my goal for this week, but that’s why it’s a goal. I keep forgetting that these things are goals and not something I will do right away. I need to work up to the goals I set.

I just finished recording this week’s monologue, which was “to be or not to be.” Since I am writing this post while uploading it to youtube I am just going to give you the video in this blog.

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog and let me know what you think. Feedback and comments are always welcomed.