Alexandra Silber's Blog, page 15

Creative Exercises for the Quarantined Brain — Part 4

© Nick BantockFor those of you who have been reading along for all these years now, it comes as no surprise to remind you that fine visual artist, author, unofficial apprentice to The Trickster, and now my dear friend and colleague, Nick Bantock, has likely been the greatest artistic and creative influence in my life.

In his book The Tricksters Hat dedicated to an apprenticeship in creativity, Nick Bantock writes:

If you want a shortcut to originalitythis isnt the book for you. On the other...

Things I'm trying really hard to Avoid, [Pandemic Edition]: a List

- Trying to [falsely] control anything.
    [Because literally LITERALLY, we cannot control a single actual thing other than our own responses to life right now. And lets face it: sometimes not even that.]

- Caring what others think.
    [Im not gonna wear pants and you know what? I dont care. I dont care if YOU care. And I suspect youre probably not wearing pants either so dont come for me, Karen]

- Judgment (of self and of others).
    [*GIANT...

Thank you, Essential Workers

Thank you, Essential Workers.  What I know you wouldn't give for an ounce of our boredom,      a sliver of our cabin fever,           or a slice of our restlessness.  You have my undying respect and gratitude. 
 

Things I WANT to remember about the Pandemic: a List

- The quality of gorgeous, soft, arching light as it moves across the apartment over the course of a day...

- The unstoppable on-coming of Spring. [Spring is not cancelled. Nor is Love.]

- The hugeness of heart, and inextinguishable spirit of New York Freakin' City

- Governor Cuomo: kicking extreme, superhero-level, ass. [#PRESIDENTCUOMO]

- Waking before dawn every day. Greeting the day with ritual and respect [lighting a candle, morning pages, meditation, gratitudes], and feeling a sense of...

Creative Exercises for the Quarantined Brain — Part 3

Dr. Brené Brown, researcher, speaker, seeker and author extraordinaire, has the following to say about creativity:
Here's what I've learned about creativity from the world of wholehearted living and loving:

1. Im not very creative doesnt work. Theres no such thing as creative people and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who dont. Unused creativity isn't benign. It lives within us until its expressed, neglected to death, or suffocated by resentment...

Hopeful Things: a List

Blank canvasesBlank PagesSeed packetsNew plantsTrain ticketsFuture dreams The sight of a surprise parcel waiting outside your doorRolls of filmCollaborations with gifted and respected artistic colleaguesNew (beautiful) pensHelping my neighborsMaking a new friendSmiling at a strangerA freshly made bedNew blank notebooksThe thought of a small child named Volodia, documenting a 1924 Soviet Leningrad with an unwieldy large format cameraThe first of the month15 minutes just before dawnLearning a...

In Conversation with One Detroit [Virtual COVID Edition]

It was such an honor (not to mention such a source of healing) to speak with One Detroit's own Christy McDonald, sending my unconditional love and support yo my hometown of Detroit Michigan.

"Do art and music help you connect with your emotions? Author and Broadway performer Alexandra Silber talks with One Detroit's Christy McDonald about what it's like to live in "the city that never sleeps" during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as how the arts affect performers and observers, and the healing...

Quarantine Books - Part 3

Something unfamiliar and somewhat wondrous begins to happen when one spends long stretches of time in solitude. That is what this period of time is for many of us, despite our human species creativity about how to connect remotely.

Still, we all long for relationships in these harrowing times. And sometimes the people we long to spend these fallow days with are far away or not far at all but kept from us.

My suggestion? Why not make some new friends in the company of books? Sure. If you want to...

#NextYearInPerson: a Digital Haggadah for a Virtual Seder

© the *extraordinary* Made By Rebekah This week, many of us will celebrate a Passover that is different from all other Passovers. Instead of inviting guests into our home or heading out to attend someone else's sacred seder gathering we will be huddled in our own homes, while a plague swirls outside. Much like our ancestors in Egypt who celebrated the first Passover in a state of anxiety and preparation, listening to sounds of death all around, we too experience Passover this year in a state...

Things I'm trying [really hard] avoid, #Pandemic edition: a List

- Overwatering my plants (Im a Cancer, I heart water, and also? Yeah yeah: I've been known to "smother")
- Underestimating the power of a twenty-minute walk*

- *[After stricter stay indoors orders] Underestimating the power of a twenty-minute meditation/nap/session of just deliberately *breathing...*


refrigerated tents as emergency morgues, Central Park, New York City
- Retail-Therapy [particularly the buying of even more plants]

- Comparing the quality/productivity/optimism of my pandemic...