Quinn McDonald's Blog, page 48

Full Flavor, No Sugar

Flavor without sugar. It’s what diabetics want and it’s hard to find. Most “sugar-free” foods are loaded with either fat or fake sugars. And I don’t do well with fake sugars. (See the reviews on the 5-lb bag of sugar-free gummi bears on Amazon.)

So I’m after big, bold flavor. Spicy, deep, rich–foods with flavor is a diabetic’s Holy Grail.

Here’s a quick fix: dried orange peel. Yes, dried. Not chocolate covered, not sugar soaked, although I did love those for a long time, too.

It couldn’t be easier. Peel an orange. Remove some pith, although you don’t have to make yourself crazy getting it all off. Cut peel in strips. Put in 250 degrees Fahrenheit (120 C) oven on a parchment covered sheet pan.  After 10 minutes, toss. Leave in for another 10 minutes. Check to make sure the peel doesn’t turn too dark. Cool. They should be crispy.

Put in a ziplock back and run a rolling pin over them till they are dust. Or put them through a spice grinder or a small blender. Done!

How can you use orange peel dust?
Sprinkle on cappuccino instead of (or with) cinnamon
Sprinkle on unflavored, unsweetened yogurt
Dust over oatmeal and skip the sugar
Add to tea with the tea leaves before brewing
Add 1/2 tsp. to diabetic-friendly chewy almond bars to change the flavor completely
Melt Black and Green dark chocolate (never tastes sour or bitter) add chopped nuts and a bit of the orange dust. Yum.
Mix into Greek yogurt and use it as a dip for apples and pears
Stir into whipped cream cheese and fill celery sticks
Blend a bit with 2 tsp of vanilla and cut into a cup of whipped cream. Use as a topping over fresh fruit.

Be very careful–a little goes a long way. Use less than you think. It’s easier to add more. You can do the same thing with lemon, lime and grapefruit peel. The lemon and lime make a great addition to salad dressing and sauces you put over fish and poultry.

–Quinn McDonald is married to Kent, a personal chef who cooks interesting food that tastes good. Eating his diabetic-friendly food helped her lose 65 pounds in a year.

Filed under: Food & Recipes, In My Life Tagged: diabetic cooking, diabetic food, flavorful toppings

Inner Hero, Inner Critic

Most people think that with the Inner Hero book,  I no longer have an Inner Critic. [Snort] HAHAHAHA! Or course I do, and he’s not going to go away. That’s the whole purpose of the inner hero idea–to create an alter ego that has your permission to kick the inner critic’s butt.

One of the big steps in dealing with an inner critic is knowing when something makes you happy and reveling in it. Dogs do this naturally–they roll in revolting things because it makes them happy. Cats chase after red-light dots with crazy abandon. But people don’t express happy very well. We create an excuse like drinking to say “I got carried away.” We should all get carried away more often.

I’m just back from the CHA convention (Craft and Hobby Association) in Anaheim, California, and I had two enormously wonderful things happen.

1. North Light (my publisher) had me do a book signing. I asked Seth Apter and Rosaland Hannibal, book contributors,  to sign the books with me. (Seth is not in this photo, that’s Rosaland on the right). After all, three signatures is better than one. And I’ve never seen that happen, so I thought it would be fun. And it was. Pure fun. My editor, Tonia Jenny, was there for moral support and took the photos. How nice was that? Tommy Semosh (also from North Light) made books, chairs and pens appear. And we signed books and talked and laughed.  Pure joy and excitement.

2. I was talking to someone at the CHA booth when a woman came up and recognized me from my column in Somerset Studio magazine. “Are you the Quinn McDonald?” I was sure she was thinking of someone else. “Probably not,” I said, and then she asked if I did the column. She said nice things. I did not tell her I was a worthless human or a talentless troll. I said, “Thank you,” and meant it. I allowed myself to feel good. I allowed my ego to inflate.  Carefully, and not too much. Because sometimes it just feels good to be recognized and praised.

I did not “jinx” anything by feeling good about myself. The world did not come to an end. Nothing bad happened to “counterbalance” the good. Happy is a wonderful feeling. But you have to allow it to happen.

—Quinn’s Inner Hero book is launched. There will be a Phoenix-launch at Changing Hands bookstore on Februray 20. Save the date, she wants to see you all there.

Filed under: Creativity, Inner Hero/Inner Critic Tagged: happiness, Inner Hero Art Journal, pride in hard work

Perspective

Sometimes when you want water, you get sand instead.

Life throws a variety of curve balls. We can sit and sulk, or we can take risks and change our lives.

Water main cover in street. © Quinn McDonald 2014.

The idea of risk is usually far more appealing than the risk itself. When we think about risk, we almost always automatically think of failure. And we plan how we will survive the failure. How we will re-group afterwards. “Plan for the worst,” we say and then we are disappointed when it happens. Well, you did plan for it.

We rarely plan for big successes. Once you have asked yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Immediately ask yourself, “What’s the best that could happen?” Plan for that, too.

You create your own reality. Where you look is where you go. Make sure you include great scenery in your life.

–Quinn McDonald

Filed under: Creativity, Life as Metaphor, Links, resources, idea boosts, Nature, Inside and Out Tagged: creating reality, plan for the best

Creative Play

Bureaucrat by day, street artist after work. Oakoak is an untrained artist with a clever eye and a wicked sense of humor.

Letting your mind roam and quickly make connections is a great creative game.

So is seeing a part of something and envisioning something completely different.

Artist and creative director Brock Davis is another person with an eye for turning the mundane into the unusual.

Bread knife with shark.

The artist sees normal objects in different ways. That opens a whole new world. It can also open a coffin on a week-old egg roll:

The joy of this is deliberately switching your perspective to allow something else to show up.

And sometimes you have to take a closer look—really, really, up close—to be amazed.

This photo was shared on reddit by shivs1147. It’s a spider web coated in frost.

Go out and try on a different pair of eyes and discover your world all over again.

--Quinn McDonald is having the time of her life with her new eyesight.

Filed under: Creativity Tagged: common object art, street art

The Life You Want

What’s your ideal life? The answer is up in the air for many of my coaching clients. They just know that the life they have now isn’t the one they want.

The start of a new life begins really early in the process.

Luckily, you don’t have to be stuck with the life you have now. You do have to be willing to change. Change your routine, your schedule, your friends (if they don’t want you to change), and maybe your salary and your expectations. Of yourself and others.

Most often, I ask, “Who do you want to be?” Almost everyone has an idea. Then comes the tricky part–”What did that person do to get there?” Because if you want that life, you can’t just step onto their stage, you have to scramble up the path. Most often, there is no short cut. You have to do the struggle part, the risk part, the fall-on-your-face-in-front-of-everyone part to get to the good part.

You can’t skip that part. If you do skip it, you’re stress dream will come true and you’ll climb up on stage and discover you aren’t wearing a stitch. Before the “ahhhh” comes the “grrrrr.”

I always smile at the people who know the Inner Hero book is out and say, “You are so lucky to have written a book.” Pssst. . .it wasn’t luck. It was getting up at 4:30 a.m. and crying when chapters didn’t work out and I had to start over and swearing I’d never write another book (yeah, the idea for book #3 is already running around my feet), and feeling overwhelmed and exhausted at the same time.

To have the life you want, you have to build it. From the ground up.

–-Quinn McDonald swears she will sign 1,000 books before she admits she may want to write another one.

 

Filed under: Art/Freelance Biz, Creativity, Inner Hero/Inner Critic Tagged: creating the perfect life, the life you want

You Are Never “Done”

Right before I slide into “overwhelm” I realize how much I still have to do. It’s now just after 10 p.m and I’ve been up since 5:30 a.m., working. I’m trying to get to a point where I’m “done” and can go to bed. What a mistake. There is no

Image from: http://jacintaaalsma.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/gunas-balance-and-stress/

“done.” When I’ve finished paying the bills, I have to send invoices, and then I have to create the Powerpoint and do the outline and book my flight and remember what is left to do for the trip to Yuma and the one to Houston and. . . there is no end.

Which is a good thing, as steady work means money to pay the bills. But I have to decide how much to work each day. Sometimes a small machine in my head acts as if I will hit a magic end to the work, a big trumpet will sound and satisfaction will pour into my heart as money pours into my hands.

Instead, there is satisfaction in getting work done well, and a bit of panic in the work left undone, and when the whole thing balances out, it’s been a very good day.

–Quinn McDonald has to buy cat food tomorrow, or the day will not end well. And she is teaching Tiny Journals at Arizona Art Supply on January 26.

Filed under: In My Life, Inner Critic Tagged: balancing stress, Creativity, getting work done

Throwing Shadows

Note: This post first ran two years ago. I don’t expect people to dig deep into my old blog posts, so from time to time, I re-write and re-post one I liked.  I’m also recuperating from my right eye lens implant and need some shut-eye. Literally.

* * * * *

V

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendos,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

—Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

An abstract of shadows on a cement wall.

Shadows are wonderful art. They are both the object and a color. They have more possibility than the object itself, because everyone gets to fill in their own idea of color and size. Yet they are completely dependent on the angle and the amount of light.

A shadow is not the object, but it identifies the object. The shadow is never far from the object, and can be more beautiful and meaningful than the object.

Sometimes shadows bring understanding. What we cannot grasp in three dimensions and color becomes clear in black and gray, stretched out before us.

Bonsai and its shadow

Shadows give dimension, add depth and occasionally a completely different perspective of our own opinion.

However you see them, shadows belong in your life, your journal, your photographs and your art journal. They will never bore you.

–-Quinn McDonald would like to cast a long shadow across the earth, but still requires growth to accomplish it.

Filed under: Inner Hero/Inner Critic, Life as Metaphor, Nature, Inside and Out Tagged: creativity coaching, personal growth, shadows

Outsider Artist

Outsider art is often shrugged off as the creative work of people with a mental illness. And yes, some art brut (the French word for outsider art) is done by a human being who happens to have a mental illness. But not all. And the idea that we need to separate art into a definition of the creator bothers me.

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“Alchemy” © by Quinn McDonald. Ink on watercolor paper.

Would we say “the artist who dyes her hair”? or “the left-handed collage artist? Nope. But we sure would add the elements that create a frisson of fear–and that includes mental illness, a checkered past, and other facts that divide “us” from “them.”  I am an outsider artist. I don’t consider myself weird or worthy of being cast out. I just consider  myself dedicated to creativity.

Jean Dubuffet, the French artist who came up with the name art brut (rough or raw art) defined it as art created outside the mainstream of the established art scene. This includes artists who have not gone to art school, who do not have gallery representation, and whose art illustrates fantasy scenes, unconventional ideas and approaches.

The magazine Raw Vision, which focuses on outsider art, includes several other definitions, including Intuitive Art. My favorite is Visionary Art, which is what the museum of outsider art in Baltimore, Maryland, calls it.

Outsider art is the creative work of people who work on the edges of the existing, acceptable art scene, and often do not make a living from their art.

Nine years ago, I made a conscious decision not to have my art be my main income. For about 15 years before that, selling my artwork paid the mortgage and bought groceries. One afternoon, I had a great idea for a piece, followed by the idea that I couldn’t create it because it was not going to be popular. And at that second I also knew I didn’t want to make creative decisions through a profit/loss spreadsheet.

Now I make a living being a creativity coach. I also design and teach business writing and business creativity workshops. And I teach art and writing workshops and retreats. And I write books. All of those things contribute to an income. When one of them threatens to drain my creativity, I shift to working on another. It keeps me fresh and takes away the onus of income producer from any one of my niches.

Most of all, it frees me to do the art I love. Several times in the past year, I’ve sighed and wished I were one of the cool artists–the ones you see all the time on Facebook, with Etsy shops and classes and lots and lots of connections. Then I realize that, since childhood, I have always wanted to be on the inside, but rarely am.

And finally, I realized the power of being an outsider. You can see what’s happening inside, but not be ruled by it. (A space at the cool kids’ table wasn’t free in seventh grade, and it’s not free now.) You can frequently be more daring, create right-on-the-edge art, and speak your truth more freely as an outsider. You can, in fact, live your creativity. Your real expression. Out loud.

Yes, sometimes it’s lonely. But other times the wonder and glory of following your vision and creating directly from your soul is worth the loneliness which feeds you.

–-Quinn McDonald is an outsider artist. She will be at CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) in Anaheim this weekend, signing her book at North Light books and demo-ing at the Niji booth.

Filed under: Creativity, Inner Hero/Inner Critic, Life as Metaphor Tagged: art brut, creativity coach, identifying with something, outsider art, raw art

A New Way to Journal

Journaling is more than an art; it’s a habit. A practice. A way to process whatever happens in life; a way to become more self-aware. Art journaling is a wonderful way to add the visual to the words, and because I’m a writer, it i satisfying to add sketches, collages, paint to the written page. I’ve done it for years, and now it’s time for me to move on to a different way to journal.

Background in progress. Monoprint on watercolor paper.

The new way of journaling is immensely satisfying. It started as a solution to a teaching problem. When I teach, I like to show samples of my journals, but much of my journaling is private, not to be passed around in class. So I had to make samples to show. Some of the books I passed around had only a few pages of samples.

Landscape, in progress.

I began to work in different books at once–watercolor for wet media and collage, lighter-weight pages for pencil sketching. My life would jump around several journals. It made journaling while traveling hard. Which one to take?

I cut back on journaling to create samples.  That was unsatisfying, but it brought me to the answer.  Through years of practice, I can type fast–about 100 words a minute. Because I work at the laptop for many hours a day, I began to type a journal at odd moments, often in the middle of a project. Five minutes of typing makes an interesting break and makes returning to work easier.

For years, I’ve explained that handwriting is a different process and necessary for right-brain journaling. And I still believe that. But I also believe that typing a journal is better than not keeping one at all.

I print out what I type, and keep it in a small (9″ x 7″) three-ring binder. I also re-purpose binders that were once cookbooks or home-improvement how-to books, but that’s another post.

Collage from monoprints. The chameleon can hide from predators using protective coloring. It can also miss out on opportunities by blending in too thoroughly.

The binders are grist for studio work. I’ll read through what I’ve written, distill it, and polish out the thought or idea that is a handhold in the upheavals of life. Or an open window into a great insight. Sometimes what I come up with was better said by others. Then I write down the quote in my quote folder to use later.

My studio work is looseleaf journaling. Usually collage of some sort, combined with illustration and words. Always words and letterforms. Usually there is writing on the back–either a deeper explanation, or the rest of the quote.

Creating looseleaf pages allows me to work on several pages at once, have pages in different stages, and, because they are not connected, take some pages to class and leave others at home. I’ve created several ways to bind different size pages. Each page is dated, so I can always put them in narrative order to check on progress or problems that show up (again) or just what color seemed to be my favorite in 2007 (sepia).

This new way gives me freedom to write, process, make meaning, create, share and keep private, as is necessary. It’s satisfying.

—Quinn McDonald teaches journaling and writing.

Filed under: Art in Progress, Inner Hero/Inner Critic, Journal Pages Tagged: Creativity, looseleaf journaling, meaning-making

Creative Stroll

Time for some great creative work in the (frozen) art world!

It’s been awfully cold in the Midwest and East. So cold, you can freeze soap bubbles. A mom and her son did, and then posted the whole set of frozen bubbles on Facebook. The bubbles freeze, form beautiful ice flowers, and then deflate, freezing again along the way.

No two snowflakes are alike and Alexi  Kijatov photographed a lot of them in breath-taking detail.

Have a happy Sunday!

--Quinn McDonald is glad she lives in a warm climate. At least at this time of year she is.

 

Filed under: Nature, Inside and Out Tagged: macrophotographs, snowflakes, soap bubble photography