Quinn McDonald's Blog, page 60

Cold Drink: No Calories

Frying-pan-hot late summer days make the words “gin-and-tonic” seem perfect. But the carbohydrates in liquor makes it a drink of the past. I needed something new, refreshing and tasty.

Gone are the days I’d start off with a Diet Coke at breakfast–although the caffeine jolt and brain freeze did wake me up fast. Iced coffee and tea are great, but I can drink only so much tannin without wondering if my gut is going to be used to make a Birkin.  So I began to explore drinks that I can sip, gulp, quaff, and chug cold and in quantity without packing on calories and without the cardboardy, acidy taste I get from tubed drink mixes.

So I tried something so simple, so easy, I can’t believe how good it is. Take a glass, put in as much ice as you love, and then add 3-5 drops Angostura Bitters. Fill with club soda or selzer. It’s a perfect drink. Clean, crisp, refreshing, bubbly, and a great herbal taste that’s interesting but not overwhelming. Goes with sushi as well at with PBJs. (I’m not a fan of milk with PBJs. Suit yourself).

 

Gentian, known for its blue color and delicate flavor.

Angostura Bitters are a bar staple.  They aren’t really bitter, the word is derived from aromatic concoctions that contain gentian–a flowering herb that is used in perfumes. It’s also been used as a malaria cure and insect repellent. Versatile plant. Bright blue flowers. Gentian is bitter, but there is a lot more than gentian in bitters–a mix of aromatic herbs that is lovely in smell and dark brown in color.

I originally used the bitters for tea-staining  papers, because it worked faster and was darker than tea,  and I loved the smell. I swear, if they made this substance as a fragrance, I’d wear it every day.

But until then, I’ll use a few drops over fresh strawberries and in my soda-and-bitters. It’s an inexpensive joy that pays off in big taste and no calories.

—Quinn McDonald is counting the days until she no longer drinks a gallon of liquid a day just to keep up with sweating. She no longer remembers a time when the nape of her neck wasn’t wet 24 hours a day.

Filed under: Creativity, Food & Recipes Tagged: drinks for diabetics, no-calorie drinks, summer drinks

Saturday Link Love

Andrew Hayes has two great loves–pulp books (or at least their pages) and smooth, cool metal. He chose to combine them into sculptures that contrast hard and soft, permanent and easily destroyed.

© Andrew Hayes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ease and almost weightless grace make these very pleasing to look at. I’ve love to touch them.

The sculptures are sensual and curved and quite beautiful. It combines altering books with metal sculpture.

Stencils and spray paint are the medium of the artist Above, who creates street art. Above works with shadows and electrical lines and integrates artwork into the surroundings.

© Above

The image above shows a long line of people, defeated and waiting. It’s outside an unemployment office in Spain, a country that has a high rate of unemployment.

© above

Here, Above painted white paint over a wall defaced with graffiti, then added the figures to make it an unhappy school day.

The artist Mossi is interested in mark making–that sounds startlingly undefined.

©Mossi

But the marks are made with colored pens, meticulously used. The resulting mask-like figures are built on layers of lines and varying colors, which blend into each other and overlap each other.

© Mossi

At first I thought the lines were words, but it is all graphic. And the lack of words is also interesting, detailing smooth lines and connecting shades of meaning.

Have a creatively magical weekend!

–-Quinn McDonald is a writer and artist. She loves knowing what other people think when they make their art.

 

Filed under: Creativity, Journal Pages, Links, resources, idea boosts Tagged: altered books, book art, color in art, line art, pen art, street art

Making Space

First, some good news: A few weeks ago, I saw that Niji Art, owned by Yasutomo, had an open call for a Design Team. Having demo’d their Splash Inks and liked them, I applied. And I was one of the designers chosen! For the next six months, I’ll be asked to use their products to design and create projects, then do the tutorial. It’s exciting–this is something totally new for me.

Second, poetry news: There are still places open for Jungle Gym for Monkey Mind, the online poetry class. It starts this Sunday and is not a traditional class. You’ll be writing poetry from emotions, experience, and your imagination.

Making Space: This afternoon and evening, I cleaned my workspace. I’ve let paperwork pile up. I’m a piler not a filer, but the piles were starting to mutter and threaten me. One of the benefits of being a piler is that when you sift through the piles, you can often throw out most of the material that other people would have neatly put in filing cabinets.

Art from discarded papers, from EcoFriend.com

As I sorted and threw papers our, put other papers in folders, I realized that my creativity needs a good sorting, too. I had ideas I wanted to follow up on, ideas that were half-baked, the beginning of the poetry class notes (it sure has changed in the six months I’ve been working on it!) ideas that had no legs and no motion. And like the papers I threw out, I cleaned those idea out of my mind.

The ideas might come back as something else, or they might stay gone. But not every idea is worth nurturing, and not every bright idea will light the way to completion. I carried an armload of papers to the recycling bin, with the idea of starting in the studio tomorrow.

This wasn’t some sad, “I have to let go of this” good-bye, there are six new ideas on index cards in my “development” slot. They are the best of what I’ve been planning, broken down into steps along the way. Cleaning up is also cleaning out, and it feels great. Almost like summer’s oppressive heat is blowing out.

--Quinn McDonald has designing ideas.

Filed under: Creativity, Opinion Tagged: cleaning up, fresh ideas, new ideas

Winning From Within (Book Review)

We negotiate every day, even when we are not aware of it. For example, when we discuss where we want to go to dinner or what movie we want to see.

If you have teenagers, you negotiate their lives with yours.Erica Ariel Fox takes negotiating into a new light. First, she reminds us that when we think through a problem, it’s a form of negotiating with ourselves. Then she combines ideas from Western philosophies and Eastern philosophies to help reconcile our approach to negotiation.

Fox is a coach who helps her clients look for new sides to themselves that they haven’t discovered yet. She explores possible undiscovered points in her book, including

1. we are more multifaceted than we realize.

2. We pick part parts of ourselves to define who we are.

3. The identities we form have some truth to them.

4. Yet, they don’t tell the full truth. We create profiles of ourselves by elevating certain elements of who we are and leaving others behind. That distorts the full truth.

The identity we show the world, and the Performance Gap, the difference between how we see ourselves at work and how our co-workers see us. Neither of the views is wrong, but the difference in perspective can make a big difference in promotion and working relationships.

Fox highlights “The Big Four” sections of our personalities, the pieces we use to make decisions and react: The Dreamer, Thinker, Lover and Warrior. Fox shows how using one or two of these pieces results in friction with co-workers. Using all four pieces in different situations leads to inner peace (or at least inner understanding) and better relationships.

The book also has sections in Balancing Your Profile and Connect to Your Core.

What made me enjoy it was the easy style, the lack of jargon and smugness and an approachable, usable plan to make the four dynamics work for you at home and in the office.

OK, I will also admit that she talks a lot about archetypes and dealing with the darker sides of ourselves–and I’m delighted that it could be a more formal companion to The Inner Hero Art Journal.

–Quinn McDonald knows that to a hammer, every problem is a nail.

Filed under: Book Reviews, Creativity, Inner Critic, Recovering Perfectionists Tagged: Erica Ariel Fox, negotiating, self-help

Doing the Work

“I don’t feel as good as I should,” Anne said. You may remember Anne. She drops by from time to time to help me work out coaching problems, art problems, and  creativity conundrums.

“What do you want to feel good about?” I asked Anne, who has a varied, fast-moving life.

“The universe called me to be a chef, and I was really excited about it, and now I’m not,” she said, collapsing the story of the last six weeks into one sentence.

“How did the universe call you?” I asked.

“I just knew it’s what I wanted to do,” she said. “And then all these things started happening to support me. Chef aprons and pants went on sale, and I found a knife catalog in my cart at the grocery store. So I had business cards made that said I was a chef and now I’m cooking for people,” she added.

“Did you go to cooking school?” I asked, slightly incredulous.

“I took an online course from a well-known chef,” she said, “And he said to start cooking right away.” But I wanted to serve people, so I told people I was a chef. But I’m not happy,” she frowned.

“Any idea what might be behind the unhappiness?” I asked.

Image:http://www.wmaga zine.com/culture/art-and-design/2012/...

“Not really. I did real well on the online course. I watched the videos and everything. And I’ve come up with a great name for the business–Against the Grain–I’m cooking gluten free,” she added with a slight smile.

“Clever name,” I agreed. “But there is more than choosing a career than being wowed by someone famous and coming up with a clever name. There’s real work involved–practice, study. Do you know what gluten is?”  I asked.

“It’s, like, flour,” she said. “But what’s important is that the universe called me and I’ve always wanted to cook, and now I’m doing it.”

“It’s not flour,” I said, “gluten is a protein in some grains like wheat, barley or rye. But you can’t just decide the universe called you and then say you are a chef. There’s a lot of work involved. A lot of study to know the science behind food and cooking. Practice in learning technique. It’s more than deciding you were destined to be a chef. That’s a story you tell yourself to make the work seem less important,” I added.

“If you want to be a chef, you have to be ready to go to school–a hands-on school–because online learning and watching videos goes only so far. The real work is in knowing what you are doing and why. That kind of technique isn’t learned by watching, it’s learned by doing under the guidance of someone who knows how, who is willing to teach.” I was ranting, and I knew it.

“You just don’t want me to be a chef,” she said.

“It’s fine with me if you are a chef,” I said. “But before you call yourself a chef, you have to earn the right. To join a group of anything you don’t do it by calling yourself one, you do it by working at becoming one, by honoring all the greats in your group. A bad chef ruins it for the good ones,” I added, appealing to her sense of justice.

She looked at me for a while. “So you don’t believe I’m a chef,” she finally said.

“You aren’t,” I said. “But you can be one. Just not overnight. Or in a month. It takes willingness to start at the basics and learn your way up. It takes knowing how to do all the un-fun tasks. Peeling potatoes. Knowing how many hors d’oeuvres a group will eat in an hour. Knowing how to make soup stock and plan a menu and bone a chicken,” I added.

“But what about the name of my business?” she said

“It’s great. But you can’t just declare yourself an expert, you have to prove it every day, to other experts. That’s how you get real skill,” I added.

“I don’t want to go to school,” she said. “It takes too long. And I hate tests. Maybe I’ll be a writer. The universe could be calling me to be a writer, too.”

* * * There is a long stretch of hard road between wanting to do something that requires skill and actually doing it. If the universe is calling you, the work won’t be easier, but it will seem worthwhile. Whether it’s teaching or writing, cooking or coaching, all skills come from learning, making mistakes and practice. We are eager to re-invent ourselves, but it takes more than giving ourselves a new tag line and changing our website. You are never alone. In your career, you represent your profession, not just yourself.

If you are in it for the glory, the flash, the cachet, that’s not the universe. That’s your ego. Ask Anthony Weiner.

—Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. She worked for it. Still does.

 

Filed under: Coaching, In My Life Tagged: career choice, choosing a career, doing the work

Walking Again

It’s too hot to walk in summer here in Phoenix. Somewhere around mid-June the temperature stops going below 90 and even if I get up early, it’s too hot to walk.

Source: http://www.damnlol.com/why-i-hate-the-gym-30148.html

So I joined a gym. Nothing against gyms, I just hate them. I hate the stuffy smell. I hate that the loud music that is supposed to get you energized and makes me want to eat glass instead. I hate the machines in their cruel light and their baffling weight-setting methods, which varies from machine to machine.

I hate walking on the treadmills. I love walking. In the cooler months, I walk three to five miles every morning, but walking through parks and neighborhoods is nothing at all like slogging along on a treadmill. The treadmill asks me how old I am and how much I weigh, then decides how fast my heart should be beating. Because I’ve walked for a long time, my resting heart rate is fairly slow, so the machine accuses me of lying and demands I put both hands on the heart monitor, as if using one hand will give me a half-count for my heart beat.

This morning it was overcast and I had a great idea–I’d walk to the gym, do the machines, and walk back. A round trip of three miles, and a shorter time at the gym. Download an audiobook to entertain me (and it doesn’t fight with their loud techno-music) and it was almost a good time.

Best of all was the walk. Something magical happens when I walk. It’s calming and soothing and I can solve problems and dream up ideas.

Small pleasures, found and taken. I am grateful.

–Quinn McDonald is teaching an online poetry class starting August 11..

Filed under: Creativity, Nature, Inside and Out Tagged: exercise, gyms, walking

Online Poetry Class Starts August 11

Welcome to Jungle Gym for Monkey Mind, the online poetry class I’ve been working on for months!

Whether you like short poems you can read in one breath, imaginative ones that set your creative force free, poetry that make you scream in recognition, vent your rage, anger and hurt. Poetry does all that, and we are going to do it in this class.

Six Weeks of Poetry Writing to Link Soul, Brain, Hands through Words. In six weeks we will get into poetry—the guts of it, the meaning-making expressive force, and fuel our writing with force or controlled breath, imagery and power.

When Does it Start? How Long Will it Last? We will start with a lesson posted on Sunday, August 8, 2013. For six Sundays, there will be a lesson posted. (See schedule below). Sunday, September 15, there will be no lesson. (It’s the weekend of Yom Kippur, excellent for reading and thinking about poetry).

Will There Be Homework? Yes, and you have a lot of freedom to interpret the homework the way that makes sense for you.

What’s the Content?

August 11: What is poetry, anyway, and can I learn how to write it? (Getting started. You’ll start writing a poem today)
August 18: Short poems (haikus, limericks, epigrams)
August 25: Imagery and language (the jungle gym part)
September 1: What do I write about? (the monkey mind part)
September 8: Poem Design (revising, sound, length and punctuation)
September 22: Writing to Remember, Writing to Forget ( Poetry that heals you)

Example of found poetry, another way of writing poetry.

What’s the format? Most people feel comfortable with a private Yahoo group, so that’s what I’m using.

How do I join? What is the price?

Price is $60 for the six-week course. A portion of the cost will be used to provide fresh, clean water to the homeless population of Phoenix. I always use a portion of online class funds for charity.

1. Go to the Workshop page on my website. Scroll down till you see the class (and the page with the seedling growing out of it) and PayPal button.

2. Click on the PayPal Button. Once you’ve paid, I’ll send you an invitation to join the group. Invitations are sent out each evening. The invitation will not be from QuinnCreative, but from PoetryWriting2013, a Yahoo Group. Check your spam folder if you don’t see it.

3. The welcome details are already up, waiting for you!

Come join me for a six-week adventure in poetry exploration! And yes, you can use color, paint, and collage to create your poems!

Filed under: Creativity, Poetry, Quinn's Classes, The Writing Life Tagged: healing through poetry, how to write poetry, poetry workshop, poetry writing, poetry writing 2013, quinn's poetry class

Past and Future

Yesterday, four boxes of materials came back. Two from Madeline Island (one more to go) and two from the publisher, with materials I haven’t seen since the photo shoot in February, and not for about six months before that.

VICTOR BREGEDA – Past, Present, and Future – 20 x 28 inches Giclee on Canvas

It’s odd to look at materials that link the past to the future. The book will be out in about four months, and I’m holding the artwork that I did a year ago. It still has the tags on it from the photography session. (I’m leaving those on for a while). It feels like I’m being pulled through a time warp.

The materials from Madeline Island need to be divided and repacked for the Monsoon Paper class in Tucson and the rest stored. The studio has been entirely too tidy. A week ago today I came back from an experience that I had been worried about a week before and now wanted back again.

Odd how time moves at different rates at different times. It will probably fall back into place when I clean up the studio and the desk space. But for right now, I’m hanging on to the past and holding the future at the same time. And that’s just fine.

—Quinn McDonald has a lot of cleaning to do. Tomorrow.

Filed under: In My Life, Opinion Tagged: anticipation, past, present and future, time

Saturday Link Love

Judith Ann Braun uses her fingers to paint. But she doesn’t fingerpaint. She uses her fingers dipped in graphite to paint. Her fingers leave a specific fingerprint which she drags to create light and dark areas.

For many of her drawings she uses both hands to create a perfectly symmetrical image. She has a collection called Fingerlings that shows not only symmetry, but also shading. I spent considerable time on her website with my jaw dropped.

Carl Warner sees the world as . . .something else. He has a series of landscapes of food, including the Great Wall of Pineapple, below:

But the ones that intrigue me are the landscapes made of body parts. Not creepy, but rather elegant and, if you live in the desert, beautifully realistic.

Click on that landscape to see it much larger and enjoy the Abdomen cave.

On flickr, the artist strng does an interesting collage of unlikely objects and images. Flowers and human musculature.

The anatomy of a hand as a botanical drawing. Squids and roses. Guns and birds. Some of it is disturbing, some beautiful, and all of it compelling.

Have a creative weekend!

--Quinn McDonald is fascinated with other people’s interpretation of art.

Filed under: Links, resources, idea boosts, Nature, Inside and Out Tagged: botanical drawings with anatomy, fingerlings, landscape art

Clutching Unhappiness

Yesterday, I wondered why we chase happiness, but don’t want to catch it. Perhaps we are clutching a big bundle of unhappiness and don’t want to put it down.

We are comfortable with unhappiness. Often, we think we deserve it. “Deserve” is one of those words I see a lot of on Facebook and wonder how people know who “deserves” and who doesn’t. Deserving is a way of giving people permission to feel an emotion they are going to feel anyway.

Back to why we clutch unhappiness. It fills up the empty space in our heart that happiness has avoided. It fills up time. We watch others have what we want, do what we would like to do, get the promotion we drooled after. Unhappiness is familiar. We confuse ‘familiar’ with ‘comfortable.’ And we live comfortably with unhappiness.

There’s one more reason why we hold unhappiness instead of letting it go. It gets more results.  Share some joy on Facebook, and you get a few kind “likes.” Put up a tear-stained, painful post and people stand in line to comfort, advise, share their story or top your tale. Unhappiness gets results.

We’re an interesting folk. Chasing what we can’t catch and clutching what makes us miserable.

–Quinn McDonald wonders why people know that you can tell a joke just once and get people to laugh–the second time, it’s no longer funny. But an unhappy story makes us cry time and time again, without changing the situation.

Filed under: Coaching, Creativity, In My Life, Opinion Tagged: being unhappy, the burden of happiness, unhappiness