Quinn McDonald's Blog, page 84

Saturday Stories

A collection of vintage posts of interesting stories to spark your creativity.

I love amulets. I wear several necklaces (one at a time) to help me remember a purpose, an intention, to ask for help and guidance (and make me aware of it when it shows up). My first amulet was from a dream, and carved by a remarkable woman whose name was Maggie.

And the interesting story about Maggie, the carving and a dream will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.  Or at least, it did mine.

I didn’t know the word Descansos till I moved West, where roadside memorial shrines dot the highways. The twisted ones and the straight ones contain white crosses, sometimes memorials. We are not afraid of the dead out here, we just wish we had more time with them.

We see creativity where we look. I learn creativity lessons from my motorcycle, Susie Lightning. Here are several creativity lessons in one story.

Have a weekend of story-making!

–Quinn McDonald is a creativity coach and story writer.

 

Filed under: The Writing Life Tagged: Creativity, creativity coach, stories

Everyone Is Someone Else’s “Those People”

Note: DJ Huff is the winner of the October 31 Featuring: magazine giveaway–Congratulations, DJ!

We live in a world of “them” and “us.” The labels shift, but the “us” is always people like us, and the “them” is always someone we push down so they are “less.” Once we have a group of people we can scorn, they become “those people.”

Big fleas have little fleas upon their back to bite ‘em
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so, ad infinitum.
–the original idea was Johnathan Swift’s
The image is from http://poster.4teachers.org/

In Middle School, if you weren’t one of the cool kids, you were one of  “those people.”  Seventh and eighth grade were the years we decided what we would do to be popular–gossip, lie, cut down–or how we defined loyalty–sticking up for our unpopular friends, refusing to write in slam books, staying true to your own values.

If you were a hard science major in college, humanities majors were “those people.” At your first job you might have been one of “those people” when you were a new hire. Maybe you developed a skill to stand out and separate yourself from the other outcasts. Maybe you even created a few new outcasts so you could create a distance.

And here you are today, well aware who “those people” are in your life. Possible candidates for “those people” are people who make less money than you do, who drive a car older than yours, who are fat, disabled, or unfashionable. If you add people not of your religion, of a different color, and those who vote for the other party, you have a deep group of personal outcasts. It probably makes you feel better to know you have someone you can wrinkle your nose at in displeasure.

Our social fabric is a big food chain. And you aren’t at the top of it. You, too, are someone’s “those people” and there will be people who distance themselves from you for reasons that hurt, or at least sting.

One way to stop the chain is to make sure that you hold the door open for the person behind you. Literally, yes, but metaphorically, too. Had a boss that treated you badly and finally broke away? Hold the door open and be a boss who is a mentor, not a terror. Had a boss who belittled you when you had to  take time off when your mother was sick? Be kind to the co-worker (or direct report) who works for you and has family issues.

How you behave is shaped by how you were treated, but you don’t have to recreate your past. Not everyone will love you for who you are, but you can always act like you are proud of who you are. You know you are on the right track when you behave well toward those who have no power over you.

–Quinn McDonald lives in the social food chain. Sometimes she is chased by sharks, some days, she chases them.

Filed under: In My Life, Opinion Tagged: food chain, pay it forward

Patience With Yourself

Some wonderful quotes from the Buddhist nun, Pema Chödron. She was born in New York City, went to Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut, and then to Berkley. Miss Porter’s (now called, simply Porter’s Farmington) has a long list of famous alumnae, including Gloria Vanderbilt, Gene Tierney, Lilly Pulitzer, Letitia Baldridge,  Jacqueline Kennedy, and Dierdre Blomfield-Brown, now known as Pema Chodron.

Learning how to be kind to ourselves, learning how to respect ourselves, is important. The reason it’s important is that, fundamentally, when we look into our own hearts and begin to discover what is confused and what is brilliant, what is bitter and what is sweet, it isn’t just ourselves that we’re discovering. We’re discovering the universe.

*   *   *   *  *

We can drop the fundamental hope that there is a better “me” who one day will emerge. We can’t just jump over ourselves as if we were not there.

*    *   *   *

People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That’s not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn’t understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you’re given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need to open further.

*    *     *    *

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

*   *    *    *

—Quinn McDonald is writing a book about inner heroes and inner critics. She’s wondering what they are saying about her.

Filed under: Quotes Tagged: karma, life's purpose, Pema Chodron

Featuring Magazine #2 to Give Away

Collage © by Michelle Reuss, in Featuring magazine.

The second issue of Featuring magazine is out.  (Here’s the review of the first issue) I’m a fan of the magazine–from the smooth A4 size (see the size chart for the European A-size papers and how they keep getting cut in half), to the saturated colors and delicate, airy page design all the way to the coated paper cover that looks liquid-glazed.

The articles are leisurely, allowed to develop in a natural way that shows a curiosity about life and art. It’s rare to see a magazine that allows a story space to breathe, but Featuring does and I love the magazine for it.

In this issue are a mix of fascinating articles–an interview with Michelle Reuss

Josie George’s cleverly thought-out article on flash-fiction (Twitter-length stories) is also beautifully photographed.

who is open and clear about her detailed 2D and 3D work as well as her disability; a detailed article about blogger Tammy Garcia (DaisyYellow) and her irrepressible art ideas; a poem/journal about Coming Home by editor-in-chief Marit Barentsen that feels both familiar and far away.

There are 74 pages of beautifully-designed, carefully edited articles. Yes, I’m partial to flash fiction and artists who use maps in their work, and there are two articles on those topics, too.

You can buy the magazine on the Featuring website, (about $11.00) or you can leave a comment about why you want the magazine, and I’ll give one copy away. I bought two, just to make someone happy! Since I had the magazines shipped from Europe, I’ll be giving the magazine away to someone in the U.S., Mexico, or Canada.

–-Quinn McDonald is an art journaler who is writing a book about the inner critic and your inner heroes.

Filed under: Journal Pages, Links, resources, idea boosts Tagged: Creativity, creativity coaching, Featuring, magazines

Same Creativity, Different Approach

Ask 10 people what creativity is, and you’ll get 10 different answers. That’s as it should be–individual approaches call for separate opinions.

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people”

– Leo Burnett.  Burnett was a giant among advertising writers in the 1960s. His company was among the top 10 advertising agencies in the world. He was a word collector–he kept a folder of words, phrases and analogies in his lower left desk drawer. He used them to create iconic images such as the Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger, and the Marlboro Man.

* * *

“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club”

– Jack London, author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang.

* * *

Charlie Mingus

“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity”

– Charles Mingus, influential American jazz composer and double bassist. Composer of The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

* * *

François-Marie Arouet, whose nom de plume was Voltaire. Image; Musee Carnavalet, Paris.

And just for frequent commentor Pete:

“Originality is nothing but judicious imitation”    – Voltaire

* * *

Feel free to add the definition of what creativity is for you.

—Quinn McDonald is a creativity coach who is writing a book on conversations with the inner critic.

Tomorrow: The new Featuring magazine is out, and I’m going to do a giveaway!

Filed under: Quotes Tagged: creativity quotes, quotes

Writing a Book, Writing a Blog

My inner critic is in full throttle as I write the book on, well, the inner critic. There’s a lot of work to be done, and it needs focus and concentration. The same is true of my blog posts–it takes hours to come up with the idea, refine the concept and write the post. The blog posts have taken over much of the time I need for the book. There is also my other work–the business training classes and creativity coaching that feeds me both literally and figuratively.

Coffered and painted ceiling at Onyx Expressions, Albuquerque NM

I enjoy writing the blog and I am not giving it up. I will be cutting down to new posts on three days a week–randomly. Good ideas don’t always work on schedule. On three other days a week, I’ll be posting interesting quotes I’ve found–funny, profound, inspiring–and a short comment. They can be used for art journaling, commenting, or just nodding and smiling.  On the one other day–Saturday–I will continue to post links to past posts that you may have missed as well as outside links to interesting posts on other blogs.

If you have an interesting blog post you’d like me to consider–send me the link

Coffered and painted ceiling at Onyx Expressions, Albuquerque NM

and a few words why you like it. And of course you can include one of your own as an interesting note. The way to contact me is above the photo at the top of the page, under “Work With Quinn/Contact”

I hope to continue to give you interesting reasons to stop by, whether it’s quotes or an article. And of course, I’ll keep you posted on what’s happening in the book.

As always, classes will be posted in the navigation bar above the photo on the page.

–Quinn McDonald is writing a book on the inner critic and the inner heroes.

Filed under: Creativity, Inner Critic, The Writing Life Tagged: blog, creativity coaching, focus, writing a book

Work or Play?

 

All work and no play makes Bart a troublemaker.

Creatives are often told “You are so lucky! You get to play all day!” Most artists begin to grumble at this–creative work is just that–work. But many creatives love their work deeply, are dedicated to exploring the limits, and also have fun when they can chase an idea.

Play can be work. Design, the right use of color, critiquing your own work–that’s work.

Work can be play. You lose yourself in what you do, and the lightness you feel is the sound of success landing in your heart.

There is always the struggle is you are pricing your work. Then play doesn’t get paid enough and work that doesn’t work is overpriced. Creative exploration is work and play.

What do you do in your studio? Is it work? Is it play? How do you decide?

—Quinn McDonald sometimes can’t tell work from play. If she plays with it long enough, it starts to feel like work.

Filed under: Coaching, Creativity, Recovering Perfectionists Tagged: creative play, creative work

Saturday Drift

Saturday is a good day to drift into creativity. I’ve left you some links to explore while I’m off on my own creative dig.

Mess up a journal page? It’s OK. Here are four ways to fix it or live with it.

Speaking in public is hard for most people. Whether you have to talk to your co-workers or to a room full of people, here are some tips to make the conversation work.

It’s Saturday. Change up that cereal-for-breakfast to a ham cup containing an egg and . . .

Every artist needs room to think and room to grow. Create a space for yourself.

–Quinn McDonald is running around the countryside this Saturday.

 

Filed under: Links, resources, idea boosts Tagged: ideas, things to do on Saturday

Your Map, Your Life

The first time I got on an airplane, I took an atlas with me.  I had studied geography in school (does anyone do that anymore?) and didn’t want to miss any of the details.

The Map of the Idea I Had Last Week. Ink, acyrlic gold ink on watercolor paper. © Quinn McDonald.

We rose above the clouds–magic! The clouds looked solid enough to bounce on. The clouds cleared away and I looked down–and was horrified. Everything was the same color. Rivers were not blue, there were no state lines, and while I knew each state wasn’t going to be the color of the atlas, I did think it would look a lot more like a map.

From that day forward, I was in love with maps. This was long before GoogleEarth, so cartographers were still drawing on paper, creating a reality that we all believed.

I began to make my own maps. Of my house. Of my neighborhood. And then I began to make imaginary maps, of places I had never seen and had never been. Seeing that there were no lines on the earth gave me the freedom to leave the cartographer idea behind and make up new ideas.

Lately, I’ve been creating imaginary maps. Sometimes they have lines and descriptions, names that describe my emotions (Sea of Doubt, Scattered Thought Islands, Outlet Inlet). Sometimes they are blank. Because each time we see our lives, we see them in different context, with different emotions and information. There are no lines. There are no markers on most of our lives.

Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.   –Alan Alda

--Quinn McDonald is still on the road of discovery. Sometimes she has a map, sometimes she makes it up as she goes along.

Filed under: Coaching, In My Life Tagged: creativity coaching, life goal, life's journey, maps

The Crafty Inner Critic

Our inner critic is no fool. Playing on fear is how s/he gets our attention. Fear reactions are deep and visceral and often feel like safety, when often they are simply more fear. A reaction to fear is anger, and to anger doubt. You can see where that leads without much explanation.

When I saw the image with Marianne Williamson quote on Facebook, it made me smile. We are also afraid of love. Love is work. Love is commitment. Love is not guaranteed. If we fail, it will hurt.

All that is true.

Love can hurt if we fail at it.

But fear hurts when we succeed at it.

—Quinn McDonald has felt both love and fear, so she is writing a book about the inner critic.

Filed under: Coaching Tagged: creativity coaching, fear, love, marianne williamson