Pat Schneider on getting started (again)
Pat Schneider, more than anyone, helped me deal with the anxiety brought on by facing a blank page. When I lived in Massachusetts in the early 2000s, I spent a few years writing with Pat at the weekly workshops that she ran in her home. Those evenings were transformative. Pat developed a method that replaces vague criticism with clear compassion. In them, participants write together for several minutes, read their brand new material to the group and receive positive feedback. The goal isn’t to write a masterpiece during the workshop. The goal is avoid shutting down and to learn a bit about craft along the way. By focusing on what might be working, instead of what’s failed, we leave the workshop feeling encouraged to continue working. More broadly we begin to view writing as a practice and a process. In her book, Writing Alone and With Others, Pat writes about how to continue a creative practice both on your own and in community. Here’s one of my favorite quotes: “Getting started (again) is a matter of the spirit. Bring to your desire all of your courage and a gentle (uncritical) spirit.” She goes on to write that we need to be kind to ourselves by leaning into our preferences and habits.
Labi Siffre’s music continues to inspire
There is much to like about “The Holdovers,” the 2023 movie starring Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who won an Oscar for her role. Mark Orton’s soundtrack — which really sets the characters in the 1970s and guides the film’s mood — is a key to the film’s success. Labi Siffre’s beautiful and somewhat dark song, “Crying Laughing Loving Lying” ends the film with perfect poignancy. I wasn’t familiar with Siffre’s music until I saw the “The Holdovers,” but it turns out that he’s inspired a lot of other musicians. In the 1980s, the band, Madness covered Siffre’s song “It Must Be Love.” Later, Eminem sampled “I Got The…” on his popular 1999 single, “My Name Is.” Kanye West sampled “My Song” on his song, “I Wonder.”
Kindah Khalidy’s “Once Upon a Colorful Canvas”
I’m reading and working through Kindah Khalidy’s book, “Once Upon a Colorful Canvas: A Playful Plan for Learning to Paint.” True to its title, it’s filled with fun, straightforward art-making exercises. I made the drawings above after being inspired by her chapter, “Old-School Selfie: Paint a Self-Portrait.” Kindah has developed a fun, whimsical style filled with bright colors and complex, organic shapes. When an interviewer asked how she started her current practice, Khalidy said, “I started painting this way when I got to a point in my career where I was ready to make what really made me happy. I took a break from thinking about what would do well commercially or look cool. Working this way is my favorite thing to do — creating comical and bizarre forms that interplay in a composition, drowning in color.”