Heroes and Masterpieces

It's an extraordinary feeling to be around great art.  It's transformative.  In a way, I was spoiled growing up in New York City with all it had to offer on a constant basis.  This week I visited The Houston Museum of Fine Arts to see an impressionist and post-impressionist exhibit.  Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Seurat, etc.  were all there in full force.  These were the masters, I thought.   Innovators that we can still marvel over.  I was struck by how bold they all were.  How outrageous the chances they took were.  The art world had never seen anything like it before.  They were treading new ground.  Over 150 years later, I'm feeling the same excitement as I looked at Van Gogh's bold lines and even bolder choice of colors.  I'm mesmerized by Seurat's ability to patiently paint one dot of color at a time until he vision was realized.  This need for boldness also exists in writing.

Also this week, I finished reading my first novel of the year.  I figured I would read this book since 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit on the Chinese calendar.   The Year of the Hare, by Arto Paasilinna is witty, inventive and full of unexpected turns.  It's a quick read about a man and a wild hare who travel all over Finland on some crazy adventures.  Again, another creative expression of boldness!  I truly liked it.


I've always been attracted to the adventure story.  I get swept away in the plot driven antics of a Pippi Longstockings or Sinbad the Sailor.  The pattern is quite well worn.  It's the classic hero's journey.  The hero enters an unkown world, makes valuable realizations about himself and the world then returns to share the wisdom he's gained on his travels.  How much bolder does it get?

A writer also needs to be bold.  A writer must take daring chances to express something that may not translate to others.  In the end, what you write may not be commercially successful, it may not be widely read, it may not be reviewed well, it may lie unpublished.  That's what makes the act of writing all that much more courageous.  Writing is having the courage to open up a topic that may be painful and others would prefer never to discuss.  Writing is daring to make a fool of yourself and revealing your childhood playfulness.  Ultimately, you have to want to express something, you have to want to touch an audience.  The same freshness that the impressionists offered is what audiences are craving for today.  They want the unique, fresh YOU.  Bold, uninhibited and honest.

A great book on this topic is Eric Maisel's, "Coaching the Artist Within."  Dr. Maisel is an author of multiple books on the creative life.  But this one is like having someone who understands what you're going through in your corner when you need it most.    Be sure to add it to your writer's bookshelf.

 This week's suggested website: Writer's Digest.  (www.writersdigest.com) is a warehouse of great  material.  They publish books and articles on all aspects of writing.  They also offer online courses, moderate discussion forums, etc.  Their tips on getting published are probably the best out there.


This week's writing prompt: Give yourself five uninterrupted minutes of quiet time.  Let's hone in on your interviewing skills.  This exercise is designed to help you get in the habit of asking penetrating questions.  Imagine that you have the opportunity to sit down with any figure in history, in any area of expertise for a private interview.  Go beyond what we already know about the person and find something that reveals character.  Did Teddy Roosevelt love the saxophone?  Did Shakespeare have a fear of mice?  Find that odd, unique or interesting detail about your historic figure that tells us, or better, shows us what kind of person he/she was.  Write for five minutes.