Art and words

"Leave my loneliness unbroken!"
~The Raven
I was a big scardy cat when I was a kid. Many things would set me off. A fear would run through me and no amount of talking to myself could calm me down. Most of the time it was at night. The house was still, the parents turned off the tv and shut things down for the evening. And fears took off.
One year I was worried about witches. It seemed everywhere I looked, or anything I read had a witch. I pushed my bed up against one of the walls so there would be no way that anyone could come up behind me as I slept. I would make sure that my back was to the wall or I would sleep on my back. If "they" did get into our house, that was locked and blotted because of my dad's fears, they couldn't sneak up on me.
I was still awake when my parents went to bed one evening. Everything checked and re checked by dad, even the heat was turned off. As I tossed around from my back to my side I heard the "rapping, rapping at my chamber door." My door was not shut and the more I listened to the rapping, it sounded more like stepping, stepping walking down the hallway to my room.
The steps were very deliberate. Not fast, not slow. Even.
I listened to these steps for what seemed like twenty minuets. The hallway was only twelve feet long, so the person coming down the hall would have had time to come into my room, clean it, grab me, walk away slowly into the night and then cut me into little pieces.
I made up my mind that I need to time the steps and see if they were coming for me or just walking up and down the hall. I got my little alarm clock and watched the time go by.
"Only this, and nothing more."
"Darkness there, and nothing more."
"Merely this, and nothing more."
'Tis the heater cooling and nothing more.
It took many days before I mustered up courage, got out of bed, went into the hallway, then to the cooling wall heater where it rapped and tapped it's stepping sounds.

After A Long Trip

The trip was a "long and winding road." I will now be writing and continuing making art.
The road that I've been on has included writing and art but the path took me many places.
I will write. I am committed to Creative Infusion. It has been said before. And the commitment has been here before also. Life needs to be somewhat guided for me. To fit everything in that I want to do will look like a class schedule for an over achiever. My parents would laugh.
This will look a bit different as I will add all art related info. Said that before.
We need to help and connect now more than ever.
I have friends that have lost their jobs and still trying to create. When you don't have a day job it's hard to keep the creative juices flowing. Paying the rent or mortgage becomes more important.
So, to try and keep the juices flowing and lend a ear, Creative Infusion is back.
Here are some lists of art shows and the like. If you would like your show added or info listed please contact me. We will spread the word.
Associated Artist 25th Annual Show -- Sept. 25th - 27th @ Victoria Gardens Community Center
National Collage Society's 25th Annual Exhibit November 6th - December 31st @ Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
Art Box Studio Art Show November 21 2:00pm - 9:00pm @1302 Monta Vista Ave unit 9
Upland ,CA
Cabrera's: An Eclectic Art Gallery 637 W. Second St., Pomona, CA (909) 230-1926/carcari@hotmail.com (she also does affordable framing)
Want your info here? Let me know.
Have a great week.
~ aleta

Making a Commitment

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

— Robert F. Kennedy

Hello Writers,
Life happens as they say. Whoever "They" are.

Things have kept me from my writing and art. It is hard to let things go because life gets too crazy or things, (again with the things) get in the way.
Summer held the idea of lots of leisure time. I did have some of short trips to Cambria, CT, and the beach. But the other weeks, days, and hours have been spent on the run and putting my kitchen back together. The kitchen is almost done, still some little things left to do.
The other "things" is doing too much and not making myself take care of my writing and art.
The doctor and dentist appointments are musts but the things of running in circles seem to beget more circles and mazes have me hung up.
So what do I do? I signed up for Mike Foley's class. This is my way of getting back my focus. This will MAKE me write. And I hope it will keep me up on my prompts.
I was talking to a fellow artist yesterday and she said that she always needs a commitment and to state it out loud to someone. So she told me that she was going to put her sketch book on her bedside table. She sometimes wakes with ideas early in the morning.
What do you do to get your focus back? Have you let summer, the fun of it, or being bogged down by it, keep you from writing.

Use the prompt of our contest to write today.
"The road less traveled"

*And enter your writing.*

See you at the Aug 23 th meeting. And let Kathryn know if you want to read something.
Have a great rest of the week and weekend.
Aleta

September 28 Prompt

Good morning writers.

"Eighty percent of language lies to us."
--Deena Metzger


I have a tendency to over extend myself.
I over booked September and entered 4 art shows and signed up for two extra art classes. Plus all the usual stuff that goes with life. So I dropped one show and one class. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in something that I want to do it all. It happens with my writing too. I want to enter contests and send stuff off to magazines and take a class from Mike Foley. Take some more classes from UCLA's writing program and do the prompts and a blog. It can go on and on.
I need to stop myself and realize that I can't do it all. At least not all at once!

Here is a good book for keeping you writing every day. "The Write-Brain Workbook", 366 exercises to liberate your writing, by Bonnie Neubauer


We have set today as national hug your dog day. Or hug your cat.
We have 3 cats and one dog. They are part of our family.
My cat has habits that I laugh at and then remember that I have habits/rituals too. No I don't get on the bathroom counter and drink from the faucet. I don't get tissues out of the trash and drag them around either. I do however, sit on the love seat in the evening and read the mail or a book or a magazine. I iron my t shirts the same way each time. I brush my teeth before I shower. You get the idea.
Do you have some habits/rituals? Are they ones that you can write about? Are they ones that help you write?
If you are not into realism, try this one.
"I could have used a kick in the seat of the pants the day that..."
from The Write-Brain Workbook

Here are a few art shows that you might like to see.
"Off The Beaten Path" Mono prints.
White's Studio and Gallery
1232 Monta Vista #10
Upland, CA
Opening reception Oct. 5 6-9pm
Closing reception Nov. 2 6-9pm
by appt. 909.982.3349

"Dreamscape"
Oct 11 to Nov 2
Pomona Valley Art Assoc.

26th Annual Open Juried Show
Oct 13-Oct 27
PVAA

Both shows are at the Soho & Progressive Galleries
300 A South Thomas Street Pomona
Thurs. Fri. 11-4 Sat. 11-10pm (on 2nd Sat.)
Oct 13 6-10pm Artist reception
909.469.1599

Assoc. Artists of the Inland Empire
23 Annual Fall Open Juried Art Show and Sale
Saturday Sept. 29 9am-6pm & Sunday Sept. 30 9am-4pm
Central Park Community Center
11200 Baseline Road
Rancho Cucamonga

Have a good weekend.
Aleta

September 24 Prompt

Happy writing to all Writers.


"It is the first shower that wets."
--Italian Proverb
I might have used that quote before but I thought it fitting after our rain.

"When I use a word, it means what I choose it to mean--neither
more nor less."
This is a quiz. It is from something that Lewis Carroll wrote. Now we all can go on the internet and find this really quickly. But try to remember this.
It's from our childhoods and a poem that maybe our parents or our kindergarten teachers lovingly read to us.
Let me know if you figure it out.

I have always wanted to be a ebullient person. I do have fits of being zestfully enthusiastic about something but I'm not generally that way. I'd like to be. But my inner
critic talks me down. I am enthusiastic about my writing and art most of the time. But I wish that I was a more ebullient person about things. It can get trying.
You know those people that are bubbling about everything. I begin to feel like I'm sick or something because I'm not gushing all over things. But for some they are, and it seems to be their personality. So, I'm happy for them... -- sorta, I guess. I can't get bubbling today. I feel too relaxed.

Today or whenever you make time to write. Use the word "ebullient". Be careful ebullient people can be "...wearing in a small place" (Deirdre McNamer)

Have a great week.
Make time to write every day.
Aleta

September 21 Prompt

Good morning Writers.


Heres to a great weekend and try to write every day.

"I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of the last page."
--Naomi Shihab Nye

Have you all read and finished "Self Storage" by our Gayle Brandis? If you have and want to discuss it let me know. We could have a little on line book club chat.
I loved it. It took me awhile because I was forced to only read just before bed and I'd get so sleepy that I'd have to re read some paragraphs 2...no more like 4 times before I'd give up and go to sleep. But I finished it the last week and then couldn't go to sleep. I was so awake I decided to write something.
There are some books that I ache after I have read the last page. I just don't want them to end. I like the other life that I have been sucked into. It pulls me to the edge and I jump without being pushed. Now that's a good book.
If we write from the heart we can't go wrong. Let the words run out our minds, down our arm/s and out our fingers to the keys or pen.

So for today...Write about your favorite book. One you just finished or one you are reading now. Dig deep to find all the words that are locked in your heart about the book or author. What has that author done for you. Did they pull at your guts and make you cry, get mad, give you an ahhh moment? What is the line or paragraph that kicked you wide awake and start your mind humming?
If you have chosen a CA author, and you have even just a few paragraphs send it to Laura for Fresh Ink.
Don't like that prompt?
Write about an old man that hangs out at a cemetery putting flowers on the graves that have been forgotten.

See you at the meeting on Saturday.
Bring a friend even if they don't write.
Have a good weekend.
Aleta

September 17 Prompt

Good Afternoon,
Hope all had a good weekend. We have a CWC meeting this Saturday the 22nd. Don't forget to enter our contest. Deadline is Sept. 29th


"Writing involves a commitment greater than illness."
--Bernard Malamud

Our back door was always locked. It was in the kitchen and opened onto the screened in patio. The screen door on the patio was locked by one of those hook and eye things. I would come home from school and sometimes the doors would be locked. I'd hunt around the yard for a stick that was thin enough to slip in the screen door and flip off the hook. And as you can guess, it didn't always work. The stick would break or the hook was wedged and wouldn't release. If I found a good stick I'd hide it so if I got locked out again I'd have a stick ready. A Popsicle stick worked the best.
Once I'd get through the screen door the kitchen door posed another problem. The key was suppose to be in a drawer in a cabinet that was on the patio. The drawer was full of rags and I think that my dad thought that no one would ever guess that a key for the house would be in there. But sometimes he would get worried, or he might have thought that my mom was going to be home, so he'd leave the key in the kitchen drawer. So I'd have to find a way into the house without a key. I'd "break & enter". When I was skinny, (I know, hard to imagine now) I'd climb up on the washer and go in the thin window that was over the hot water tank. The window was four feet long and about a foot tall. I'd make it somehow. Then once I was in the window, that opened into the bathroom, I'd have to get down. I would slide on my stomach over the medicine cabinet until my foot touched the toilet and I'd step down.
By the time I was in Jr. High School this was not the way I could get in. I was too tall and was a bit too thick to fit through the window. I talked to my parents and they'd nod and tell me they were sorry for forgetting or whatever else was the problem. But it seemed that more times than not I was breaking into our house. When my dad thought that it was too dangerous to leave a window open and if I could get in then anyone could get in, he started going around locking all the windows before he'd go to work. Yes he was OCD. Still is.
I got creative in leaving a window open that I could fit through. And I always managed to get in somehow.

Today, take a piece of paper and pen. Turn the paper sideways and write. This is a good break for being blocked. Try this even if you're not having problems getting started.
You will have a back door through which to escape.
Write about a memory of being locked out/in. Was it really being locked out like I was or was it a group you could not join. Did you loose your keys or were there no keys?