A new venture….

I love to give things new life. To reenergize and redeem. People AND things. R&N Antiques specializes in paper items (ephemera)…from baseball cards to calling cards, postcards, board games, comic books and much more. Like all antique dealers, we deal in a little bit of everything, but our SPECIALTY is paper.  Come and see us at Old Hippy Antique Mall here in Searcy, and ask for vendor 313 -- R&N Antiques!

A Creative Mash-Up

'MERZ became the label for a process of transformation and creation out of nothing (ex nihilo), combining & twisting to create constructions, paintings, collages, plays or poems.' -- Mark Dachy, 'Discoveries: Dada: The Revolt of Art'.


'Take time to mess around * Get lost * Wander * You never know where it's going to lead you.' -- Austin Kleon, 'Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative'

TAKE A MOMENT TO CONSIDER...

How could you take the items to the right and
combine then, play with them, make something new by mashing them up together?

How can you wander in your mind, or in the countryside using these items...where might you end up?  What might you be able to create with JUST THESE ITEMS...a laptop, a camera, a journal and pen, and a bag to carry them all?

How can we TRANSFORM these tools of our trade into something that has NEVER BEEN BEFORE?  Rhode Island is neither a road, nor an island...discuss!

Spelunking or scratching or digging?

'At Fisher-Price...products result from a process known as spelunking, which in its literal sense means to explore caves.  But in this realm of toy-making, it refers to the simple act of watching children play.' -- Nicole LaPorte, NY Times, July 8, 2012

-- Twyla Tharp refers to this process as 'scratching'.  For her, you can scratch for new ideas through: reading • conversation • the environment around us • our culture • our heroes • our mentors and • in the beauty of nature. In the scratching mode, she says, we are looking for the 'tiniest microcell of an idea (that will) get you going!' -- Excerpted from 'The Creative Habit' by Twyla Tharp

'I don't know of a single artist more prolific than Jon Foreman (of SWITCHFOOT, FICTION FAMILY and SOLO PROJECTS fame)...and his songs are amazing.  I wondered how he did it.  When I asked him, he said something that changed my life.  He said, "Don, being creative is like being an archeologist.  You just get up every morning and dig around in the dirt, looking for shards of pottery."

That perspective certainly helped.  Rather than words being IN ME, the words were OUT THERE.  The inspiration was out in the world, and all I had to do was go digging for it.  All I had to do was brush away the dirt and sand and keep an eye out for anything that could be polished.' -- Donald Miller, Storyline Blog, February 21, 2013

Whether you are creating new products, dreaming up dances or writing songs, this process of spelunking or scratching or digging is ESSENTIAL to all creative work.  It provides us with the reserves we so desperately need to draw from.

It is similar to the complicated procedure of loading a pipe so you can smoke it.  Pipes are a LOT OF WORK!  You have to get it packed down in the bowl just right and you have to smoke it at a certain pace (because it goes out easily), and periodically you have to repack the bowl with more tobacco, tamp it down so it can breathe correctly...but I think you get the idea...pipes require CONSTANT attention!

If we want to remain fresh and unblocked as we create, we must continually allow ourselves time to get out from behind the camera, step away from the piano, lay down our pens.  Because the more we stoke our creative fire, the more material we will have to draw from...
* What tools do you use when you go spelunking, and how often do you go?
* Share with our idea community an unusual place (either geographical or digital) where you have found been successful in spelunking for new material...

YOU are happening!

'Listen. Your life is happening. You, the rooster, the clock, the workmen, your stomach, are all happening together.  A journey, years long, has brought each of you through thick and thin to this moment in time as mine has also brought me.  Think back on that journey. Listen back to the sounds and sweet airs of your journey that give delight and hurt not and to those too that give no delight at all and hurt like Hell.  Be not afraid…'
               -- The Sacred Journey, Frederick Buechner

Natalie is the one who reminds me to stop and enjoy the life that is happening all around me.  This past week she had a doctor's appointment up in Batesville and I noticed several places I wanted to stop and take photographs on the way back.  In town we found a very unique restaurant ironically named 'Natalie's'!  When we turned toward home we found a wonderful country road and explored it.

Cold and dreary outside.  Dave Grohl on the stereo. Christmas lights on because we stubbornly refuse to take the tree down. House cleaning and organizing taking place. I am the entertainment director, providing movies and music to keep the troop (as in a singular soldier) motivated and moving.

Soldier is a genius. Getting her master's degree in Speech Pathology.  Only hitch: she doesn't study. Still makes A's.  If she wasn't my wife, it would make me sick.  Only other hitch: it is almost impossible to keep her focused.

SQUIRREL! Swoosh…off she goes.

But that is life. My life.  And I am grateful.  One of the SQUIRREL projects that distracted her from cleaning and organizing were these buttons, which we will sell in our Antique Booth.  LOVE them. Did I mention my soldier was EXTREMELY gifted?  Whoops…she got unfocused again, so I gotta go…the troop needs her man!

Shadows

I had the privilege a couple of years ago of watching a Native American Dance Troupe share one of the languages of their culture.

They were like splashes of color, shadows of reality, flittering in and out of the light.  I captured this picture and have used it many times to kickstart my creativity...

I consider the following:
1. What GREAT ideas are hiding in the shadows...obscured by the ideas that are currently dominating my attention?  Can I push those ideas out of the way so that I can find something EVEN greater?

2. Shadows are just a function of light meeting an object...how can I change the focus of the light on the problem I am working on right now?  How could I shine light on my subject from multiple angles all at the same time.

3. Shadows can be larger or smaller than the original object, depending upon the distance of the object from the light source.  How could you make your idea BIGGER or smaller?  Are you being too ambitious?  Or not ambitious enough?

Say it Again

'Everything that needs to be said has already been said.  But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.' -- French Writer André Glide.