My assignment (now personal mission) this semester is to develop a daily creative practice and document the process or products of that practice in a constructed “journal.”
March 25-29:
My photo documentation this week was a bit lassez-faire. The short hand of my creative acts this week include: a virtual rendez-vous with my parents via skype; savouring a tasty whiskey together. Making more cut-outs of large and small paper dolls for my group work; in hopes to find the projection surface of choice for my duplicates.
My sweet scotia farmer was still town, so for Mark's last days on his visit we went for a walk in the DAR State park and explored a few sweet maple syrup farms and an old school black smith together. Thursday this week was also my faculty showing for "the work thus far" and I was blessed with insight, support and suggestions to consider.
I also attempted to learn and fold Origami birds to start a collection with my acquired cranes, this didn't go so well and unfortunately I do better with DIY online video instruction than text based instructions. I think I could get into the meditative act of folding but got frustrated with the many confused paper rotations and gave up.
Rounding out my week was filming under the crew house, success with making a paper boat for a film shoot and morning filming of paper flapping in the wind on the clothes line.
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| Virtual Drinks with my parents in Nova Scotia! |
Tuesday March 12:
I am still surprised in my combination of guilt and satisfaction as I knit away. Measuring my project and almost one leg warmer complete!
Crew Salon Performance and post performance, pre-midnight poem!
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| Photo by Troy Mercier |
The heart of the wood supports us
Nested in the aged floorboards
I tell myself to see
I feel as though I can see the entire universe in front of me
I see you
I feel your skin, hear your breath, you float me and I float you.
And then it all falls away
Perceiving, calculating, choosing
Our defaults come back, some defaults fly out the window,
Growth has occurred.
I lie, sit, and stand with you, among you
toward, away, from you
Our energy rises and we quicken our step
I remember moments of true investment.
Picking up the soloist, grabbing the hand and not succeeding, but that was the game,
a broken foot, a long pause with the hand outstretched listening to the sound of the rain.
I wonder what world I have entered I wonder what world I live in.
Where each moment counts and simultaneously is insignificant
But I give my all and I give it to you.
I tell myself to see
But I forgot to exit and re-enter.
Sunday March 10:
Rehearsal! Today I worked in new a method and ended up creating a group phrase and three solo phrases. Still researching and intrigued by the presence of absence, the dancers and I constructed a phrase with the idea of moving an invisible body. The video below is the first crack at the prompt. I later than took out all the obvious taut hand held shapes and kept the spine movement and pathways. We composed the space between our hands (which I am still finessing) and dropped the 'holding an object tension'.
Saturday March 9:
Tomorrow is my lover's birthday and he is on the otherside of the continent. :( My heart hurts without him by my side. We have birthday plans coming up for Spring Break, but in the mean time I record a small video to express how much I love him. Below is a record of the video delivery. This photo was a creative act in itself. I took a picture of my iphone with my lap top, then held a mirror up to my laptop and took a picture of the reflection with my iphone. Phew. Text is right side facing now.
I am also in the process of making a mobile. I didn't get very far but starting conceptualizing the idea. I collected some origami swans at the Idan Cohen show and eventually want to suspend them for display. This is a work in progress
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Friday March 8:
More Knitting! I am really enjoying the daily creative acts motivation as an excuse to squeeze in some knitting. I am near the end of leg warmer number one, just a few more rows and a cast off. Well 25 more rows, but this is close! I hope by the end of Semester I can mail my project to my friend!
Creative Act Rest Day.
Wednesday March 6:
Beer and Scores = Creative chat.
Today friends gathered with an intentional creative agenda to discuss. We shared scores, notes, drank beer and ate many slices of cake. A gathering at the Roost to exchange improv scores and directing techniques. A side activity to beer club. Which reminds I am overdue for another meeting. Our discussions included techniques for beginners and face grabbing. Interestingly enough that set the stage for Thursday and my eyeball got attacked and bruised in an open score. The exchange and choice making was thrilling though and totally worth it!
Tuesday March 5:
Rehearsal. Holy Cow I have seven minutes! Today I filmed the material that I have constructed so far, in the order we prepared for the Design in-class showing day. To my surprise it was seven minutes! According to Jermone Bel that was the easy part, its the rest the counts. JB quote: "The first seven minutes of performance are for free, the audience can accept anything - after this is another problem, then they want what they have paid for - bur during the first seven minutes, as a choreographer, you have total freedom."
Monday March 4:
For today's creative act I shared goose poop with my classmates! In Angie's Monday night repertory class/ Improvisation Ensemble we rotate who organizes the class snack to help fuel us through to 10pm. So this week was my rotation and brought the fabulous chocolate treat of Canadian Goose Poop! My family usually calls the snack, Dog Turds, named by my 6 year old nephew. But being south of my native border I thought I would make it more Canadiana by changing the name and adding the "Skip the Goose Poop" dance to the snack presentation. So I made 40 little turds to share, and creatively designed my display and accompanying dance!
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Sunday March 3:
I was in the studio today but felt like a space cadet. Unfocused and swimming. I am still trying to figure out how to include the isadora effects that I want to use and am getting trump by the scott studio set-up and formal blacks. Blah!
Saturday March 2:
After a productive evening of creative brainstorm I hit the road again (literally) and play with the idea empty/full and get excited about the potential video editing delights.
Friday Mar 1:
Today Shaina and Eliza and I gathered to share our video projects and brainstorm on the possibly missing parts, gaps and creative turns our video could take. The evening also consisted of Tarot Card readings and Shadow Play (not exact documentation below, but the similar idea). Shadow puppets erupted on the ceiling from the projector and candle light cast off and we storey-borded possible future video projects.
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| Pictured here is my friend Jacinte Armstrong in her new work "North" |
Thursday Feb 28:
Rehearsal! A map, an order, structuring relationships.
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Wednesday Feb 27:
Witnessing an intimate and enriching performance at the crew house, by three master improvisors. A warm heart and warm spine. This counts for my soul but may not in the parameters of the assignment. Creative Act rest day.
Tuesday Feb 26:
More social creative acts were in the mix today and I finally made it to my first VIDAM. John Hughes was playing for the event and filled the Northampton Centre for the Arts with his soothing sound of the Kora.
Monday Feb 25:
Mercury retrograde is staring me down, so I take the past and make it a present video project. Why do the greatest losses always turn into artful creation? Filming on this sunny day, three shoots scattered throughout the day.
Sunday Feb 24:
Rehearsal and a bit of knitting! I forgot to do my documentary duties when working in the studio today.
Saturday Feb 23:
Flying through space, agitating my mass, overlapping kinespheres. Today I underscore. I play with the negative space of many bodies and contacting skin. Finishing with a glass of wine and a trip to Earth Dance to catch the Emerge Performance presentation. Beautifully structure chaos was at play. In my dancing and in the performance.
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I am thinking about my work this week in the studio... images and ideas are starting to form more clearly. Their importance is becoming more known. A possible sketch emerges in thought, now the hard part, to sketch in bodies and space. I visit the print shop looking for discarded scraps to design with, I visit the studio unexpectedly and move within my own thoughts, and layer in the editing lab to see an idea in action, but instead I got cool photos....
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Rally Day! I have no ideas what this means and I am happy to continue to play ignorance. I'm sure a smithie somewhere has or is dong something important to celebrate the day. I on the other hand am perfectly happy moving at a snail's pace. I practice the art of nesting, cleaning, and sitting and staring (an old trick taught to me by Canadian dance icon Tedd Robinson- very creative work).
But my creative act for the day does not stop at my butoh pace. I initiated BEER CLUB! A creative gathering of friends at a watering hole discussing lager as great works of art, particularly in the form of "If your beer was a contemporary dance" what would it be saying:
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A few stitches and rows, I continue to knit my burnt orange project. Thank goodness for semester long commitments. :)
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Working in the studio processing ideas and trying to tease out potential. When does the idea hold its own? I am still on the path of merge and separate and the shadow of self looking for it in the physical. What holds my attention, what draws me in? A floor phrase begins to emerge.....
Reading and Writing: After cooking in the studio during Monday Night Research I return home and keep my computer off. I feel charged and take the opportunity to dig into my book. I attempt to understand becoming beside myself. Complex and a slow read, I still get a few impulses to take to the studio tomorrow.
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Sunday Feb 17:
In the studio: Self-referencing, expanding sense of self, where does the "I" end and the "you" begin? I reference I and I am somewhere else, I can expand and am simultaneously pulled in many directions. This is my lens.
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A contemplative museum visit, a small purchase to help source future creative acts, and a few hours in the editing lab. The line of personal and academic wavers but I am in a flow and enjoy the focus. My editing of silence was influenced by a sidewalk cellist, felt by me and only tangible in the pacing and dramatics of block editing. Snow and sweater is for pleasure, frames of window panes has a tad more gestures to qualify for monday, Phew!
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Friday Feb 15:
A day of rest: Exhausted from the split focus of helping finishing a grant corresponding back home and hosting the wave of new possibilities at the MFA audition. I circled the gamut reviewing text, looking at budgets and answering questions with a smile and inquiring about future desires. I have my top pick and hope that Mocean is top pick in the grant request line.
Thursday Feb 14:
Thinking of love on Valentine's Day! Carrying forward 'creative acts through cut paper and glue' I continue to make valentine cards to send in the mail. A little surprise gift for my nephews. Hopefully the delight of getting mail will overshadow my still unskilled collage work.
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Valentine's preparations! Today concentrated cutting, folding, and gluing is of focus in order to send my precious and beloved farmer a note of love. (I realize this is the quality of a small child, but my collage days have been distant. I relish in the meditative sequence of arranging instead)
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I watch over a small red haired girl and continue to knit my matching orange flamed wool by the fire.
Monday Feb 11:
A formal day, as Monday usually implies. I write to the CRA explaining my wee self and wish they would leave me alone. The letter below is not the one I sent in the mail. My creative act today was not the normal polite Canadian style writing, but from my gut and desires to say F*!!%$ off.
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Sunday Feb 10:
The snow has settled and the clearing has begun. Prying the door open figuratively and literally, digging my way into the crew studio space. Today my creative act was framing, filming and fragmenting. I am reminded of my whole body self and natural instinct to expand beyond the hold of the frame. Gestures where art though? Perhaps this is another fragment of my needed/in-process scale research?
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Saturday Feb 9:
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Knitting! Getting back into an old project, intended for a dear friend.
Friday Feb 8:
Creative Act: Artsy filming in the snow at the cemetery. I started off with the intention to complete some gesture filming. In the end I just fell alongside the snow flakes. I was as concentrated and focused as the snow crystals.
..... and creative box-wine handy work.
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Thursday Feb 7:
Today I am a writing grant, this is by far not creative. :( One would think it is since I am writing about the art I will someday make, but instead I draw blood from a stone. What is creative, is the creative ways I am tricking myself to stay focused. If I write three more pages my reward is... I allow myself to sneak into the editing lab to practice my rough edit skills using my Sunday creative act studio footage. Studio phrase via the lens! Today's creative act is editing without a task (includes Sunday's creative act footage), and developing staying power tactics. Ok- Back to my grant.. grrrrrr.
Wednesday Feb 6:
Creative Act: - a day of rest it seems, unless in class object arranging counts. But alas not solitary. So the craft of doing lays still.
Tuesday Feb 5:
Creative Act #1: In the studio today on day 2 - researching merge and separate
Creative Act #2: a moment of wonder, albeit brief
A poem: Cat on my lap
I notice, you breathe, two sets of lungs float together. One large, one small.
You are an interesting animal.
We are a different species yet you seek my affection.
I am gracious that you mold your body and release your weight into mine and state yes we are friends. I need you and you need me.
I ask one question....Why must you lay across my working finger tips?
Monday Feb 4:
Tonight I attended the crew house research lab, also known as Repertory with Angie Hauser. Yes this might be to closely aligned with course work but my creative act in the studio was to consciously follow the rules and always say yes. I tend to be known to stretch the rules, so this was a creative act in staying within the parameters.
Sunday Feb 3:
Diorama fun (day 2)! Arts and crafts on Sunday evening. The meditation of small detail work and miniature creative acts to compose a whole. I may have a new creative habit hobby in the making her. The kitties love the added obstacle course playground as well. You could say it was creative negotiation family time.
Saturday Feb 2:
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| The beginnings of my diorama: digital nature/nurture |
Friday Feb 1:
Quiet writing in the morning light. Stream of consciousness with a cup of joe.
Wishing I had my camera booked already to catch the light on the grave stones across my street. CMP is a must, on day two of my assignment wearing this new lens and too many missed moments already.
Thursday Jan 31:
Digital or tangible - the question of documentation?
Today I went for a walk in the town of Amherst and imagined the landscape, buildings and the town's quaint and cultured design as a stage for a possible performance.
Who or what would stretch the imagination of these streets and its inhabitants? This is where my thoughts wandered too as I guided my attention and delighted my senses in the crisp fresh air.
I watched a small choreography of gestures unfold in a coffee shop. I wish I had a camera on me. I would use the waist shot, or in the case of the environment- the table shot. Innocently or inconspicuously capturing the choreography that already exists in space.
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